Kings – the United Kingdom

KINGS OF THE UNITED HEBREW KINGDOM

The most notable king of the united Hebrew kingdom was David, whose life we considered earlier (see page 44). In a sense David was the one who created the united kingdom, bonding the scattered tribes together to form a powerful nation. King Saul, who took some initial steps toward unification, preceded David. And David’s son Solomon, who ruled during what has been called Israel’s “golden age,” followed David.

Only these three ruled a united Hebrew kingdom. After Solomon’s death the nation was divided into northern and southern kingdoms.

SAUL

Scripture references:

1 Samuel 9–31; 1 Chronicles 10:1–13

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SAUL’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE

Saul was a man who began well but who broke under the pressure of leadership. Saul was Israel’s first king, and he began the process of unifying the Hebrew tribes and making them a nation. This task was finally accomplished by his far more famous successor, David.

SAUL’S LIFE AND TIMES

Samuel was the last prophet/judge to lead Israel. When Samson became old, the Israelites demanded a king. The people longed for a ruler like those in pagan nations—a military man who would fight to protect them. While the people’s motives were wrong, God gave in to their demand. He gave them Saul, a physically imposing individual— a trait that was probably necessary if the Israelites were to accept him as their ruler.

Saul achieved early military successes that solidified his support among the people. But all too soon, Saul’s flaws—an inability to trust God and an unwillingness to obey Him—led the Lord to reject Saul. Saul continued as Israel’s ruler for many years, but his growing alienation from the Lord showed up in many ways. Saul suffered from deepening depression and paranoia. Saul cowered when challenged by the Philistine champion, Goliath. Saul became intensely jealous of David after he killed Goliath and achieved other military victories. Finally, Saul determined to kill David. His frequent attempts forced David to become a fugitive. Saul’s hostility toward David never waned, and he pursued David throughout his life until Saul was killed in a great battle with the Philistines.

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Saul’s failure to stay close to the Lord led him to a spiritist in a desperate attempt to learn his future.

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EXPLORING SAUL’S RELATIONSHIPS

Saul’s relationship with David. See the biography of David, pages 43–57.

Saul’s relationship with God. The text enables us to trace Saul’s rapidly deteriorating relationship with the Lord.

Saul credited God with a victory (1 Sam. 11). When the Ammonites attacked an Israelite city, Saul raised a militia and defeated them. Appropriately, he announced that “today the Lord has accomplished salvation in Israel” (11:13). All Israel, then, pledged allegiance to Saul as king.

Saul’s fear led to disobedience (1 Sam. 13). Saul established a small standing army. In his second year, he attacked a Philistine outpost. The Philistines raised a massive army to put down the upstart king and the Israelites. When the Israelites saw the size of the force gathered against them, the men who had responded to Saul’s call earlier hid or fled the country! Even members of Saul’s little army began to desert. Within a week, Saul had a mere 600 men left to support him.

Samuel had told Saul to wait seven days and promised he would then come to offer sacrifice to the Lord. Saul, desperate to hold the few men who remained, finally determined to offer the sacrifice himself even though he was not a priest. When Samuel did arrive he condemned Saul for doing “foolishly.” The Hebrew term here portrays the “fool” as one who acts rebelliously. Samuel announced that because of Saul’s act he would not be allowed to found a dynasty.

Saul’s fears may be understandable. But Saul undoubtedly knew well the stories of the judges and of God’s aid to men of the past. Fear had driven Saul to disobey God’s prophet despite the fact that when he disobeyed he had twice as many soldiers as Gideon had when he defeated as large a force.

The fact that Saul’s fear was groundless and showed a lack of faith was soon demonstrated. Saul’s son Jonathan attacked a Philistine outpost, and routed a great army.

Saul disobeyed God again (1 Sam. 15). When God sent Saul to wipe out the Amalekites, Saul kept their king alive and took their cattle and other valuables as spoil. This was a direct violation of God’s command. When Samuel confronted him, Saul first lied and said that he planned to offer the animals as sacrifices to the Lord. Saul then tried to excuse himself by pleading that he had feared people (1 Sam. 15:24). Finally Saul admitted to Samuel that he had sinned, but begged the prophet to “honor me” before the people. In this Saul was totally unlike David, who publicly confessed his sin and took responsibility for his actions.

Saul ordered the murder of the priests of Nob (1 Sam. 22). As David fled from Saul, the priest Ahimelech gave David food and Goliath’s sword, which was kept at Nob. Despite the fact that the priests did not know that David was a fugitive, Saul ordered their murder. When no Israelite would touch a priest of the Lord, Saul ordered an Edomite by the name of Doeg to do the deed.

