I read to you from Psalm 72 entitled, O Solomon, endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness. He will judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice. The mountains will bring prosperity to the people, the hills, the fruit of righteousness. He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy, he will crush the oppressor. He will endure as long as the sun as long as the moon through all generations. He will be like rain falling on a moan field like showers watering the earth. In his days the righteous will flourish, prosperity will abound till the moon is no more. He will rule from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. The desert tribes will bow before him and his enemies will lick the dust. That's the first nine verses. And then verse 11, all kings will bow down to him and all nations will serve him. And then verse 19, praise be to his glorious name forever. May the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen. Now the heading according to the NIV translators is of Solomon. This is a sound that pertains particularly to Solomon as he was in the beginning of his reign and as he should have been throughout his entire reign. Solomon was indeed known as the Great King. Remember what Jesus said about Solomon? When he was answering the question concerning signs, the crowds increased. I'm reading from Luke 11 verse 29. As the crowds increased Jesus said this is a wicked generation that asks for a miraculous sign but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was assigned to the Ninevites also, will the Son of man be to this generation? When the Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom. And one greater than Solomon is here. Here Jesus compares himself who is their great prince of peace with Solomon whose name basically meant peace. We'll be looking at Solomon today and how well he fit that ideal description and what a tragic course he set for those that were to follow him. Let us pray. God bless us here to gather this morning. We need your guidance and inspire us, Lord, to be like Solomon in his first days. A faithful covenant, man. God, you did so much for him and you're doing so much for us too and we thank you for that. And we pray that we may also learn again what it is to be unfaithful and how we today can learn from how you dealt faithfully, even with unfaithful people. Yes, Lord, bless us here to gather for Jesus' sake. I'm it. Well, the Davidic House, and you'll pretty well have to read 1 Kings 1, 1 right through to 2 Chronicles 36. Now, 1st and 2 Chronicles were written after the exile, so it's a reflection on the history of the Davidic House and a few other things. I hope we mentioned a little bit more of that right at the end, but it covers the same period of time by a large that the book's 1st and 2nd Kings does, except the 1st Chronicles has a big section that's genealogical and that takes you right from Adam right up to the Davidic House. Now, in 1 Kings 2 Kings and the 2 books of Chronicles, what we have, if I may put it this way, is a demonstration of how the three major concepts that I have referred to as forming that complex meta of the Scripture, how that is worked out and unfolded and how God is faithful and how some of his people are not faithful. At the heart of it all is the mediator. The seed, David, may I make a circle now, and this represents the covenant which represents the bond with God as well as the administrative means for the kingdom. This is God's kingdom, which is represented, symbolized and typified by the monarchy. Now, the mediator, the king, functioning as an administrator, out of the covenant is to exert royal prerogatives, royal duties, royal service. I say, through the covenant, which is the administrative means, and he can administer God's will because of the relationship the covenant at the same time has established the God has established between him and the king. So, he is to be able to serve within the kingdom of God even as Adam had been when he was created, given charge to be the covenant mediator. So, here, and that's why I spoke of David time being in a way the high point of Old Testament revelation because here we see the three concepts just coming together. There's the kingdom represented by the monarchy. There's the covenant, the means, God saying, you're my son, I'm your God, and through the covenant I'm going to indeed not only make sure that the mediator is to come, but you will serve as mediator now and you will be my king and my place. Now, first and second kings and first and second chronicles tells us the story of how well this was carried out, particularly always in the light of Moses' renewal of the covenant recorded in Deuteronomy. Because Deuteronomy gives the details for the covenant, how the relationship is to maintain, you are chosen one and God chose you because He loved you and God's will is declared there. Remember that in Deuteronomy the promise of the priest and the king and the prophet is there. So, no, the passage that we look in that today are in a way a demonstration of how this worked out. And it started out so wonderfully with Solomon. God had used David, the