1 Kings 3-4 Solomon and Wisdom Part 6 By Graeme Goldsworthy 2004-09-01

Good morning everybody.
Down at my clock today.
Alright, well what we've got ahead of us today is sermonizing on the good part of Solomon's life.
I'm not going to tell you how to prepare sermons, if that's what you came for, sorry.
Probably what will come out is how I set about preparing these particular sermons and if we don't cover the four of them, as far as I'm concerned, that doesn't matter.
I'd rather we sort of mudded through and interacted on as much as we need to, starting with the first part and see how far we get.
But if we get through the four, well that's fine.
The reason I chose these sermons was, I think, prescribed by the number of slots I had available to me.
I first preached these particular sermons in the Moore College Chapel and I was given, I think, three slots and I wanted to make something of Solomon out of that and then subsequent to that with the Church Missionary Society up in Queensland
and Northern New South Wales, they run a seniors retreat
or something and they gave me four slots
and I said well I'll do four on Solomon,
that will give me a chance to get the Queen of Sheba in.
So that's more or less how it came about.
Why I'm telling you that is simply that very often
the way we do arrange the sermon series may be
because of things outside the realm of
what would be the ideal in order to cover this particular material.
If you're arranging your own program and so on,
that may not be a problem to you.
So I had to ask myself,
how could I give a sort of an all-rounded picture
of the first part of Solomon's reign
leading to the sort of the climax
of what is seen to be a very positive thing about Solomon
in One Kings
in a short number of sermons.
So I don't think I would normally want to try to cover
two chapters of One Kings in one sermon
unless I thought that it could be done
without sort of missing a lot of the main points.
The pastor of our little church
who has me up and preaching every now and then
quite enough for me
usually works on the principle of
he'll choose a book and we'll probably spend
deal with one chapter per week
per Sunday.
And that doesn't always work because sometimes
the chapter divisions as you know which were
a late addition to the biblical text
aren't always very happy
as far as a facilitus
in terms of the actual division of the material.
However, here we go on One Kings 3 and 4.
What I tried to do with these three sermons
and was to highlight the main points
of Solomon's reign
before his apostasy as it is recorded in One Kings 11.
And I came at it from an angle of my biblical
theological perspectives
that's about the only way I really know
how to go to an Old Testament text.
And so what I try to do
is work according to the structures
as I perceive them.
Now you may not be happy with this
I'm just going to tell you what I did
and you can think for yourself
whether you think this is a good approach.
This is one of the diagrams that actually occurs in my book on preaching
but it is the same material that we've been looking at.
Here we have the biblical timeline.
Here we have the first 11 chapters of Genesis
leading to what I consider a key point
in the redemptive historical process
beginning with the promises to Abraham
and coming to a climax with David
and the first part of Solomon's reign.
So there you've got from Genesis 12 to One Kings 10.
And in that we have a series of events which I
spelled out to you yesterday
in terms of the calling of Abraham
the promises made to him, the covenant promises
the reversal of all this in the captivity
the Exodus release as a redemptive process
entry, possession, development to theocracy
finally David's kingship, Jerusalem
and the temple built by Solomon.
So that is the whole process
in a positive sense of revealing the kingdom of God
and the way of salvation into that kingdom
in the processes of Israel's history from Abraham to David
and the first part of Solomon.
Then we went down the slippery slide to judgment
beginning with One Kings 11
and Solomon's apostasy, the breakup of the kingdom, the two exiles
and the failure of the return from exile to produce the kingdom of God.
And while that was happening
the prophets came along and recapitulated this
hence the same dimensions but at a higher level.
Exactly the same things are going to happen
say the prophets in the future
that they will be perfect, glorious and forever.
End of Old Testament, it hasn't happened
Jesus comes along and is shown to be the fulfillment of all these things.
So we have the three stages of biblical revelation
in Israel's history, in prophetic eschatology
and fulfilled in Jesus.
Now that last bit of course
then requires us to look at the way we looked at the Voss diagram yesterday
of the three comings of the end.
The end coming for us in Jesus
the end coming in us by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel
and the end as it will come with us in the confirmation of all things at the end of the age.
OK, so when I look at an Old Testament passage
I suppose the first thing that I want to know is
well the first thing I want to know is what is it about, that's obvious.
But in terms of trying to plan my thinking
and how I'm going to make the link to the Gospel message
how I'm going to show that this is a passage which testifies to Christ
I find there is no difficulty in my mind about going from there to there
because the dimensions are there and we already know sort of what's in between.
If there are things in between, that is in the development of the Old Testament theology
beyond the place where we are
that helps us to sort of clarify that and show how it was picked up and run with
how the Old Testament writers themselves are actually dealing with their own past
then that to me is a useful thing.
Now it may not be in terms of the particular person
but one of the things about Solomon is
although he seems to be a pretty significant figure
in the thinking of the writer of one kings
he doesn't seem to be terribly significant in the thinking of anybody else
that is he hardly ever shows up again
even in the New Testament
there's only a couple of references to Solomon
and both of them are negative
he's not arrayed as well as the lilies of the field
and a greater than Solomon has come
doesn't leave much room for praise and grandeur or anything like that
so you have to ask yourself where is it going to go?
