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1 Kings Chapter
Three
1 Kings 3
Chapter Contents
Solomon's marriage. (1-4) His vision
His prayer for
wisdom. (5-15) The judgment of Solomon. (16-28)
Commentary on 1 Kings 3:1-4
(Read 1 Kings 3:1-4)
He that loved the Lord
should
for his sake
have fixed
his love upon one of the Lord's people. Solomon was a wise man
a rich man
a
great man; yet the brightest praise of him
is that which is the character of
all the saints
even the poorest
"He loved the Lord." Where God sows
plentifully
he expects to reap accordingly; and those that truly love God and
his worship
will not grudge the expenses of their religion. We must never
think that wasted which is laid out in the service of God.
Commentary on 1 Kings 3:5-15
(Read 1 Kings 3:5-15)
Solomon's dream was not a common one. While his bodily
powers were locked up in sleep
the powers of his soul were strengthened; he
was enabled to receive the Divine vision
and to make a suitable choice. God
in like manner
puts us in the ready way to be happy
by assuring us we shall
have what we need
and pray for. Solomon's making such a choice when asleep
and the powers of reason least active
showed it came from the grace of God.
Having a humble sense of his own wants and weakness
he pleads
Lord
I am but
a little child. The more wise and considerate men are
the better acquainted
they are with their own weakness
and the more jealous of themselves. Solomon
begs of God to give him wisdom. We must pray for it
James 1:5
that it may help us in our particular
calling
and the various occasions we have. Those are accepted of God
who
prefer spiritual blessings to earthly good. It was a prevailing prayer
and
prevailed for more than he asked. God gave him wisdom
such as no other prince
was ever blessed with; and also gave him riches and honour. If we make sure of
wisdom and grace
these will bring outward prosperity with them
or sweeten the
want of it. The way to get spiritual blessings
is to wrestle with God in
prayer for them. The way to get earthly blessings
is to refer ourselves to God
concerning them. Solomon has wisdom given him
because he did ask it
and
wealth
because he did not.
Commentary on 1 Kings 3:16-28
(Read 1 Kings 3:16-28)
An instance of Solomon's wisdom is given. Notice the
difficulty of the case. To find out the true mother
he could not try which the
child loved best
and therefore tried which loved the child best: the mother's
sincerity will be tried
when the child is in danger. Let parents show their
love to their children
especially by taking care of their souls
and snatching
them as brands out of the burning. By this and other instances of the wisdom
with which God endued him
Solomon had great reputation among his people. This
was better to him than weapons of war; for this he was both feared and loved.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 1 Kings》
1 Kings 3
Verse 1
[1] And Solomon
made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt
and took Pharaoh's daughter
and
brought her into the city of David
until he had made an end of building his
own house
and the house of the LORD
and the wall of Jerusalem round about.
Pharaoh — As
being a powerful neighbour
whose daughter doubtless was first instructed in
and proselyted to the Jewish religion. It seems
this was designed by God to be
a type of Christ
calling his church to himself
and to the true religion
not
only out of the Jews
but even out of the Gentile world.
City of David —
Into David's palace there.
The wall —
Which though in some sort built by David
yet Solomon is here said to build
either because he made it higher
and stronger
in which sense Nebuchadnezzar
is said to have built Babylon
Daniel 4:30
or because he built another wall
besides the former
for after this time Jerusalem was encompassed with more
walls than one.
Verse 2
[2] Only the people sacrificed in high places
because there was no house
built unto the name of the LORD
until those days.
Only —
This particle is used here
and verse 3
as an exception to Solomon's integrity and as
a blemish to his government
That he himself both permitted and practised this
which was expressly forbidden
Leviticus 17:3
4; Deuteronomy 12:13
14.
High places —
Which were groves
or other convenient places upon hills
in which the
patriarchs used to offer up their sacrifices to God; and from them this custom
was derived both to the Gentiles and the Jews: and in them the Gentiles
sacrificed to idols
the Hebrews to the true God.
Because
… —
Which reason was not sufficient
for there was a tabernacle
to which they were
as much confined as to the temple
Exodus 40:34-38
etc.
Verse 3
[3] And
Solomon loved the LORD
walking in the statutes of David his father: only he
sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.
Yet —
Although he miscarried in the matter of high places
yet in the general
his
heart was right with God.
Statutes —
According to the statutes or commands of God
which are here called the
statutes of David; not only because they were diligently practised by David
but also because the observation of them was so earnestly pressed upon Solomon
and fortified with David's authority and command.
Verse 6
[6] And
Solomon said
Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy
according as he walked before thee in truth
and in righteousness
and in
uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness
that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne
as it is this day.
Truth — In
the true worship of God
in the profession
belief
practice and defence of the
true religion. So truth here contains all duties to God
as righteousness doth
his duties to men
and uprightness the right manner of performing both sorts of
duties.
With thee —
That is
in thy judgment
to whom he often appealed as the witness of his
integrity.
Verse 7
[7] And now
O LORD my God
thou hast made thy servant king instead of David
my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.
Child — So
he was in years: not above twenty years old; and withal (which he principally
intends) he was raw and unexperienced
as a child
in state affairs.
Go out
… — To
govern my people
and manage affairs.
Verse 8
[8] And
thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen
a great
people
that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.
In the midst — Is
set over them to rule and guide them. A metaphor from the overseer of divers
workmen
who usually is in the midst of them
that he may the better observe
how each of them discharges his office.
Chosen —
Thy peculiar people
whom thou takest special care of
and therefore wilt
expect a more punctual account of my government of them.
Verse 9
[9] Give
therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people
that I may
discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a
people?
An understanding heart — Whereby I may both clearly discern
and faithfully perform all the parts
of my duty: for both these are spoken of in scripture
as the effects of a good
understanding; and he that lives in the neglect of his duties
or the practice
of wickedness
is called a fool
and one void of understanding.
Discern —
Namely in causes and controversies among my people; that I may not through
mistake
or prejudice
or passion
give wrong sentences
and call evil good
or
good evil. Absalom
that was a fool
wished himself a judge: Solomon
that was
a wise man
trembles at the undertaking. The more knowing and considerate men
are
the more jealous they are of themselves.
Verse 13
[13] And
I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked
both riches
and honour:
so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.
All thy days —
Whereby he signifies that these gifts of God were not transient
as they were
in Saul
but such as should abide with him whilst he lived.
Verse 14
[14] And
if thou wilt walk in my ways
to keep my statutes and my commandments
as thy
father David did walk
then I will lengthen thy days.
And if —
This caution God gives him
lest his wisdom should make him proud
careless
or
presumptuous.
Verse 15
[15] And
Solomon awoke; and
behold
it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem
and stood
before the ark of the covenant of the LORD
and offered up burnt offerings
and
offered peace offerings
and made a feast to all his servants.
A dream —
Not a vain dream
wherewith men are commonly deluded; but a divine dream
assuring him of the thing: which he knew
by a divine impression after he was
awakened: and by the vast alteration which he presently found within himself in
point of wisdom and knowledge.
The ark —
Which was there in the city of David
2 Samuel 6:17
before which he presented himself
in a way of holy adoration.
Burnt offerings —
Chiefly for the expiation of his and his peoples sin
through the blood of
Christ
manifestly signified in these sacrifices.
