Illuminations
046
Did He Need One?
Solomon—The King Without a Prophet
The fact is rarely noted. King Solomon didn’t have a prophet to bug him, to trouble him, to nag him. The contrast with other kings of Israel is striking.
Saul was the first king of Israel (c. 1020–1000 B.C.). He was virtually controlled by the prophet Samuel. From the time of Saul’s anointment to the day of his death, the personality of Samuel dominated him. It was, of course, Samuel to whom the people had turned for a king in the first place; the choice of Saul was entirely Samuel’s. Every action of Saul from that day forward was subject to Samuel’s critical review.
When Samuel failed to arrive seven days after the appointed time for a sacrifice at Gilgal and the people began to scatter, Saul made the seemingly logical decision to perform the burnt-offering without Samuel, surely a minor exercise of royal authority. Immediately afterward, however, Samuel arrived and demanded of Saul: “What have you done?” (1 Samuel 13:8).
Saul plausibly explains why he offered the sacrifice without Samuel, but Samuel retorts: “You acted foolishly in not keeping the commandments that the Lord your God laid upon you! Otherwise the Lord would have established your dynasty over Israel forever. But now your dynasty will not endure. The Lord will seek out a man after His own heart, and the Lord will appoint him ruler over His people, because you not abide by what the Lord had commanded you” (1 Samuel 13:13–14).
In another crucial incident, Saul betrayed the same dependence on Samuel when Saul failed to kill the Amalekite ruler Agag. Samuel informs Saul that God has utterly rejected him (1 Samuel 15). Saul’s unwillingness to kill Agag seems both moral and compassionate. But his wrong consisted of disobeying Samuel’s command which was based on divine authority. Even though Saul acknowledged his sin and begged for pardon, this was denied him. Saul became increasingly paranoid until Samuel’s rejection literally drove him from his senses.
Even after Samuel’s death, Saul struggled to exorcise the prophet’s spirit (1 Samuel 28) in one last attempt to gain his mentor’s favor. This effort, however, achieved for him nothing but a forewarning of his own death the next day. From beginning to end, Saul’s brief reign was haunted by the spectre of the prophet Samuel.
Prophetic influence on Saul’s successor, David, was small only by comparison with Saul. The prophets Nathan and Gad served as King David’s advisers and harsh critics during his 40-year reign (c. 1000–960 B.C.). It was Nathan who advised David to abandon his dream of building a permanent “house” for God (2 Samuel 7). It was also Nathan who fearlessly rebuked David for murdering Uriah the Hittite out of lust for Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife (2 Samuel 12:1–12).
When David decided to take a census, apparently for the purpose of conscription, the prophet Gad offered David a choice of punishments (2 Samuel 24:10–14). Gad also advised David how to atone for his transgression in “numbering” the people (2 Samuel 24:18).
Nathan’s influence reappears when David is old and ill. It was Nathan who conspired with Bathsheba to convince the dying king to declare his son Solomon heir to the throne (1 Kings 1:11–32).
It is true that Nathan, along with Zadok, the priest, anointed Solomon king (1 Kings 1:38–40). But after that the Bible records no incident in which any prophet confronts Solomon or deals with him in any capacity of whatever during his entire reign.
As described in the Bible, Solomon’s reign starts out on a high level but later descends to the depths. After his death, the kingdom split apart, into two separate kingdoms—Judah in the south and Israel the north. Never again would they be united (1 Kings 12:1–17).
At the beginning of Solomon’s reign, God appears to Solomon and tells him to ask what he will. Solomon’s answer is an eloquent prayer in which he acknowledges his littleness compared to God and asks only for the wisdom and understanding rule his people effectively (1 Kings 3:5–10).
Solomon grew increasingly wealthy as a result of his extraordinary abilities in establishing foreign trade and exploiting the land’s natural resources for industrial purposes. He embarked on a large-scale building program including the Temple, his palace, a palace for the Egyptian princess he had taken to wife, and even temples to the foreign gods of his foreign wives.
Such an extensive program required much money and a huge labor force, and so it was that Solomon, who had humbly asked of God only the understanding to judge his people wisely, now demanded of his subjects oppressive taxes and compulsory uncompensated labor.
Solomon’s many foreign wives soon led him into idolatry (1 Kings 11:4). From the monotheistic, sensitive, and prudent ruler described in 1 Kings 3, Solomon changes to the concupiscent patron of the gods Chemosh and Molech of 1 Kings 11.
One question stands out. Where was a prophet to warn him of his folly? Where were Nathan and Gad or someone like them 047to impress on Solomon that his policies would destroy the kingdom? Why did they not indict him for “going after” Ashtoreth and Milcom? No prophet arose to warn or condemn Solomon.
From one perspective, this prophetic failure, as it was, may account for Solomon’s ultimate failure as king of Israel and for the fact that immediately on his death his kingdom split in two.
It is, of course, possible that prophets did confront Solomon, but the Bible does not record them. This seems unlikely, however. Not long after Solomon’s death, his son Rehoboam mustered 180,000 Judahite troops to fight against the secessionist Israelite tribes of the north. But the prophet Shemaiah ordered Rehoboam’s troops, in the name of the Lord, to return home—and they did (1 Kings 12:21–24; compare 2 Chronicles 12:5–8).
Even while Solomon was alive, the prophet Ahijah prophesied to Jeroboam (the future king of the northern tribes of Israel) that the Lord “would tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hands” (1 Kings 11:31).
So prophets there were. And at least one of them saw what was happening. But they never went to Solomon himself, at least so far as the biblical record is concerned.
If they had gone to Solomon, it seems likely the Bible would have recorded it. As we see, the Bible records the confrontation between prophets and kings in the time of Saul and David. And throughout the period of the divided kingdom, prophets arise to pronounce the word of God to the rulers of Israel and Judah. If they had done so in Solomon’s time, why would such confrontations be deleted from the accounts of his reign?
lf the prophets failed to confront Solomon, the next question is, why? About this, we can only speculate. Perhaps it was because Solomon himself was something of a prophet. God appeared more directly to Solomon than to anyone since Moses. At Gibeon, God appeared to Solomon in a dream (1 Kings 3:5–14). During the building of the Temple, God’s word again came to Solomon in prophetic fashion, telling him that if he remained faithful to Him, God would dwell in the Temple and be with Israel forever (1 Kings 6:11–13; see also 1 Kings 9:1–9).
God also speaks directly to Solomon when he tells him he will tear the kingdom away from him because of his idolatry (1 Kings 11:11–13). Perhaps since Solomon heard the word of God directly, he or the prophets assumed he had no need for the counsel of any other prophet.
Another possible reason for the lack of prophetic criticism of Solomon was the tight protective web of bodyguards Solomon wove about himself—the Cherethites and the Pelethites, who surrounded the king with an aura of terror. If Solomon did not hesitate to eliminate Adonijah, Joab, and Shimei, then what might he do to an ordinary prophet?
Whatever the reason, however, it seems clear that no prophet arose to confront Solomon. Surely in his later years, when he turned to other gods and when he oppressed and alienated his own people with heavy taxes and forced labor, he badly needed a prophet. What the course of history might have been had a prophet arisen at this critical time in Israel’s history, no one can know.
Did He Need One?
Solomon—The King Without a Prophet
The fact is rarely noted. King Solomon didn’t have a prophet to bug him, to trouble him, to nag him. The contrast with other kings of Israel is striking.
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