So that's the structure of my thinking about the way through
and so what I will do if I'm dealing with an Old Testament narrative text
which this is
I will want to try to work out what are the basic theological themes that are there
do they have any further development in this period
whether it's in the prophetic eschatology or somewhere else
even in the Psalms or something like that
and then how are those themes picked up and run within the New Testament
because it seems to me that's what we want to know
is in the end as to how this is going to help us to become more like Jesus
not more like Solomon
alright so
I hope you've all read 1 Kings 3 and following
so if you've got your Bibles there you might turn them up and we'll start
as I said the first sermon that I worked up on this
I focused on two chapters, chapters 3 and 4
but as you know chapters 1 and 2 deal with the end of David's reign
his demise and the accession of Solomon
and
I like to think the only reason that I didn't deal with chapters 1 and 2 was
I was prescribed by the time available to me
otherwise it seems like taking the easy way out
because there's no doubt about it, it's a pretty sordid tale
on the one hand here we are we can sort of stand back and take the big picture
and say there was David, the king after God's own heart
and God made him promises about his son
that would reign after him and then as David is about to
shuffle off the mortal coil
and depart this life
the most incredible series of
court intrigues and backstabbings and what have you go on
which I suppose you can draw many lessons from that
as to
the way people behave even when they've got the promises of God
to fall back on
so I didn't deal with those two chapters but I don't want you to get the idea that they're irrelevant
and you need to understand things in the light of that
however having said that there is no doubt in my mind that when you get to chapter 3
that the writer is a. very skilful
b. he is
what should I say, provocative
and thirdly that he is
quite convinced
that there is something very good to be said about this first part of Solomon's reign
yet not totally unqualified
in its goodness
and so right at the beginning of 1 Kings 3
he begins by saying that Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt
and he took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David
until he'd finished building his own house in the house of the Lord
and in verse 2 the people were sacrificing at the high places
however because no house had yet been built in the name of the Lord
now this is one of the things where you have to start
I suppose being a little bit creative and imaginative
using a bit of imagination and trying to work out what the text is getting at
I'm quite convinced that there is indeed two sides to exegesis
one is a more scientific one in which you simply plod through
and work out what the words are meaning as they're put together into sentences
into paragraphs and so on
and the other is to try to get a feel for the creative imagination of the writer
particularly when you're dealing with narrative texts
so sometimes they'll leave you hanging with a bit of ambiguity
and I think verse 2 is somewhat ambiguous
is he saying something negative
or is he saying something that is not so negative
in that the people were sacrificing to God in various places
simply because there was no temple around
well almost as he says well I'm not going to give you time to think about that
he moves straight on to tell us that Solomon loved the Lord
so in the outline that you've got
I have taken up these following points
firstly that Solomon makes a request
for an understanding mind and so on to rule these people
and this is given a test
in the sermon that I preached on this
I wasn't going to spend a lot of time on it
it's the best known story of Solomon
the Solomon and the two ladies
and yet even there
there will be tons of room for you to explore
even the ambiguity there
and if you've ever read around on this
you'll realize that there are some commentators
who come down on exactly the opposite view
of the easily held one
as to what Solomon is about there
but I think that what I wanted to do
was to move on to try to uncover much more about
the way Solomon is seen to be the wise king
and what that meant
and one of the reasons I did that
which is a personal one you might say
a matter of personal interest
because in my graduate studies
I specialized in the wisdom literature
and as a biblical theologian
I was intrigued by the fact that
so many biblical theologians
would tell you that
there is a great difficulty in
incorporating the wisdom material of the Old Testament
into a broader sort of
theological or a theology of the Old Testament
in fact I did a paper when I was doing a Masters degree
on the problem of incorporating wisdom literature
into the writing of Old Testament theologies
and I just examined about ten different Old Testament theologies
starting back in about 1896
and worked it through to people like
Gerhard von Rath in the 1950s
and found that every one of them
had handled the wisdom literature
like a hot potato or like a greasy pig
you know they just couldn't get a hand on it
and know what to do with it
in more recent times people have said
that they've tried to deal with it by saying
the wisdom literature fits into a theology of creation
what intrigued me was
everybody came to these conclusions
by looking at Proverbs and Job
and Ecclesiastes and some of the Psalms
which were thought to be wisdom style and so on
and said we can't find anything to do with salvation history
or the cult of Israel or anything like that
so these people must have a totally different point of view
I can't think of any of them
who thought of going back to the narrative literature
which deals with salvation history
and seeing how wisdom was to be found there
and I think he got it
I mean surely
with all the traditions even coming out in the book of Proverbs
that Solomon had something to do with it
and here is Solomon right at the very climax of salvation history
and the climax is brought about when he asks for wisdom
I mean what more do you want?