Peace offerings —
Solemnly to praise God for all his mercies
and especially for giving him quiet
possession of the kingdom
and for his glorious appearance to him in the dream
and for the promise therein made to him
and the actual accomplishment of it.
Verse 16
[16] Then
came there two women
that were harlots
unto the king
and stood before him.
Harlots —
Or
victuallers: for the Hebrew words signifies both. Yet that they are
unmarried persons
seems probable
both because there is no mention of any
husbands
whose office it was
if there were any such
to contest for their
wives; and because they lived a solitary life in one house.
Verse 19
[19] And
this woman's child died in the night; because she overlaid it.
Overlaid it —
And so smothered it: which she justly conjectures
because there were evidences
of that kind of death
but no appearance of any other cause thereof.
Verse 25
[25] And
the king said
Divide the living child in two
and give half to the one
and
half to the other.
Said —
Though with a design far above the reach of the two women
or of the people
present
who probably with horror expected the execution of it.
Verse 27
[27] Then
the king answered and said
Give her the living child
and in no wise slay it:
she is the mother thereof.
She is the mother — As
is evident from her natural affection to the child
which she had rather have
given away from her
than destroyed.
Verse 28
[28] And
all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the
king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him
to do judgment.
Wisdom of God —
Divine wisdom with which God had inspired him for the government of his people.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 1 Kings》
03 Chapter 3
Verses 1-28
Verse 3
Solomon loved the Lord.
Love begets love
It is a process of induction. Put a piece of iron in the presence
of an electrified body
and that piece of iron for a time becomes electrified.
It is changed into a temporary magnet in the mere presence of a permanent
magnet
and as long as you leave the two side by side they are both magnets
alike. Remain side by side with Christ who loved us
and you
too
will become
a permanent
attractive force. This is the inevitable effect of love. (H.
Drummond.)
Love must be paid in kind
“As water is cast into a pump
when the springs lie low
to bring
up more water
so God sheddeth abroad His love into our hearts
that our love
may rise up to Him again by way of gratitude and recompense.” How idle is it
then
to hope to chide ourselves into loving God! The price of love is love;
the origin of it is not found in law or in a sense of duty
but in love
or a
return of gratitude. When the sun of eternal love melts the glaciers of the
soul
then the rivers of affection flow; but if the rocks of ice could all be
broken to shivers with hammers
not a drop of affection would stream forth.
Only a sense of Divine love will ever create love to God in the heart. (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
Verses 5-15
The Lord appeared again to Solomon in a dream.
Dreams indicate character
Tell me your dreams
and I will read the riddle of your life. Tell
me your prayers
and I will write the history of a soul. Tell me your askings
and I will tell you your gettings. Tell me what you seek
and I will tell you
what you are. I do not wish to know your possessions--only your wants. I do not
care to know what you have--only what you have not
and desire to have; not
your attainments
but what you have not yet attained and follow after. That
Which comes to you in your victories by day and your dreams by night
the ideal
you set before
you
the things which you approve as excellent
what you seek after and have
given your heart to
these are the measure of the man. In a truer sense than
Shakespeare meant
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on.” They have no
price in the market
but they
and they alone
give worth and dignity to
life. (Hugh Black
M. A.)
The duty
nature
and blessings of prayer
I. The duty of
prayer. It is a fundamental law of our nature
on the mere supposition that
there is a God in heaven
to ask His help. It is the plain
practical
demonstration of our manifold obligations to God
of our own impotence
misery
and dependence; of Him as the source of all our hopes
and the one open
all-sufficient fountain of every blessing of peace and purity and power.
II. The nature of
prayer.
1. It must be the utterance and the feeling of earnestness and fervour
under the
sense of helplessness
misery
and sin
under the persuasion that if God help
us not
there is no store whence shall man help us.
2. True supplication
to which God hath linked a blessing
is
patient
abiding
persevering.
3. Confidence in God is an essential element in gracious and
acceptable prayer. It does no honour to Him to adopt us into His family
that
we should be unwilling on the one hand
or afraid on the other
to lay our
wants
our wishes
nay our sins
freely before Him. As we have a new and living
way into the Holiest
by the blood of Jesus
we may be sure that our entrance
thither must be acceptable unto God.
III. The blessings
of prayer. Answers shall be returned. When God said to Solomon
“Ask what I
shall give thee
” He never meant to mock the youthful monarch.s petition. The
words of Truth Eternal are fully and for ever pledged. “Ask
and ye shall have;
seek
and ye shall find; knock
and it shall be opened unto you.” Prayer
truly
fervently
and faithfully made
is like the bow of Jonathan
it never
returns empty. (R. P. Buddicom
M. A.)
Lonely communion in view of great duty
In Mrs. Crawford’s recent story of the late Queen
Victoria’s life
she tells the following incident: After the stately and
imposing Coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey
Her Majesty returned to her
mother the Duchess of Kent. When they were quite alone she said
“I suppose
mamma
it must be true that I am Queen of England?” “Yes
love
you see that
you are.” “Well
then
I have a request to make. I want to be alone and
undisturbed for one hour.” She was left alone. How she spent that hour has
never transpired. But surely we can guess. The young Queen was surely holding
fellowship with the King of Kings
seeking His help for her overwhelming
responsibilities. Before our Lord chose His twelve apostles “He went into a
mountain to pray
and continued all night in prayer to God.” How much more need
have we to bring all our plans and purposes to Him? (H. O. Mackey.)
A Prince at prayer
Gustavus Adolphus
King of Sweden
when in his camp before Werben
had been alone
at one time
in the cabinet of his pavilion some hours
together
and none of his attendants at these seasons durst interrupt him. At
length
however
a favourite of his having some important matter to tell him
came softly to the door
and
looking in
beheld the king very devoutly on his
knees at prayer. Fearing to molest him in that exercise
he was about to
withdraw his head
when the king espied him
and
bidding him come in
said
“Thou wondetest to see me in this posture
since I have so many thousands of
subjects to pray for me; but I tell thee that no man has more need to pray for
himself than he who
having to render an account of his actions to none but
God
is
for that reason
more closely assaulted by the devil than all other
men besides.”
Effectual prayer
The passage before us is the record of a dream which this great
man had one night at Gibeon
a place celebrated in the Old Testament but not
mentioned in the New
and whose geographical position cannot be determined with
any certainty now. There are two things very noteworthy in this dream.
1. The blending of the human and Divine. There is much that you can
trace to Solomon’s own mind in the nocturnal vision recorded here.
2. The suggested conditions of successful prayer. The prayer of his
dream was answered in his actual history.
I. That effective
prayer must be Divinely authorised. At the beginning of the dream Solomon
received an authority to pray. “And God said
Ask what I shall give thee.” Such
an authority is evidently a necessary condition Unless the Eternal gave us a
warrant to address Him
our appeals would be impious and fruitless. Have we
the men of this age
a Divine authority for praying? H not
our appeals to
Heaven are worse than idle breath. “Ask what I shall give thee.”
1. This authority to call upon God in prayer agrees with our
religious instincts. Prayer in some form or other is the natural cry of the
soul Tile child in distress does not more naturally look to his fond parent for
help
than the human soul in sore trouble and danger looks to the heavens for
aid. Even men who in theory deny the existence of a God
urged by this instinct
will cry to Him in danger.
