The King’s English

Job 38:1-41

“Brace yourself.”

“Get ready to take it like a man.”

“Roll up your sleeves, there’s work to be done.”

These are all rough modern equivalents to “gird up thy loins.”  Essentially it’s a command to gather up your loose hanging robes (etc!), in a belt because action is called for.

But perhaps we’re surprised at its use in the book of Job.

In chapters 1 and 2, the reader gets a glimpse into heaven.  From the outset we see what lies behind the sufferings of Job.  But from chapter 3 onwards the camera pans down to earth.  And for the next 35 chapters, all we hear are earthly opinions about the workings of heaven.  Job and his miserable comforters debate the whys and wherefores of suffering.  But suddenly in Job 38:1 “the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind.”

“Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.  Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding”.  (Job 38:3-4)

This line of questioning continues for four chapters.  It is intense, unanswerable and relentless.

Is this what we expect after all the sufferings of Job?

If we were writing the story, surely we’d conclude things with Job and the LORD having a lovely cup of tea while angels give the poor man a back-rub.

But instead, Job gets an earth-shattering experience of the LORD Almighty.  His eyes are dramatically lifted from himself and his situation and  fixed instead on this Warrior, Creatorand Commander who speaks from the midst of a tornado.  Job experiences the LORD’s incomparable wisdom in surround sound. After a heck of a lot of speeches in the book, the LORD has the last word and Job is rendered speechless.

You might call this, putting Job in his place.  And actually it is absolutely for Job’s good.  The whole point of the LORD’s rhetorical questions — Did you make this world?  Do you know how it works? — is to lift the burdens of deity from his shoulders.

You see, whenever we try to balance the scales of sufferings and blessings, we put ourselves in the place of God.  If we imagine that we can justify X amount of suffering because of Y amount of sin or  its beneficial outcome, Z, we are overstepping our limitations as creatures.  We must trust to the Lord the redemption of all evil.  And we can trust to the Lord the redemption of all evil.  That’s because at Easter, He has suffered the ultimate evil and turned it into the ultimate good.

We cannot make sense of suffering by doing some kind of double-entry accounting.  If we do that we play God and we’d better gird up our loins for His response!

No, we leave the redemption of evil in the hands of our Redeemer.  It’s not our job to rationalize good and evil – in fact doing so sounds very much like our original sin.  But the tree on which good and evil is really known is the cross.  There Christ doesn’t just “make sense” of evil, He makes good.

In the course of the book, Job asks God “why” he’s suffering 20 times.  He never gets an answer.  But he does get an experience of the LORD Almighty.  And that’s better.  In our suffering, do we want the reasons or do we want the Redeemer?  The reasons aren’t promised.  The Redeemer is.

Job 19:21-29

What phrases do you use in consolation?  Imagine that you have some bad news to tell:

“My credit cards have been stolen, they’ve cleared out my bank account…”

How do you finish that sentence?

…still, worse things happen at sea

… serves me right for being so careless

… I suppose I’m just cursed

… oh well, mustn’t grumble

… I guess I should count my blessings

… but people in Africa are starving

… at least I have my health

… such is life

Whatever we tack onto the end of our stories of suffering gives a little window onto our theology of suffering.  Yet none of the lines above are a Christian response to suffering.

Recently, though, I heard a wonderful line.  It came from a woman suffering from terminal cancer.  How would you finish a sentence that begins “I have 6 months to live”?  She said, “…Still, nothing a resurrection won’t fix.”  Now that’s Christian consolation.

And it’s the very heart of the book of Job.  In amongst all the suffering there is resurrection hope:

“I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.  Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.” (Job 19:25-27)

Let me highlight four words from this.

First Redeemer.

Who does Job look forward to seeing?  Not just his Saviour – someone who would rescue him out of suffering.  Job looks forward to seeing His Redeemer.  That’s different.  A Redeemer won’t just pull me out of the pit.  A Redeemer will join me in it and transform the pit to paradise.  That’s very different.

Jesus is not a Replacer, snatching away the old and giving us something entirely different.  He’s a Redeemer who comes into our suffering and transforms it.

Think of Doubting Thomas.  When Thomas finally confesses Jesus to be “My Lord and My God” (John 20:28), what was he looking at?  He was looking at scars!  Jesus had bared His wounds to Thomas and told him to “behold” his hands and side.  And beholding the wounds of Jesus, Thomas sees the glory of his Lord and God.