so yeah
I didn't quite say that in my dissertation on the subject
but you know it seems to me that
there are two ways of coming towards it
so I'll tell you what I did with this then
and see what you think
you've got the outline, that's the outline of my sermon
I started with an introduction which I felt was
you know just to sort of lead in on this
I said the New Testament has numerous references and allusions to wisdom
and not least is the identifying of the Gospel as God's wisdom
and of Christ as our wisdom
and also I wanted to sort of
give it a more general platform
and said that we need to work as Christians towards a world view
and we need somewhere, we need a point of reference
we need somewhere to stand at our
key reference point for understanding the world around us
and life and so on
and I've just used a couple of illustrations
as to how when I visit a city I don't know
one of the best ways is to find the highest vantage point
and just try and get a feeling for what is around you
somewhere to stand so you can sort of see things
and most cities have a place where you can do that
so my only reason for then moving into chapter 3
was to provide a sort of a basis
for what comes in the later chapters
that Solomon when he comes to
his accession
and has in front of him
an enormous task, now you have to
depending on where your congregation are at and so on
you may want to feed them a bit of information as to
what had happened before that, the fact that David
when he took over
proceeds to bring Israel
you might say to its zenith
in terms of power, in terms of real estate
and so on, that David was an extraordinary military leader
an extraordinary administrator
and introduces all kinds of things which had never existed before
like a standing army, a public service
and so on and so forth
and you could contrast that with the tribal league
loosely held together from Joshua onwards
and see how David got together
and with David there also begins the wisdom business in earnest
it doesn't begin with him
Stephen tells us it goes back to Moses
who was skilled in all the wisdom of Egypt
but David is the one who with his public service
also has a bunch of people who are his counselors
and that's a new thing
to have counselors
but then here's Solomon
and Solomon loves the Lord, he walks in his statutes
one king three three
and in the statutes of his father David
only, now what does only mean there, except that
or only he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places
is this something bad? Well we'd have to wait and see I think
he went to Gibeon to sacrifice
for there was the principal high place
and Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar
and Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night
and it doesn't seem that the Lord was angry with him for going to Gibeon
and he says ask but I shall give you
Solomon says you've shown great and steadfast love
to your servant my father David
by the way steadfast love as you probably know
is one of the usual translations of the little Hebrew word hefed
which means probably something like covenant faithfulness
none of the English versions do it justice in my view
it's a covenant word
and it is usually spoken of God's faithfulness to his people
and it's not just God is sort of
you know sort of
oozing love towards them and feeling sentimental towards them
but that he is being faithful to the promises that he has made
and so Solomon we know makes this request
he says in verse 7 I am only a little child
I do not know how to go out and go in
verse 9 give your servant therefore an understanding mind
to govern your people to be able to discern between good and evil
for who can govern your great people
and it pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this
and so with this request
the Lord tells him that because he has not asked for riches or for life
long life and so on he says I will do what you have asked
but in verse 13 I give you also what you have not asked
riches and honour all your life
no other king shall compare with you
but if you will walk in my ways
keeping my statutes and my commandments as your father David walked
then I will lengthen your life
so then he wakes up and it's a dream
and then we have the event of the two ladies
and the squabble over the baby
and Solomon's wise decision said that at the end of the chapter
verse 28 all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered
and they stood in awe of the king because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to execute justice
now in my sermon notes I put be brief between all that
because you could have a whole sermon on that
and that in itself would create its own problems
because then you would be much more restricted in the perspective
as to how you are going to get from that to where you want to go
so for me that was just an introduction to the fact of Solomon being granted wisdom
and what I was more interested in was to see how that wisdom was spoken of
and how it manifested itself beyond this point
no doubt that that is a manifestation of it
but it seemed to me that what the writer wanted us to understand was
that the wisdom of Solomon actually extends to the whole of the account
which goes from here through the coming of the queen of Sheba
to test Solomon with wisdom questions
and sort of a climax there is a Gentile comes and challenges Solomon to a sort of wisdom Olympics
and Solomon wins hands down because the fear of the Lord is in him
so there is a theological point there, in fact there are two theological points
without wanting to anticipate too much
in 1 Kings 10 there may be more than that
and one is of course the coming of the Gentiles into the light according to Genesis 12.3
and the other is the fact that Solomon's wisdom leaves her breathless
this is a classic example of the fear of the Lord being the beginning of wisdom
and of course the ghastly enigma of Solomon is in the very next chapter
he goes sour and starts marrying foreign women and building temples to their gods
and we begin on the slippery slope
so that is the problem and the enigma of Solomon
and here he is being built up and built up and built up
and he brings the glory of Israel and Jerusalem to its climax
and then he proceeds to put white ants in the boat shed
and things start to unravel
so chapter 3 to me was simply a means of leading into that
and I wanted particularly to concentrate on chapter 4
otherwise your sermon would get too long
so in the second point then which I move on to chapter 4
I've headed as wisdom, riches and honour as covenant fulfilments
now I am ready freely to admit that there may be room to challenge some of my exegetical conclusions
and let me say that I make the exegetical conclusions in the
