Solomon: Architect Of God’s Kingdom Series

Solomon: Architect Of God’s Kingdom

Introduction…

God’s plan can never be fulfilled in one man but God can use a man to define the “vision” and then bring others in to fulfill it.

God used David to establish his kingdom and then God used Solomon to bring the kingdom to fulfillment.

David established Israel militarily. No Goliath was too big for David to defeat.

Then David defined the kingdom’s worship and praise. The Psalms illustrate that but many may not know that David invented many musical instruments. I’m not sure what all they were, but he brought instrumentation into the worship of God.

David also prepared the way for the building of the temple.

Solomon was used of God to bring this entire kingdom together under one sovereignty. His reign was a reign of peace and development and enlargement. He could build on what David had established.

Under Solomon, Israel was never and has never been bigger or greater. He established the kingdom as an economic giant in the world of his day.

What we will look at in the following months will be the kingdom of God as we see it defined particularly in Solomon’s Song of Songs.

It will be filled with much symbolism and to understand that symbolism is to appreciate the reality of God’s kingdom.

Theme…

Solomon is used by God to solidify Israel as a nation and is the bridge between David and the future/Christ. The perimeters of God’s kingdom is clearly outlined in the studies before us.

If I boil it down into a basic symbol, it would look like this.

David represents Christ leading up to his death. Throughout his life, Jesus confronted and defeated the enemy in every aspect. His death was a final victory over the enemy and brought to mankind the possibility of redemption.

Solomon represents the resurrected Christ. It is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ that brings to us the fulfillment of his kingdom with all the rights and privileges.

This will become more evident as we pursue our study.

There are only two kingdoms in this world.

There is the kingdom of this world, the ruler being Satan.

There is the kingdom of God, the ruler being Jesus Christ.

The question is, which kingdom do you belong to?

When you were born into this world, you were born into the kingdom of this world. Because of depravity, all are under the tyranny of the devil. This tyranny is expressed in three ways: The World… The Flesh… The Devil.

The devil holds a spiritual monopoly over the world.

Only redemption can set us free from this tyranny and bring us into God’s kingdom under the rulership of Jesus Christ.

Today my focus is simply on, how was Solomon uniquely used by God in establishing the premises of this kingdom?

Let me focus on three primary aspects of this.

The first aspect…

I. Solomon’s Commitment to His Father’s Vision.

(I Chronicles 22)

People often say it is “Solomon’s Temple.” In reality, it was designed, I believe, by David. He designed it and put together all the material necessary to build it and charged Solomon with building it.

David could not build the temple because of his bloodied hands. His reign was to make it possible for the Temple to be built but he himself could never build it.

That is why I refer to David in this category as a symbol of the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. Christ also had blood on his hands to redeem mankind.

Solomon could build the temple because his hands were not bloody. He benefited from David’s reign and everything he did was built upon what David did. Solomon’s reign was the fulfillment of David’s reign.

When Solomon became king, he took on the vision of his father and brought it to complete fulfillment. Solomon could not do what David could do and David could not do what Solomon could do. It took both to complete the plan of God.

Because Solomon was committed to his father’s vision of building the Temple unto Jehovah, God honored and blessed him with wisdom and prosperity.

It was not Solomon’s wisdom that designed the Temple but I believe it was David’s passion for God to put it all together. Solomon built upon the passion and vision of his father, David.

A second aspect is…

II. Solomon’s Confidence In His Father’s God.

(I Kings 3:5-9)

Confidence doesn’t come easily and with a man like Solomon, there had to be good reason for the confidence.

Solomon saw how God used and blessed his father David, and therefore he believed God could do the same for him. He understood how limited he was to deal with the job set before him.

I believe David was a great model for Solomon in trusting God for the work at hand. Perhaps Solomon was even a little overwhelmed at the task before him, but the testimony of his father’s confidence in God led him to that same position.