GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
2 CHRONICLES 9:29-31
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29 As for the rest of the acts of Solomon, from first to last, are they not written in the records of Nathan the prophet, in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat? 30 Solomon reigned in Jerusalem and over all Israel for forty years. 31 Then Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son became king after him.
Solomon died in the year 930 BC. The last recorded events of his reign are not recorded here in Chronicles. In 1 Kings we learn about various troubles the king faced. I already covered these things in our devotions on that book, but here they are again briefly:
1, Solomon married too many wives. The command of God in the Garden of Eden was for a man to take one wife for himself, and the two of them would be one flesh (Genesis 2:24). More than that, the king was specifically commanded “not to take many wives” (Deuteronomy 17:17). But Solomon also let his many wives distract him and turn his heart away from the Lord (1 Kings 11:9). His idolatry that followed led to the kingdom being torn away from his son Rehoboam.
2, An Edomite prince named Hadad had escaped an attack by Joab in King David’s time, and although still a boy, he had found favor with the Pharaoh of Egypt (probably Siamun) and even married that Pharaoh’s sister-in-law. When he wanted to go and make trouble in Solomon’s time, the Pharaoh was reluctant to let him do it, so he seems to be a threat who remained on the horizon.
The Hebrew word for “adversary” or prosecuting attorney is satan; no wonder they used that word as one of their names for the devil. Since Hadad is called an “adversary” (Hebrew satan), we compare this with Solomon’s words early on in his reign that there was “no adversary” (satan, 1 Kings 5:4) at the time when he began to build the temple, we can date this threat to some time after Solomon’s fourth year.
3, Another “adversary” (satan) for Solomon was in the far north, near Damascus. This was a rebel bandit named Rezon. He was “Israel’s adversary as long as Solomon lived” and became the ruler of Aram. He is not to be confused with the later Rezin who was king of Aram in Isaiah’s time (Isaiah 7:1; 2 Kings 15:37). Solomon’s foe Rezon was an outlaw attacking travelers and making himself a nuisance. Solomon wrote: “Do not lie in wait like an outlaw against a righteous man’s house; do not raid his dwelling place, for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity” (Proverbs 24:15-16). Several other proverbs of Solomon warn believers about bandits, always with the message: “Don’t be like that” (Proverbs 6:11; 23:28; 24:34).
4, Finally, there was one of Solomon’s officials, the man in charge of the whole work force of Joseph, whose name was Jeroboam. He fled to Shishak, the Pharaoh of Egypt, until after Solomon’s death. Since Shishak ruled from about 943-922, Jeroboam’s flight must have happened during the final 13 years of Solomon’s reign– one of the last generally verifiable dates in Solomon’s later years.
Solomon’s son Rehoboam was born the year before David died, so when Solomon’s forty-year reign ended, Rehoboam was forty-one (2 Chronicles 12:12). Solomon’s grandson Abijah ruled just three years after his father’s seventeen-year reign, and we can guess that he had known his grandfather Solomon. It was his son, Asa, who was the first of only a handful of good kings of Judah. Asa’s reign was longer than Solomon’s (1 Kings 15:10).
Our author tells us that records of Solomon’s acts were kept by three different prophets, including Nathan (David’s seer, 2 Samuel 12:1), the northern prophet Ahijah from Shiloh (see also 1 Kings 11:29 and 2 Chronicles 10:15), and Iddo the seer who was especially concerned with genealogies (2 Chronicles 12:15). These men were prophets, and the Lord used his prophets to record what we call the historical books of the Old Testament.
These prophets are held up as sources so that anyone who wishes to could check the information presented. This is also what Paul does in 1 Corinthians 15:5-8, when he lists more than five hundred eyewitnesses to Christ’s resurrection, including such respectable sources as Peter and the Twelve Apostles, James, all of the other Apostles, a group of more than five hundred of the brothers (“most of whom are still living,” Paul writes), and least of all, Paul himself. Go and ask any of them, he is saying, and the account will not change. So it was with this presentation of Solomon’s reign. Nathan wrote about the beginning years (perhaps including the construction of the temple), Ahijah about the transition up to and after Solomon’s death, and Iddo the seer for many of the other details.
Solomon was born sometime after 990 BC. He was about twenty or not quite twenty when he took the throne, and therefore he was around 59 or 60 when he died. He had extended the borders of Israel to their greatest limits. He built the temple David had dreamed about with God’s blessing. Many commentators miss an opportunity when they talk about Solomon’s account in Chronicles. They think that Solomon’s sins are overlooked only to paint a better picture of the king. But consider the illustration that our author gives. No one who reads Chronicles is unaware of Kings. Everybody knows about Solomon’s thousand wives, his idolatry, and so on. So does God. There is no hiding those things. But God forgives sin. What does God see of everyone in the Judgment? He see our faith. Did we have faith in the Savior Jesus Christ, and did we show our faith in our lives, or hide it under the bed? For those with faith in Christ, we will be surprised about God’s judgment: I did such things? I don’t remember that, O God Most High! But he will show us what even we missed. Our account before God will look like Solomon’s, scrubbed free of sin and every downfall. Even such dreadful sins as sexual immorality, infidelity, adultery, polygamy, and idolatry, are erased by the blood of Jesus Christ for those who repent and who bow their knee before God Almighty. We put our faith in his Son, and we stand purified and cleansed of all sin for all eternity. No one– not even the real Adversary, the real Satan– will ever say, “Remember his sins? Remember her unfaithfulness?” How can anyone remember what God himself has tossed away as far as the east is from the west? Your place with Jesus Christ your Lord is secure.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 2 Chronicles 9:29-31 Satan and the death of Solomon