Bible Commentaries
2 Chronicles 9

Verses 2-28

XXIX

DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE

1 Kings 8:1-10:29; 2 Chronicles 5:2-9:28

This discussion begins on page 178 of the Harmony, and relates to the dedication of the Temple. We have already shown that the building of the Temple was the greatest work of Solomon; that it made the greatest impression upon the world’s mind of any structure that had ever been erected in human history. The importance of the Temple was to insure a central place of worship, or of sacrifice, rather. The object of it was to bring about unity of faith, and national unity among the people. The idea comes from the following legislation by Moses: "When you shall obtain possession of the land and have become established, then you shall have one place in which to appear before the Lord." In brief, the purposes of the Temple were these:

1. To provide a fixed habitation for Jehovah.

2. To provide a central place of worship where the tribes might assemble at the three great annual festivals and thus preserve the unity of the nation, Jehovah being the center of unity. In other words, as we explained on Leviticus, there must be: (a) A place to meet Jehovah on the throne of grace. (b) Sacrifices, or means of propitiation, (c) Priests, or Intermediaries between Jehovah and the people, (d) Times in which to approach him, that is, with daily, weekly, monthly, and annual offerings, (e) A ritual, telling how to approach him.

3. To prefigure the more glorious building, the church of our Lord. A magnificent building, with an imposing ritual, and with fixed times of gathering the whole nation together, would bring about this unity of faith and unity of national life. The building having been completed, Solomon now proposes publicly and formally to dedicate it to the service of God. God had told him when he commenced the building that he would inhabit the house built for him, and now Solomon proposes, by a very solemn national service, to consecrate this house to the Lord. I do not suppose that from any other one source, indeed from all other sources put together, we get the idea of dedication services so much as from this. The house could not be dedicated as soon as it was finished. It was several months from the time it was finished until it was dedicated. There had to be an appropriate time. It must be on the occasion of one of the great national feasts; so it was probably several months after the house was completed before the dedication services took place.

The first thing was to secure a great convocation of the people, and it is repeatedly stated that from Hamath on the north, or from the Euphrates River, unto the river of Egypt on the south, throughout the length and breadth of the land the princes, the rulers of the people, the representative men, were all commanded to be present. So it was a very great national convocation. The next step was to bring into this house all of the sacred things that survived from Moses’ time, and including those that had been prepared by David. So with great ceremony the old tent that Moses built, the brazen altar of burnt offerings, the table for the shewbread and the golden candlestick, were all brought and put in this Temple. Those of them no longer usable, for instance the tent, and a great many of the old-time utensils, were stored away and preserved as relics, including the brazen serpent Moses had made. We hear of that in a later reign and find out the last disposition of it. Then the ark itself was brought from the tent in which David had placed it, and it was put in its place in the most holy place. It was necessary to make a new lid for it, or mercy seat. A long time had elapsed, nearly 500 years, since it was made, and when they opened it there was found in it nothing but the two tables of stone upon which God had inscribed the decalogue. From the Pentateuch we know that other things had been put there. For instance, Aaron’s rod that budded, the pot of manna, and quite a number of things were put by the side of the ark, but when they brought that ark in that is all there was in it. Probably at the time it was captured by the Philistines come of these things were taken out.

The preliminary steps of the dedication were: (1) Placing in the treasury of the house all the things dedicated by David. (2) Placing all the sacred vessels and furniture in proper position. (3) The offering of multitudinous sacrifices. (4) The priests carrying into the most holy place the ark of the covenant. (5) As the priest issues from the most holy place, and the one hundred and twenty other priests standing east of the altar blow their trumpets, and the great Levite-choir bursts into a song of praise and thanksgiving, with cymbals and other instruments, saying, "For he is good; for his mercy endureth forever." (6) Then the cloud, symbol of divine presence and glory, filled all the house.

So it had been when Moses finished the tabernacle, and so it was at Pentecost, after the Lord had built his church) that the Holy Spirit came down in consecrating, attesting power.

Now, having all the sacred things in place, Solomon had a platform of brass erected, about seven feet square, for himself, a kind of pulpit, so that he would be sufficiently lifted up above the people to be seen as well as heard, and we now note a singular fact, viz.: that Solomon acted as both king and high priest, a royal priest, a priest on a throne, and all through his life, he seems not only to perform the functions of the high priest, but he keeps the entire priesthood subject to his immediate control. Nothing is more evident in the study of his life than that the throne, in this case the civil power, kept the priesthood, the religious power, in subservience.

Solomon’s posture in this dedication was standing at the introduction, standing when he goes to pronounce the benediction, but in offering prayer, he kneels, and that is the first place in the Bible where kneeling for prayer is mentioned. You read in the Bible about standing to pray and sitting to pray, and here we have kneeling to pray, showing that the posture is not essential to the act. One can pray lying down, but kneeling is very reverential, and congregations should observe one form.

