[NeitherFirstnorLast]

...My beloved God, thank You for showing me more, Lord. I do not understand all Your ways, nor all Your thoughts. Lord, You reveal in part... for now... I suppose it is why we must live by faith. All of Solomons wisdom - surely more wisdom than any man on Earth has ever been given, availed him nothing. You choose to reveal Your wisdom through the weak, the foolish; and through the despised.

Lord, why did You allow Solomon to bring in Your ark - but hide away the manna and the budding almond branch? Why did You bring Your cloud of Glory into the Temple after it was built, and then suffer the boastful words of Solomon?

"Jehovah has said that He would dwell in deep darkness. I have surely built You a lofty house, a place for You to dwell in forever... I have risen up in the place of David my father... I sit upon the throne of Israel... I have built the house for the name of Jehovah the God of Israel... I have set a place for the ark..."

Solomon finishes his proud prayer before the people, and blesses them. God does not respond to him until chapter 9. Again, the Lord uses "if" and "then"... and His warning grows more dire:

1K9:3-9 "I have heard your prayer and your supplication which you have made before Me; I have sanctified this house which you have built by putting My name there forever*; and My eyes and My heart will be there continually.

*UNLESS OF COURSE

"But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me and do not keep My commandments and My statutes, which I have put before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, Then I will cut Israel off from the face of the land which I have given them, and the house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all the peoples. And this house will become heaps, and everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss and say, 'Why has Jehovah done this to this land and to this house?' And they will say, 'Because they forsook Jehovah their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold of other gods and worshipped them and served them; therefore Jehovah brought all this evil upon them."

Of course, this is exactly what would come to pass. The Temple would be destroyed, utterly. What is interesting, is that the Lord said He would put His name there forever, IF Solomon and/or his sons walked in His ways... Have you ever heard of this Temple today (or the second Temple, for that matter), being called the "Temple of Jehovah"?, or the "Temple of Adonai", or of "Elohim", "I AM", El Shaddai", "YHWH"? any of God's names? No. It is called "Solomon's Temple", or "The First Temple"... but it doesn't carry God's name. He did not leave His name there because Solomon had failed to live up to the "If".

And Solomon exalted himself.

Three times a year Solomon offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar in place of the High Priest. He built ships for trade and accepted the gifts and praise of the likes of Queen of Sheba; who, while she acknowledged that "Blessed be Jehovah your God, who has delighted in you and set you upon the throne of Israel" 1K10:9, did not herself go to worship God. Rather, she gave her gifts, her worldly worship, to Solomon.

1K10:14 "Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty-six talents of gold."

Saints, this number only appears in one other place in scripture. No other number is assigned to Solomon's earnings in another year, so here we have a number associated with Solomon not coincidentally: 666.

Why? If "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness," II Timothy 3:16, then we cannot imagine that this number assigned here to both Solomon and likewise later to the AntiChrist can possibly be coincidental.

Solomon, enslaved with lust for women and Mammon, commits fornication also with the demon-gods of the nations whom he gathers to himself in alliance. He takes 700 princess wives and 300 concubines from the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edomites, the Sidonians, and the Hittites. He built high places of worship to these hideous false gods, and offered sacrifices to them.... and so, our Lord God, who long suffered the pride and vanity of Solomon, does at last fulfill His promises. He will take away the Kingdom. He will give it to Solomon's servant. He will leave only the tribe of Judah... and that because of His promise to David. 1K11:9-13


Is Solomon really a Christ-type in the Old Testament? What do you say? Did Solomon start off with a proper heart for God, and then fall - or was he fallen from day one, and no one wanted to see it. Did people only see what they wanted to see... a man who certainly talked the talked and sure appeared to be blessed... but whose actions and heart revealed something more sinister.

Do we do that, today? Do we look at spiritual leaders and think we see Christ in them? Do they go around building and proclaiming and seemingly prospering; and all the while there is a big "BUT THEN" hanging over them... a threat that this blessing will be removed if they don't truly turn their hearts to Him? Are we like the Queen of Sheba - recognizing the Blessing of God in someone elses life - but then giving the glory to the blessed rather than the blesser?

I don't feel like I can answer that for anyone else. It's between you and God; we need to ask for His heart on this matter.

To be continued,

In Christ.. I pray ever in Christ. Lord, don't let me drift...

Neither First nor Last