When Solomon was growing up, I wonder, what were his days like? what influences pervaded his environment? Was he, his father’s favorite son? Was he the youngest ? I think not, because he was not so described. I am not sure he was the favorite because David was most emphatic over Absalom’s well-being and had bitterly mourned his passing, though he was the handsome son who had plotted against his own father, for the throne. Solomon would have remembered that he too had to flee with the rest of his family. Growing up with several siblings from different mothers and striving for the throne was certainly no triviality nor for the fainthearted.
Then David said, "Here shall be the house of the LORD God and here the altar of burnt offering for Israel." David commanded to gather together the resident aliens who were in the land of Israel, and he set stonecutters to prepare dressed stones for building the house of God. David also provided great quantities of iron for nails for the doors of the gates and for clamps, as well as bronze in quantities beyond weighing, and cedar timbers without number, for the Sidonians and Tyrians brought great quantities of cedar to David. For David said, "Solomon my son is young and inexperienced, and the house that is to be built for the LORD must be exceedingly magnificent, of fame and glory throughout all lands. I will therefore make preparation for it." So David provided materials in great quantity before his death. (1Ch 22:1-5)
David’s preparations for the temple were substantial. In addition to his exercising kingly rule over the nation, the pre-occupation with the provisions for the Temple would have been obvious to Solomon as a child and older. The amount of detail written down and most probably explained meant hours of work, for and between father and son. The necessity for scribes and skilled workmen to collaborate the plans augurs the immense precision. The completed temple is further testimony to the scale of David’s passion. David also spent considerable time, attending to and laying out, the ministry of the house of the LORD.
Then David gave Solomon his son the plan of the vestibule of the temple, and of its houses, its treasuries, its upper rooms, and its inner chambers, and of the room for the mercy seat; and the plan of all that he had in mind for the courts of the house of the LORD, all the surrounding chambers, the treasuries of the house of God, and the treasuries for dedicated gifts for the divisions of the priests and of the Levites, and all the work of the service in the house of the LORD; for all the vessels for the service in the house of the LORD, (1Ch 28:11-13)
Embarking on the mission, Solomon spent years physically building the temple in accord to David’s specifications and instructions. Wise as he may have been, he had still to build as he had been told. He required much material, skills and workmen even from Tyre, Sidon and Lebanon. The charge and commission to build the physical temple would appear to be a singular tasking. The administration of the priests and treasuries and people however, a lifetime responsibility. The physical construction was not an insignificant undertaking. The time, the planning, the administration, the finance, the supervision, the provisions, the people, the welfare, logistics required much. The project was not for a season but to span decades. We could wonder, how long did Solomon dedicate himself to this, his father’s commission.
But the LORD is no man’s debtor. He blessed Solomon’s work and made him renown and so great in his day that all the nations round about paid homage and tribute to Solomon. Even till today, the temple is remembered and described as Solomon’s temple. Gold, silver, precious stones, bronze, iron, stone and prized timber abounded. The flocks, the herds, horses and chariots, food, oil and wine. Palaces, vineyards, gardens, cities and merchants, ships, and peoples from all nations. There was no lack. He was so blessed that the Queen of Sheba could only say “that the half was not told me” regarding the Solomon’s reign. For all the time in the early part of his reign, Solomon was given peace in the land. Solomon was made to war by the LORD only after he had forsaken Him, built temples and sacrificed to Chemosh and Molech (I Kings 11). Peace is never a small gift, since war and plunder was the accepted means of acquisition in that age. Our understanding is incomplete, lacking and deficient because we here, have not known the atrocities or ravages of war.
And so we reflect, what could we describe, as our driving passion, our consuming ambition over and above the day to day responsibilities? David’s passion and provisions was for the building of a temple. The discourses, discussions and deliberations between father and son, the hours spent together, the shared desire of the heart. How much time and passion, a father to a son? And were these engagements principally between David and his son , or was it tripartite as with the Father as head? With regard to matters pertaining to the house of the LORD, can we evidence specifics, laid down from fathers to sons, as fathers to sons? What do sons remember, and hold close to hearts, not veering left or right? What legacies do we leave behind or follow? What is THE desire of our heart? The LORD unreservedly blessed Solomon. Was it for naught? Was it not, the blessing of the house of David? What is it, that so marks and confers such goodness to David and his house? Why and how did Solomon ever lose sight of the LORD?
Fathers and sons.
Fathers to sons.
The son of my father.
The sons of the Father.
The Father’s sons.
So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.
For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. (John 5:19-20)
God bless.
ckho
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