2. This authority to call upon God in prayer is encouraging to our
hope as sinners.
II. That effective
prayer must be earnestly spiritual. By this we mean that spiritual interest
must reign supreme
that spiritual motives must be predominant. It was so now
with Solomon in his prayer.
III. That effective
prayer must be thoroughly unselfish. What he prayed for was “an understanding
heart”; and he prayed for that
not that it might serve his own interest
but
in order
as he says
“to judge Thy people
that I may discern between good and
bad.” (Homilist.)
The first thing to do
When into any Old Testament incident there can be pressed the
whole significance of a New Testament precept
the study of both becomes a
still more eager pursuit. Thus we know that God is the same in character
and
the Gospel m the same in purpose
through all the ages.
I. Every
revelation of Divine Grace is definitely conditioned upon prayer as the
instrument of its attainment. Evidently God is purposing to do him a great
favour; but all that the voice says is that he is to “ask” before anything is
to be granted. God says “ask
” and Jesus says “seek.” Only we ought to remember
that we in an age of blessedness and light
we in these latter times of clearer
revelation
have one supreme advantage over those who sought their help under
the teaching of that former dispensation; this is no longer a dream-voice that
we hear from heaven
but the intelligible living message from the lips of God’s
Son.
II. Reminiscences
of previous help are an excellent advantage in preparation for present
petition. When we find so young a king referring to former histories in the
household and the realm
it becomes clear that he kept his eyes open and his
mind thoughtful while the story of Absalom and Mephibosheth in the old times
was working itself out.
III. The
consciousness of real need in carrying out the Lord.s purposes is a forcible
argument for importunity in supplication.
IV. A weighty
responsibility in duties constitutes a motive for asking God to interpose with
his benediction of help. A burden of care is His reason for seeking audience
with his King.
V. The first thing
to be asked for in God’s grace is a new and “understanding heart.” The idea
here is a heart of discrimination
a power to discern conscientiously between
right and wrong
and to pronounce unerringly for the right.
VI. He will quickly
succeed in life who has the testimony that he pleases God. From these words any
one could predict the future of this young king; for the Lord announced Himself
his friend.
VII. We may learn
once more
that a new heart
wise and understanding
is a better benediction
than any other which human wishes could desire.
VIII. With this chief
blessing of a new heart sought and gained
God grants everything else that is
needed. Solomon took occasion a long time afterwards to put this thought in
among his Proverbs.
IX. With present
answers to prayer always come assurances of continued love and grace to the
faithful for the future. The great Augustine was right when once he exclaimed
“ We must hold our empty vessel to the mouth of so large a fountain.” And
indeed
if God.s covenant engagements have so fine an indorsement that they will
circulate as petitions
it would be well to use them literally and often. It
was the lamented Humphrey who was said to have had the power of weaving
together the Scripture promises so appropriately into his prayers that his
exercises of devotion seemed like cloth of gold. (C. S. Robinson
D. D.)
True aims and false aims
The men whose names the world will not willingly let die are those
who find in others good their chiefest
greatest joy. The names of
self-gratifiers
self-seekers die out. They lay hold for a time of the memories
of men
but never of what is firmer
their respect. Selfishness never has
imbibed life from the principle of immortality. The men who come up to the
height of a great choice “Give me these that I may judge Thy people
that I may
civilise
that I may educate
that I may evangelise
that I may bless my
generation”--their names become the echo
ever sounding throughout the ages of
the sacrifice they once chose to make for others.
I. God does come
to every one saying
“choose what I shall give thee.” Goethe said that he
admired the man who knew precisely what he aimed at in life. God wishes you at
the commencement of your career to come up to the height of a great choice. You
have all read Carlyle’s description of the Sphinx sitting by the wayside
propounding her riddles to every one that passed; and if the passer-by answered
correctly it was well for him
but if he did not answer the riddle he was
destroyed on the spot. I have watched young men and others
and I say that life
comes to every man in this world with its riddle
and if he answers it aright
it is well with him
but if he tries to go on neglecting the commandments of
the Giver of life; if he tries to go on living in his own way
and not in God’s
way
life to him will be a thing of loss
and he will become an object to be
wept over. “There is no peace
saith my God
to the wicked.” One of the latest
discoveries I have read of is a spy-glass by means of which a man can see the
sunken ships in all quiet seas. Oh that I could put a glass in the hand of
every young man that would enable him to see the wrecks of the last twelve
months in this great population! It would wring a prayer from your heart this
minute--the very prayer of young Solomon
“Give me therefore an understanding
heart
that I may discern between good and bad.” It must begin with the heart.
“The pure in heart alone can see God”; and if you cannot see God in the world
you cannot see anything else in its true proportions. There are only two kinds
of companions
and if you play and dally with the wicked companions woe be to
you. One rotten apple affects the whole store
one putrid grape will spoil the
sound cluster
one sinner destroyeth much good. Why should you read a bad book?
You will be sorry for it
perhaps
in twenty years
as Angell James was. If you
read a corrupt book
a bad book
you will hang up a picture in your mind that
you can never turn to the wall
that you can never pull down. And why should
you do it
with all the noble literature that is about you? It was a splendid
motto for you
that saying of John Foster
“This soul of mine shall rule this
body of mine
or else quit it; I will not be here a tenant unless I am a
master.” We are placed here naked as the giant of fable to wrestle with the
rude elements of the world
to conquer in the midst of its varied probation;
but remember this
no devil nor devil’s child can ever cast you down without
your own consent.
II. If any one
comes up to this choice
or chooses a right aim in life
it will be said of
him
as it was here said of young Solomon
“and the speech pleased the Lord
that Solomon had asked this thing.” It was this thing in contrast to three
other things that he had rejected. He rejected the false
and the false are
here enumerated: “Because thou hast asked this thing
and hast not asked for
thyself long life.” Then is that a wrong desire? Well
it is a nobler thing to
act well your part than to be constantly thinking of living a long life.
Religion is unquestionably favourable to length of days
but it is a very low
aim of life to be constantly nursing yourself
and to be thinking of yourself.
Life is not measured by length of days. Old Methuselah lived to 900 years
and
never said a word worth putting down in the Bible. He lived for nine centuries
and never did a
single act worth reporting. He vegetated like a tree that was not living. Then
it pleased the Lord
“Because thou didst neither ask riches for thyself.” Then
is it wrong for us to desire riches? As the great absorbing passion in life it
is wrong. It pleased the Lord
“Neither hast thou asked the life of thine
enemies.” They say that it is the sweetest thing in life to have revenge upon
an enemy. Another has said
“Revenge is mine
saith the Lord.” And I thank
heaven for that
or else public men would not live twelve months. Christianity
is the only religion that teaches all men to give over their vengeance to the
Lord. It is said that Leclair
the great critic
was one day going along the
streets of Paris
and he trod on the foot of a young man; the young man at once
raised his hand and struck him a blow in the face. Leclair turned round
quietly
and said
“Sir
you will be sorry that you have done that
when you
know that I am blind.” He could have cut off his hand.
II. The reasons are
here assigned why it pleased the Lord that Solomon rejected the false and chose
the true aim in life.