mediator, he had used David the covenant man, he had used David the king to set it all up and then the son. God's son, as Robertson has nicely explained in his book, takes over. And Solomon, and you can read of this in 2 Samuel 11, Solomon was born to Bathsheba after that first child that was conceived through an adulterous activity, had died. And we read in 2 Samuel 12 verse 24, Bathsheba gave birth to a son and they named him Solomon, the Lord loved him. And because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jed the Daya, Jed referring to Yahweh. Dead Daya, in the last part, can maybe also refer to Yah, but dead Daya has David, the idea of David in there. But Jed the Daya basically means loved of the Lord. So, he carried a double name, loved of the Lord, peace, Solomon, you know, Shin, Lamott, Maim, Shalom, peace, the peace man, loved of God, loved by God, that child that was born in those unique circumstances. Now, it's this child, love of the Lord, given the name, peace, who comes to the throne in anything but a peaceful second. First Kings, the first chapter, we know that one of the older brothers of Solomon, half brothers, six that the throne, Bathsheba, comes in, she played for her son and David in chapter 1 verse 30 says, it will be Solomon. And he has Solomon anointed immediately as a vice-regent or as a co-regent. And from then on, there were co-regents. And that often explains why two kings were reigning at the same time, why a father and a son, because a father would anoint his son, maybe halfway through his reign to make sure that he could establish who would be his successor. And that accounts for when you read Thiele's book, you know, those fascinating numbers in the book of kings, those mysterious numbers. You know, if you go to work and add up all the years that these kings reigned, you get a lot longer period than what we know the period was from the time that David reigned until the exile. Well, so David becomes the spokesman for God and indicates God's election of the loved one, Solomon. And then there's that charge that David gave to Solomon. And it's in a way a basic covenantal charge. If you look at first Kings chapter 2, the first couple verses there, beginning at verse 2, I'm about to go the way of all the earth. He said, so be strong, show yourself a man, observe what the Lord your God requires, walk in his ways, keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements as written in the law of Moses so that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you go and that the Lord may keep his promise to me. If your descendants watch how they live and if they walk faithfully before me, all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel. See how David brought the gather to the mosaic covenant and the covenant God had made with him? He saw them as basically two aspects of one great covenant relationship. The way to really fulfill the Vedic covenant requirements, you read Moses. That's what I was pointing to here a while ago too. And thus David is the charges Solomon. You've got the whole revelation now all the way from Genesis right up through what I have given you. Solomon be faithful. And if you look at 1 Chronicles 25, 9 and 10, that charge is repeated and then David adds to that and so be faithful now to in building the house of the Lord. Parental charge David in those last days really proves to be the father he should have been more consistently throughout his life. And we can look to David in this respect. There's he's leaving. My son, be a covenant servant. Study this. Practice it too. You who are fathers are hopeful to be fathers. One of the great gifts that Solomon was given was the gift of wisdom. And that was demonstrated in various ways in chapter 3, chapter 4, verse 39 to 34. And then in chapter 5, verse 12, the queen of the sheba comes and says, I've never heard the like. Solomon had wisdom. Number one, he had knowledge. He could speak about everything. That would surely indicate. The book of Proverbs indicates that there's no wisdom possible without knowledge. Not saying that you always need a great extent of education because some of the most educated people have become some of the greatest fools. They showed that as if their hearts and heads were empty in spite of all that they'd read and studied. But without knowing the what, you'll never know the how and the when and the where and the why and the whom. You got to put those five W's together. The what? The when? The where? The why? To whom? But let me give you a little illustration from my life as a father. One of my sons, he got a straight A all through college, through high school. He went to one of these here, schools in in Australia. And he was right at the top of the class. And he got one of the special jackets at the top five of the class got school. But there were 200 guys in a class, all boys school. He could run. And he got prizes for for being the fastest boy. He thought he pretty well had it made. And the more honors he got at school, the cockier he got at home. And not unusual. We were proud of him, no doubt about that, but the prouder we got, the more problems we got. And finally one day I