Sir Lord, may you graciously
help me, I would turn your prayerful attention once again to Matthew's
Gospel chapter 12 and take him for a text, verse 42. Matthew
12 and verse 42. The Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment
with this generation and shall condemn it. For she came from
the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, a greater than Solomon
is here." Matthew 12 and verse 42. Many of you will know that we
preached from this text this morning and went through many
of the attributes of Solomon which were so true of the Lord
Jesus and his kingdom. We think of Solomon's great wisdom,
and of course that is an attribute, a great attribute of our God,
that he is all-wise, all-knowing, he knows everything. the wealth
of Solomon, his great assets, and how, of course, our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ is eternally rich. And his reign of peace. There was peace in Israel. The
most peaceful time, really, in the Kingdom of Israel was the
days when Solomon was king. And of course, that's one of
the titles of the Lord Jesus, the Prince of Peace. in these
types. And then we also had the great
work that Solomon was given to do, particularly was the building
of the temple and how that is a great work of the Lord Jesus
when he says in Matthew 16, I will build my church and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it. And then we noted the dominion
that the Lord Jesus has. Solomon had a great dominion,
bigger than his father's. All the surrounding districts
seemed to pay allegiance to Solomon and give him gifts. And so how
the Lord Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords. His dominion
is an everlasting dominion. It is from sea to sea. It is
indeed over he reigns alone over every kindred, nation, tribe,
and tongue. So that is really what we considered
particularly this morning, and the similarities with the Lord
Jesus and Solomon. And Jesus saying here, a greater
than Solomon is here. Yes, you have these attributes
of Solomon, but the Lord Jesus is so much greater than those
things. But we find, you see, in the
types in the Old Testament, Although they have aspects which are picturing
Christ, and although those very aspects come short, yet they
do picture aspects of what the work of the Lord Jesus will do.
Yet every type, as it comes short, every type, it doesn't fully
keep up with the great anti-type, the Lord Jesus Christ. And certainly
Solomon, as we've read tonight, had a dark side which certainly
was more of a contrast rather than a similarity with our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. There was such a contrast in
what we read this evening between Solomon and Christ. You see Solomon
was the anointed head of Israel. And as we read that chapter,
chapter 9 of 1 Kings, this is what God speaks to Solomon after
he's come and offered that prayer of dedication at the temple,
which God accepts and is very pleased with Solomon, agrees
to dedicate the house and so on. But then he says these words
in verse 6 of chapter 9 of 1 Kings. But if ye shall turn at all from
following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments
and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve
other gods and worship them, then will I cut off Israel out
of the land which I have given them. Can you see in here Solomon
was like treated as a representative of
Israel. As Solomon obeyed God and kept
the word of the Lord and walked in a right way, so Israel would
be blessed. And as he disobeyed God and walked
in wrong ways, so Israel would suffer badly. And indeed, as
we know in the life of Solomon, though we spoke this morning
of all his glories and excellencies and so on, which all are true,
yet there was this dark side of Solomon that we have read
of. He loved many strange women. And this caused his heart to
turn away. It's very solemn, really, if
you turn to Deuteronomy and chapter 17, back in the time of Moses,
this situation was already spoken of. Deuteronomy 17, verse 14. When thou art come into the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and
shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me,
like as all the nations that are about me, thou shalt in any
wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose. One from among thy brethren thou
shalt set. that thou shalt set king over
thee, thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother. Now verse 16 says this, But he
shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people
to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses.
And I don't know whether you remember reading this morning,
but there's a vast number of horses that Solomon had. For
as much as the Lord has said unto you, ye shall not henceforth
return no more that way. Verse 17, neither shall he multiply
wives to himself that his heart turn not away, neither shall
he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. Basically the
three characteristics that a king was not to do if he was going
to be king in Israel were the three things that Solomon was
renowned for doing. Solomon didn't realize this and
didn't seem to And it goes on in Deuteronomy that the king
should spend his time reading the word of God and reading the
law of God and knowing what it says. Clearly, how much Solomon
knew of that, I don't know. Whether he didn't know that scripture
or just ignored it, I'm not sure. So we have here this great problem. God had told Solomon, had said
that Israel would be blessed if he followed in the right way.
