The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore; they ate, they drank and they were happy. And Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. These countries brought tribute and were Solomon’s subjects all his life.
Solomon’s daily provisions were thirty cors of the finest flour and sixty cors of meal, ten head of stall-fed cattle, twenty of pasture-fed cattle and a hundred sheep and goats, as well as deer, gazelles, roebucks and choice fowl. For he ruled over all the kingdoms west of the Euphrates River, from Tiphsah to Gaza, and had peace on all sides. During Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, lived in safety, everyone under their own vine and under their own fig tree.
Solomon had four thousand stalls for chariot horses, and twelve thousand horses.
The district governors, each in his month, supplied provisions for King Solomon and all who came to the king’s table. They saw to it that nothing was lacking. They also brought to the proper place their quotas of barley and straw for the chariot horses and the other horses. (New International Version)
Wealth, in and of itself, is neither good nor bad – it just is. The real issue is why any particular person wants to be wealthy, how we view wealth, and what we do with it when we have it.
In ancient Israel, under King Solomon, the Israelites enjoyed a time of prosperity, safety, and abundance. To flourish and thrive in life is good. The ability to meet basic needs, and to enjoy life is good.
But what about beyond that? Is there such a thing as too much? And what about others who may not be able to make ends meet?
Solomon certainly had a lot. Yet, we do have warnings in Holy Scripture about exorbitant wealth. Here is what the Deuteronomic law says concerning any future king:
The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. (Deuteronomy 17:16-17, NIV)
Whatever standard one may use, I would say 12,000 horses falls into the great-numbers-of-horses category. And likewise, having 1,000 wives is most likely 999 too many for just about every man on the planet.
Indeed, Solomon’s heart was eventually led astray. It’s quite sad. Even the wisest and wealthiest person who ever lived was not able to sustain complete faithfulness to God. The remainder of Deuteronomy’s instruction about a future king is this:
When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:18-20, NIV)
In all fairness, King Solomon started out paying attention to God’s law. In his wisdom, he sought to learn and obey – but it ended up being only a partial obedience.
A dimension of any rule or government is to realize that – with any sort of success, security, and wealth – there is always a dark underbelly to it. That is, there are people within that government who are not enjoying its largess and wealth.
Under the new expanded governmental system, Solomon had his kingdom, and its subject peoples, divided into districts in order to give provisions, as well as laborers for his ambitious building projects. Not everyone was enjoying leisure time under a fig tree.
King Solomon set up an economic system that transferred wealth from nations subservient to Israel, and from subsistence farmers within Israel, to support the massive needs of Jerusalem.
The city, under Solomon, was living off the surplus grain to feed all of the horses, as well as the tribute exacted from surrounding nations. In other words, the wealth was being centralized by Solomon for his many projects and interests.
All of the opulence was meant to impress people with wealth, exhibiting Israel’s and Solomon’s great power and wisdom. Yet, if we are to follow the old adage, “follow the money,” we would discover a governmental system that extracted money from others; and produces a lot of oppression, grievances, and exploitation – hence, the dark underbelly of it all.
This sort of situation is precisely why we have prophetic literature in the Old Testament. The prophets are especially attuned to the cries of injustice amongst the people. Every society needs such persons who are within the system, yet are able to be a voice for those who are voiceless.
Had King Solomon moved beyond his partial obedience to complete and total obedience, I surmise that he likely would have considered the needs of everyone within his empire, before establishing a system of government that depended upon economic exploitation.
Specifically, perhaps Solomon ought to have engaged more vigorously and robustly with the covenant code between God and Israel that he was supposed to know so well.
And perhaps, Christianity and the Church have been too lax on the subject of handling Holy Scripture. Because, for all of our talk of being faithful to scripture, that talk has not translated into a solid social and economic understanding of human need and justice.
It simply will not do to label anything we don’t like as communist or socialist. And it will not do to say King Solomon was wealthy and successful, as if that, in and of itself, is the evidence of God’s favor. In reality, it means little, apart from a complete fidelity to God’s law.
In my judgment, Jesus did better than all of this. He pointed us to an alternative system which considers the common good of all persons, and not just some people. The ethics and morality of his Sermon on the Mount lays out the foundational means upon which any sort of governmental system ought to build upon. (Matthew 5-7)
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Jesus (Matthew 6:33, NIV)
If we are looking for the same sort of wealth and success as Solomon, that means we’ll need to ignore Jesus. Yet, if faithfulness, obedience, humility, righteousness, mercy, purity, and peacemaking matter more than our economic bottom line, then I believe we will discover that the pursuit of these virtues leads to having all of our needs met, as well.
Lord of our lives, teach us how to use our money and our possessions. Deliver us from stinginess and wasteful extravagance; inspire our giving with the spirit of true generosity. Help us always to remember your generous love for us, that we may be wise and faithful stewards of the good gifts you have given us. Amen.
Rev. Tim Ehrhardt 