I think I'm justified in making them in the light of the wider context
not just the wider context of one kings
but the wider context of the whole of salvation history in Israel
that's the way I work
and if you don't work that way you may feel that I've overstepped the mark here
so it seems to me that this chapter, chapter 4
begins off by explaining something of the wisdom of Solomon
that is we start to ask ourselves now what is this wisdom
it's already manifested itself in his ability to make what is perceived
however we want to understand it
but it's certainly perceived and reported as being a very wise judgement
with regard to the two ladies and their squabble over the babies
but what about what comes after this
and it seems to me that the writer wants us to understand
that these things that he is describing about Solomon's kingship
and the splendor of his court
are also part of this package deal of being given wisdom
so 1 Kings 4 begins with the list of his officials
and one would I think hesitate very much to make this the major reading for the day
other than to point out the fact that it begins by saying that
King Solomon was king over all Israel and these were his high officials
or verse 7, Solomon had 12 officials over all Israel
who provided food to the king and his household
and each one had to make provision for one month of the year
now you might want to feel that that is just simply
part of sort of reporting about how things were with Solomon
I want to suggest to you that this is part of the description of the result of Solomon's wisdom
that he was able to get his act together
and to get the kingdom together in such a way that it was splendid, it was prosperous and so on
and I think I am helping that by the way the narrative goes on in verse 20
Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the sea
they ate and drank and were happy
Solomon was sovereign over all the kingdoms
from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and even to the border of Egypt
and they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life
Solomon's provision for one day was blah, blah, blah
verse 25, during Solomon's lifetime Judah and Israel lived in safety
from Dan even to Beersheba all of them under their vines and their fig trees
now what is he describing? He is not only describing the fact that Solomon had
lots of people running around doing important things to keep the kingdom
in order and stable and so on
but he starts using covenant terminology
for instance in verse 20
Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the sea
well you might need to point it out that a lot of people would pick that up straight away
but this was the promise made to Abraham that his defendants would be like that
now it may have just been a very commonly used metaphor for lots and lots and lots
but it seems to me that it is pretty pointed at this stage
that having described Solomon having reached this stage
that the nation over which he rules is described as having reached the point of the fulfilment of covenant promises
and even the riches were there and the provisions for the court
seems to me to have overtones of the kind of prosperity
I'm not urging a prosperity doctrine here but there is a sense in which
to understand the way things are and the way things relate
the book of Proverbs presents a lot of material of that kind
that if you act wisely you get good results
that's just the way the world is
now the problem with the book of Proverbs is that sometimes things for us go wrong
and Proverbs seems to be airy-fairy and rather just over optimistic
and that's where the book of say Job comes in
but nevertheless there is this sense that get your act together
understand the way things work
have a perspective on the world which understands what it is and how it works
and you get good results
there are lots of things in life that we know that's the way things work
and that is behind the way people of all cultures understand their wisdom
and actually write their wisdom literature
I remember browsing around in the library at Union Seminary
and they had a whole section on Proverbs from various nations
you could have a volume of Chinese Proverbs, Welsh Proverbs, Yiddish Proverbs, Polish Proverbs
and so they went on
and it was easy to see that a lot of them were very much the same
they had national characteristics
Yiddish Proverbs had a certain interesting Jewish sense of humour built in
and so on and so forth
but they're talking about just getting a handle on life
okay and verse 25 is also important
and again we mightn't understand the fullness of what is being said here
without sort of making a few links
one is of course that in a sense it's Eden reason isn't it
every man under his vine and under his fig tree
dwelling in safety
the peace and the prosperity of God's kingdom
and of course the
the prophet Micah takes up the same thing
but for everyone to dwell under their vine and under their fig tree
is an image of what it will be like when the kingdom of God comes
okay so you have then verse 20
there is numerous of sands and seas
now what occurred to me when I was looking at this
that some parallels are then drawn in the way the narrative is constructed
so you have in verse 20
that Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sands of the sea
and in verse 29
God gave Solomon very great wisdom and discernment and breath and understanding
as vast as the sand on the sea
now I couldn't substantiate it
I wouldn't want to go to the stake about this one
but it seems to me ha ha
he must have done that for a purpose
what's he saying?
then I looked into the scene where there were other parallels
for instance in verse 21
Solomon was sovereign over all the kingdoms
from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines
so Solomon rules over all these lands
so the extent of the land in verse 21
is then applied to the extent of Solomon's wisdom in verse 30 and 31
Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and the wisdom of Egypt
he was wiser than anyone else and he names all these people
he was wiser
then it seems to me that the blessings of dominion and rest in the land
verse 25
every man dwells under his vine and his fig tree
is extended to Solomon's wisdom in verse 32
he composed 3,000 proverbs and his songs numbered 1,005
he would speak of what?
the nature, the trees and so on
now that might be fairly tenuous also
but it appears to me that verses 29 to 31
does carry some parallels to that earlier section verse 28
which indicates that wisdom
Solomon's wisdom parallels the overall movement
that the people of God are experiencing now
into something which at least approximates
the fulfillment of all God's promises under the covenant
now if that is the case
what do we learn about Solomon's wisdom here?