said to him, I've had it with you. And he looks at me with his blue eyes. He's only 12 or 30 years old. He says, and I've had it with you. Oh my word. What do I do with a 12 year old that just looks me clear blue eyes looking right in the face defiantly. I've had it with you. What are you going to do about it? I'm going to go away. Now, what do you do? When a boy says the age of 12 that he's going to leave the parental home and he's sick and tired of his father's administrative ways. And I said to him, and I'm sure it was a spirit of God that laid it on my heart. And I said to him, when you're ready to go, let me know because I'll ask your older brother if you may use his bicycle and mother will pack you a lunch. So you won't be hungry the first two days. And the spark on his eyes is dimmed. And as eyelids dropped, he turned around and walked away. Three years later, when he's 15 on a Sunday evening, Dad and mom, the way that the other kids are gone to bed, may I talk with you a while. He said, I got a confession to make. And I want to tell you how much I love you, Dad and mom. And when I want to tell you, I'm proud I am of you, Dad. Because when I thought I had you over the barrel three years ago, I was going to run away. I really thought you'd cave in. Boy, did you take the wind out of my sails and you said, I'll get you a bike and we'll pack you a lunch. I had said the right thing at the right time, at the right place, to the right person, for the right reason, I put it all together. God, the Spirit helping me. And I often think back, you know, I wish I'd had wisdom like that and many other experiences in life. But put those things together, the what and the why, the when and the where and the to whom. One time, I made a bad mistake. I knew what to do, I knew why I had to do it. But I did it in the wrong place. I did it in front of the other kids. And if you humiliated one of my boys when you needed punishment. I did it at the right time, did it for the right reason, but in the wrong place. Put these things together. And that's what Solomon knew how to do. And that story with his, those women, he knew what to do when, where, why he put it all together. That's wisdom. That's what the book of Proverbs is all about. And would that Solomon had been able to do it. But he showed that he was wise with the way he was able to carry out his administration. Boy, what ability he had, administrative ability, organizing ability, governing ability in the first years of his life. The spirit of God, endowed him, enabled him. He had all the gifts that he needed. And then in chapter 5 verse 12, we read, and he had peace. And his name became a real prophecy. And a reality, peace. And he could function wisely because he became the prince of peace, the king who was able to carry out his functions in the proper setting. We know about him as a builder. It is he who built the temple. And in chapter 6 and in chapter 8, we read about his building seven years it took him to build that temple. But what I particularly liked to read about is how he brought the ark in. And how he beautified the whole setting of the ark. And how he went all out with the best of the materials at hand to represent God is king. God is in stone. He is the Lord. There's a builder of the temple. He was faithful to his father's charge. He honored his God, although he did build himself a nice palace too. That sandwiched in between in chapter 7. He built tragically a nice palace for the Egyptian queen. And that was the beginning of a lot of his troubles. He was a tremendous builder. But what a servant he was in the first part of his life. In chapter 8, you read about the prayer that he prayed. And if you want a model prayer, oh there's others like Daniel 8, but this prayer that Solomon prayed when he brought the ark to the temple, the prayer of dedication. Oh Lord God of Israel, there's no God like you in heaven above or the earth below who you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way. You've kept your promise, your covenant to your servant David, my father with your mouth, you have promise and with your hand you have fulfilled it as it is today. Solomon knew and then prayer he adored his God and he thanked his God and he vowed in a way his faith won us to God. That man could pray. He had a living relationship if you read it from read this. He knew how to talk with his God and he knew how to lead his people in prayer. What a prayer. And then in chapter 9 we read of God coming to Solomon and chapter 9 beginning at verse 3, I have heard the prayer and the plea you have made before me. I have consecrated this temple with you have built by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. As for you if you walk before me in the integrity of heart and upright as David as David your father did. And do all I command and observe my decrees and laws I will establish your throne over Israel forever as I promise David your father. And now Solomon is given the assurance that as he continues in the covenant way obeying the mosaic prescriptions remembering the Davidic chart as Solomon walks God will indeed honor his promises his plan his purposes. But then later