Saul consulted a spiritist (1 Sam. 31). Near the end of his reign, Saul was about to go to war with the Philistines once again. By now he was totally isolated from the Lord. Desperate for some hint of what the future held, Saul consulted a medium, whose contact was a demonic spirit. Saul knew this was a violation of God’s law, for he himself had ordered all such persons driven from Israel. To the shocked surprise of the medium, Samuel himself appeared and told Saul that he would die in battle the next day.

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THE ROLE OF THE OCCULT IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

The Book of Deuteronomy lists a number of occult practices common in Canaan in the second millennium b.c. Among them were “one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead” (Deut. 18:10–11). Each of these practices was common beyond Canaan as well. Roman augurs examined the entrails of animals and looked for signs in the flight of birds before conducting religious ceremonies or going into battle.

The Handbook of Life in Ancient Romeobserves:

It was thought that the gods revealed their will to people in the form of signs or omens. Some might be fairly obvious, such as thunder, lightening, unusually natural phenomena or a causal word or phrase overheard in passing. But most signs were less obvious, and in any case needed proper interpretation. Divination was the art of reading such signs to predict the future (p. 279).

Similarly, the Greeks consulted oracles whose drugged mutterings were thought to contain guidance from the gods. In Mesopotamia lots were cast to determine the auspicious day for a new venture, while astrologers consulted the stars and spiritists served as channels through whom deities or the dead might speak.

The Old Testament clearly states that these occult religion-linked practices were channels through which demons worked to blind and to bind human beings (cf. Lev. 17:7; Deut. 32:17; 2 Chron. 11:15; Ps. 106:37. For an extended discussion, see the volume in this series on Every Good and Evil Angel in the Bible).

Yet, the universality of these practices demonstrates a deep hunger of the human heart to find some source of guidance that will provide help in making potentially dangerous decisions.

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SAUL: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY

Saul, despite his imposing physique, was a moral coward. In this, he serves as a negative example, warning us away from traps into which we, too, might fall.

•     Saul warns us against a failure to trust God. However bleak our situation may seem, taking things into our own hands is foolish indeed.

•     Saul warns us against failing to obey God. Too often, Christians are more concerned with what others think than with what God thinks. To fear humans is foolish when in the end all people will have to answer to the Lord.

•     Saul reminds us that when our steps lead us too far from God, returning to God becomes more and more difficult. Saul had a chance to repent, but he was so concerned with appearances that he was unwilling to confess his sin openly and honestly and give God the glory. A way back to the Lord always exists, but we may be unwilling to take it.

•     Saul reminds us that character counts. People’s looks, their intelligence, their appeal to the crowds, their commanding presence, their skill with words, or their ability to move crowds should not be the only criteria we use in choosing a leader. We need men and women of character and principle who will do what is right no matter what the polls or the media may say.

SOLOMON

Scripture references:
1 Kings 1–11; 1 Chronicles 29;
2 Chronicles 1–9; Nehemiah 13:26;
Proverbs; Song of Solomon; Ecclesiastes;
Matthew 6:29; Luke 12:27;
Matthew 12:42; Luke 11:31

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SOLOMON’S ROLE IN SCRIPTURE

Solomon succeeded his father David as Israel’s king. He immediately set out to fulfill his father’s dream of constructing a temple for the Lord. Solomon’s wisdom was legendary. Solomon:

spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five. Also he spoke of trees, from the cedar tree of Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish (1 Kings 4:32, 33).

Solomon’s vast intellect was a wonder in his own time, and he was still referred to in New Testament times as the wisest of men (Matt. 12:42; Luke 11:31). Many of his wise sayings are preserved in the Book of Proverbs (Prov. 1:1; 10:1; 25:1). Solomon also is credited with writing the Song of Songs, a warm and beautiful poem in praise of married love.

In addition to his intellectual pursuits, Solomon undertook aggressive building programs throughout his kingdom. He maintained a large chariot army that was never used during his reign. Rather, Solomon relied on diplomacy to maintain peaceful relations with the surrounding nations. During this era, Solomon’s control of land trade routes brought vast revenues into his kingdom that Solomon spent on his projects. Solomon was the only Hebrew king ever to maintain a fleet of trading vessels, and this venture also added to the kingdom’s wealth. The New Testament also reflected on the glory of Solomon’s kingdom, beautified by the great public projects he undertook (Matt. 6:29; Luke 12:27).