But then as we come to chapter 11 of 1 Kings, but Solomon, King
Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of
Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians,
and Hittites, and so on. And we read that they turned
away, for surely they will turn your heart away after their gods. Solomon claimed unto these. in
love. So he loved these women and they
were not women like Ruth. You see Ruth when she was a Moabitess
and she came to be the wife of Boaz, but it was very different. Ruth said goodbye to her people and
to her gods. She didn't want the gods of Moab.
She wanted the true living God. And she wanted to serve the God
of Israel. And she wanted to live with the
people of God. Very, very different than the
women that Solomon took in. They were people who were able
to come and be with Solomon and yet were to retain their identity,
their religions, their way of worship. They were not proselytes
as we would call them, converted Jews from other nations. They
were people who came and lived with Solomon and yet were still
worshippers of false gods. This is a warning for all of
us. Solomon was the wisest man that
ever lived, the Bible tells us. But yet in some respects with
these things he fell greatly. And if he was the wisest man
and fell, then we should take note very carefully. In 2 Corinthians
6 verse 14 it says, Be ye not unequally yoked together with
unbelievers. Very, very clear. And we're favoured
with young people here tonight. But this is a clear warning. Solomon is a quick, clear warning
of the dangers of being unequally yoked together. Solomon thought
that he could hold it. He thought that he could have
these women, and they could have their gods, and he would continue
to serve the living God. But he didn't manage it. He didn't,
he fell in this matter. And this is a great warning for
all of us, that we may heave scripture, be ye not unequally
yoked together with unbelievers. The reason is, you see, as we
get, we If we have those wives or husbands, whichever way around
it is, which are unbelievers, we then are going to seek to
please them as our husband or our wife. And we seek to do what
they want to do and they're going to draw our hearts away from
the living God who wants our affection and seeks that we may
give our hearts to him. So this is a great warning in
the word of God. that Solomon ended up going into
idolatry. And you see, this was really
the reason why Israel went into captivity. Yes, it was hundreds
of years down the line, but that's why they went, because of the
idolatry. And it really started with Solomon. Solomon having these these wives,
which were from other nations, which had other gods. He shouldn't
have had so many wives to start with, but then even those, if
they were Israelites, they were the, they loved the Lord, but
no, they were strangers. And they never came to worship
the living God, it seemed. And indeed, we read elsewhere
that Solomon removed the daughter of Pharaoh from
one of the places because it was a holy place and she wasn't.
So it was clear that she was not a godly lady. So we have
that warning and that idolatry associated with Solomon. The
one who was a man after, well his father was a man after God's
own heart and we read that God greatly loved Solomon. And yet
we have this great sadness that Solomon fell in this way, so
vastly different than our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. So
there's a contrast here. You see, Solomon, as I said, represented
Israel. As he kept God's Word, they were
blessed. As he drew them into idolatry,
they were wrecked and ruined and went into captivity eventually. And in a sense, there's a similarity
here with Adam. Adam, our federal head, he headed
up the human race. And as he fell, then all the
human race fell with him. And they are all now under sin. They all have that original sin
of Adam, and yet they have compounded it with their own sin, day by
day. But in a sense, we have this
with Solomon. He was like a representative,
a representative of Israel. But you see how text says, behold,
a greater than Solomon is here. Solomon, the representative of
Israel, the one who he stood, they stood, he fell, they fell. What of the Lord Jesus Christ? I turn to Acts chapter 5. We have these words, Peter preaching. Acts chapter 5 and verse 30. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted
with his right hand. to be a prince and a saviour
for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. So this prince and saviour that
the Lord Jesus Christ is to his church is gloriously different
than Solomon. Solomon was that head that led
them into idolatry, and eventually they got ruined by it. The Lord
Jesus Christ is exhorted to be a prince and to be a saviour,
and he did not lead his church into idolatry. He led them into
the glorious liberty of the gospel. He brought them back to God.