Here’s the point: Jesus did not cast off his wounds in the resurrection. His wounds were redeemed in the resurrection.  They were transformed into badges of divine glory.  And what Jesus did with His wounds, He will do with all our wounds.  Through His resurrection He will not sweep aside our frailties and failures – He will transform them.

Often when we suffer we simply want rid of the situation.  But Jesus wants to do something better.  He doesn’t waste our suffering.  He never considers it a dead loss.  Somehow he will redeem the situation.  Somehow He will redeem every situation.  The scars we bear will become scar stories and testimonies to His grace.  If Jesus can redeem the suffering of the cross then He can and He will redeem any suffering – yours included.

The second word to highlight is earth.

Job is not looking forward to escaping this nasty planet and wafting around in some spiritual dimension.  Only the very pious can derive comfort from the prospect of clouds and harps and eternal prayer meetings.  But Job knows that God’s future is here on planet earth.  Earth is not going onto the trash heap.  No, Christ is going to redeem this suffering world and raise it to new life.

So on Easter Sunday, after Jesus rose from the dead, what did He do to give us a picture of resurrection life?  He went for country walks, spent time with His fishing buddies, He cooked breakfast on the beach and He ate many meals.  Resurrection life will be very earthy life.  Because the future is here on a redeemed planet earth.  Our hope is earthed which makes it a hope that can sustain sufferers.

The third word to emphasize is flesh.  Job’s skin will be destroyed, but in his flesh he will see God.  There would be a bodily perishing, but a no-less bodily resurrection also.  And he testifies that his own eyes will see God.  That’s a stunning thought.  The eyes with which you read this sentence – they are the eyes which will see Jesus.  It is these hands which will cling to Him.  These vocal cords will sing in His presence.  They will first perish, yes.  But after passing through death, they will be redeemed, resurrected.  In this flesh I will see God.

Which means Job won’t just know his children in some kind of afterlife – he will hold them.  He will walk with them.  He will eat with them.  We have a physical future to look forward to.  What a precious truth that is, especially for those incapacitated by their sufferings.  As Isaiah  prophesied:

The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.  Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.  (Isaiah 35:5-7)

Finally, let’s think about the word see.

As wonderful as our physical future will be, the centre of our hope is this: we shall see God.

Job has endured terrible suffering and he’s never known why.  The reader knows – we see into heaven – Job does not.  But one day Job will see God – face to face.   He will know God even as He is known (1 Corinthians 13:12).  All God’s ways will be transparent to Job.  And they will be transparent to us also.  Then we will happily look on Beauty Himself.

Whatever you’re going through today, allow these words from Handel’s Messiah to shape your hope for the future…

I Know That My Redeemer Liveth
And that He shall stand
At the latter day
Upon the earth

And though worms destroy this body
Yet in my flesh shall I see God

For now is Christ risen
From the dead
The first fruits of them that sleep

I know that my Redeemer lives
I know that Christ is risen
Yes, I know my Redeemer lives

Job 19:1-20

Here’s one of the more famous phrases in the Bible.  We’ve probably all used it.  And we’ve probably used it in its biblical sense –to describe an extremely narrow escape.  But if we were asked to explain it, perhaps we’d struggle.  Why “skin of my teeth”?  Why not “hair of my kidneys”?  Or “lips of my elbow”?  That would seem to make as much sense.

Job is talking about an “escape” that’s so unlikely it seems impossible.  The fact that my teeth don’t have skin is precisely the point.  My escape is as implausible as my teeth having skin.

What does Job need to escape from?  Well, let’s start with his circumstances.  They are pretty dire:

“I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.  My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.  Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.  All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.  My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth”. (Job 19:16-20)

Everyone around Job seems to be against him.  But if that weren’t bad enough, verses 9-11 speak of God being against him too:

“He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.  He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.  He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies”.  (Job 19:9-11)

We’ve been thinking of Job as the story of “man” and so these verses are particularly apt.  Stripped of his glory and crown, man is now God’s enemy.

Nothing in man’s circumstances and nothing in his natural state before God can possibly give him hope.  Yet he does have a hope.  Tomorrow we will think about the one hope for Job (the one hope for man) – “I know that my Redeemer liveth” (Job 19:25).