Standing up before the people, his opening address reverts to the fact of God’s promise to David that a son should succeed him, and that this son should build him a house, and God’s promise to live in the house when it was built. He then commences his prayer, and it is a very remarkable one. His first petition is that the Lord would accept and continually look toward this structure, really inhabit and be present in it. The other elements of the petition are clearly set forth in the text here. Look on page 180 of the Harmony. First, the position with reference to the making of an oath where there is an issue between neighbors, and the difficulty cannot be settled by outside testimony, then all oaths shall be made before God. A man, as in the presence of God, shall solemnly swear that what he says is the correct version of the case. That is called an appeal to the judgment of God. It was a favorite method of settling matters throughout the middle ages. For instance, a nobleman might testify about a case, another challenge his testimony, and they would agree to refer it to the arbitrament of God, as decided in battle, and the two knights would come out and fight in the presence of many witnesses with judges governing all the forms of it, and trusting to God that the right should triumph in that fight.

In Ivanhoe, you have an account of an appeal to the judgment of God in the fight between Ivanhoe and Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert in order to settle a charge against the Jewess, Rebecca. She appealed to the trial by combat and said let God say if she was a witch, as they charged, and so the case was fought out. Hundreds of instances are noticed in history, romance, and poetry of this appeal to God. Another method of appeal, mentioned also by Sir Walter Scott, is that when one was found to have died by violence, all of those whose circumstances made it possible that they might have participated in that murder were required to come up before the judge and with the murdered man’s body shrouded in a white sheet, put their finger on the dead man and swear that they had nothing to do with that murder, and the legend taught that if the real murderer did come and put his hand on the man, then blood would flow out from the wound and thus convict him. Now Solomon prayed that in any case of issue between two neighbors, where there were no means of settling it by outside testimony, and they come before God, that God would decide the case so as to justify the innocent and condemn the guilty.

His second petition is with reference to defeat in battle. This people is a glorious people. War will doubtless arise, and they that go out may be defeated. If they be defeated, he says it will be on account of their sins, and, convicted of sin by public defeat, if they there on that battlefield turn toward the Temple and pray God to forgive the sin, then Solomon asks that their national sin be forgiven.

He next considers the case of droughts. That whole country is subject to drought, and it is easy for all the sources of life to be dried up in severe drought. Drought in the Bible is represented as serving Jehovah; that it comes from him. Elijah prayed that it might not rain for three years and six months, and it didn’t rain, and he prayed that it might rain, and it rained. Now he says, "when a time of drought comes on this land on account of sin, if this people pray toward this Temple, asking God to open the windows of heaven and send rain upon the land, then hear thou in heaven and forgive the sin and send rain." You notice how he is connecting the Temple with all the great vicissitudes of life.

Following that come famines and pestilences. Famines may result from wars, in destroying the products of the land, or they may result from plagues, as of locusts. Now, when a famine or a pestilence, or a contagious or epidemic disease, comes – and the whole country was subject to them, as we would have here in this country, if there should come the Asiatic cholera, or the yellow fever – then let the people pray, and his petition is that when these displays of divine wrath against the sins of men are made, that they will remember that here at Jerusalem in the Temple is a throne of grace unto which any man may come boldly in time of need and ask divine interposition and pardon. We will find numerous examples of all these in the history as we go on.

He then takes the case of a stranger. This is a beautiful thought. Some stranger from a foreign country, not one of the chosen people of Israel, may be in exile, banished from his own land, no light from heaven, seemingly, by the selection of Israel barred from the commonwealth of God, yet if this stranger comes to that Temple and lifts up his heart to God, then Solomon prays that the Lord will hear that stranger. That gets to be a very big item of the New Testament gospel. You remember Paul says to the Ephesians, "Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God." In this prayer of Solomon is a forecast of the abrogation of the middle wall of partition between the Jew and the Gentile. All peoples, all races, tribes, tongues, and kindreds may come before the Lord. Paul enunciated it in Mars’ Hill when he said, "God made of one blood all nations of men that inhabit the face of the earth, and appointed their seasons and their boundaries with a view that they might seek after him and find him." Now if a stranger comes to this house of God and honestly seeks a blessing from God, he may find it. That is a good thought. While our houses of worship are not temples, yet they ought to be places attractive to strangers. "Here the people of God are meeting and I am an outsider. Will I be welcome? Is there anything here for me? Will anyone speak a word of comfort or peace to my soul?"

When I was pastor of the First Church in Waco, two deacons had a special duty. Every Sunday morning, as soon as the bell tapped to call the Sunday school together for its final exercises, these two deacons arose and went down on the streets of Waco and spent the time till the opening song of the church service inviting strangers on the streets to come to church. One notable incident occurred. They brought a man in that way one day and he was converted. I think I never heard anything more touching than his relation of the fact that a very gentlemanly old man saw him on the street where he was wandering without money, no place to go, without a friend in the world, and asked him to come to church, which led to his salvation.

Solomon then takes up the case of battle. This is before the battle is joined. Is there such a thing as the decision of battle by the Almighty? Infidels adopt the theory of the French Marshal – that God favors the heaviest battalions in the fight. But the battle is not always to the strong. Patrick Henry insisted upon that in his speech before the House of Burgesses. Solomon wanted that thought fixed in the very hearts of his people, that before they fought they should pray. At the great battle of Agincourt, when a very small English army was surrounded by an enormous French army, say 25,000 against 100,000, just before the fight the English army prayed that the French king says, "Are they prostrating themselves in homage to us already? Do they acknowledge their defeat?" One who knew them replied to the king, "No, sire. They are taking their case to their God, and they will fight the better for it when they get up off their knees." One of the soldiers, in the English civil war, remarked to Prince Rupert that he feared Cromwell’s Ironsides when they knelt and prayed just before a fight and rose singing, "Let God arise and his enemies be scattered." In the book of the Maccabees there is a marvelous illustration of this, when Judas Maccabaeus with 10,000 men defeated 100,000, having made a solemn appeal to the God of battles before the issue was joined.