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Solomon’s Temple

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While Solomon saw vast funds flow into his kingdom, money always seemed to be in short supply. Solomon kept increasing the taxes on his people to the extent that, when he died, the northern tribes refused to submit to Solomon’s son Rehoboam unless the young king promised to reduce taxes.

EXPLORING SOLOMON’S RELATIONSHIPS

Solomon’s relationship with God. Solomon was granted several revelation experiences. Unfortunately, Solomon did not remain committed to the Lord throughout his life.

Solomon asked for wisdom (1 Kings 3). At the beginning of his reign, the biblical writers said Solomon “loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David” (3:3). Just after Solomon had expressed his love by offering a thousand sacrifices, God spoke to Solomon in a dream, inviting Solomon to make a request. Solomon expressed his sense of inadequacy, and asked only for “an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil” (1 Kings 3:9). This request pleased God, and the Lord granted him not only wisdom but peace, wealth, and long life as well.

Solomon dedicated the temple (1 Kings 8; 2 Chron. 6).One of Solomon’s first priorities was to construct the temple his father David had dreamed of building to honor the Lord. Solomon’s prayer of dedication, recorded in these chapters, further reveals Solomon’s heart for the Lord and his understanding of spiritual realities. Solomon concluded the dedication service by challenging his people: “Let your heart therefore be loyal to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments, as at this day” (1 Kings 8:61).

God’s second appearance to Solomon (1 Kings 9). After the dedication of the temple, the Lord appeared to Solomon again, promising to bless the king if he continued to walk before Him and live a godly life.

Solomon’s fall (1 Kings 11). In Solomon’s later years, the foreign women he married “turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God” (1 Kings 11:4).

Solomon paid a high personal price for his apostasy. The Book of Ecclesiastes, an anonymous book likely written by Solomon, reveals the misery he felt as he drifted further and further from God. After urgently seeking some meaning in life apart from God and apart from the perspective provided by divine revelation, Solomon concluded that all was meaningless—including his own accomplishments.

What a tragic ending this was to a life that had begun with such promise.

Solomon’s relationships with women. The text tells us that Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. It would be a mistake, however, to read into this the conclusion that Solomon was simply a sexual addict.

Solomon’s marriages and public policy (1 Kings 3:1). Solomon made a treaty with Pharaoh king of Egypt “and married Pharaoh’s daughter.” Unlike David, who relied on his military, Solomon relied on diplomacy to maintain peace and national security. In the ancient world, treaties between nations were typically sealed by marriages between the royal houses. Many of Solomon’s foreign wives were introduced into Israel through this route.

Solomon’s love for his wives (1 Kings 11). Solomon did care for his foreign wives, however they came to him. But rather than expecting them to worship the Lord, Solomon built them shrines so they could worship their own deities. In time, these women moved Solomon to worship with them. In this way, Solomon fell into idolatry, and he “turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice” (1 Kings 11:9).

God spoke to Solomon a third time and announced that because of Solomon’s idolatry the kingdom would be divided after Solomon’s death. Much later, Nehemiah referred to Solomon when insisting that Jews who returned to Judah after the Babylonian captivity divorce the foreign wives they had married. “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things?” Nehemiah asked. The people of Judah had done “great evil, transgressing against our God by marrying these pagan women” (Neh. 13:26, 27).

SOLOMON: AN EXAMPLE FOR TODAY

Solomon is both a good and bad example. His youthful concern for his people is touching, and his prayer at the dedication of the temple shows great spiritual insight. But Solomon knowingly turned away from the Lord—motivated by his passion for the foreign wives he had married despite prohibitions against intermarriage in God’s Law. What then do we learn from Solomon?

•     Solomon’s experience reminds us that concern for others truly does please the Lord. When we ask for gifts to minister more effectively, God is likely to grant our requests.

•     Solomon’s experience warns us not to grow lax in our commitment to the Lord. We cannot rest on zeal shown in our youth to carry us through maturity and old age. We must remain focused on pleasing the Lord.

•     Solomon’s experience compels us to reevaluate our relationship with our spouse. Each of us rightly wants to please his wife. This is one of the marks of a loving relationship. But our first allegiance must always be to the Lord. “I love my wife, and she wants me to spend Sunday morning with her” is no excuse for not going to church.

•     Solomon teaches us that only as we continue to walk with the Lord will we find life meaningful and be fulfilled.

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After Solomon’s death his kingdom was torn in two. The north, Israel, was ruled by a series of wicked kings. In the south, Judah, each ruler descended from King David.

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