But the context for this hope is despair in his own situation.  Man’s salvation is completely unnatural – a “skin of my teeth” kind of escape.  It has nothing to do with me and my circumstances and everything to do with my Redeemer.

John Calvin describes it poignantly:

“Everything by which we are surrounded conflicts with the promise of God.  He promises us immortality, but we are encompassed with mortality and corruption.  He pronounces that we are righteous in His sight, but we are engulfed in sin.  He declares His favour and goodwill towards us, but we are threatened by the tokens of his wrath.  What can we do?  It is His will that we should shut our eyes to what we are and have, in order that nothing may impede or even check our faith in Him.”

This is a gospel for sufferers.  Those who suffer know they have nothing.  You can’t tell Job that “worse things happen at sea” – in his case, it’s just not true.  It’s as bad as it gets.  Those who suffer know that there’s nothing in their immediate circumstances that would give them hope.

Yet here is the gospel: our salvation lies entirely above our circumstances and above ourselves.  It lies in Christ our Redeemer.  For now “we shut our eyes to what we are and have” – nothing around us will give us comfort.  But there is One above us who can be trusted – He provides our escape:

our life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.  (Colossians 3:3-4)

Job 5:1-7; 6:1-10

When two massive egos clash we say that “sparks fly.”  But in Job, when “man” meets “world”   that’s when the sparks fly.

As we’ve been reading, the book of Job is the story of man.  And at its heart is the question of innocent suffering.  Is there such a thing?  His miserable comforters say no.  And actually humanity has a lot invested in saying no.  We would love to believe that our lives are in our own hands and that our efforts can save us.  But if that’s true then trouble is earned.

The Book of Job tells us the truth about trouble:

“Although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground; Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.” (Job 5:6-7)

Notice here that this doesn’t say “Existence is suffering.”  Creation isn’t the “trouble”.  The problem is not with physicality or the natural world.  In Genesis, both “dust” and “the ground” are said to be the raw materials of “man”. But “man’s” matter is not the matter.  Instead there’s something about man in the world that inevitably leads to trouble.

This is because man’s story is one of falling and rising.  In Adam man tumbles down.  All who are born in Him are born to trouble.  Yet Christ came as the last Adam.  He takes our trouble on Himself.  He is the One who is supremely born to trouble.  In fact it’s His trouble – the cross – that defines the direction of travel for all men.  It’s not the last word, but it is the path all must tread.  However,  it’s trouble that has a happy ending.

So then in your affliction there’s bad news and good news.  The bad news is, you’ve been born to it.  But, if you belong to Christ, you’re born again to a renewed humanity.  For the Christian there’s a sequel to the verse.  After trouble and through trouble we can be certain: As surely as sparks rise – so will the believer!

The Apostle Peter gets that balance between falling and rising just right:

“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy”.  (1 Peter 4:12-13)

Job 2:1-3:10

The world cannot abide innocent suffering.  It unnerves us, to put it mildly.  Some of this is compassion.  But much of it is fear and selfishness.

Our (unconscious) thought processes go something like this:  If tragedy really is indiscriminate, then the world is an unsafe place in which to make my home.  If my careful preparations, my hard work, my risk assessments, health and safety policies, due diligence, fitness regimes, good diet and general moral rectitude can’t protect me from suffering  then…  dear me, I may have to face the world depending only on the LORD who “giveth and taketh away”.  That’s an unbearable prospect for natural humanity.

So when our friend is sick we feel a twinge of empathy.  But if they persist in being ill, it’s amazing how quickly compassion turns to criticism.

– You need to try Goji berries, anti-oxidants will do the trick
– I started doing X and my life’s never been the same, you should try it
– I read an article saying it’s caused by Y, you should cut Y out
– I hate  to say it, but I saw this coming, you should have been more Z…

We assume that life works according to laws.  Keep the laws, life goes well.  Break the laws and pay the price.  It’s easy for the advice-givers to say this, because their happy circumstances prove what they want to believe: that their life is in their hands and their good works will save them.

Job had to endure such “miserable comforters.”  In fact he coined the phrase “miserable comforters” (Job 16:2) and for the best part of four millennia we’ve found it to be true!