1. Because he chose what enabled him to be serviceable to others. Our
great poet has told us that Heaven does with us as we do with torches
not
light them for themselves. We are lit in order to be the light of the world
and it can be said of every other life that “the game is not worth the candle.”
2. Again
it pleased the Lord because he chose to walk in the
statutes of a good father
and so to encourage him in his last days in his
faith in God’s covenant.
3. It pleased the Lord because he chose God Himself as his portion
rather than all His gifts. “And Solomon loved the Lord.” Young men
trust the
Lord
there is honour in the Lord. He will give you more than you ask
abundantly more. (H. Evans.)
Solomon’s choice
The Gospel means
not that these old visions have vanished away
but that all that was true and substantial in them has simply been
as in a
painting
made to stand out in
greater vividness and nearness. The Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel stands
before us
and says
literally
“Ask what I shall give thee.” The thing to
notice is
that Solomon showed that
humanly speaking
he was worthy of this
chance
by the way in which he did not jump forward and eagerly ask for some
temporal thing. Solomon showed his wisdom
his preparation for the great
largess of bounty in which God came to him
in the way in which he did not use
his imperative of asking upon God’s imperative of offer. He seems to take a
round-about road. He started off and said
“Thou hast showed unto Thy servant
David
my father
great mercy
according as he walked before Thee in truth and
in righteousness
and in uprightness of heart with Thee.” Strange--is it
not?--that when God comes to him with this great offer
the first thing that
springs before his mind is the image and memory
the life and character
of his
father. Now
I want you to reflect before you make up your minds--to do what
Solomon did. It was human and heavenly wisdom combined that made him look back
and see what his father did. Solomon does not indulge in great praise nor in
great depreciation. David was a man that you could have overpraised. You could
have talked of David as if there was never such a man. And if you were the
other kind of temperament
you could have found other things in David that
would lead you to run him down. Now
Solomon did neither the one nor the other.
Now
we are not asked to do more than Solomon did. I neither ask you to praise
your father or mother up to the skies
nor to run them down; but if you look at
them fairly you can strike this average
and say what Solomon said. When I look
to those who stand immediately behind me
and have been living longer than I
have
I can see what Solomon saw in his father
that religion was either the
best or the worst thing about them. The best thing about your father was his
religion
or it was the worst. If he was a true and real follower of the Lord
Jesus Christ
that was the best. You are not asked to say he was perfect
but
to know and rate him according to that. It may be he was only a hedger or
ditcher; he may not have been a great man at all. But what was he before God?
Solomon had this great advantage
that when he looked back on his father
the
light that shined from his father’s record would guide him to a right decision.
If it is not so
the very dimness and darkness that comes from ungodly parents
should be a beacon light to put you right where they went wrong. Do not despise
your father; do not despise your mother. They know what life means
and you
have all that to learn yet. Solomon said
“I can see the best thing about my
father was this
he rose and prospered in so far as he walked in truth and
sincerity before God
and I will try to do like him there. It was religion that
made him the man he was.” Do not despise the religion your father had
the
religion that your mother had. Depend upon it
it was the very best legacy they
left you. Solomon continues: “Thou hast made me king
” etc. There he looked
into himself
and he passed an opinion upon himself and his powers and
attainments
which is so uncommon among young people. This is where the
greatness of Solomon comes out. Would God he had always remained at this point.
Now
what is wrong with some of you up to this hour is the want of that
humility. Be not highminded. Then Solomon looked round about him: he prospected
a bit. Out in America and Canada
that great country where fortunes are made
so they say
and lost whether they say it or not
men go into certain regions
prospecting. They are wanting to open a mine
and they see what a certain
region is like. They tap here and there to see if they are going to make a
fortune out of its rocks. So Solomon was prospecting the future. He felt life
here and there
and touched its current
and he passed this verdict upon it: “I am in the
midst of Thy people
which Thou hast chosen; a great people.” And I think he
meant
“Life as far as I can prospect it is going to mean for me hard work and
plenty of it.” Am I saying that you have mean ability? No
but with the best
ability you will not necessarily get on. Young girl
you are sweet and fair
to-day; you will grow up
marry
fall into ill-health; you will have children
maybe
and that will bring you more trouble
and by the time you are forty-five
or fifty years of age you will be bent and weary to get away. Life
for a great
many of us
means that. One by one the gorgeous dreams of south disappear; the
rosy hopes go out into blackness; the bright expectations illumine the horizon
and then fade into the light of common day; and even if you were kings upon a
throne
life would mean what I have said already. Now
will you settle yourself
for the work? Life means business
toil
trouble
sweat of body and brain.
Brace yourself for it; gird yourself for it. Be sure that is what is coming.
Then
after looking back to his father and summing him up
and summing himself
up
and saying
There is nothing in me; and
after summing up life and saying
it means duty
it means hard work
and plenty of it
then he looked up. You see
the process--backward
inward
outward
upward. He said
“Give me a wise and an
understanding heart; build me up just where I am broken down; put the plaister
on the weak place; put in Thine own great almighty arm just where I need
nothing less than almightiness to under gird me.” “And the speech pleased the
Lord
that Solomon had asked this thing.” That is just another way of asking to
be converted. The Old Testament phraseology and the New Testament phraseology run
into one. It is just the same as saying
“O God
save me from my foolishness
and wrong opinions
direct my unwary feet. O God
be Thou my sufficiency
my
help.” Will you choose God to-day? (J. MacNeill.)
The wisdom of Solomon
I. The honour of
this precocious wisdom is perhaps due more to David than to Solomon himself.
His understanding
his feelings
his desires are what they are; in one word
he
is what he is only because he has the inestimable privilege of succeeding much
a father as King David. His dominant thought
from which spontaneously springs
his prayer
is that of the immensity of his task and his incapacity to perform
it. He feels his profound need of God’s help. He learns to rely upon it. He has
recourse to it with confidence. What a help to find in the memory of a father
as a second conscience accompanying us through life! Like the Polish King
Boleslaus
who carried about with him the portrait of his father
and for whom
it was enough
in
cases of difficulty or peril
to cast a glance upon the revered image and say
“Boleslaus
thy father sees thee!” to recover his wisdom and courage about to
forsake him.
II. A proper
distrust of himself
very rare at his age and in his circumstances (verses
7-9). It was no trifling matter to be called upon to govern so important and
unmanageable a nation as Israel. Generally speaking
men see the pleasures and
privileges of power before they are made aware of its duties. An exalted
position is always an object of envy and ambition. But at the age when one casts
on life that long look of confidence and hope
which smooths down beforehand
all its difficulties
and takes in only its bright and sunny aspects; at the
age when one believes and hopes all things
how many others would have become
intoxicated with pride and self-confidence!
III. His wise
appreciation of earthly blessings. To this offer of the Almighty
“Ask what I
shall give thee
” who would not expect to hear a young man
scarcely yet seated
on the throne
reply by demanding what men most desire on earth--a long and
happy life
unlimited and undisputed power
a glorious reign
and unbounded
wealth? Not so
however; Solomon begins life by wisely putting all these things
in their proper place. There before us success
wealth
the open fountain of
all earthly felicities
a choice to make from among the prizes which the world
temptingly offers its elect. Who
having communed with himself
would say
“Lord
give me the wisdom and grace I need to accomplish faithfully Thy work
here below! That is the limit of my desires; I would it were also the limit of
Thy gifts”? I fancy I hear
bursting forth from the silence of your hearts some
such prayers as these: “Lord
raise me above my fellow-men; give me
in the
profession I have chosen
such facilities as will secure for me undisputed
success; make me rise promptly to that fame which appears to me from afar as
the sweetest of all enjoyments.” That is a young man’s prayer
no doubt. “Lord
give me all the outward advantages of beauty
grace
wit
all that gratifies vanity.”