well I've mentioned a few points that seem to me that come to mind
the first thing is that the wisdom of Solomon
which is both a human activity and a divine gift
and that's important, I mean you can spend a lot of time talking about
about the human responsibility to use the brains that God has given us
to learn from our experience and so on
but also that wisdom is a divine gift
it's summed up of course in the rubric to the book of Proverbs
that is you might say the hermeneutical key to the book of Proverbs
is Proverbs 1 verse 7
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge
and reiterated again later on in chapter 9
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
it's pretty clear from Proverbs that wisdom and knowledge are seen as virtually synonymous
when you're talking about this wisdom idea
but it's the fear of the Lord
now the fear of the Lord is a concept which occurs a lot of times
in the early stages of the Pentateuch and so on
and right through
and seems to mean in its broadest sense
a faith response to the self-revelation of the covenant making
the covenant keeping God
it's the fear of Yahweh
and Yahweh is the name that was revealed to Moses when God was showing himself to be the covenant keeping God
so I think that although it is true to say that there is a sort of
a creation sort of orientation to wisdom literature is also orientated to the covenant
simply by the fear of the Lord
being the beginning of wisdom and knowledge
okay having said that then
the wisdom of Solomon which is both human and divine
encapsulates God's revelation of reality
in the context of the covenant of salvation
that is what is God doing
in this whole process of salvation history
of which Solomon is privileged to be
the final part of this stage of revelation of the kingdom and of salvation
and God is not just saying believe in me and you'll be saved
he's giving an understanding of what reality is
he's giving an understanding of what the world is
that's what wisdom is about
what is in life
now we know that the narrative as we jump ahead
will suddenly descend from these heady heights
that we find Solomon and Israel in
and the whole thing crashes
and so here's the enigma and what is the lesson
we have to anticipate that
it's not necessarily the main point of the sermon at this stage
but we know that Solomon's grasp on wisdom was transitory
very easily he stepped over the line
his dream started at all so he may well ask was this just a pipe dream
and if Solomon was so wise as seen in this
and we have to move on from that
and further unraveling the process in these earlier chapters of 1 Kings
as to how this wisdom of Solomon shows itself
and climaxing particularly I think in the building and dedication of the temple
and yet it crashes
and the question that needs to be asked in anticipation is
will there ever be a wise ruler for the people of God
so I suppose what I'm saying at this stage
we're laying the foundation for understanding of wisdom which is very great
very wonderful
but also very vulnerable and transitory
so what I did then was to move on to the third point of the sermon
which was to ask about the extension of this story
that was simply to raise the question as to
well what did later writers
or writers concerning later parts of the Old Testament deal with
how did they respond to this
and all I can come up with is saying that unlike David
Solomon receives little acknowledgement in subsequent accounts in the Old Testament
he's referred to in historical texts and in wisdom books
you find his name pops up in Proverbs, Song of Songs
his name occurs in two psalm titles, Psalm 72 and Psalm 127
there's one historical reference to him in Jeremiah
that's all in the Old Testament
in the gospels Solomon is downplayed
not arrayed like the lilies and greater than Solomon is here
but
Solomon doesn't get an airing but royal wisdom does
and I think that's important
because what we're looking at here is the concept of a king
as the bearer of wisdom
so how does royal wisdom get well in lots of places
and just to mention some of the main ones just briefly
one that would be quite obvious
which you probably thought about already would be Isaiah chapter 9
which is read every Christmas probably
chapter 9 verse 6 and following
if a child has been born to us, a son given to us
authority rests on his shoulder and he is named what?
Wonderful Counsellor
there's a wisdom term
a Wonderful Counsellor
he's the mighty god, the everlasting father, the prince of peace
his authority shall grow continually and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom he will establish and will uphold it
with justice and righteousness
from this time forward and forevermore
so the Wonderful Counsellor there I think would
qualify as a passage
or as a statement that the
the child, the methionic figure that will establish the throne of David and so on
is the wise counsellor
but probably more important in chapter 11
the chopped down family tree of Jesse the father of David
will be revived
a shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots
the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him
what spirit of the Lord is that?
the spirit of wisdom and understanding
the spirit of counsel and might
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord
there it is, the whole wisdom box and dies
just about everything you can say theologically about wisdom is there
I would say you could pick other passages too
chapter 32 of Isaiah I think is also useful
chapter 32 verse 16
then justice will dwell in the wilderness
righteousness abide in the field
the effect of righteousness will be peace as the result of righteousness
quietness and trust forever
my people will dwell in the peaceful habitation
insecure dwellings and quiet places etc etc
why I mention that one is that righteousness becomes a key theme in the wisdom literature
and it's important I think to ask some questions about some of these ideas
and terms which we use
see mostly people think of righteousness as an ethical thing
do they not?