Yesterday we saw the sufferings of Job – he loses his sons and daughters, his livestock and his servants on a single day.  His family and his wealth are devastated.  Then in Job chapter 2, he loses his health as well.

[Satan] smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.  (Job 2:7-8)

When Job’s friends hear about it, they do the right thing:

When Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.  And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.  So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.  (Job 2:11-13)

Job’s friends come in sympathy, they sit with him and are silent.  In the entire book, it’s the best thing they do.  For a whole week they bite their tongues.  It’s when they open their mouths that the trouble starts.

First we hear from Eliphaz.  Here’s a snapshot of his philosophy:

“Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off?”  (Job 4:7)

Eliphaz has no category for righteous suffering.  Therefore Job’s suffering means unrighteousness, and Eliphaz doesn’t mind pointing it out.

Job takes a few chapters to respond – he really is innocent and he really is suffering.  But Bildad has had enough of his defense.  He pipes up in chapter 8:

Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,  “How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?  Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice?  If thy children have sinned against him, and he have cast them away for their transgression;  If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;  If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous”.  (Job 8:1-6)

Do you hear what Bildad is saying?  Your children had it coming to them and if you were truly upright you wouldn’t suffer like this!

Poor Job! With friends like these…

Well in chapters 9 and 10 Job continues to insist – this really is innocent suffering.  Job continually stresses both things – it’s truly undeserved and it’s truly awful.  But our human nature can’t handle that.  So Zophar speaks up for miserable comforters everywhere.  Yes Job, he argues, things are bad now but…

“If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him;  If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.  For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear”:  (Job 11:13-15)

Be more devoted Job, then things will turn out alright!

What can be said to that?  Some withering sarcasm seems best!

And Job answered and said,  “No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you!” (Job 12:1)

It’s a wonderful riposte from Job!  But the advice of these friends is no laughing matter.  It’s torment!  Job says to them:

“How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?” (Job 19:2)

But this is where all “comfort” ends if the comforters don’t know the grace of God.  If friends don’t have Jesus Christ – the Innocent Sufferer – at the heart of their thoughts and actions, they will end up tormenting the sufferers.  They will only lay extra laws on those who are already burdened.

But thankfully, Job knew another Friend.  He speaks of Him in chapter 16.  Let me give you a more modern translation of it:

“Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend”.  (Job 16:19-21; NIV)

No-one on earth seems to believe in innocent suffering.  But Job knows One in heaven who certainly does.  This Friend in high places would suffer for the sins of the world, and He is Job’s Witness, Advocate, Intercessor and Friend.

Meditate now on each of those roles: Witness, Advocate, Intercessor and Friend.  In suffering, Christ is the one true comfort.  All our comfort must lead back to Him.

Job 1:1-22

Job is a very old book.  Many scholars consider him to be a rough contemporary of Abraham.  That’s almost 2000 years before Jesus took flesh.  It might even have been the first biblical book to be written down.  Yet it appears fairly much in the middle of our Bibles.  This is because of the genre.  It’s “wisdom literature” – like Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs – so it gets lumped in with them.  Wisdom literature is not fast food: it’s Scripture you have to chew on slowly.  It’s often full of riddles and rhymes and elaborate picture language.  Job is no exception.

The story of Job is the story of Man.

We begin in Uz, which is Hebrew for “a wooded place.”  And this wooded place is “in the east.”  Like Eden.

There’s a man, Job, who is in charge of many animals and whose life seems to be going perfectly.  Like in Eden.

Then Satan pokes his nose in and everything’s ruined.  Like in Eden.

Here’s how it happens.  It seems like there are occasional meetings in heaven at which all angels – fallen and unfallen – attend.  And at one such gathering, the LORD mentions how proud He is of Job.  Satan replies:

“Doth Job fear God for nought?  Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.  But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face”.  (Job 1:9-11)

This gives us a fascinating insight into Satan.  He cannot comprehend a person worshipping God unless they are paid to do so.  He is certain that if the LORD removes divine protection and provision, Job will have no reason to pay any respects.  Satan assumes we only love God for the stuff we get out of Him.  To put it plainly, he considers us gold-diggers.  And when the money dries up, we’ll want a divorce.

The trouble is, in the vast majority of cases he’s right!  Mostly we are mercenaries.  Mostly we do want His things, but not Him.  And the proof is this: What do we do when the things are taken away?