That is
the prayer of a woman who perhaps does not think herself
worldly-minded. “Lord
be pleased to increase by successful undertakings the
patrimony I have received of my ancestors; assure me an exalted and wealthy
station; grant that I may provide for my children such positions as will enable
them to move in the highest circles of society.” That is perhaps the inward
request of a man of deep convictions
and well known in the field of Christian
activity. I dare not proceed! God is wise not to lead us into temptation by
permitting us
as he did Solomon
to pray for the satisfaction of our earthly
desires. (Homiletic Quarterly.)
The highest order of wisdom
Solomonic books have some incomparably splendid passages on
wisdom; and if Solomon had fallen
and repented
and risen again
and begun
again
till he ended in living up to his own sermons on wisdom
what a glory
both in sacred letters and in a holy life
Solomon’s name would have been. “Wisdom
” says
Sir Henry Taylor
one of the wisest writers in the English language
“is not
the same with understanding
talents
capacity
ability
sagacity
sense
or
prudence--not the same with any one of these; neither will all these taken
together make it up. Wisdom is that exercise of the reason into which the heart
enters--a structure of the understanding rising out of the moral and spiritual
nature. It is for this cause that a high order of wisdom
that is
a highly
intellectual wisdom
is still more rare than a high order of genius. When they
reach the very highest order they are one; for each includes the other
and
intellectual greatness is matched with moral strength.” And then this fine
essayist goes on to point out how Solomon’s great intellectual gifts
coupled
as they were in him with such an appetite for enjoyment
together became his
shipwreck. And Bishop Butler
though he does not
like Sir Henry Taylor
name
Solomon
surely had him in his eye when he penned that memorable and alarming
passage about those men who go over the theory of wisdom and virtue in their
thoughts
talk well
and paint fine pictures of it
till their minds are
hardened in a contrary course
and till they become more and more insensible to
all moral considerations. (Alex. Whyte
D. D.)
On the youth of Solomon
It is not from the peculiar situation of Solomon that the beauty
of this memorable instance of devotion arises.
1. The charm of it chiefly consists in its suitableness to the season
of youth; in its correspondence to the character and dispositions which
distinguish that important age; and which no length of acquaintance with the
world prevents us from wishing to find in the young.
2. The piety which is formed in youth has a different character
and
leads to very different effects. It comes not
then
to terrify or to alarm
but
to afford every high and pleasing prospect in which the heart can indulge
--to
withdraw the veil which covers the splendours of the eternal mind
--to open
that futurity which awakens all their desires to behold
and
in the sublime
occupations of which they feel already
as by some secret inspiration
the home
and destiny of their souls. At such a period
religion is not a service of
necessity
but of joy.
Wisdom
To look through the shows of things
into things themselves. (Carlyle.)
Solomon’s choice
I. Every new
opportunity demands a peculiar choice. “Good” and “bad” are not
changeable terms
yet in every new personal or public responsibility the sacred
words seem to be spoken
“Ask what I shall give thee.” As king
Solomon must
make a new choice
differing from any he had hitherto made. In civil life this
law everywhere obtains. The responsibilities of the judiciary differ widely
from those of the executive
and these in turn from the legislative. The same
question comes to each; but each case must call forth a peculiar answer. So
likewise
consider the different factors of society. No two persons can make
the same reply. Each day’s duties differ from all that have preceded
hence
every day we must give answer to Him who speaks. The importance of our choice
is emphasised by our power for good or evil.
II. Every choice
involves character. We are known by what we choose. A defective choice means a
defective character. The choice of Solomon was good as far as it went; but it
had relation merely to his kingly work
and only incidentally to himself. In
some respects Israel’s wisest king was the saddest of all scriptural
characters. Notwithstanding his visions from God
his history is largely
secular. At the beginning of the Homeric age in Greece
this greater than Homer
made Palestine the centre of art and the treasury of wisdom. The mines of the
known earth were delved for their riches to adorn the Temple
to whose beauty
every forest contributed. He symbolised in these visible splendours the
invisible God
only at last to become a worshipper of idols. The incense that
floated in the clouds from the Temple in Jerusalem was mingled over Olivet with
that from the altars of Phenicia and Moab
and above all with that of
Moloch--the altar of human sacrifices--and all under his reign. His dream
depicts him as praying for right dealings towards and among the people; and yet
his later years inflicted an unbearable tyranny on that same people.
III. The highest
choice is wisdom. His choice marked a new epoch. Before his time all kingly
power was marked by standing armies
by riches and pomp. Each ruler was thought
to need a long life to ensure the success of his plans; but here was a strange
request. Under his reign was demonstrated for the first time the power of the
brain in the conquests of nations and men. His was the golden age of Jewish
literature
himself the founder. If intellectual power could save an empire
the trial was being made
but worms were eating at the roots. All nations owned
his intellectual greatness--wiser than their wisest men. Phenicia
proud mother
of letters
was dumb in his presence. Tyre spread her purple over his throne.
India minted him her gold. We speak of our Linnaeus; but Solomon
the first
great botanist
“spake of trees
from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon to the
moss that springs out of the wall.” We boast of our Cuvier; yet Israel’s wise
king
the first great naturalist
spake “of beasts
and of fowl
and of
creeping things
and of fishes.” Upon his wise words Aristotle based all that was
best of Grecian philosophy. The Wordsworth of Jewish poets
he laid all nature
at our feet. Wisdom
however
means more than knowledge. Many a learned man is
not wise. Knowledge is the apprehension of facts or relations; wisdom denotes
“the use of the best means for attaining the best ends.” Wisdom is never shown
in choosing what is always to remain exterior to self.
IV. The highest
wisdom is evidenced in most common thugs. The wisest men use the simplest
speech. The smallest children speak largest words. Simplicity of construction
is the secret of the best invention. God’s mightiest forces are uncomplicated.
The rattling shuttles of a mill are a wonder; but more wonderful still that
noiseless
shuttleless weaving of the lily
whose fashioning none of us has
ever seen. There is no book so full of thoughts for practical everyday life as
the Book of Proverbs
yet that very simplicity is Divine.
V. Unsought
blessings are given the truly wise. (Monday Club Sermons.)
Solomon’s choice
I. God regards
with special favour
those who honour Him. It is idle to speculate as to whether Solomon would not
have received the same blessings if he had not sacrificed and prayed. The fact
was
that sacrifice and prayer were the immediate antecedents of the blessings
and are represented as having direct relation to them. Such a fact is
sufficient answer to all philosophical objections to prayer
and an emphatic
rebuke to those who say it is nonsense to insist that God has any pleasure in
our worship and formal expressions of homage.