on we find that God keeps his promises even when the Davidic house becomes unfaithful. And so here you get into the whole problem again about the conditionality of the covenant. This covenant God made with David and the covenant God made with Solomon was in the final analysis an unconditional covenant. Because and we're going to stress that in a moment yet God was faithful all the time. And then though the Davidic house proved unfaithful God remained faithful he kept his covenant. So there's that unconditionality. And I want to refer to an article that Mr. Walt Key wrote and treat us a fast script for one of the Old Testament scholars and he entitled that article the conditionality within the unconditional covenant. Did I refer to that before? At the very good article we held a book in the library Mr. Bashoff has got it on his shelf and pretty hard to get it off of there because there's a couple other very good essays in that book. Now within that unconditional covenant it seems though God puts a condition upon the people. Now I do this now you got to do that and we can say if then you do this all will be well but I don't like that if quite I rather speak of contingency as I mentioned before. This is it and when you follow me when then all this will work out but when you don't then the curse of the covenant comes where as it did with the ex out in time. The covenant is unconditional from God's point of view from our point of view we can speak of conditionality then in this respect that God demands obedience. But the outworking of the covenant is going to be all the blessings he's promised or it's going to be the curse. So the conditionality you want to talk about it is only in respect to what the blessing occurs but unconditionally it will be blessing our curse. God is faithful. God keeps covenant. God will keep the promises and so God comes to Solomon in chapter 9 and it shares him. Man you're on the way. Day on the way. That's the way of peace. That's the way of love. That's the way of life. Well Solomon had to have the nations in mind also because the covenant included a proper relationship with the nations. He had a relationship with Tyre and that got to be a kind of an uncomfortable relationship. Chapter 9 verses 10 to 19. He brought in foreign conscripts. It's hard to know just how to look at that. He kind of brought in slave labor you know. Then he married that Egyptian wife. There comes the queen Ashiva. And she hears and listens and she goes back just absolutely amazed. And then he chapter 11 marries so many foreign wives. What a mixture. Increasingly instead of Solomon really impacting the nations like the influence and amazed the queen Ashiva. He increasingly let Hiram even gave some of his cities to Hiram. It was when he once he went outside of his borders. When he had to be a blessing to the nations and interacted with the nations then the nations began to influence him. You know that's still the great danger that we have in the church today. The Amish people they have sealed themselves in almost hermetically. They don't want to go out because the world may come in. And yeah Jesus says I've put you in the middle of the world. And God said to David, you're in the middle of the nations. And God had said to Moses, I'm bringing these people in and you are to remove these godless nations that are whose cup of iniquity is full. You're not to marry with them or in a marry with them. But at the same time there's all these evidences of when they indeed came under the influence of the covenant. They were incorporated in with the Greyhab and Ruth or tremendous examples of that. But look what happened. That great commission of Genesis 12, 1, 2 and 3 was not carried out the way it should have been. Solomon as he reached out opened up to them. Oh the influence of the parasite kingdom, the Satanic kingdom. Satan has tremendous influence in the foreign nations and through these foreign nations Solomon bent. Solomon went under and he did it basically through business and women, money and wealth. Reminds me of my uncle who said when I was going to the ministry George and your ministry your greatest problem is going to be in the area of money and women as a pastor. Not in my life too much. Look having eight kids, we sure had our struggles sometimes to get the dentist bill paid. There's no doubt about that. But the problem that I've had as a pastor because of sex and the dollar. And if there's any one area where a minister and his wife have to stand strong and tall it's in the way they live as a married couple, our parents and in the way they handle their funds. The two areas of great temptation, these were the two areas of Solomon. And through that idolatry came into his life all the other gods. Well Solomon was a tremendous royal ruler. He had a vast empire and we refer to that before. Chapter 4 verse 21 again repeats that in 421. We read here and Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the 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. Again, as in Genesis 15 it had been promised Abraham under Solomon it was a reality. And that's what Psalm 72 reflects on. That's why I read to you from Psalm 72. But