He brought them into reconciliation with God. Solomon led his people
into rebellion against God, and he caused them to be separated
from God by his behaviour. But what a vast difference there
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Exhorted to be a prince and a
saviour, Christ, he headed up his church. Spurgeon called it the great
loophole of divine justice. That as in, you might say, well,
is it fair for Solomon, you see, to sin and then his sin to be
reflected on all the people under him? They might say, well, some
people would say, well, that doesn't sound fair. But you see, as in it was in
Adam. Adam fell and all the human race fell with it. But just as
that stands in God's understanding and His revelation of justice,
so there's another beautiful thing. That just as Solomon stood,
or Solomon fell, and all Israel fell with him, so the church's
head, the Lord Jesus, His uprightness and His righteousness, was the
salvation of his people. If the sin of the head can affect
the body, so the righteousness of the head can affect the whole
congregation. And this is why gloriously are
greater than Solomon is here. Solomon led his people into ruin
in that sense. It was a glorious kingdom. You
might think that I'm taking it so differently than this morning,
but there's a contrast as well as a similarity. And there always
must be, because a type always comes short of the anti-type.
The anti-type is Christ. It's glorious. It's eternal.
It's everlasting. But the type comes short. and
we need to understand the contrast and the differences. and they
can help us understand the beauty of the Lord Jesus. And it is
my desire tonight, as we sung in that hymn just now, that the
Lord will be glorified in our midst, that we may see in him,
the great head of the church, that he didn't do what Solomon
did. He didn't leave us to fall. He didn't leave us to go in rebellion
against God. He brought us back with his own
blood. Indeed, he paid the price for
his church to be set free. What a vast contrast with Solomon. You see this problem of Solomon,
it was... Nehemiah saw this, you see. Remember,
Israel went into captivity. They were brought back out of
captivity 70 years later, where some of them came back. And then
Nehemiah, then under Artaxerxes, was sent to repair the walls
of Jerusalem. And he did so. And then he went
to and fro a few times as governor. And then he came back and he
saw some very sad, very sad thing. In Nehemiah 13, verse 23. We
read, in those days also I saw Jews that had married wives of
Ashtaroth, Ashtod, of Ammon, and of Moab. What a sad repeat
of history. And their children spake half
in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews'
language, but according to the language of each people. And
I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them,
and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying,
Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons. nor take their
daughters unto your sons for yourselves. Did not Solomon,
king of Israel, sin by these things? Yet among many nations
was there no king like him, who was loved of his God, and God
made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, even him did outlandish
or a foreign woman cause to sin. So here you see Nehemiah could
just see history repeating himself. Israel had gone down into captivity
because of their idolatry. They'd come back and they'd built
the wars and then what does he find the people doing? Making
false marriages once again with the ungodly and he could see
the whole circle repeating itself and he stood firm and he stopped
them in their tracks that they were not able to carry on in
this ungodly way. We need to take note then of
how much it is solemn to turn away from the living God, to
mix with the ungodly, to go into a league with those that fear
not God. Because you see, we need the
fire. The fear of God is when the smiles and frowns of God
are of more weight and value than the smiles and frowns of
the world. But if we're in love with the world, if our friends
of the world, if our companions of the world, if our colleagues
of the world, then we will be more concerned about their smiles
and their frowns than we will about the Lord Jesus. So this
is the situation with Solomon. this one who was greatly blessed
of his God, but he was a representative of Israel. And therefore, as
that representative, he was one that fell. He did not walk rightly. But let us look