II. With proper
regard to God’s will we may pray for special blessings. It was not presumption
for Solomon to take God at His word. It would have been unpardonable unbelief
had he replied to His offer of good that he could not presume to make mention of
what was uppermost in his heart. God never trifles. His offers are never to be
regarded as only general evidence of a willingness to do us good
but as real
invitations that we make known our requests. There is proof enough that our
Father is pleased to gratify the wishes of His children
and it is no pleasure
to Him that they pray only in vague and indefinite generalities. The very idea
of the relationship forbids such prayer; the idea of prayer itself is opposed
to such expressions of desire.
III. We may make the
experience of others a plea for good to be granted to ourselves. Solomon made
mention of David’s life and reign as having been pleasing to God
and of God’s
great mercy to him
and urged this as proof that a purpose to be upright may
become a ground of hope since He who does not change will grant favour always when the
required conditions are fulfilled. The faithfulness of God is the real stimulus
to prayer.
IV. Blessings
incomplete in their nature may be pressed as an argument in prayer for their
completion. In David’s dying charge to his son he reminded him of God’s
declaration to himself: “If thy children take heed
” etc. Solomon made this
declaration the basis of his plea with God in this interview. A large part of
Christian work is in progress
the execution of plans which require time and
persistent toil. We need not fear lest God will weary of co-operation in such
work.
V. Consciousness
and even confession of inability to perform duty may become a further warrant
for help from God when the duty is clearly assigned by Him. The same conviction
oppresses many a Christian whom God has called to do work in the different
departments of His service. This should not cause him to faint or despair or
retire
but should rouse him to greater confidence in prayer while he resolves
to stand in the place assigned him.
VI. God does not
content Himself with granting simply what we ask when we have the spirit He
approves. His answer to Solomon’s prayer was: “Behold
I have done according to
thy words.”
VII. Thanksgiving
for answer to prayer should be prominent and in the most positive form of
expression. (J. Eells
D. D.)
The story of a right choice
Significant the familiar lines of Lowell--
Once
to every man and nation
comes the moment to decide
In
the strife of Truth with Falsehood for the good or evil side;
Some
great cause
God.s new Messiah
offering each the bloom or blight
Parts
the goats upon the left hand and the sheep upon the right
And
the choice goes by for ever.twixt that darkness and that light.
And not once only
but many times does such choice come. For to
live is to choose. Life is but a series of choices. Though just as the current
of the river
notwithstanding refluent ripples
carries with it in one main
direction the multitudinous drops of water which go to make the river
so in
life one main and dominating choice gives impulse and direction to the ten
thousand lesser choices with which the days are filled. I am appalled at this
power of choice. I do not think any one in the least thoughtful can help being.
I was looking through the glass sides of a beehive. All was orderly and
unclashing; none of the pain and disturbance of errant and rebellious wills;
each bee doing just as each bee should
just the thing each was designed to do.
And I asked myself
Why did not God make men thus? Why did God put men among
the crowding dangers of the retributive results of their bad choices? There are
only two answers to such questions: God has not made men thus; if God had made
men thus men would not be men. No; real and shadowing is the fact of choice.
Our Scripture tells the story of a right choice.
I. What such right
choice involves.
1. Purpose of inward worth. Solomon prayed that he might have an
“understanding heart.” He wanted the real gold
not tinsel. That is a great and
constant trouble
that men are so willing to seem to be rather than to be. Here
is the precise reason for the defalcations which too often and so sadly startle
the community.
2. Such true choice involves recognition of duty. Duty is the child
of relation; is that which is due because of the relations in which one is set
Godward
manward. The true choice involves recognition of the duties springing
out of the relations in which one is bound.
3. Such true choice involves determination to practise along the line
of duty; “that I may judge this people.” As long as Solomon did this
how great
and wise! But when he practised otherwise
how sad his fall l
4. Such true choice involves dependence on God. “Give
therefore
Thy
servant an understanding heart.” Solomon felt himself insufficient. He must
have and hang on God.
II. In what such
right choice results.
1. In pleasing God (verse 10).
2. In Divine ratification (verse 12).
3. In external prosperity (verse 13).
4. In internal prosperity. Solomon
conscious of pleasing God
must
have had peace and joy. (W. Hoyt.)
Solomon’s choice
1. The address which God made to Solomon
when He said
“Ask what I
shall give thee
” He does in effect make to each of us
especially to the
young. By erecting a throne of grace in heaven
opening the way to it
inviting
us to come to Him with our requests
and promising to grant our petitions when
they are agreeable to His will
He does in effect say to each of us
“Ask what
I shall give thee.”
2. Though we are not
like Solomon
kings; and therefore need not
as
he did
qualifications requisite for that office; yet we all need spiritual
wisdom and understanding
and may therefore all imitate his example in making
our choice. Every parent
also
has reason to adopt the prayer of Solomon.
Professors of religion have reason to imitate the example of Solomon.
3. That God is pleased with those who make the choice and sincerely
offer up the prayer of Solomon.
4. All who make his choice
and adopt his prayer
shall certainly be
favoured with a wise and understanding heart. That God will gratify the desires
of those who thus pray for wisdom
is evident from His express promises. If any
of you lack wisdom
let him ask of God
that giveth liberally to all men and
upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (E. Payson
D. D.)
A wise choice
There are around the city of Chester high walls
on the top of
which runs a much-frequented path which is reached by a flight of steps. It is
said by the people of the place that whatever you wish for when standing on
these stairs you will get it in a year’s time
and so they are called the
“wishing stairs.” What would each of us now wish for if we were on these steps?
“What is it exactly that I most desire?” we are often at a loss to know. It was
not so with Solomon. He did not find it difficult to answer when asked what he most
wanted.
1. Solomon prayed for an understanding heart
to discern good from
evil
because he felt the responsibility of his position. He knew that without
God’s guiding Spirit he could not rule so great a people. If we do not feel the
same need of an understanding heart
may it not be because we refuse to look our
responsibilities in the face? If for nothing else
we are all responsible to
God for the management of the life He has given us. Then there are always other
lives that depend upon us
more or lees. Poor Margaret Fuller
recording in her
diary the birth of her child
expressed a feeling of responsibility with which
many parents can sympathise: “I am the mother of an immortal being? God be
merciful to me a sinner!” But what exactly is this understanding heart for
which Solomon prayed? It is that wonderful thing which is so much spoken of in
the Bible under the name of Wisdom. It is goodness or the fear of the Lord
the
opposite of godless wickedness
which is “folly.”
2. Again
those who ask for and receive God’s Holy Spirit get also
the highest kind of riches. They are content
and he who is most contented is
the richest of men. Perhaps it may be said that nearly all people do desire an
understanding heart
and that they need not be urged to make the choice. Yes
they desire it; but they cannot be said to choose it. They desire to be
educated; but there are myriads of desires that never ripen into a choice
as
there are a million blossoms and comparatively few apples. When those who
desired to be educated saw that a choice would involve self-denial and
drudgery
they preferred to put it off till to-morrow
or next week
or next
year
and to take the consequences. A young man desires to be rich; but as soon
as he finds that gaining wealth requires self-denial
painstaking
industry
and integrity
he does not choose riches. He chooses self-indulgence; he
chooses pleasures. Men desire to have an honourable character and the happiness
that comes from well-doing. They desire it; but whether they choose it or not
we can only tell when we sea how they act. In the same way many persons desire
to obey Christ
and hope that one day they shall do so. But do they choose to
have in them the mind of Christ or an understanding heart to discern between
good and evil? It is easy to desire
it is difficult to choose
and this is the
explanation of the religious sentiment which produces little or no result in
life. (E. J. Hardy
M. A.)
I have given thee a wise
and understanding heart.--
Acquisition of knowledge
I. That first
steps in knowledge and in holiness must be taken by ourselves. Solomon gave his
heart to seek and search out all things under heaven. When a choice of gifts
was afterwards placed in his power by God
he had acquired intelligence enough
by his previous industry to be enabled to choose aright
and to select wisdom.