then the ruler is challenged in chapter 11 because of his business and wife's contacts. And then God raises up the appointed opponent and the divinic divetic dynasty is divided. The 10 tribes go under Jeroboam and then the northern kingdom has four, five, six different dynasties. There's not one king in the northern country that's a faithful servant of Yahweh. Jehu carried out some of God's commands but he was an idolater himself. And Jehu comes about as close as any of the northern kings but there's not one of those northern kings that's faith. Jeroboam set up the cows at deathle and dan to keep the people from going to Jerusalem or whatever the case may be. And every king sinned after the pattern of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. It's a tragic story and second king 17 sums it up. Why that northern 10 tribe were carried off into captivity? They worshiped the idols of the nation. But the divinic dynasty going onto Roman numeral 2 on our outlining was also divided in loyalty. I have on the board here the eight kings of Israel that were considered to be faithful to some degree. Joe Ash started out pretty good. Amaziah was somewhat half-hearted but these are the ones that are referred to as walking more or less in the ways of David. But there were eleven that did not. Eight did. Manasseh in the last two years of his life is said to have repented after he had been carried captive. And he repented in the last year to that he lived. He seemed to have been a faithful covenant man but he was converted too late to affect his son Ammon. I remember hearing a sermon once by Dr. Hendrickson, the author of the commentaries on the New Testament. A man converted too late. Ammon walked in the ways of his father before his father was converted. And he carried on and he only rained for two years but there are those eleven unfaithful ones as over against the eight faithful ones. Now whether the kings were faithful or unfaithful, God remained faithful to his covenant. And the classic example of this is when Isaiah approaches Ahaz. And may we refer to that briefly next week when we deal with the prophets. Isaiah challenged Ahaz. God is faithful. He will bring forth Emmanuel and the light will come and shine. And a son will be born, a child will be given. And he will rule and he will reign. Oh the faithfulness of God to his covenant. That is unchallenged. And I want you to pay particularly attention to Robertson pages 255 to 267. Because there in his work he listed all the different passages that indicate how God remembered his covenant with David that in spite of what the descendants did, God remembered David. And God kept his promise to David. Robertson has it worked out. You can read those passages and go to the Bible and there you'll see it. During the time of these eight kings there were also three specific covenant renewals. And Mr. Dumbrell refers to that on page 159 and 160 attempts at covenant renewal. And the three kings that attempted a covenant renewal were Joe Ash. And that's after the tragic afterlife experience and after afterlife is killed and little Joe Ash comes to the throne, there is a covenant renewal. And then it's these last two faithful ones that also renewed the covenant with the people. So three times during the history of Judah we have this attempt to get back to the Davidic and early Solomonic situation. These kings knew what God's will was. These kings had the covenant stipulations. These kings had profit after profit coming to them, especially the unfaithful ones. God was faithful. Thank God for the eight. That's it. Every one of those eight were human. What a tragic mistake Josiah made when he went out to try to stop the big king of Egypt. How foolish his a chia was when he let the Babylonian envoys see his kingdom. Joseph wasn't all that well as a rire, as a rire, became a leper in the later days of his life because people are some rather uncovenant of deeds. Not one of them are perfect. Not one of them really were faithful in the way that David was in Solomon and the first part. But nevertheless they said they did what was right personally but as often said they didn't remove the idols from amongst the people. Now as I pointed out all the kings in the north were unfaithful. Eleven were unfaithful amongst Judah and it's in the setting of the unfaithful eleven that prophetic activity really really comes to its own. Now we're going to look at Amos and Josiah and Elijah and Elijah before them. They were particularly directed to the kings and the nations of north. So God did not completely let the northern kingdoms go down the drain. They were covenant people too and we'll talk about that when we deal with Josiah. Because the idea of the covenant through Josiah is married with Gomer just comes through so strongly. Look you people, you pay for that are under these unfaithful northern kings. You are a covenant people. God is married to you and that gave us setting for Amos and Josiah to preach their hearts out to these people. But in the south, Micah and Isaiah in the 8th century and then in the 7th century, Habakkuk, Zefeniah, Jeremiah, how they preach and they preached particularly in