Well, we shall see.  Because Satan is permitted to ruin Job’s life in a quite devastating way.

In verses 13-19 we read how Job loses his sons, his daughters, his servants and his livestock in four consecutive waves of tragedy.

It’s like the phone ringing again and again with disaster after disaster.  He has lost all his wealth and all his children in one fell swoop.  What’s his response?

“Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,  And said, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD”. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.”  (Job 1:20-22)

Satan was wrong.  Job’s response is incredibly different to the natural human response.  He grieves, yes.  He expresses the deepest sorrow.  But he blesses God in the midst of unfathomable tragedy.  And by ‘turning the other cheek’ to this evil (so to speak), Job resists the devil and gains victory.

Who is Job?  How can he be so different?  Over the course of the next week we’ll study some more of his phrases.  We will see how he represents true Man.  He is showing us here the victory of Jesus Christ who defeats Satan not apart from suffering but in it.

For now, note Job’s complete lack of entitlement.  He doesn’t claim that he is “owed” by God.  Instead he is profoundly aware that everything is a gift.  He handles suffering through a deep appreciation for the grace of God.  He doesn’t think, “I don’t deserve this” and he avoids the despair of thinking “perhaps I do deserve this.”  The language of “deserving” is the language of his “miserable comforters” as we’ll see.  Job rejects this language.  He has a healthy understanding of the grace of God who doesn’t “pay and exact”, but Who “gives and takes away.”

Job doesn’t wave his accomplishments in God’s face with a defiant “Why me!?”  Nor does he search his soul for failures to explain “Why me!?”  He realizes that God deals in gifts and not wages.  This frees him to grieve without hardening or disintegrating.

None of us can avoid suffering.  It is the way of man (I’m using “man” in its all-inclusive King James sense!)  But before the storm hits, we can put the roof on.  And the roof, in this instance, is a deep conviction of the grace of God.  We will be greatly helped when suffering hits, if we remember now:

Everything in my life is God’s gift.  The good is His grace to bestow.  All lack is His right to withhold.  But I trust Him in all circumstances because I am not a gold-digger.  I am not in this relationship for the sake of the “stuff.”  I trust Jesus for the sake of having Jesus.  And, come what may, He is enough.

2 Chronicles 36:1-23

Usually when we get “carried away” it’s not so serious.  Perhaps we’re a little overcome by a bout of silliness.  Or we lose track of the time in conversation.  Or we go a bit far as we rant about some pet topic.

But getting “carried away” in the Bible was very serious.  The phrase is used about 60 times to refer to the people being uprooted from their land.  E.g.

“Judah was carried away out of their land.”  (2 Kings 25:21)

As we saw yesterday, the kingdom splits after Solomon.  Twenty northern kings later, “Israel” was “carried away” by the Assyrians.  And twenty southern kings later, “Judah” was “carried away” by the Babylonians.

It was an incredible wrench for the people of God.  In the original Hebrew, the verb for “carried away” was more literally “uncovered.”  The people felt naked.  This land of milk and honey was a tangible token of their new creation inheritance.  But now, just as Adam and Eve were booted out of paradise, so the people are booted out of the promised land.  Through disobedience, they are removed from the presence and favour of the LORD and put under a curse.

It’s in this period of exile that the people sing their lament:

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.  (Psalm 137:1)

For 70 years they are “carried away.”

Then in the 6th century BC there was a pseudo-return from exile.  The people rebuilt Jerusalem and its temple and physically resettled in the land.  But it wasn’ta real return.

Matthew chapter 1 (the first chapter of the New Testament) surveys the history of the people from Abraham to the birth of Christ.  And in verse 17 Matthew concludes:

“So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.”

The end of exile is not some ancient rebuilding project – but the Messiah. 

But here’s how He gives rest.  He carries His people home, by being carried away Himself.  Mark 15:1 says:

They bound Jesus, and carried him away, and delivered him to Pilate.

In judgement Jesus is handed over to the foreign ruler.   And on the cross He is stripped and uncovered, He is excommunicated – crucified outside the city, He endures the shame, He bears the curse, He suffers the estrangement, He pays for their sins.  Jesus is “carried away” to the place of uncleanness and death.