It is related as an incident of colonial history that in the war between France and England, with the battlefield over in this country, that the French at a serious crisis dispatched a great fleet with 3,000 soldiers and 40,000 stands of arms to turn the scale, and as that armament approached this continent, the colonists felt that if it arrived safely they were lost, and so the preachers gathered the people for prayer that God might save them from this armament, and even as they prayed a storm came and scattered the fleet, wrecking many of the vessels, drowning most of the soldiers, and sinking most of their munitions of war.

The climax of Solomon’s prayer anticipates a time when his people, on account of very grievous sin, shall be carried into captivity, their city taken, and over there in a land of exile they should become slaves of a foreign power. In this dire disaster, if they should repent and remember and look back toward Jerusalem and to this house, then might the Lord forgive them there and restore them to their land. We see Daniel carrying out this thought, as every day he would open his window and look toward Jerusalem and pray, doing just what this prayer suggests. Against the royal edict he would turn toward the Temple and pray. In Daniel 9:19 we find a famous prayer confessing the sins of the people and repeating the promise in the prophecy of Jeremiah that the seventy years of captivity is nearly out, and crying out, "Oh Lord, hear! Oh Lord, forgive," and even while he is praying an angel comes, touches him and tells him that his prayer is heard and shows him that not only will they be restored at that time, but unveils the prophecy concerning the restoration and rebuilding of Jerusalem and the length of time to elapse between that event and the birth of the long-looked-for Messiah, as you will find in the conclusion of Daniel 9.

Having offered this great prayer, Solomon arose and pronounced the benediction. As soon as this prayer ended, confirmation came in a very remarkable way. Fire came down from heaven and burned up the sacrifices that had been placed upon the altar, and not only that, but God appears to Solomon as he had appeared to him at Gibeon, and uses this language, which Spurgeon makes the text of one of his great sermons: "And Jehovah said unto him) I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me! I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built to put my name there forever." On the next page it says, "Now I have chosen and hallowed this house, that my name may be there forever; and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually." In another place he says, "My hands shall be there." Now Spurgeon takes for a text: "My name shall be there, my eyes shall be there, my heart shall be there, my hands shall be there." "Whoever comes to that place of worship, I see him. Whoever prays, I hear him. Whoever pleads, I love him and I save him by my hand." Spurgeon makes a great sermon out of it, and I suggest it as a good text.

We note the permanent use of the Temple: "Then Solomon offered burnt offerings unto the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had built before the porch even as the duty of every day required." That is the daily sacrifice, offering according to the commandment of Moses on the sabbaths, then there are the weekly sacrifices, and on the new moons, which are the monthly sacrifices; and then on the great feast days three times in the year. There you have the whole cycle of the sacrifices to be offered in the Temple. Moses provided for morning and evening sacrifices in the tabernacle. Perhaps you have read The Prince of the House of David by Ingraham, an Episcopalian preacher. He represents the young Jewish lady that came from Alexandria on a visit to Jerusalem as being waked up just as the dawn flushed the eastern sky; the silver trumpets began to blow, and as those trumpets were blown everybody rushed to the housetops, and while they were looking at the Temple a great white cloud of incense rose up over the Temple and ascended to heaven, representing the morning prayers of the people, and they on the housetops prostrated themselves at the time of the incense and offered their morning prayers. That occurred every evening also, and it could be seen by everybody in the city, the going up of that great cloud of incense. They could hear the sound of those trumpets calling to prayer morning and evening. Solomon provided according to the ritual of Moses and David that these daily sacrifices should never be neglected in that Temple, nor the sabbatical, or weekly, nor the monthly, nor the annual sacrifices in the times of the great feasts.

I will devote the rest of the chapter to the glory of Solomon. You will note these words: "And the King made silver and gold to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as the sycamore trees that are in the lowland for abundance. So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. And all the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart, and they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and raiment, and armor, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year." Again, "And Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt: they brought him presents, and served Solomon all the days of his life. For he had dominion over all the region on this side the river, from Tiphsah even to Gaza, over all the kings on this side the river: and he had peace on all sides round about him. Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking, and every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon."

As a sample of the glory of Solomon, we have the visit of the Queen of Sheba, who came, as our Lord said, from the uttermost parts of the earth. Commentators are divided as to whether she was a queen over, that best watered and most fertile part of southern Arabia, or whether she was the Queen of Abyssinia just across the dividing water in Africa. Most modern commentators make her the queen of what is called "Arabia Felix," but my own judgment is that she was the queen of Abyssinia. The tradition of her reign lingers there where recently King Menelik defeated the Italian armies, and where they still keep up certain forms of the Christian religion, whence also in New Testament times came the Ethiopian eunuch whom Philip led to Christ. By combining 1 Kings 10:1-13 with Matthew 12:42 you may make a great sermon with these heads: (1) She heard a rumor that there was a wise man who could answer any question. (2) She had hard questions knocking at the door of her heart, as every woman has. She determined, at any cost, to have these problems solved, so she makes this great journey, and when she gets there and he answers all of her questions and she sees his glory, his Temple, the way by which he went up into the Temple, the apparel of his servants, there was no more breath in her, that is, she fainted. You know some people are so finely strung that they will faint when looking at a great picture, or on being stirred by great music. From her words, "The half was not told me," we get our hymn, "The half has never yet been told."