the settings of when unfaithful kings were in charge. And that whole prophecy of Isaiah, you know how Isaiah starts out? Some of the people that you've been going to the temple, they're going to the temple with broad stained hands. And Isaiah, especially in the days of Ahaz, how he does give some of the most beautiful messianic passages that you'll find in the Bible and subsequent to that as well. So it's during that unfaithful time that God shows his faithfulness by the way he brings in the prophetic word. And the prophetic word, as I say, be said before, does not really add anything new, but it repeats. It expands, it applies it. It forcefully lays before the kings and the people. But God had promised through Moses and through David and Solomon. But in spite of the prophetic activity, temple desecration reached its absolute height and that was under Manasseh. You read of that in 2nd Kings, 21 verses 2 to 9. 2nd Kings, 21, Manasseh did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord following the detestable practices of the nations. The Lord had driven out before the Israelites. Instead of reaching out to them, he let them come into him. He rebuilt the high places as father Hezekiah had destroyed. He erected altars to bail and made an ashera pole. The ashera pole, you remember, was the one that accentuated the women's reproductive organs. He bowed down to all the stary hosts. He worshiped them. He built altars in the temple of the Lord. And these were altars dedicated to the foreign gods. The ark was replaced by the altars. In both the courts of the temple, the Lord, he built altars to all the stary hosts. He sacrificed his two sons in the fire. Covenant seed. He dedicated them. He sacrificed them to the prince, to the king, the Lord, of the parasite kingdom, the devil. The seed, the royal seed, seed of the Davidic line. Seed that was supposed to bring us right to the Christ. He burnt them to death. He practiced sarshery divination, consulted medians and spiritists. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking him to anger. He carved the ashera pole and he put it in the temple. Canaanite worship had as one of the major factors, this sexual orgyastic activity. And that was usually carried out in front of the ashera poles. He brought that in the temple. So that means that there was evidently this sexual orgy, the sexual orgy is in the name of worship, practiced right in God's temple. Adultery, physical, representing spiritual adultery at its worst. That was menace. And it was because of that sin particularly that it is said that God's anger, the cup of anger was full. And God said enough, due to must go. What about the priesthood in those days? We don't read an awful lot about the priests themselves, but Hosea gives us a little insight. He says in Hosea chapter 4, the Lord has a charge, a controversy, a rief, a covenant lawsuit with you who live in the land. No faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgement of God, cursing, lying, murder, stealing adultery. The land mourns, and then he goes on to say, you stumbled day and night, and all the prophets stumble with you. My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge, and then he goes on to say, because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests, because you have ignored the law of your God. The more the priest increased, the more they sinned against me. Hey, priest, we're leading in this idolatrous worship according to Hosea, tragic. Well, the result was the covenant curse came into effect. Deuteronomy 27, 28, had stated so clearly that eventually they would be carried away to the nations. These nations that influenced them would become their captors, and they would become subject to them. And the chronicler is the one who gives us an evaluation, and he starts with the royal house. Why was this covenant curse executed? Not because of God's unfaithfulness, and then he starts his genealogy right there from Adam, and it carries the line right straight through. God kept his seed line from Eve, right through all the way. God gave them the temple. God gave them the priesthood. He gave them the royal house. He gave them the priesthood. And he gave them the covenant so that they can walk in covenant faithfulness, the kings, the priest, and the people. Some people have said that the book of 1st and 2nd Chronicles basically deals with the temple and the priesthood. Read it again with some scholars are doing these days, and they're finding out that there's just as much as not more emphasis on the royal house, on the divinic house. You can't separate what happened in the palace from what happened in the temple. You can't separate from what happens in your house, from what takes place in your religious life. Remember, God has given us an integrated life situation. Our relationship with God, our relationship socially, and our relationship with the world at large are inseparable. Three dimensions of basic covenantal living, and the book of Chronicles points out these people had it, but they also got the exile. Because God was faithful to his covenant, he brought in the curse, the exile. We'll look at the prophets next week.