then at the contrast with our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to
look in Luke chapter 4. There's a big contrast here between
Christ and Solomon. This is Luke chapter 4. It's where there was that being tempted
of the devil. First of all, Jesus was tempted
to turn stones into bread, as he'd been hungered for forty
days. But in verse 5 we read, And the devil, verse 5 of chapter
4 of Luke, And the devil taketh him up into a high mountain,
and showeth unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment
of time. more glory than Solomon had,
all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the
devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the
glory of them, for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I
will I give it, if thou wilt worship me. All shall be thine. Jesus didn't have A lot of earthly
pomp or glory or wealth did he at all. And Satan dangled before
him, our great prince. that one who was appointed to
be our prince. We did not choose him, but we
were choosing in him, before the foundation of the world,
that prince and a saviour. He stood, you see. And this is
why, you see, when we go through what Christ did, we need to realise
that he was standing in our place, and as he stood, We shall stand. If he falls, we shall fall. So if Christ fell under those
temptations, then our hope of salvation would be lost. But our captain stood the fiery
test. Behold, a greater than Solomon
is here. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Get thee behind me, Satan. Jesus, was not going to have
any of this. For it is written, thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. What a contrast to Solomon. Solomon
tried to make idols to these false gods, try to please his
wives, try to satisfy those things and keep everything going that
way. What a contrast. Our captain stood. He would not
lead us into sin. He did not lead us into sin.
He did not represent us and then go on his own errand. He was on our behalf. And you see another vast contrast
between the Lord Jesus and Solomon. Solomon, everything was really
very much for his own glory. His wealth, his power, his glory,
everything revolved around the centerpiece of Solomon. But how
different when the Lord Jesus came. He was the servant king. not to be served, but to serve,
to give his life a daily offering. He gave himself. I lay down my
life for the sheep. Solomon did not lay down his
life for Israel. Rather, he wanted Israel and
a lot of people to lay down their lives on his behalf, to feather
his nest, to do his bidding. He constricted so many into his,
to do all his great work. Yes, he achieved great things,
but It was quite a hard burden for those under it. Indeed, we
know that because when Rehoboam came to the throne, they came
to him and said, thy father put very heavy burdens on us. Make
it a bit lighter and we will serve thee. And that would have
been very sensible counsel to go along with it. And yet God
overturned, got Rehoboam to listen to the counsel of the wise men,
which said that it would be better to say, well, my father chastised
you with whips, but I'm going to chastise you with scorpions.
He said, I'm going to make it much worse than my father made
it for you. And of course, He lost many of
the tribes. Only Judah was left to him, one
tribe. So, the Lord Jesus, you see, he stood
as our great representative, as our high priest. And he gave
himself a ransom for many. So here you see, we see a great
difference between Solomon, who had much earthly pomp and glory. He had much excellence. He was
the praise of the whole earth in many ways. He was sought after
by all the kings of the world. But a greater than Solomon is
here. When Christ came, he came to
seek and to save that which is lost. He came as a blessing for
his people. You think of it, Solomon with
his wives. You see, the wives that came
to Solomon, they carried on with their false gods. They carried
on in their false ways. Not so with the Bride of Christ.
No, the Bride of Christ is brought out of nature's darkness That
bride is made right and made ready. She's not allowed to carry
on rolling in her filth. She's not allowed to carry on
loving the world and the things of it. That bride is to be brought
into union with himself. He's going to be changed and
desire those things which are above. Solomon didn't really do his
wives much good, did he really, in many ways? Yes, he gave them
much pomp and glory, but what about their spiritual state?
