1 Kings chapter 4, and we're going
to read from verse 20. Judah and Israel were many, as
the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking
and making merry. And Solomon reigned over all
kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines and
unto the border of Egypt. They brought presents and served
Solomon all the days of his life. And Solomon's provision for one
day was thirty measures of fine flour and three score measures
of mule, ten fat oxen and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and
a hundred sheep beside harts and roebucks and fallow deer
and fatted fowl. For he had dominion over all
the region, on this side the river, from Tissa even to Azza,
over all the kings on this side the river, and he had peace on
all sides round about him. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely,
every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan
even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. and Solomon had 40,000
stalls of horses for his chariots and 12,000 horsemen. And those
officers provided victual for King Solomon, and for all that
came unto King Solomon's table, every man in his month, they
lacked nothing. Barley also, and straw for the
horses, and dromedaries brought they unto the place where the
officers were, every man according to his charge. And God gave Solomon
wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart,
even as the sand that is on the seashore. And Solomon's wisdom
excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country,
and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men,
than Ethan the Ezraite. and Hema, and Chalcol, and Darda,
the sons of Mahal, and his fame was in all nations round about.
And he spake three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand
and five. And he spake of trees from the
cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth
out of the wall. He spake also of beasts and of
fowl and of creeping things and of fishes. And there came of
all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon from all kings of
the earth, which had heard of his wisdom. Amen. May the Lord
bless to us this reading from his word. After the days of David
and the battles of his reign, he was always fighting with someone. Either he was fighting the nations
outside of the borders of Israel, or else he was putting down rebellions
from within his own land. There were numerous occasions
when the people rebelled and revolted against David during
his reign. But after this there was a time
of peace in Israel and Judah through all the days of Solomon. We ought not to imagine that
The Old Testament was only a time of fighting and battles. It seems
that when you look at the history of the kings, that which is recorded
seems to be a time of conflict and a time of trouble. And true
it is, there was much in the way of fighting in the Old Testament. But there were also times of
peace and prosperity. that were enjoyed by the people
over decades. Times when the Lord was gracious
to the children of Israel and blessed them. And here, the writer
of this book of Kings has a lovely phrase. He says that Judah and
Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and his fig tree. Everyone lived in safety without
fear of their neighbor. There was a time of plenty. And
I'm sure that, nevertheless, these people had to work. I'm
sure that they had to engage in the business of agriculture
and the labors that went along with it. But it was a time of
peace and a time of relative rest in that sense. And the work
that they did was rewarding. And the work that they did, they
benefited from personally. The land was fertile, the trees
were mature, fruit was abundant and there was numerous sources
of food and riches in the land. Food and wine. And Judah and
Israel, we're told, the people of God, were as many as the sand
which is by the sea in multitude. So there was lots and lots of
people eating and drinking and making merry. And the sense of
that is that here was a time of rest and peace in Israel. No enemy felt strong enough or
bold enough to attack Solomon's empire. The king was famous. His reputation went through all
the local countries, all the countries nearby. His power was
immense. His resources were vast. He had horses, chariots, herds,
and he had houses. He had strong military. He had
effective government. He had good organisation. He had plentiful supplies gathered
and gifted from the nations round about who were glad to pay tribute
to him and who enjoyed to be under the protection of his rule
and reign as satellite nations. And we find that this period
of time in which Solomon reigned allowed for stability and allowed
for prosperity in the whole region. Solomon had asked God at the
commencement of his reign that God would give him wisdom to
rule over Israel, a right to be the ruler who was able to
deal wisely in judgment with the people and for their needs. And so the Lord gave him great
wisdom. And the Lord, as he had told
him in the previous chapter, perhaps you'll remember, the
Lord told him that he would add to wisdom all the things that
he might have asked for, for his personal satisfaction, but
did not. So he would have riches and he
would have long life as long as he walked in the ways of the
Lord. And this was one of the wisest
men in the world. He was accomplished. There was
no one like Solomon. He was gifted in poetry and the
arts. He was proficient in science
and nature. He was skilled in architecture,
in astronomy, in administration, in medicine. and most especially
he was wise in spiritual matters. In spiritual understanding, he
wrote thousands of proverbs and songs. perhaps all of them having
this spiritual dimension to them. We don't have them all recorded
in our Bible, but we have many of them, and we can see the way
in which the wisdom of God is revealed and demonstrated in
this man Solomon's life. Some of them have been preserved
in our Bibles. And these were glorious days
in the land of Judah and Israel. God gave Solomon glory and that
glory shone upon the people of the land. But like all of these
scriptures, There's a spiritual picture to it as well. And we've seen that Solomon is
a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Solomon was filled with wisdom
and glory in order to point us to Jesus, who is the all-wise
and all-glorious one. He was given a kingdom in this
world to point us to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has
a kingdom in this world, which is the church. And like all of
these passages in the Old Testament, history and prophecies and poetry
and the revelation of God in the Old Testament through the