which it is but that's not what it's soul is
and you can see that if you go to the book of Proverbs
and see how the word righteousness becomes a synonym of wisdom
and a passage like Isaiah 32 is interesting because it seems to link righteousness with the
I might say the putting together of nature again
see the world has fallen because of human sin
but the day will come when justice and righteousness abide in the fruitful field
when the world of nature even is once again what it ought to be
then that will be righteous
there's a German guy who wrote, oh it's quite old now
back in the 60's I think
wrote a monograph, the title of which translates to simply as righteousness as world order
he just simply does a study on the Hebrew root tzedek and all its cognates
and in the Old Testament and comes up with the conclusion
that righteousness is far far wider than just the sort of the ethical behaviour of people
but is in fact the way the world is constructed
the space might say it is a relational thing and not just a human relational thing
or a personal relational thing, it's a relational thing worldwide
so those are just a few that could be looked at
Isaiah 35
you know the wilderness and the dry land shall be glad
the desert shall blossom and rejoice like the crocus and so on
verse 9 no line shall be there nor shall any ravenous beast come upon it
there shall not be found there but the redeemed shall walk there
and the ransom of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing
everlasting joy will be upon their heads and they will obtain joy and gladness
again I mention there because the narrative concerning Solomon
suggests that something like this is beginning to happen
every man under his vine under his zig tree
in other words there is fruitfulness in the land, there is abundance
the reference to nature in Solomon's songs and proverbs is curious perhaps
but anyway it's there
in the book of Proverbs there are many instances of nature as the source and lessons of wisdom
you know you can find it all over the place, go to the ant house slugged
you can learn wisdom from lowly things like ants
some of the numerical sayings in the last part of Proverbs
contain lessons from nature
and we're told that Solomon when he wrote his proverbs
wrote about the hyssop that grows out of the wall and the trees and the birds and the fishes and so on
so he was obviously one who observed nature and learnt from it
alright so the extension of the story then leaves us with the fact that
perhaps the key fact that a messianic figure is promised
who will embody royal wisdom
and also as an expression of wisdom
I'm sure that what the Genesis passage is getting at is not that
Adam looks like a horse so we'll call it a horse
but actually this is the beginning of discerning distinctions, classifications
axonomy or whatever it is, so on
hence reform theologians have usually referred to it as the cultural mandate in action
well so this third point is really just to say look
there is a promise
even though Solomon has descended into the depths after the heights to which he has risen
there is a promise
and the promise I think in the context of wisdom is a promise which embraces not just
the king and a people but embraces the whole natural world around us
where I'm leading to this is
in the fourth point in the triumph of wisdom
is that this
by endeavouring to do what I call a close reading
careful exegesis of the passage and so on
in its context
leads us to a better understanding of what it means for Jesus to be the true wise man and the true king
in other words
part of the lesson that I would want to make of this from the point of view of preaching from the Old Testament
is that to try to counter the idea which you often need
and which we can easily slip into
you know the old adage
a thousand thousand are their texts but all their sermons won
by leaping too quickly from the Old Testament to Jesus you end up saying the same predictable things about Jesus
when I went back to Moor College in 95
I remember talking to
some of the second year students about this very point of teaching and preaching from the Old Testament
and some of them were saying that they'd encountered this where
people just sort of
just said well ho hum here comes the Jesus bit
it was just so predictable
because rather than seeing how the Old Testament text
is a text
in itself which needs to be grappled with
and unfolded and dealt with
and then seeing how that takes its meaning from its wider context and so on
they just sort of took the most obvious thing
here's a bit about salvation, here's something about sacrifice
next thing you're into Jesus died on the cross sort of thing
now I think we need to do better than that because
if Jesus really does encapsulate, sum up, fulfill
all the dimensions of God, humankind and creation
then there must be endless ways
of enriching our understanding of what Jesus was
who he was and what he came to do in his life, death and resurrection
so in the triumph of wisdom which is the way I tried to draw this together
I started by saying well it's relatively easy to show how Jesus fulfills the role of Solomon
he's the king
Solomon was the son of David, Jesus is the
the capital P-H-E, son of David
so what Solomon was promised to be
but failed to be, Jesus comes and is perfectly
but put the question at the other end, how does Solomon testify to Christ
and point up some vital dimensions to the Gospel
well I suggest these points
that even though Solomon gets virtually no airing at all
specifically in the New Testament
the role of Solomon as the son of David, the king of Israel
and the exemplary wise man is set out in this particular part of one kings
and the fact that he fails leads us to point out that Jesus is the one who is greater than Solomon
it's not just that he's a better one but that he fulfills all that Solomon was to be
now what was Solomon to be? Well he was to be the king, he was to be the wise man
and in this we can come back to my sort of heuristic at the beginning
that we need a reference point for the understanding of who we are, where we are and what the world is about
and this it seems to me is something that is so important for so many Christians to grasp
because I'm sure all of you have rung your hands in despair about Christians that you know
who have dichotomized their lives and they have their sort of spiritual lives on Sundays
and their Christian thinking which goes about this far and as for the rest they live like secularists
they have no real concept that somehow God and Jesus are relevant to what goes on in daily life around us
So Jesus Christ then fulfills the role of Solomon as being the wise point of reference
the one who exemplifies the fear of the Lord which is to understand and to respond to God
who reveals himself as to be the creator, the sustainer of the whole universe
The second point I would make is that Jesus teaches in wisdom forms
it's probably not often brought out in general sermons on the gospel narratives and so on
but Jesus uses nature parables, he uses metaphors, the parables themselves are wisdom forms
and you will remember how at the end of the Sermon on the Mount
he ends the Sermon on the Mount with a classic wisdom contrast between wise and fool
the wise man builds his house on the rock, the fool builds his on the sand
and the people were astounded why? because he didn't teach like the scribes
because the scribes approach to wisdom was to say Rabbi such and such says this
this is rabbinic wisdom you see, Rabbi such and such says this, Rabbi such and such says that
Rabbi such and such says that, so he got all these different authority saying
but he didn't speak like that, he spoke as one who had authority, he was the source of their wisdom
so it's not just that Jesus fulfills Solomon by being the wise man, Jesus is wisdom
the third point I made there was that Jesus performs nature miracles
showing his lordship over nature, he demonstrates the new creation
now what are we saying here? well I think at least one thing we are saying
I imagine there aren't too many Christians who really contemplate this as a matter of course
what was Jesus doing in his last death and resurrection?