Were they right for eternity? Were they really blessed eternally? You see, we think of those words
that we considered this morning from the Queen of Sheba. The
Queen of Sheba said these things. After she had seen how glorious
Solomon was, we read in 1 Kings 10 verse 8, Happy are thy men,
happy are these thy servants which stand continually before
thee, and that hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God which
delighteth in thee to set thee on the throne of Israel, because
the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore made he thee king to
do judgment and justice. The Queen of Sheba saw that the
placing of Solomon as the King of Israel was such a blessing
to Israel. Well, it was to a point in an outward way. But really,
Solomon laid the seeds of their demise in his idolatry. He taught
them wrong ways. But you see, If we think of these
words of the Queen of Sheba towards the greater than Solomon, these
words are absolutely true. Happy are these are thy men,
happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before
thee, that hear thy wisdom, the wisdom of God. the wisdom of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear the wisdom of God. This
is truly happy. Moses was able to say, happy
art thou, O Israel, what people is like unto thee, saved in the
Lord with an everlasting salvation. Happy are thy men. A greater
than Solomon is here. So this evening I'm taking more
of the contrast. The contrast between how much
greater Christ is, and how opposite he was in so many ways to Solomon. We have these similarities, but
we also have those contrasts. Behold, a greater than Solomon
is here. So the Lord as the head of the
church, this is what he does. We read this in 2 Corinthians
5 verse 17. Therefore if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. You
see, there's a change. You don't carry on in your old
idol worship. You don't carry on worshipping
your false gods and still attach yourselves to the Lord Jesus
Christ. No, old things are passed away. Behold, all things have
become new. And all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
us to the ministry and given to us the ministry of reconciliation."
Oh, what a vast difference to Solomon. Solomon gave them a
ministry, as it were, of separation from God with all his idolatry. The Lord Jesus gives us a ministry
of reconciliation, to wit that God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. See
Solomon in a way imputed his sin to the whole of Israel and
the whole of Israel suffered. The Lord Jesus takes the sin
of His church, makes it His own. He takes His righteousness, that
robe of righteousness that He worked out without any flaw. He was holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. And then we read, for he hath
made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. You see this imputation
going both ways. The sin of the church being laid
on Christ, and the righteousness of Christ being imputed to the
bride. What an exchange. What a glorious
husband our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is to his church. He's a glorious one. He is a
precious one. Well, you see, the Queen of the
South shall rise up in judgment with this generation and to condemn
it. For she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the
wisdom of Solomon. And behold, a greater than Solomon
is here. One who is truly great. One who
truly deserves our praise. One who in eternity will be worthy
is the Lamb. This great one. Well, how is it with us? What think ye of Christ is the
test? How important is the Lord Jesus
to you? Is he everything to you? Is he
your Saviour? Is he your Redeemer? Are you
seeking him earnestly? Or are you more interested in
the whims and the fancies And the things of this world, the
fads of this world, just some glorious thing that happens here,
that is for a short time, is that what we glory in? Or do
we see a glory in this one who left glory to save his people
from their sins? Such a difference. There's another. word in Colossians
chapter 1 and verse 19, for it pleased the Father that in him
should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself, by him I say whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies
in your mind, we were far off from God, by wicked works, yet
now hath he reconciled. He's brought together these offended
parties. The fact that we was far off
from God. The Lord Jesus has laid down
his life to bring his church back to God. He loved the church
and gave himself for it. He was going to present it as
a glorious church, having neither spot nor wrinkle. There is another aspect that
I just want to speak briefly on regarding Solomon. It always, I felt, very strange
to me why that somebody so wise should have done such a thing
and be allowed to do such a thing as Solomon did. To take so many
wives and wives of all the different nations and why would this be? Why would God have allowed such
a type in Solomon? A type which was meant to be
in many ways like himself, a greater than Solomon. There was meant
to be similarity between Solomon and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us turn to the Song of Solomon. That is a song which is the love
between Christ and his church, which is portrayed, you see,
by Solomon. Solomon was one that had that
love to his bride, and that is portrayed as the love between
the bridegroom and the bride, the Church of God and the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is portrayed in this song. And as we look at Song of Solomon,
chapter 1, we start with these words. The Song of Songs, which
is Solomon. Let him kiss me with the kisses
of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine. Because of
the savour of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured
forth. Therefore do the virgins love
thee. Draw me, we will run after thee,
plural. The king hath brought me into
his chambers, we will be glad and rejoice in thee. We will
remember thy love more than wine, the upright love thee. What Solomon did in having these
many wives was clearly forbidden in the word of God and I'm sure
it was wrong what he did and he was not blessed for it in
many ways. And yet I do believe that in
type there was something that was portraying the glorious work
of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see he has a bride. And those
bride, in one sense it's one bride, but in another sense it's
every child of God. The innumerable, the company
that no man can number of every kindred, nation, tribe and tongue
which will come and be that bride of Christ. And each one of those
will have individual fellowship with Christ. And yet they're all one bride.