But then He rises up again at the Head of His people – the Heir of the world.  Now He is truly home – at the Father’s side.  And when He moves to earth with His Father, the whole world will be our promised land.

Are you feeling uprooted?  Uncovered?  Away from home?

If you belong to Jesus, He has carried you to the Father’s right hand.  He is the end of exile.  He is our true home.

2 Kings 20:1-21

The beginning of Solomon’s reign was far more illustrious than its end.  As with David his father, his downfall was a matter of the heart.  He should have been a man after the LORD’s heart.  And as christ he should surely have demonstrated faithful love for his bride,

“But king Solomon loved many strange women” (1 Kings 11:1)

No, not Lady Gaga.  These were women…

“…of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.  And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.”  (1 Kings 11:2-3)

Just imagine it.  A thousand mothers-in-law.  The end was nigh!

After Solomon died, the kingdom was split.  The northern kingdom (10 of the 12 tribes) was known as “Israel” and was ruled by Jeroboam.  After him came 19 more kings – all of them adjudged “evil” in the books of 1 and 2 Kings.  The northern kingdom was then “carried away” into exile by the invading Assyrians.

The southern kingdom (the tribes of Judah and Benjamin) was known as “Judah” and was ruled by Rehoboam.  After him came 19 kings also.  They did slightly better than their northern cousins but still, only 8 of them were adjudged “good”.  And eventually they too were “carried away” into exile by the invading Babylonians.

Our phrase for today comes around 200 years after Solomon’s reign.  Hezekiah was the King of Judah 13 generations after Solomon.  He began to reign aged 25, but just four years later, this is what happens:

In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, “Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live”.  (2 Kings 20:1)

Hezekiah pleads with the LORD and receives this answer from the prophet:

“I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD”.  (2 Kings 20:5)

Every phrase is dripping with resurrection importance.  But it’s only as we read on to the next chapter that we realize how crucial this healing was.  You see it wasn’t only Hezekiah who was saved from death.  He was granted an extra 15 years but when he finally died his son, Mannaseh, was just 12.  We suddenly realise that, when he fell ill, Hezekiah was childless.  If he had died, the seed of David would have died with him.

And so the LORD raises up the seed of David on the third day.  For the sake of the LORD’s house He is merciful and spares Hezekiah.  But only for 15 years.

Soon enough Hezekiah certainly “shalt die”!  And his house will have to be “put in order” again.  As will those of his children after him.  As we consider this line of kings, we might think that it’s these men who reign.  But no– it’s death that reigns.  Even Jesus, the Seed of David, will go down to death.  But His death is the death-killing Death.  And His resurrection is the life-giving Life.

Therefore with Jesus, it’s not so much a case of “thou shalt die and not live.”  It’s more a case of “thou shalt die and then live.”  And for all those who come to Jesus that becomes our pattern.  Dying then living.

Therefore we, like Hezekiah, should be ready for death.  We will go the way of all the earth.  But we won’t “put our house in order” with fear or fatalism, but in faith.  We will entrust ourselves to the Risen King who says: “Because I live, ye shall also live.”  (John 14:19)

1 Kings 4:29-34; 10:1-13

We love to tell jokes about stupid politicians.  Here’s one:

The President’s aide briefs him about international affairs: “‘Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed.”

“Please no!  How terrible!” exclaims the President, aghast.  His staff are amazed at such emotion.  He continues: “Tell me again, how many is a brazillion?”

Such jokes abound.  We are ever-ready to think the worst of our leaders’ intellect.  Why?  Because, deep down, we crave Someone with the wisdom of Solomon.

Here is how Solomon’s rule was described:

And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore.  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 Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol: 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.  (1 Kings 4:29-34)

A wise ruler!  Such a phenomenon attracts the notice of the whole world.  And his most famous admirer was the Queen of Sheba:

And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions.  And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.  And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not.  And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon’s wisdom, and the house that he had built,  and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her.  And she said to the king, “It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.  Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.   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 delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the LORD loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice”.  (1 Kings 10:1-9)

Have you ever had your questions properly answered?  Not just brushed under the carpet or drowned in jargon or side-tracked with answers to every question you didn’t ask?  Have you ever had your inquisitive itches truly and satisfyingly scratched?

And then, have you looked at the house of the person who answered them? And have you seen a corresponding peace and integrity to their lives?  The Queen of Sheba experienced this on a palatial scale.

