CHAPTER XV
The Monarchy
Samuel - Kings
Agnes M. Lawson
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The Colorado College of Divine
Science
Denver, 1920.
The original
inhabitants of Jerusalem felt so secure,
the city being a natural fort, that they
contemptuously sent word to David,
“Thou shalt not come in thither,
but the blind and the lame shall turn
thee away.” Material walls in
themselves are no security; and the
mortal who puts his trust in them,
awakens to find the stronghold his no
longer. Constant vigilance is the price
we pay to hold forts, be they material or
spiritual; and as Jerusalem belongs to
him who can take it, David entered and
established his kingdom there. The
wandering tribes now had a capital and
during the reigns of David and Solomon
the nation reached the zenith of its
national power.
One great
sin darkens the pages of David’s
history; and the historian makes no
attempt to condone it either because
David is founder of the monarchy or the
popular hero of the race. Then we see the
“national conscience,” the
restraining hand of the prophet. Nathan
presented himself before the king, and
told him the story of a great wrong.
“There were two men in one city;
the one rich and the other poor. The rich
man had exceeding many flocks and herds;
but the poor man had nothing save one
little ewe lamb; which he had bought and
nourished up; and it grew up together
with him and his children; and it did eat
of his own morsel, and drink of his own
cup, and lay in his bosom and was to him
as a daughter. And there came a traveler
unto the rich man and he spared to take
of his own flock but took the poor
man’s lamb and dressed it for the
man who was come to him.” The anger
of the generous David was greatly
kindled, and he exclaimed: “As the
Lord liveth the man who hath done this
thing is worthy to die.” Nathan
answered: “THOU ART THE
MAN.”
In his own
household he had sinned, and to his own
household retribution came. There arose a
feud between the sons of David and
Absalom laid deliberate plans to depose
his father. Still David was always the
father, never the enemy of Absalom; and
though driven from Jerusalem again into
hiding, commanded his generals,
“Deal gently with the young man for
my sake.” He did not ask of the
returned courier the success of his own
army but, “Is it well with the
young man?” And it was not the
victor, but the father, who retired to
the chamber over the gate weeping,
“O my son Absalom! Would God I had
died for thee, O Absalom my son, my
son.” The kingdom belonged to
David, he had gained it; Saul could not
keep it from him; because he was friend
and father first and king last. The
spiritual fulfillment of our duties always
holds the external symbol true and
fast.
When Solomon
succeeded his father, the Lord appeared
to him in a dream by night, and said to
him: “Ask what I shall give
thee.” Solomon said: “Give
thy servant an understanding heart to
judge thy people, that I may discern
between good and evil.” The speech
pleased the Lord, who said to him:
“Because thou hast asked this
thing, and not asked for thyself long
life; neither hast asked riches for
thyself; nor hast asked the life of thine
enemies; lo, I have given thee a wise and
understanding heart; I have also given
thee that which thou hast not asked both
riches and honor, and I will lengthen thy
days.”
This,
however, is a “dream by
night”, it is not a day vision of
God. A “dream by night” may
be but a travesty of the Real. When we
read closely and searchingly into the
life of Solomon, we know this
“Lord” was such an one. He is
not our God; neither the wisdom he gives,
nor the gifts he bestows strike a
responsive chord in the soul. The
“understanding” of Solomon is
a cold judicial mind. “The heart
hath its arguments which the
understanding knows not of.” Who
cares for riches, honor or long life, if
love be lacking? Who that has found
infinite substance and has learned to
build therein cares for riches? Who that
has received the gift of “eternal
life,” knows aught of length of
days? He dwells out of time in
eternity.