My own sermon on Matthew 12:42 had these heads: (1) There shall be a resurrection of the dead. (2) It will be a general resurrection, (3) followed by a general judgment, (4) whose determining principle shall be: Men are judged according to their light. We may close this discussion with a brief account of Solomon’s relations with other governments.

1. Phoenicia. He inherited from his father a most valuable alliance with Hiram, king of Tyre, whose fleets controlled the Mediterranean Sea.

2. Egypt. His marriage with Pharaoh’s daughter held the friendship of the ruling dynasty in Egypt.

3. Friendly alliance with the Queen of Sheba.

4. In David’s time the Hittite nation at Hamath paid tribute. Solomon conquered the country.

5. By intermarriage he secured friendly relations with many countries, as most of his marriages were political.

6. By commerce through the Mediterranean he held friendly relations with the nations on its shores as far as Spain.

7. By commerce with the archipelagoes of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, he held friendly relations with the Orient, and Africa.

8. By land-traffic he held friendly relations with Arabia, Mesopotamia, and the nations around the Caspian Sea.

QUESTIONS

1. What promise of Jehovah was made to Solomon when he commenced to build the Temple?

2. What command of Jehovah, through Moses, was fulfilled in the building of the Temple?

3. When then, in brief, were the purposes of the Temple?

4. What effect has this dedication on all subsequent dedications of buildings?

5. At what annual festival was the Temple dedicated?

6. What are the steps of offering the house, and how the divine acceptance signified?

7. What similar event occurred in Moses’ day, and what greater event in the New Testament day?

8. Describe the platform occupied by Solomon, and his posture in the several parts of the dedication.

9. In what double capacity does he act?

10. What were the salient points of his opening address?

11. The salient points of his prayer?

12. What evidence in later days that in accord with Solomon’s petition his people prayed toward Jerusalem?

13. In what signal way did confirmation come from heaven, that his prayer was answered?

14. Distinguish between the two manifestations of the glory of the Cloud, 2 Chronicles 5:13; 2 Chronicles 7:1-3.

15. What says the text of the glory of Solomon, and the extent of his kingdom? (See 1 Kings 4:20-25; 1 Kings 10:18-25.)

16. What our Lord’s reference to Solomon’s glory?

17. Recite the story of the Queen of Sheba. Where her country? What our Lord’s reference to it, and what the sermon outline on Matthew 12:42?

18. What was Solomon’s relations to foreign nations?

19. When and why Jehovah’s second appearance to Solomon?

Verse 29

IV

THE SCHOOLS OF THE PROPHETS

The more important passages bearing on this subject are 1 Samuel 3:1-4; 1 Samuel 10:5; 1 Samuel 10:9-12; 1 Samuel 18:13-24; 1 Kings 19:18; 1 Kings 19:20-21; 1 Kings 20:35; 2 Kings 2:3-5; 2 Kings 4:38; 2 Kings 6:1; 1 Chronicles 29:29; 2 Chronicles 9:29; 2 Chronicles 12:15; 2 Chronicles 13:22 and other chapters in that book I do not enumerate. The last one is Amos 7:14-15. The reader will understand that I give these instead of a prescribed section in the Harmony. These constitute the basis of this discussion.

Let us distinguish between the prophetic gift and the prophetic office, and give some examples. Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, his seventy elders, Balaam, Joshua, and others before Samuel’s time had the gift, but not the office; perhaps we may except Moses as in a measure having the office. After Samuel’s time, David, many of his singers, and particularly Daniel, had the gift in a high degree, but not the office. Moreover, the high priests from Aaron to Caiphas in Christ’s time, were supposed to have officially the gift of prophecy – that is, to hear and report what the Oracle said – but Samuel is the first who held the office.

The distinction between a prophet and a son of a prophet is this: A son of a prophet was a candidate for the office, ministering to the prophet, a disciple instructed by him, consecrated to the work, and qualifying himself to perform the services of the office with the highest efficiency. A prophet is one who, through inspiration of the Holy Spirit, speaks or writes for God. In this inspiration he is God’s mouth or pen, speaking or writing not his own words, but God’s words. This inspiration guides and superintends his speech and his silence; what is recorded and what is omitted from the record. The gift of prophecy was not one of uniform quantity nor necessarily enduring. The gifts were various in kind, and might be for one occasion only. As to variety of kinds, the revelation might come in dreams or open visions, or it might consist of an ecstatic trance expressed in praise or song or prayer. If praise, song, or prayer, its form was apt to be poetic, particularly if accompanied by instrumental music.

As to the duration of the gift, it might be for one occasion only, or a few, or many. The scriptures show that the spirit of prophecy came upon King Saul twice only, and each time in the form of an ecstatic trance. In his early life it came as a sign that God had chosen him as king. In his later life the object of it was to bar his harmful approach to David. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 12-14 inclusive, explains the diversity of these gifts and their relative importance.