But you and I can experience it on a cosmic scale.  There is a peace, a prosperity, a happiness and a wisdom to the rule of King Jesus that will take our breath away.

The queen of the south… came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.  (Matthew 12:42)

We can all have what was shown to the Queen of Sheba.  Only better.  And without the camel trains.  When Jesus said “Come to me and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28) – He was talking about an intellectual rest as much as anything.  The context of this offer of rest is the invitation to know Jesus.  (Matthew 11:27).  Jesus reveals the mind of God by His Spirit of Wisdom.  And when we learn from Him like little children, we find tremendous satisfaction and joy.

So don’t despise your leaders.  But don’t expect from them “the wisdom of Solomon” either.  There is a Ruler with supreme wisdom.  And whether you’re a queen or a commoner you can seek your answers and your happiness in Him.

1 Kings 3:1-28

“Cor,” they might say in some pan-regional accent, “It would take the wisdom of Solomon to sort that lot out!”

Solomon was the son of David and as such there must have been high hopes for him.  It was prophesied that the seed of David would build the house of God and sit on an eternal throne (2 Samuel 7:12-16).

Well Solomon does end up building the physical temple – replacing the old tabernacle.   This temple was the house of God, so to speak.  And the name Solomon means “Peace.”

Was Solomon the Son of David, the eternal King, the Prince of Peace, the Messiah?

No.  And his later years would make that abundantly clear.  But in the early years he pointed beautifully to the reign of Christ.  And it’s his wisdom that especially foretells Jesus’ reign.

It all came about in 1 Kings 3 when Solomon asked for wisdom from the LORD.

“Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?” And the speech pleased the LORD, that Solomon had asked this thing.  And God said unto him, “Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment; Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days”.  (1 Kings 3:9-13)

As with Samson’s strength, the Bible makes clear that Solomon’s wisdom is not a natural endowment.  This is a gift from the LORD.  God’s King would reign in the power of God’s Gift.  We’re being told that the Son rules in the power of the Spirit.  And the Spirit of Wisdom equips this christ to rule justly.

In the same chapter there is a famous example of Solomon’s wisdom (1 Kings 3:16-28).  Two prostitutes come to him.  Each had a son.  One of the sons has just died.  Solomon is faced with two competing claims.  The first woman currently has the dead child but says that the living child is hers.  She claims that the other woman swapped the children in the night. The second woman denies it.

Who is telling the truth?  To whom does the living child belong?

Well Solomon, full of the Wisdom of God, asks for a sword to be brought:

“Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other”.  (v25)

The first prostitute is aghast and says:

“O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it”.

And so Solomon discerns the true mother.  His wisdom has been proved.

It’s a wisdom that is able to judge between two women bearing two offspring.  This might remind us of the most ancient gospel promise: Genesis 3:15.  There will be “enmity” between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.  There will be righteous offspring  and wicked offspring.  One offspring unto life and the other unto death.

And in Solomon’s court there appeared a miniature version of this global truth.  One woman bears a living offspring, the other a dead offspring.  How can we tell who is who?  Here’s how: judge their response to the living one!  If they would be happy to see the living offspring die, then they are the liar and they have borne fruit unto death.  If they love and cherish the living offspring, they show themselves to truly belong to him – and he to them.

Solomon makes that most fundamental judgement call – discerning between those who cling to the living offspring, and those who wish him dead.  This was a single example of his wise rule.  But it gives a snapshot of a far greater judgement scene.

There will be a day when Christ, the true Son of David, will judge the whole earth.  Who could be equal to such a task?  To judge justly needs incredible discernment.  But on that day we will praise His Wisdom as “one greater than Solomon.”  We can have confidence that the world’s judgement is in good hands.  He is wiser than even wise Solomon.

But his criteria for judgement will be basically the same.  Those who love Him – the true Offspring, the living and life-giving One –will be given Him.  Those who do not love Him will not receive Him.  They will be left fruitless and dead.  This is what will divide the whole world.  And uniquely, Jesus has the wisdom to discern it in every man, woman and child.

On Solomon’s little judgement day, his kingdom resounded with tales of his wisdom.  But when we see the rightness of Christ’s cosmic judgement, both earth and heaven will combine to praise forever the Wisdom of Jesus.