And in a sense there is that with Solomon. There was this
multitude of these wives that he had, and yet they each had
that individual love and attention from the King Solomon. So the Lord Jesus has that intimacy
with each. And you'd say if Solomon had
conducted a normal married life with one lady, then if she was
able to say, well, this is my beloved, you think of when it
describes, what is thy beloved more than another beloved? You'd
say, well, my beloved is very precious and so on, but the fact
that I'm his wife means that you can't be, because there's
just one woman for one man. And think of it in the Church
of God. We don't say, well, one Christian's found that Christ
is everything to them. They've had fellowship with the
beloved. They've had true union with Christ. They don't say,
well, I've had union with Christ, so I'm sorry, but you can't.
No. If you read the Song of Solomon,
it says, I've known this beloved, you can know him too. you can
also have fellowship with this Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
And I see this in the Song of Solomon. You see there's that
personalness right through the Bible, right through the Song
of Solomon, this one who has fellowship with King Solomon,
as it were, in the imagery, but it's really with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And yet there's the plurality, there's many individuals. draw
me we will run after thee. There's plural, there's many,
there's each of the children of God. In verse 7 of chapter 1, it says,
Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where
thou makest thy flock to rest at noon? For why should I be
as one that turneth aside by the flock of thy companions?
Why should I be left out? Well, you say, if you have a
wife that's married to a husband, then that means every other woman
is shut out. There's no place for them. There's
no right place in the relationship that God has left on record.
But you see here it's, if thou know not, O thou fairest among
women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed
thy kids beside the shepherd's tent. You see, there's an ability
for those to come and also join in, to know this bridegroom.
This is this relationship between Christ and his church. He loved
the church and gave himself for it. He wants that communion and
union with each individual member. But that union that he has does
not mean that the others cannot also come. And what a precious
thing that is that we have. an individual relationship with
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which does not mutually exclude
anybody else. It does not mean that I have
a relationship and therefore you don't. and find this one for ourselves.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart. My yoke is easy, and
my burden is light. Solomon, you see, a greater than
Solomon is here. Solomon's burden was heavy. His
yoke was heavy. The Lord Jesus says, my yoke
is easy and my burden is light. Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. We come
back then to this great question. The Queen of the South shall
rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it. For she
came from the uttermost parts of the earth. She made so much
effort to come and find Solomon, and to really find out, was it
as good as the report she had heard? Well, in seeking to preach
the Gospel here today, we would humbly say we have a
much greater than Solomon. We have one who is far more glorious,
far more precious, far more worthy of our eternal praise. He will
be sung to throughout the ashes of a never-ending eternity, worthy
is the Lamb that was slain. I would say in the words of Solomon,
this is my beloved and this is my friend. O ye daughters of
Jerusalem, and because I have known him, it doesn't mean that
you can't. Come and know this one, come
and seek, come and find him whom your soul loves. Well, may we
then come and not be found despising this greater than Solomon, but
that we may flee to him and find that he has never sent any empty
away. He keeps them knocking, perhaps,
but he will open. I have not said, to the seed
of Jacob, seek ye me in vain. May we come then and know this
Saviour for ourselves, who is, indeed, greater than Solomon. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.