There are two periods of Hebrew history in which we find clearest notices of the schools of the prophets, the proofs of their persistence between the periods, and their influence on the nation. The notices are abundant in the time of Samuel, and in the time of Elijah and Elisha, but you have only to study the book of Chronicles to see that the prophetic order, as an office, continued through these periods and far beyond. Later you will learn that in the time of persecution fifty of these prophets were hidden in a cave and fed regularly. The object of the enemy was to destroy these theological seminaries, believing that they could never lead the nation astray while these schools of the prophets continued. Their object, therefore, was to destroy these seats of theological education. Elijah supposed that every one of them was killed except himself, but he was mistaken.

Samuel was the founder of the first school of the prophets, and the scripture which shows his headship is 1 Samuel 19:20, where Saul is sending messengers to take David, and finally goes himself and finds the school of the prophets, with Samuel as its appointed head. The reason for such a school in Samuel’s time is shown, first, by an extract from Kirkpatrick’s Commentary on 1 Samuel, page 33. He says:

Samuel was the founder of the prophetic order. Individuals in previous ages had been endowed with prophetic gifts, but with Samuel commenced the regular succession of prophets which lasted through all the period of the monarchy, and did not cease until after the captivity. The degeneracy into which the priesthood had fallen through the period of the judges demanded the establishment of a new order for the religious training of the nation.

For this purpose Samuel founded the institutions known as the schools of the prophets. The "company of prophets" at Gibeah (1 Samuel 10:10) and the scene at Ramah described in 1 Samuel 19:18 ff., imply a regular organization. These societies are only definitely mentioned again in connection with the history’ of Elijah and Elisha but doubtless continued to exist in the interval. By means of these the Order was maintained, students were educated, and common religious exercises nurtured and developed spiritual gifts.

Kirkpatrick’s is a fine commentary. The priests indeed were instructors of the people, but the tendency of the priesthood was to rest in external sacrifices, and to trust in a mere ritualistic form of sacrifice. That is the trouble always where you have a ritual. And after a while both priest and worshiper began to rely upon the external type, and on external conformity with the ritual. God needed better mouthpieces than those, hence while in the past there was a prophetic gift here and there, he now establishes the prophetic school, or society, in which training, bearing upon the prophetic office, should be continuous. The value of these schools of the prophets is also seen from Kirkpatrick, page 1 Samuel 34:

The value of the prophetic order to the Jewish nation was immense. The prophets were privy-counsellors of kings, the historians of the nation, the instructors of the people. It was their function to be preachers of righteousness to rich and poor alike: to condemn idolatry in the court, oppression among the nobles, injustice among the judges, formality among the priests. They were the interpreters of the law who drew out by degrees the spiritual significance which underlay ritual observance, and labored to prevent sacrifice and sabbath and festival from becoming dead and unmeaning forms. Strong in the unshaken consciousness that they were expressing the divine will, they spoke and acted with a fearless courage which no threats could daunt or silence.

Thus they proved a counterpoise to the despotism of monarchy and the formalism of priesthood. In a remarkable passage in his essay on "Representative Government," Mr. John Stuart Mill attributes to their influence the progress which distinguished the Jews from other Oriental nations. "The Jews," he writes, "had an absolute monarchy and hierarchy. These did for them what was done for other Oriental races by their institutions – subdued them to industry and order, and gave them a national life. . . . Their religion gave existence to an inestimably precious institution, the order of prophets. Under the protection, generally though not always effectual, of their sacred character, the prophets were a power in the nation, often more than a match for kings and priests, and kept up in that little corner of the earth the antagonism of influences which is the only real security for continued progress."

I was surprised the first time I ever saw the statement from Mill. He was a radical evolutionist and infidel, but a statesman, and in studying the development of statesmanship among the nations, he saw this singular thing in the history of the Jews, unlike anything he saw anywhere else, and saw what it was that led that nation, when it went into backsliding, to repentance; what power it was that brought about the reformation when their morals were corrupted; what power it was that was the real light of the nation and the salt of the earth, and saw that it was this order of prophets which was the conservator of national unity, purity, and perpetuity. I have the more pleasure in quoting that passage, as it comes from a witness in no way friendly to Christianity, just as when I was discussing missions I quoted the testimony of Charles Darwin to the tremendous influence for good wrought by the missionaries of South America.

Particularly in this case of the schools of the prophets we find their value, by noting very carefully the bearing on the case under Samuel. We have already noticed the corruption of the priesthood under Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas; how the ark was captured, the central place of worship desecrated; how Samuel, called to the office of prophet, needed assistance, and how he instituted this school of the prophets. He gathered around him the brightest young men of the nation and had the Spirit of God rest on them, and in order that their instruction might be regular he organized them into companies, or schools; he would go from one to another, and these young "theologs" were under the instruction of Samuel and for twenty years worked as evangelists in making sensitive the national conscience. It took twenty years to do it, and he could not have done it by himself, but with that tremendous power, the help he had, at the end of twenty years, he saw the nation repentant and once more worshiping God. I am for a theological seminary that will do that.