well he was saving us from our sins, of course he was
but has it ever occurred to us that as wisdom what Jesus was doing in dying on the cross
and most other things was putting the universe back together
now I don't know about you, I think that's mind blowing, I really do
that the benefits of Christ's death and resurrection
will never be fully apprehended until we can contemplate the new creation
the new heavens and the new earth
all things restored to their rightful order
now all this is the wisdom of God and we share that with him
all you need to do to start people to thinking about that is
get them to contemplate what Paul says at the beginning of the end of the first chapter of 1 Corinthians
or even those first two chapters of 1 Corinthians in which he contrasts the wisdom of God
which is looked at as foolishness by the world
and the wisdom, the so called wisdom of the world which God declares to be foolishness
and he caps it off at the end of chapter 1 where he says of God
he is the source of your life in Christ Jesus
who became for us wisdom from God
i.e. righteousness, sanctification and redemption
so the ultimate wisdom is the wisdom of the righteousness which we have from God
and I put it to you that once again the idea of righteousness
Paul was a Jew don't forget, he was a Jewish theologian
and I cannot believe he was so Hellenized simply because he wrote in Greek
but he started thinking like a Greek, I mean he's constantly arguing against them
he does that right here and so when he starts using terms like righteousness and redemption and so on
he must be using it more in the context of Old Testament thinking
and righteousness in the Old Testament simply cannot be confined to being good people
it is the putting together of all relationships in the way that they are intended to be
now, okay, that virtually was where I drew the thing to the end
we have the mind of Christ says Paul
thus we have in the Gospel the means for understanding what our universe, our world and what human history is all about
the Gospel then, if we understand it not just in this simplistic way that Jesus died on the cross
so that I can go to Heaven when I die
so we start to understand something of the texture of the Gospel
then we can see that it really can be our place to stand, our point of reference
in assessing all things, in understanding the place of all things
so what is the place that I may stand to see, to know what is real
where do I stand to know myself
where do I stand to know my life and my destiny
to know what will last
where can I stand to know what will be the end of this world's ills
where can I stand to know the meaning of the universe
how can I know what is good in mankind and what is evil
how can I know what is the meaning of the Bible and the way into it
well, Solomon gives us the clue even though he lost the plot
and the clue points us to Jesus as the fulfillment of wisdom
so those are my four points, just to run them through
we looked at the introduction in chapter 3 as sort of the preface to it
the main point was chapter 4 where I suggested to you the parallel between the fulfillment of the covenant
and the description of Solomon's wisdom
the extension of the story tells that even though Solomon had failed
a wise Messiah King would come and Jesus fulfills that
now can you see what I've done with the fulfillment
I just haven't said Jesus fulfills it as if all the Old Testament was doing
was saying you won't find anything here that will last, you know, head for the New Testament
what I'm saying is the New Testament presupposes by picking up these themes
what you should know from the Old Testament
that is why I'm very happy to say and say it just about everywhere I go
show me a church that doesn't preach and teach from the Old Testament
and I'll show you a church that has a very woolly and superficial view of the Gospel
OK, discussion, questions?
I've got ten minutes or so of this session and we can keep on next time
Yeah, um, why don't you see the boat shed?
I'm going to check up on it and have a look at it
Have a look?
It's cool what I've heard from...
Yeah, I don't know, I forget who I've heard from
Probably the 360
Yeah, probably the 360
No, actually I think it, I heard it first from the late Bruce Smith
and I think he was referring to a mutual friend of ours who had gone to England
He suggested he might be running up to the college boatsheds and sticking white ants in them
I don't know why, but yeah
I don't know
Have you published it anyway?
No, I haven't, no
Oh right, I don't think so
Now I can have a wise question
Graham, you obviously use your concordance a great deal
I mean, it's something that we've lost
Ah, well I don't know whether we have or not
Yes, I think a concordance is important
but with this warning that, as I said yesterday
one must be very careful in using concordance and so on
not to simply descend into word studies as such
I mean, the word studies were seen at one stage as big time
and you're probably fully aware of the controversy about the great Kittel vertebook
and how James Barr's book in the 1960s on the semantics of biblical language
really did put the white ants in the boatshed
because after that the Kittel people had to turn around and sort of revise the way they approached it
because as Barr pointed out very clearly and obviously
that the same word can be used with different meanings
and that one meaning can be conveyed by lots of different words
and so if you use a concordance it must, I think, always be with an eye to
first of all you've got to be careful that when you do pick up the same word being used
that it is being used to cover the same concept
The principle of Moore College when I was a student always used to say
no theology from etymology
that is, root meanings of words do not provide the basis of theology
and so you've got to be careful with that one
Yeah, I have no hesitation in looking up a concordance
and concordances on a disk are very useful from that point of view
In picking up your diagram of the three epochs
Yeah
Do you see a common blessing in the transition between David Solomon
Elijah, Elijah, John of Athens, Christ
and how does that impact on our system that we're looking at?
How does it impact on this sermon?
Would you pick up the Elijah covenant blessing at the same time?