Like the youth told of in American story
we must fix our eyes upward
and
scale the scarped rock slowly by cutting clefts for our hands and feet in its
steep side
each foothold that we cut helping us to reach onward to cut
another. To gain some knowledge helps us to acquire more; to learn to
distinguish between the jewel truth and all the worthless spangles of falsehood
enables us to discern that “pearl of great price” which sooner or later God
offers to every man.
II. That if we seek
the highest good
God will in His bounty give us
as our need may require
lesser blessings also. (Homilist.)
The heart as organ of insight
The emphasis of current thought lies on light rather than on heat.
A bright man is listed at a higher figure than a man with fervid impulses.
Brain counts for a good deal more to-day than heart does. It will win more
applause
and earn a larger salary. Emotion we are a little afraid of. We
caution people not to let their feelings run away with them. We want to know
that a conclusion has been reached in cold blood before we are disposed to
assent to it
or to submit our own judgment to it. Convictions formed heatedly
we are not supposed to publish till they have been reviewed and revised at a
low temperature. Exuberance is in bad odour. Appeals to the heart are not
thought to quite be in good taste. People are not disposed to surrender
themselves to any influence or impression that they cannot intellectually
construe. The current demand is for ideas. But the fact that our thinking is
keen and alert is no indication that we reach
or have any relish for
the
inward substance of the truth upon whose glittering surface our thoughts so
jauntily divert themselves. This holds of religious truths exactly as much as
of any other. If a preacher handles his matter with dexterity
and if in the
process his own mind is quickened into any degree of activity
this activity of
his will communicate itself to the machinery of his hearers minds
just as the
movement of one cog-wheel communicates revolution to the companion wheel that
it gears into. This movement of their intellectual gearing amuses them. They
enjoy the sensation of feeling it go. The point is
that intellectual activity
upon Christian themes is not Christianity
any more than working a flying
trapeze m a church is “godly exercise.” An ox can devour the painting
accidentally left upon the easel out in the pasture where he is grazing
but
that does not help to make the ox aesthetic. The creature has dealt with the
painting purely on the basis of his brutality; he has not chewed it with any
reference to the spirit of beauty which the canvas incarnates. So it is the
peculiar function of pure intellect to deal with the forms of truth
with the
shell in which the truth is encased
without any necessary regard being had to
the meat that is packed inside the shell; just as children can play with
diamonds
and yet if you take away the diamonds and give them cheap beads
or
even white beans
the probability is that they will go on with their play just
as satisfiedly
because it is the shape and the glisten of the thing and not
the quality of its interior substance that amuses them. That is the kind of
thing pure intellect is; not to be trusted to prick through the cuticle of
truth into its quick; brilliant as winter sunshine
but cold and
surface-grazing as the frosty splendour of January; which has scintillant agility
enough to whiten the hair without being competent to brush away the snow
eat
through the ice
bore into the ground
unlock the fountains of fertility
fire
the pulse of this ague-stricken old earth
warm it into springtime
and garnish
it with summer life and loveliness. It is worth a great deal to have blood
and
it is as essential to the intelligence as it is to the body. There has never
been a thing said
more fundamental to the appreciation of the matter we have
just now in hand
than what Solomon said three thousand years ago: “The issues
of life are out of the heart.” Passion is axial. Power begins in heat. In the
last analysis there is scarcely a terrestrial activity in either earth
sea
or
air
that does not owe itself to the great sphere of material passion that we
call the Sun. The throb of the sea
the currents of the air
the very coal on
the hearth
that converts winter into summer
and turns evening into daytime
is every whir of it old sunshine
cosmic fire
preserved and translated into instant
effect. God means something by all that. It is a Divine satire on
cold-bloodedness
and it is the way Heaven takes to rebuke the notion that
results in the intellectual
artistic
moral
and spiritual world can be
hammered out by cold calculation. All the best thoughts in the world
into
however solid and granitic a form they may eventually have become chilled and
compacted
are ingots moulded from metal once molten
mayhap a thousand
two
five thousand years ago. Man’s first language is music. Prose is poetry cooled
down. Geology tells us that the world began hot; so every thought that has had
a history began as a passion. You can manufacture in cold weather
but all
creating is done under a high temperature. What is true of thought is just as
true of art. Art is enthusiasm become shape. The grand cathedrals are old
petrified pulse-beats. The master paintings--and they are all religious--are
holy medieval passion flung on to canvas. Art is imitative now rather than
creative
because the thermometer is down. We can make waxwork with the mercury
at zero
but we cannot grow flowers there. Moses built the tabernacle
and he
patterned it from what he caught
up in the Mount. A man can be an acute
theologian without having any juice. It is clear
then
that we are not
criticising Christian truth; our censure is only upon intellectual dexterity
considered as a means of dealing with it. Intellectual dexterity cannot deal
with it. Intellectual dexterity does not know how to deal with it. Truth has a
heart
and only heart can find it. What we understand by dogma to-day is what
is left of some old holy vision
but with all the original heavenly light died
out of it. It is truth s body
but in which the warm currents of truth’s blood
no longer circulate. The theologian constructs his system of theology out of
truths that have ceased to beat
very much as the botanist constructs his
herbarium out of dead flowers. All the theology that is in the Church to-day is
in the Epistles
but it is not there as theology. So all the bone-dust that is
in our graveyards to-day was once in society
but it was not there as bone-dust
Intellect
is not vision. The sum of the whole matter is this: that In the sphere of truth
in the domain
of life
and in the higher ranges of religious discernment and of Christian
appreciation and aspiration
pure calculating intellect is being worked for a
great deal more than it is worth. It is heat that makes the world a live world
and not light. It is heart that composes the core of Christianity
and not head.
(C. H. Parkhurst
D. D.)
.
Verse 14
I will lengthen thy days.
Long life
I get a good deal of comfort out of that promise
“with long life
will I satisfy thee.” I don’t think that means a short life down here--seventy
years
eighty years
ninety years
or one hundred years. Do you think that any
man living would be satisfied if he could live to be one hundred years old
and
then have to die? Not by a good deal. Suppose Adam had lived until to-day
and
had to die tonight; would he be satisfied? Not a bit of it! Not if he had lived
a million years
and then had to die. You know we are all the time coming to
the end of things here--the end of the week
the end of the month
the end of
the year
the end of schooldays. It is the end
end
end all the time. But
thank God
He is going to satisfy us with long life; no end to it
an endless
life. Life is very sweet. It would be a pretty dark world if death were eternal
and when our loved ones die we were to be eternally separated from them. Thank
God
it is not so; we shall be reunited. It is just moving out of this house
into a better one; stepping up higher and living on and on for ever. (D. L.