I give a modern example somewhat parallel: Mr. Spurgeon was called to the city of London, when about nineteen years old, to be the pastor of the old historic church of Dr. Gill, and in his evangelical preaching impressed a number of men to feel that they were also called to preach (if your preaching does not impress somebody else to preach, you may be sure that you are not called to preach), and it impressed the women and a multitude of laymen to do active Christian service. Therefore, Mr. Spurgeon organized what is called "The Pastoral College." He wouldn’t let a drone be in it; he did not want anybody in it that was not spiritually minded. In other words, he insisted that a preacher should be religiously inclined, and should be ready to do any kind of work. He supported this institution largely through his own contributions, although the men and women all over England, when they saw what it was doing, would send money for its support. I used to read the monthly reports of the contributions and the list of donors that accompanied them.

Mr. Spurgeon determined to work a revolution, just as Samuel did, and he used this school of the prophets for that purpose. Consequently, hundreds of young preachers belonging to that school of the prophets preached in the slums of the city, in the byways, in the highways, in the hedges, in the mines, on the wharves to the sailors, and in the hospitals. Hundreds of laymen said, "Put us to work," and he did; he had pushcarts made for them, and filled them with books and so sent out over the town literature that was not poisonous. He put the women to work, and established) or rather perpetuated in better form, a number of the almshouses for the venerable old women who were poor and helpless, following out the suggestion in 2 Timothy, and he erected a hospital. Then they got to going further afield. They went all over England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, crossed over into the Continent, crossed the seas to Australia, and the islands of the seas, and into heathen lands. I have always said that Spurgeon’s Pastoral College came nearer to the Bible idea of a seminary than any other in existence. There was not so much stress laid on mere scholarship as on spiritual efficiency.

It is important to note particularly what I am saying now, because it was burnt into my heart as one of the reasons for establishing a theological seminary. The nature of that society was that it was a school. They left their homes and came to stay at this school, with what we now call a mess hall in which all the theological students, by contributing so much, have their table in common. It was that way then; they had their meals in common. In preparing dinner one day for the sons of the prophets, somebody put a lot of wild gourds into the pot, and when they began to eat it, one of them cried out: "Ah, man of God, there’s death in the pot!" Once I preached a sermon on this theme: "Wild Gourds and Theological Seminaries," to show that to feed the students in theological seminaries on wild gourds of heresy is to put death in the pot; they will do more harm than good, as they will become instruments of evil.

In determining what were their duties, we must consult quite a number of passages. We gather from this passage that they were thoroughly instructed in the necessity of repentance, individually and nationally, and of turning from their sins and coming back to God with faithful obedience. That lesson was ground in them. They were taught the interpretation of the spiritual meaning of the law, all its sacrifices, its feasts, its types, and therefore when you are studying a prophet in the Old Testament you will notice how different his idea of types and ceremonies from that of the priests. They will tell you that to do without eating is fasting, but the prophet will show that literal fasting is not true fasting; that there must be fasting at heart; that there must be a rending of the soul and not the garment as an expression of repentance; that to obey God w better than a formal sacrifice.

Another thing they were taught, which I wish particularly to emphasize, was music, both vocal and instrumental. In that school of the prophets started the tremendous power of music in religion so wonderfully developed by David, who got many of his ideas from associating with the schools of the prophets. And from that time unto this, every evangelical work, and all powerful religious work, has been associated with music, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament; not merely vocal, but instrumental music. The heart of a religion is expressed in its songs, and if you want to get at the heart of your Old Testament you find it in the hymnbook of the Hebrew nation – the Psalter. It is indeed an interesting study to see what has been the influence of great hymns on the national life. There is an old proverb: "You may make the laws of the people, if you will let me write their ballads." Where is there a man capable of measuring the influence of "How Firm a Foundation," or "Come, Thou Fount," or "Did Christ O’er Sinners Weep?" There is a rich literature on the influence of hymns on the life.

In the awful times of the struggle in England, Charles I against the Parliament, one faction of the nation held to ritualism, while the other followed spirituality, even to the extreme of not allowing any form, not even allowing any instruments of music. One of the finest stories of this period is the account of a church that observed the happy medium, using instrumental as well as vocal music, and congregational singing as well as the use of the choir; every sabbath somebody’s soul was melted in the power of that mighty singing. I can’t sing myself, but I can carry the tunes in my mind, and I can be more influenced by singing than by preaching. It was singing that convicted me of sin. It was on a waving, soaring melody of song that my soul was converted. I once knew a rugged, one-eyed, homely, old pioneer Baptist preacher, who looked like a pirate until his religion manifested itself, and then he was beautiful. I heard him one day when a telegram was put into his hand stating that his only son had just been killed by being thrown from a horse. While weeping, his face became illumined; he got up and clapped his hands and walked through that audience, singing, "O, Jesus, My Saviour, to Thee I Submit."

John Bunyan wrote that song while in Bedford Jail. They had put him there to keep him from preaching, and looking out through the bars of the dungeon he saw his poor blind girl, Mary, begging bread, and he sat down and wrote that hymn. The effect of the old preacher’s singing John Bunyan’s song was a mighty revival.

The relation of the schools of the prophets to modern theological seminaries is this: The purpose was the same. And so in New Testament times, Jesus recognized that if he wanted to revolutionize the world by evangelism he must do it with trained men. He did not insist that they be rich, great or mighty men. He did not insist that they be scholars. He called them from among the common people, and he kept them right with him for three years and a half, and diligently instructed them in the principles and spirit of his kingdom. He taught them in a variety of forms; in parables, in proverbs, in exposition, illustrating his teachings by miracles, and in hundreds of ways in order that they might be equipped to go out and lead the world to Christ. You cannot help being impressed with this fact: That the theological seminaries in Samuel’s time and in Christ’s time were intensely practical, the object being not to make learned professors, but to fill each one with electricity until you could call him a "live wire," so that it burnt whoever touched it.