people of Israel, we find that the Holy Spirit has therein a
message for the church and the rule of Christ. Many in Israel
and beyond were in awe of Solomon. They thought that he was a great
king and powerful and wise. However, we should note this,
that everyone in this whole world will bow the knee to the Lord
Jesus Christ. There were many who thought that
Solomon's rule and reputation was extensive, but Christ's glory
is from everlasting to everlasting, and it is thoroughly comprehensive
and complete. There were many blessings to
be had in being ruled by Solomon. And there is every blessing to
be a citizen of the kingdom of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. To be a servant of the Most High
God is much better than ever being a servant of Solomon for
all his grandeur and his greatness. And the rest and prosperity that
was enjoyed in Judah and Israel is emblematic of the rest and
the blessing that exists in the soul of a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Yes, it is true that the church
and individual believers have battles to fight. We have enemies
to resist. We have troubles to endure. And we know a lot about that
because we think a lot about that. Whenever we're speaking
about the times of trouble and battles and strife in Israel,
these are the parallels that we are being directed to. But
here's the message, that there's also this element of rest. There is also this aspect in
which periods of rest are given to the church. The Lord gives
peace, the Lord gives ease of heart. He gives a period of prosperity
to his people, individually and collectively, congregationally,
perhaps. And in our Christian experience,
Like the Sabbath rest, this inscripture is directed to point us to the
Lord Jesus Christ and his completed work so that we no longer have
to work. in order to please God, but rather
place our trust in the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has pleased
God on our behalf and we rest in what he has done for us. We understand that by his blood,
he has gained forgiveness for our sins. We understand that
because of his perfections, we have a perfect righteousness
in God's sight. We understand that all of our
holiness and all of our acceptance with God is due to him and nothing
to do with ourselves. This rest doesn't mean that we
have no work to do. The fields still need to be ploughed
as they were in Solomon's Israel. People still worked and they
served the king. They drew all their strength
and enabling from His rule, but they still labored under His
charge. And that again is a picture of
the church. We too are laboring for our King. We labor for our Lord. We rest in Christ, but we draw
our joy and peace from the grace that is provided by Jesus. And we live in a fruitful land. In the days of Solomon, Israel
lived in a fruitful land, and we do as we trust in the Lord
Jesus. We live under the sound of gospel
doctrine that nourishes and refreshes our soul. We see our enemies
defeated by the Lord Jesus Christ. We have and share in the victories
that our great King has obtained. We enjoy the benefits of his
wisdom. We enjoy the counsel and kindness
of his goodness to us in his providences and in aspects of
our life. And we admire the accomplishments
of his hand as he has blessed us and the stability of his rule
in this kingdom. So this is a useful little passage
to show us some of the parallels that existed between Solomon's
reign and the blessings that flow to us in Christ. And sometimes
we feel as if our Christian experience is a constant battle. And there
is a sense in which that's true, but it's not the whole truth.
And we have a right and a privilege of looking to those aspects of
rest and peace and goodness that the Lord gives to us in our lives
as well. Recognize the blessedness of
the peace that we have in him and enjoy it. Recognize the gift
of spiritual joy that we have in him. and the end of fruitless
labor, trying to attain and achieve something that we never can by
our own labors. resting in the righteousness
of God and in Christ, looking forward to that eternal rest,
which the Lord Jesus Christ has for us. These two are genuine
experiences of faith, and they are our possession as well, who
trust the Lord. So let me just have a moment
or two more to draw out a few little lessons here from this
passage. While there is this sense that
we battle with sin and struggle with temptation day by day, there
is also this rest and joy and peace that comes from trusting
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we should look to experience
these things in our everyday life, to lean upon the promises
that the Lord has given us and to rest in the blessings that
the church possesses. We have a peace in trusting Christ. We have peace of conscience because
we know that our sins are forgiven. We have joy in knowing the Lord,
and he has promised to supply all our needs according to his
riches. Solomon was a great provider
for Judah and Israel, and Jesus Christ is the far greater provider
for all the needs of his people. All who trust Christ will find
him to be reliable and dependable and faithful and bountiful. And some of you who are here
today are younger, and I've been speaking to you about things
that are going on in your lives, and maybe it's school, maybe
it's exams, maybe it's jobs, maybe it's relationships, maybe
it's at home, maybe it's money. I don't know what it is that
causes you the issues in your life that make you a little bit
anxious and troubled. But the Lord will supply all
our needs. The Lord will supply all our
needs. That's a promise to believers
in scripture. He will give you peace in your
soul, peace in your heart, and peace in your mind, peace in
your life. The wisdom of Solomon was evident
to all who saw him, all who came into his company. And it is the Lord Jesus Christ
who has a wisdom that saves and keeps his people. Solomon said,
one of his wise sayings, one of his proverbs was, trust in
the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him
and he shall direct thy paths. That's where I'm going to wrap
it up today. But that's what the wisest man in the world said. That's what he said. He says
it to me and he says it to you. He said it to the people of his
age and he has said it by the Holy Spirit to every generation
that has had the scriptures set before them. The man Solomon,
For all of his glory and all of his greatness, for all of
his wisdom pointed us to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says,
trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine
own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him
and he shall direct thy paths. Thank you very much for listening.