Ah, you could, I think you've got to be careful
if you're going to write a biblical theology of Solomon you might do something like that
You've got to be careful not to throw the book of people in the sermon I think
otherwise if it gets too complex they'll lose the plot
and so I would take the most direct line forward that I could
I mean the Elijah, Elijah one is interesting
the whole function of Elijah and Elijah during the period
when everything is descending into chaos
and they seem to be saying at that point that the old order of things
can be retrieved if only you will turn back to God
so that, you know, I think Ronald Wallace
I first got this from in his little book on Elijah
pointed out, you know, the tussle on Mount Carmel
isn't Elijah just doing bigger, better, brighter things
but referring to the covenant
because what he does is tear down the altars of Baal
and build the altar according to the Mosaic prescription
and fire comes down and consumes the burnt offering
which has done at least twice before
it's not a new thing
so it's a back to Moses broadcast
so yeah, I mean the covenant theme is one that could be brought out
more strongly if you felt that was the way
what I wanted to do was to
I think it's a very neglected one
and probably not well understood what wisdom is about
yeah, anything else?
Yes Peter
I'm trying to revisit the question
I couldn't get out yesterday
Yeah, I'll try and understand it today
I'll try and express it
This book of 1 Kings
I assume comes from a period of Israel's history
much later than the periods we can refer
in fact it may come from as late as the post-Exilic period
It may do
Therefore, this book is a post-Isaiah 96 picture
for example
Could it be that the book is being structured in such a way as to show
in light of the diagram
that Solomon did not fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah 96
but that we must look forward to something greater than Solomon in the future
which is always in a sense reinforcing
the looking at the echocronology of the development of the literature
You've jumped a little from the text
You've looked at the text closely, you've jumped at Christ
but you haven't gone through the composition of the text
and when it was originally increased
Yeah, I think that's a reasonable point
Obviously the thing wasn't put together until after the end of the kingdom
and therefore it's probably reasonable to assume it was put
maybe sometime in the post-Exile
I can hardly imagine, or maybe you can, somebody writing it in the exile
The only problem with that is
how do we know when it was put, all we can do
and of course the problem of when Isaiah 6 was proposed
and we would probably assume that it's 8th century Isaiah who did that
Yeah, I think that would be a fair statement
I'm not sure that the conclusion you drew there
that he was showing then that Solomon hadn't fulfilled the Isaiah 6 and the Isaiah 11 passages
really changes anything that I've said
No, yeah
But your point I think is a good one
I just see that it
It leaves us with the problem of nailing down when the canonical resension
if I can put it that way, actually emerged into the life of the people of Israel
Obviously when you're building those things miles apart
then you've probably got a better chance of saying this came before that
I suppose the more relevant question than that question is
what function did this book have as an entity in the edification of those people
in the Old Covenant, what place did it come to this place?
Yeah, and why did somebody think it was necessary to come along
and reinforce the Levitic line by writing chronicles?
And I think one of the things, I had more time in this
if I had the time to do it
I would want to get stuck into the parallel account in Chronicles
and just see how it was same and how it was different
Chronicles of course is probably the most neglected narrative in the Bible
because we get to 1 Kings first
It's a pity because Chronicles, since it focuses only on the southern kingdom
avoids all the problem of trying to work out who was king
at the same time as who was king up north
and whether you're dealing with something that's happening in Israel
or something that's happening in Judah
he just focuses on Judah and the Levitic line
and just sort of simplifies it for you
You wouldn't feel tempted in this particular passage
to deal with where the perseverance is saying
just to study that out here
Solomon seems to be in the Covenant
and then he seems to step away from the Covenant
It wasn't the end there
I don't know, it's just a question of how can someone be so wise
and continue to go the right direction?
Yeah, and be so stupid
Yes, the ultimate question is is Solomon in heaven?
If there is grounds for doing so
if there are grounds for doing so in the text
and you feel that that is the way you want to go
why not?
It just so happens that you can't do everything
Again, if you were writing a Biblical theology of the kingship of Solomon
you might be inclined to explore a whole host of things that I haven't touched on
I was mainly concerned because it seemed to me to be the main thrust of these chapters
chapters 3 to 10
they begin and end very clearly with the wisdom of Solomon
and it seemed to me that the chapters in between also are highlighting his wisdom
because to me that is such a neglected area
and when people deal with the book of Proverbs
for instance, recently I was sent a copy of a book by an American fellow on Proverbs
to review
and in the end the people that asked me to review it
I think they decided not to print my review
because there wasn't much I could say about it
there was much use at all
in fact I wrote and said what on earth are you going to spend space reviewing this book for?
and of course all the fellow had done was rearrange the entire text of the book of Proverbs
according to the topics dealt with in the individual sayings
the question of is there a theology here?
and if there is a theology how does that theology link with the theology of the New Testament
so that I can read Proverbs as a Christian book
it just didn't really emerge
and that's something that I think we've got to come to terms with
I tried to do it when Paul Barnett asked me to do that little volume on reading Proverbs today
which the AIO in Sydney published
how do you write a commentary on Proverbs which is a Christian commentary
very difficult
so what happens with a book like Proverbs it just becomes a lot of wise sayings
which because they lack God talk
can be just applied directly
because they don't belong to another context
which links them with Christ being our wisdom
okay well I think we've got to stop there haven't we