This is why I called Samuel a great man, and why in a previous discussion, counting the men as the peaks in a mountain range, sighting back from Samuel to Abraham, only one other peak comes into line of vision, and that is Moses.

QUESTIONS

1. What are the more important passages bearing on the schools of the prophets?

2. Distinguish between the prophetic gift and the prophetic office and illustrate by examples.

3. Distinguish between a prophet and a son of a prophet.

4. What is the meaning of prophet?

5. In what two periods of Hebrew history do we find the clearest notices of the school of prophets, what are the proofs of their persistence between these periods, and what is their influence on the nation?

6. Who was the founder of the first school of the prophets?

7. What scripture shows his headship?

8. What was the reason for such school in Samuel’s time?

9. What was the value of these schools of the prophets, and particularly in this case, and what illustration from modern instances?

10. What was the nature of that society, and what was the instruction given?

11. What was the relation of the schools of the prophets to modern theological seminaries?

Verses 29-31

XXX

THE FALL AND END OF SOLOMON

1 Kings 11:1-43; 2 Chronicles 9:29-31

See 1 Kings 11:1-43 and 2 Chronicles 9:29-31, with which compare (1) Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3-4; Ezra 9:1; Nehemiah 13:23. (2) Deuteronomy 17:14-20. (3) The two visitations of Jehovah, 1 Kings 3:14; 1 Kings 9:4-9; 2 Chronicles 7:17-22. (4) The whole book of Ecclesiastes.

1. When Solomon became old he fell away from Jehovah in heart and life.

2. He, himself, furnishes the motto for a heading of this part of his life, "Better is a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king, who knoweth not how to receive admonition anymore" (Ecclesiastes 4:13).

3. And he, himself, fitly describes a miserable darkened old age, thus:

Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity. Remember also thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say. I have no pleasure in them; before the sun, and the light, and the moon, and the stars, are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain; in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows shall be darkened, and the doors shall be shut in the street; when the sound of the grinding is low, and one shall rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low; yea, they shall be afraid of that which is high, and terrors shall be in the way; and the almond tree shall blossom, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail; because man goeth to his everlasting home, and the mourners go about the streets: before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit returneth unto God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is vanity. (Eccl. 11:9-12:8).

4. The immediate occasion of his fall was the influence of his foreign idolatrous wives.

5. They led him astray on these lines: (1) The sensual indulgence of harem life sapped his physical vitality, enervated his mind and blunted the perception, and dulled the sensitiveness of all his moral faculties. (2) Being themselves idolaters, they induced him to provide temples for the idols of their own countries. (3) To suit their convenience they led him to locate these houses and altars of idolatry over against God’s holy Temple. (4) They finally led him to participate himself in this idol worship.

6. His sin consisted of these elements: (1) Primarily and mainly he sinned grievously against Jehovah, who had exalted him. (2) He grossly violated the kingdom charter. (3) He openly violated the Mosaic law of marriage.

7. His sin against Jehovah may be thus particularized: (1) It was open violation of both the first and second commandment of the decalogue. (2) It was against the light of two visitations from Jehovah, the second one particularly warning him against the sin. (3) In placing the idol houses over against the Temple it was flaunting an insult in Jehovah’s face. (4) It was a sin against Jehovah’s revelation, and an abuse of the wisdom given to seek through philosophy the chief good and chief duty of man, as he himself confesses he did in the book of Ecclesiastes. (5) It was a sin against Jehovah as the supreme and only satisfying portion of the soul to seek happiness by experiment in wealth, pleasure, luxury, and other ways as he confesses he did in the book of Ecclesiastes.

8. He sinned against the charter of the kingdom in these particulars: (1) The charter says, "He shall not multiply horses to himself," it being against the divine purpose that his people should depend on cavalry and chariots. But this is what he did: "And Solomon had 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 horsemen" (1 Kings 4:26). (2) The charter said "Neither shall he multiply wives unto himself, that his heart turn not away." But this is what he did: "Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites; of the nations concerning which Jehovah said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go among them) neither shall they come among you; for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods; Solomon clave unto these in love. And he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with Jehovah his God, as was the heart of David his father" (1 Kings 11:1-4). (3) The charter said, "He shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold," but he filled his coffers with gold) silver, and jewels beyond computation in value. (4) The charter said, "His heart shall not be lifted up above his brethren," but for display, and for the buildings of his wives and their extravagant support, he raised forced levies of workmen from his own people, and imposed onerous taxes which caused a revolt in the days of his son, Rehoboam, and the loss of ten tribes. (See 1 Kings 4:6; 1 Kings 5:13-14; 1 Kings 7:19-23; 1 Kings 11:28; 1 Kings 12:4.)

9. He sinned against the sanctity of the Mosaic law of marriage in taking wives from nations of the Canaanites and other idolatrous nations. (See Exodus 34:16; Deuteronomy 7:3-4, as interpreted in Ezra 9:1 and Nehemiah 13:23, and compare 1 Kings 11:1-2.)