Moody.)
Verses 16-28
Then came there two women.
The true mother
I. That sin
produces suffering. The two women who came for judgment to Solomon were
harlots; and the offsprings of their impurity were the means by which they were
afflicted. The sin of unchastity is one of the most grievous of offences
because it is the one whose results are the most debasing and the most
far-reaching. Of this sin
as of all others
it is eternally true
that the
wages of sin is death.
II. That in the
most degraded natures some noble trait remains. Some relic of a vanished Eden
lingers in the worst of us
although the slime of the serpent may be over it
still. These women
though sinners
loved their children. There is hope then
for the worst of offenders
inasmuch as in every human soul there are dormant
spiritual symphonies
which
when the dark night of sin is over
shall
at the
dawning of a brighter day
be wakened by the touch of sympathy
like Memnon’s
statue
into music and into life.
III. That where the
ignorant can see only cruelty and disorder
the wise and faithful can recognise
beneficence and order. The king
calling for a sword
ordered the living child
to be divided. A cruel decree
superficial thinkers would say; but it was only a test after
all
devised by true wisdom
in order the more readily to reveal the true
mother. When men are so hasty in impugning the action of the Deity
and in
imputing cruelty or unconcern to God at any period of public or private
calamity
it would be well for them to bethink them of their own ignorance. So
to us
who see but here in part through a glass darkly
the operations of God
in grace and in nature must present many difficulties and apparent anomalies.
IV. That not by
outward professions
but by the sentiments of the heart
must each of us be
judged. Both these women professed equally to love the living child; but it was
seen speedily in the hour of trial as to which of the two had real feelings of
maternal affection in her heart. It is what we are
and not what we have pretended
to be
that will avail us “in the hour of death and in the day of judgment.”
V. That often
when God gives to us a living talent
as a living child was given to each of
these women
we
lazily slumbering away our time
fail to be thankful for it
or to utilise it as we ought. By negligence on our own part
--as in the case of
the woman who overlaid her child
--or by the craftiness of other agencies
be
it those of world
flesh
or devil
taking advantage of our own supineness
--as
in the case of the woman whose child was stolen while she slept
--we lose our
gift from God
our living grace
and find
when we awake from our slumbers
only a dead image of a departed spiritual beauty
which no shedding of our
heart’s best blood can again quicken into life. (R. Young
M. A.)
The mother
Musicians strike a key or note which they call a “natural
”
sometimes. It was for this note that Solomon was listening--the note of nature.
The soldier’s naked sword gleamed close to the baby’s naked flesh
and
like a
tuning-fork
it struck its note before it struck its blow. Its note was
differently read by two different auditors. Two women’s hearts took up the key.
The one followed it with a murmur of contentment
willing that its work of
blood should be accomplished. The other caught it with a cry of horror
as if
it struck a discord in her soul. The sword was the baton of harmony to
jealousy
but of horror to motherhood and love. There was nothing unnatural to
the vixen heart in the decree to cut the babe in half. But the voice of
motherhood found vent in a shriek which preferred anything to that
and
accepted bereavement and injustice rather than that innocence be harmed.
1. And this is the first instinct on which the relationship reposes.
Instinct is a shorter and surer way to right conclusion than reason. It reaches
it by a passionate leap
rather than by a patient process. Inference
sequence
deduction
calculation
hypothesis; these are the cumbersome machinery of what
calls itself philosophy; and they almost always lead to a separate result in
each separate mind which uses them
when they lead to any result at all; so
that the only certain issue of their use is confusion worse confounded. With
instinct it is all postulate
and all that complicates the logic of love
or
encumbers the swift process of its flight
must be conceded
or it will be
taken for granted. With the love that springs out of any relationship this will
be more or less the rule; but with maternal love it is pre-eminently so.
2. If the mother-instinct pervaded all humanity
there would be no
intricate question created out of the vivisection stir
on which science
“falsely so called
” is condescending to dispute. It would be taken for granted
that it was base and brutal; and that higher reason
to whose platform instinct
often vaults by its own innate buoyancy
would declare that true science has
resources too vast to be compelled to criminality to reach discovery; that the
intelligence that would grope its way through cruelty to daylight misses its
path
and takes a false name; and that men who pretend to find instruction in
the infliction of agony on what is dumb and defenceless
instead of being a
little lower than the angels
are a great deal lower than the beasts they
butcher. But if the very principle of motherhood is instinctive and
unreasoning
its developments are not unfrequently capricious and unreasonable.
Maternal love is often diluted by maternal cares. Necessities increase with
each renewal of the relationship; but the means of meeting them too often
diminish. The natural selection of the mother’s heart is towards the weakest
and most helpless; and the survival of the fittest in the breast which is
maternal
is asserted by feebleness rather than by strength. The mother loves
that best to which she can give most.
3. It comes within the mother’s province to lead the child into the
fragrant orbit of religious influence
and to guide its feet when young amidst
those scenes which shall colour its whole life
giving ballast to its youth
strength to its prime
and light at eventide to illumine its old age. Then if
you would not burlesque that religion and repel the child
gild it with the
sunshine with which its Author fills it. Let it be a garden of flowers
not an
Egyptian brickfield of toil. The patience and the ingenuity of motherhood are
boundless
and in no sweeter mission can they be embarked than in leading the
children to the Saviour. Show them His sweet example. The wisest and the truest
mothers axe the Hannahs who give their children to the Lord. (A. Mursell.)
Evil of divisions
Now
by the same law that it would have been wicked in Solomon to
have divided the child
is it wicked in us to divide our affections. Divisions
at all times are
bad. Whether they harass a church
which should be of one mind and one body; or
a family
which should be united and strong in fellowship and love; we may rest
assured
that evil consequences must arise
most injurious to individual
members. And as for a house
we are told
if it be divided against itself it
cannot stand. The Jew and the Gentile were two distinct persons
but
Christianity made them one people. By the universality of the Gospel
all
nations were united; by embracing the same faith they became one; a distinct
people
having an appointed priesthood
with the great Author of our religion
as their Head. They became indeed a church--one body
with one spirit--“a
congregation of faithful men
in the which the pure Word of God is preached
and the sacraments are duly ministered
according to Christ’s ordinance
in all
those things that of necessity are requisite to the same.” (E. Thompson
D.
D.)
Administration of justice difficult
James the First is said to have tried his hand as a judge
but to
have been so much perplexed when he had heard both sides that lie abandoned the
trade in despair
saying
“I could get on very well hearing one side only
but
when both sides have to be heard
by my soul
I know not which is right.”
Judgment obtained by appeal to the principle of affection
Among the heathens we read of similar decisions. We read of an
emperor having discovered a woman to be the mother of a certain young man
whom
she refused to acknowledge as her son
by commanding her to marry him; but
rather than this
she confessed the truth. Another instance we read
is that of
the King of Thrace
being appointed to decide between three young men
who each
professed to be the son of a deceased king
and claimed the crown in
consequence; but Ariopharnes found out the real son
by commanding each to
shoot an arrow into the body of the dead king; two of them did this without any
hesitation; the third refused
and was therefore judged to be the real son. In
both cases an appeal was made to the principle of affection; and the truth was
discovered
as in
the case of the mother of the living child. (E. Thompson
D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》