Awake, o sleeper!
King Solomon sets both a good example and a bad one. Wisdom or folly? It’s our choice.
“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You” (Psalm 89:15).
By the end of antiquity, King Solomon had become the model not just of messianic rule but of temporal, earthly rule as well. Both Christian and Islamic rulers seeking to cast themselves as king, imitate the king to whom the whole world should submit. The most famous example from the Islamic world is the Ottoman ruler Suleiman the “Magnifcent,” who emulated the king not just in name (Suleiman is Arabic for Solomon) but also in deed, rebuilding Jerusalem and promoting justice throughout his realm.
An example from the Christian world is James I, sponsor of the King James, or the “Authorised,” Bible. Upon his death in 1625, James was compared (in his funeral sermon) to King Solomon. It was then that he was referred to as “Great Britain’s Solomon” — a lover of peace, justice, and learning. King James was well known for his wisdom. Sir Francis Bacon said of the King in the Epistle Dedicatory of The Great Instauration 1 (1620) , “this regeneration and instauration of the sciences is … due to the age of a prince [ King James I ] surpassing all others in wisdom and learning … resembling Solomon as you do in most respects, in the gravity of your decisions, the peacefulness of your reign, the expansion of your heart, and, lastly, in the noble variety of books you have composed …” Sir Fernando Gorges one of the founders of Jamestown 2 , also compared James to Solomon, “this great monarch gloriously ascending his throne (1603) being born to greatness above his ancestors to whom all submitted as to another Solomon for wisdom and justice.”
Wisdom, wealth and … women
These are but two examples of a long list of Solomonic rulers that include the Byzantine emperors who ruled the Christian Roman Empire, Muslim rulers of Persia and India and Catholic kings of Europe. Such fgures have not fared well in our own age. Haile Selassie, the descendant of Solomon according to Ethiopian tradition, died under suspicious circumstances in 1975, ending one line of Solomonic rule; while the Iranian revolution, which unseated the Shah of Iran from a peacock throne inspired by that of Solomon, ended another. There are rulers today who could possibly be identifed with Solomon. For instance, when the next monarch of Britain is crowned, the throne used for that occasion will be King Edward’s Chair, which is modelled on Solomon’s throne. His coronation will be patterned on the anointment ritual performed on the biblical king David by the priest Zadok.
Should that be Prince Charles, he resembles King Solomon in other ways apart from the throne. Solomon had many foreign wives – seven hundred wives and three-hundred concubines. They included the Egyptian Pharaoh’s daughter, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women (1 Kings 11:1). “They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, ‘You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.’ Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love” (1 Kings 11:2). With them came many foreign gods. Solomon’s wives “… turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father” (1 Kings 11:4).
Modern parallels
One might be forgiven for suggesting that Solomon, in his later years, was a ‘Defender of Faiths’, certainly within the confnes of Jerusalem. His idolatrous mistresses and consorts brought into the royal household the worship of their native deities. Shrines were built for them in Jerusalem (1 Kings 11:1, 7), the City of the Great King. Foolishly, Solomon tried to mix the worship of God with heathen rites. He sufered from greed, success, luxury, and idolatry. A title that Prince Charles covets for himself, should he become king, is ‘Defender of Faiths’. He should pay careful heed to the life of King Solomon, since his heart appears to be not wholly true to the Lord his God, as is the heart of Elizabeth his mother.
There are claims that the Queen is a descendant of the prophet Mohammed 3 . The line is said to go through Isabella of Castile, the daughter of a man known as Pedro the Cruel – to others he was “Pedro the Just”. Isabella was the great-great grandmother of Elizabeth of York, who in turn was the great-great-great grandmother of the Winter Queen, Elizabeth of Bohemia. She was the grandmother of George I, from whom the crown descends directly. If Asser’s ‘Life of King Alfred the Great’ 4 were correct, Her Majesty’s lineage would inevitably start with Adam and Eve, but intriguingly passes through Wotan. The Queen is descended from Alfred via Matilda of Scotland, the wife of Henry I. If Charles, a great admirer of Islam, is crowned King, will he and Islamists celebrate Islam’s home-coming?
The downside
King Solomon had been warned that if the nation should apostatize, the Temple would be destroyed, which it was. Solomon’s disregard of God’s honour was the cause of his calamities with his enemies rising against him (1 Kings 11:14, 27). Following came the division of the kingdom, and ultimately the captivity of the ten tribes, and of Judah (1 Kings 11:9- 14; 2 Kings 17:14-20; Luke 19:42). Divine chastisement fell upon Solomon for his adultery and idolatry. The chastisement was upon the house of David for the idolatries imported by Solomon’s wives and the contagion that spread through the whole nation. Righteousness exalts a nation – sin ruins it, and we see this in the divided nation that was to follow, and the eventual exile. The nation’s sin found her out. (Leviticus 26:31; 2 Kings 25:9; see Numbers 32:23).
As the above example suggests, the symbol of Solomonic rule is a special kind of throne and by sitting on it a ruler showed himself (or herself, in the case of rulers like Queen Elizabeth) to be a similar kind of sovereign.
According to 1 Kings 10:20, the throne was supposedly unique – “nothing like it was made in any kingdom” – but it was nonetheless something that later kings tried to emulate by following what few details are provided in the biblical text. For example, the throne was covered in gold and fanked by lions on either side, and was mounted by way of six steps, each the resting place for two additional lions 5. The best-known example is the throne of Solomon fashioned for the kings of the Byzantine Empire, arguably the most sophisticated automatic contraption of the premodern world.
Nature steps in
According to Jewish legend, Solomon’s throne would literally come alive whenever the king sat on it. The golden lions sitting on each of its steps would begin roaring, other gilded beasts would begin to move, eagles would descend to place the crown on his head, songbirds would begin to sing. The throne could also rotate and even take fight. Some sources suggest it was an imitation of the heavenly throne, the throne from which God ruled the world, and its nature symbolism—the animals and plants which adorned the throne—was meant to suggest the power of a cosmocrat, a ruler who governs the entire universe and all its inhabitants.
In an effort to claim this kind of power, the kings of the Byzantium had their artisans reproduce the wonders of Solomon’s throne, relying on some kind of hydraulic system to animate the beasts and trees that fanked the throne, simulate the sound of roaring lions and singing birds, while allowing the throne to be raised or lowered automatically. The throne made a deep and lasting impression on visitors, and its fame spread far and wide.
A warning …
Will God bless our nation any more than He did Israel in their apostasy? Prince Charles is next in line to become King. He is a divorcee married to a divorcee. Divorce and remarriage entered the Royal family like a serpent striking its prey; all through the years it has been with the blessing of the Church. The heart and soul of this nation sufered a wound from which it has never recovered – from Parliament to Palace to Pulpit, to the humblest streets and dwelling places. The Church has succumbed to secularism, becoming society-like instead of Christ-like. While Parliament and the House of Lords is honoured, even in these days to some extent, because hypocrisy, and superfciality of worship prevail, the House of the Lord is largely despised and rejected. Worship in the beauty of His holiness (Psalm 96:9), and holiness of living has paled into insignifcance.
American pastor, Eddie Snipes, said in a sermon: “As biblical teaching is pushed aside, people are no longer standing strong in the Lord. In fact, very few have any concept of an immovable truth or even what spiritual maturity is all about.” Ministers avoid ‘controversial’ issues and doctrine. They preach God’s love to the point of error; congregations are lulled into a false sense of security.
“So it is said: ‘Wake up, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise …” (Ephesians 5:14-15).
1 https://tinyurl.com/ybjbpsqn
2 https://tinyurl.com/ybws6cf7