10. We find somewhat of a parallel in Louis XIV of France, who reduced his nation to pauperism to support his extravagant displays and mistresses, so that in the days of Louis XVI came a revolution that painted hell on the sky.

11. The sin of Solomon greatly provoked Jehovah, who sternly denounced these penalties: (1) The greater part of the kingdom was rent from him and given to his servant, but for David’s sake, the execution was stayed till Solomon died (1 Kings 11:9-13). (2) Adversaries were stirred up, ready to strike on the first opportunity. (3) These adversaries were Hadad, the Automat, who in David’s time had sheltered in Egypt; Rezon, the Syrian, who sheltered in Damascus and who abhorred Israel; Jeroboam, the Ephrathite, whom Solomon promoted, but who, having been informed by Jehovah’s prophet that he would rule over ten tribes, did not wait on Jehovah’s time but instantly revolted, but when Solomon sought to kill him, fled to Egypt and sheltered there.

12. The fearful consequences of Solomon’s sin were sweeping and far-reaching, as appears from these facts: (1) The contrast between the glorious unity when David was made king over all Israel (1 Chronicles 11:1-3; 1 Chronicles 12:23-40) and the disunion under Solomon’s son (1 Kings 12:1-19). (2) This division resulted in the idolatry and destruction of the ten tribes except the elect remnants that returned to Judah, thus preserving and perpetuating all the tribes. (3) The idolatry of the ten tribes was communicated to Judah in Ahab’s day, threatening the blotting out of all the tribes. (4) The division made them weak in the presence of enemies to both, and their prestige and position among the nations were lost. (5) The destruction of the ten tribes resulted in the rise of the Samaritans, a mixed people who rejected all revelation except the Pentateuch, and established a rival temple, whose pretensions to superiority persisted till Messiah’s time (See John 4:20). (6) The precedent of seeking in speculative philosophy and in sinful experiment man’s chief end, chief good, chief aim, was taken up and followed by Greek and Roman philosophers – Zeno, Epicurus, Lucretius, and Democritus, Gnostics, Agnostics and modern radical evolutionists even to this day – all adopting his methods and denying his conclusions.

13. The question naturally arises: Was Solomon’s apostasy total and final, and is he today a lost soul? Adam Clark, the commentator, like nearly all Methodists, Arminian in doctrine, teaches that Solomon was finally and forever lost; from which position the author dissents for the following reasons:

1. The record expressly teaches that his apostasy was not total, but only that his heart toward Jehovah was not perfect as was the heart of David.

2. That his apostasy was not final seems evident from the repentance evidenced in the book of Ecclesiastes, which, after recounting all his experiments in turning from revelation to philosophy and all ending in vanity, comes back to the conclusion that to fear God and keep his commandments is the whole duty of man.

3. The promise of Jehovah to his father David expressly forbids the idea of his total and final apostasy in saying, "When thy days are fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, that shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son: if he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men, but my loving kindness shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee" (2 Samuel 7:12-15). The contrast here between Saul and Solomon is very marked. Saul sustained no filial relation toward Jehovah, but Solomon did. Saul was punished as an alien; Solomon was chastised as a son. The Holy Spirit was withdrawn from Saul, but not from Solomon.

14. Solomon’s fall teaches many great lessons, among which may be named:

1. Sensuality in a man is like the dry rot which crumbles foundation-timbers.

2. A little child may learn from revelation in a day more about origin, character, destiny, the chief-end, the chief-good, and the chief-aim of man than all the speculative philosophers throughout the ages have discovered or will ever be able to discover.

3. Man himself, in his moral dignity, is more than all his learning, accomplishments, wealth, rank, or social position. The rank is but the guinea’s stamp, The man’s the gowd for all that.

4. God himself is the only satisfying portion of the soul. Tis no’ in titles nor in rank, "Tis no’ in wealth like London bank To give us peace and rest; If happiness ha’e not her seat And center in the breast, We may be wise, or rich, or great But never can be blest.

5. When kings live in splendor and luxury and irresponsibility to moral laws, maintaining vast, varied, and costly establishments, the people must groan under onerous taxation and servitude until revolution comes to paint hell on the sky.

6. Men professing themselves to be wise become fools (see Romans 1:22; 1 Corinthians 1:18-29).

QUESTIONS

1. At what period of his life does Solomon fall away from Jehovah?

2. What motto by himself would serve as a heading for his fall?

3. How does he himself describe an old age weakened and made miserable by sin?

4. What was the occasion of his fall?

5. How did these women lead him astray?

6. Of what particulars did his sin consist?

7. Particularize his sin against Jehovah.

8. Particularize his sin against the charter of the kingdom.

9. Particularize his sin against the sanctity of the Mosaic marriage law.

10. What parallel to Solomon, in his sin, in modern history?

11. How did Solomon’s sin affect Jehovah, and what penalties did he denounce?

12. What facts show the sweeping and far-reaching consequences of Solomon’s fall?

13. How do Arminians answer the question: Was Solomon’s apostasy total and final, and is he not a lost soul, and what the biblical reasons for dissent from this interpretation?

14. What great lessons from Solomon’s fall?

15. How do you reconcile 1 Kings 11:3; 1 Kings 11:2Ch_6:8?