1 Kings 4 Devotional
By Pastor Lawrence
These first few chapters in the book of 1 Kings describe the very apex of Israel’s history and also the pinnacle of the Old Testament. Under Solomon’s reign, Israel enjoyed peace and prosperity on every side with God’s appointed king ruling over a vast territory stretching from the river Euphrates to the Red Sea and all the surrounding nations bringing in tribute to Israel. The vastness of the government officials needed to oversee such an empire is obvious from the long list of officials given in the first nineteen verses, which surely only represents the figureheads and not all of the subordinate leaders that actually carried out much of the work. For the first and only time in Israel’s history, God’s people were in God’s place under God’s rule and blessing with God’s anointed king, both powerful and wise watching over them as their shepherd king.
From an earthly perspective alone, it doesn’t get any better than this. Who wouldn’t want to live in a such a place with such power and wisdom, wealth and peace. As the author puts it in v.20, “Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were happy.” Without a care in the world, they enjoyed the goodness and abundance of God’s blessings on every side. Yet there was a darker underbelly to this carefree paradise. Solomon had already made a pact with Egypt by marrying the Pharaoh’s daughter, and we’re not told exactly what he agreed to in the bargain. We also see the ridiculous amounts of provisions to supply the daily bread and meat upon his royal table. Obviously, it wasn’t all for him personally, but Solomon was entertaining a great number of people in order to solidify his reign, the types of people that godly men would likely not feel comfortable rubbing shoulders with.
In Deuteronomy 17.16 the Lord had already laid down the law for the future kings of Israel saying that they should not acquire many horses for themselves or return to Egypt in to order to acquire such horses, yet in this passage we see that is exactly what Solomon has done with his forty thousand stalls of horses. In that same passage, Moses warns the king not to acquire many wives for himself or to acquire excessive silver and gold, but we find in these first few chapters that Solomon has done that as well.
And to oversee his vast harem, to administer the vast provisions of his table and his palace, and to mount all of these horses and chariots, he would need a massive amount of manpower that he would acquire through the forced service and sacrifice of these free Israelites who were enjoying very much their peace and prosperity.
In 1 Sam 8.11ff the prophet Samuel warned Israel that this very thing would happen when they demanded a king. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves.”
If something seems too good to be true in this fallen world, it probably is. No man on earth, no matter how wise and powerful, is free from sin and always does what is right. It won’t take Israel very long to figure out that Solomon is not the Messiah king they were looking for. Although he does foreshadow Christ’s rule in many ways, his divided heart and his pursuit of worldly gain and pleasures will ultimately lead to division and destruction. We are seeing just the seedbed of his errors now, but soon the fruit of his disobedience will blossom into weeds that will crowd out the good fruit that was planted in Israel.
God’s people will have to wait a little longer for the savior king to come, the one in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and the one in whom there is no deceit. He is the good shepherd of the sheep who will lay down his life for them and lead them into the promised land of eternal rest.