There is
always something elementary in David, he
touches the soul of things and strikes a
chord to which we always respond; but try
as we will Solomon can never gain
entrance into our hearts. Competency we
grant him; executive power he certainly
has; he is magnificent and kingly in all
of his ways; but all about him, all that
he has relates to “this
world,” and though his kingdom
seems to be flourishing, we always feel
the rumble of disintegration. Unity is
lacking; the many strange women, his
political marriages with foreign powers,
all bringing with them their gods; and
Love, the combining power, is most
conspicuously absent. It is all a
spectacular play of scenic effects, the
curtain will drop and the scenes will all
be torn down. We come with the Queen of
Sheba, to admire his temple, his
buildings, his reservoir, his commerce;
but we leave him and say with the
Preacher, “For what hath man with
all his labor, and of the striving of his
heart wherein he laboreth under the sun?
For all his days are but sorrow, and his
travail is grief; yea, even in the night
time his heart taketh no rest. This also
is vanity.”
The children
of Israel pay the price for the king as
foretold by Samuel. Solomon’s
magnificence is built out of the flesh
and blood of his subjects, the nation has
been reduced to slavery. He built the
great temple with a levy of impressed
labor, “of stone made ready before
it was brought thither; so there was
neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of
iron heard in the house.” He built
a palace for himself that was thirteen
years in building; and another one for
the Egyptian princess whom he had
married. He had a great navy which allied
with that of the Phoenicians went as far
away as India. But it is a monarchy of
oriental splendor and despotism,
dissatisfaction is rife and its downfall
is imminent.
No master
but Love ever receives loyalty, and an
overseer whom Solomon had placed over the
northern portion of his kingdom, Israel,
was found guilty of intrigue, plotting
for the secession of the ten northern
tribes. Jeroboam was unscrupulous, but
ambitious and valorous. Solomon discovered
his plot and he was forced to flee into
Egypt to escape the wrath of his royal
master.
When Solomon
died even his worldly wisdom and
diplomacy did not descend upon his son
and heir, Rehoboam. Israel demanded of
the new king by the envoy sent out to
meet him, “Thy father made our
yokes grievous; now therefore make thou
the service of thy father, and his heavy
yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and
we will serve thee.”
Solomon’s son would not listen to
the elders of the people who advised
leniency; but to his own foolish young
companions, and said to the envoy,
“My father made your yokes heavy,
and I will add to your yoke; my father
also chastised you with whips, but I will
chastise you with scorpions.”
No
government can last save that which rests
on the consent of the governed; there is
a rebellion against Rehoboam; and the ten
northern tribes seceded leaving to the
southern kingdom at Jerusalem [only]
Judah and Benjamin. So the monarchy fell,
and the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel
were formed on its ashes. Jeroboam
returned from Egypt, and was crowned king
of Israel. Thus were the ten tribes lost
to the nation and to Jehovah, for
Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, did sin and
caused Israel to sin. He made two golden
calves, Egyptian symbols of fertility,
one he placed at Dan and the other at
Bethel. So in the maze of idolatry and
debauchery, the ten tribes were swallowed
up among other heathen nations.
From now on
the real history of the Hebrews lies with
“the remnant,” those who
either in the northern or southern
kingdom remained true to the Mosaic law.
The prophets now become the very soul of
the nation, and we read the history of
the people from this time on mainly
through their written pages. The soul of
the race deepens and broadens during the
succeeding centuries, losing much of its
intense nationalism, gaining thereby the
universal idea which finally culminates
in the Christ, whose country is the
world. He who loves the world must love
his country, not less but more than any
other.
Consciousness in the race is like the
tide in the ocean--it ebbs and flows. The
apex of world power being reached, down
again to the ebb, and again in Hebrew
history we follow as it waxes to power,
not again to the climax of a national
monarchy, but to the spiritual kingdom of
universal Christianity. The failure of
earth ambitions is the beginning of
spiritual aspirations. It is a law for
the individual, the nation, and the human
race; for the individual is the unit in
the nation, the nation is but the unit in
the race--all subject to the law given by
Him whom men call God’s own son,
“Whosoever will lose his life, will
save it.” None can enter spiritual
life until he has lost the material
conception of life, be it man, nation or
race.
Associated
with the monarchy will always be the
names of David and Solomon. The genius
was David’s; Solomon but enlarged
and consummated his father’s plans.
The characteristics of both David and
Solomon have been incorporated in two
distinct classes of literature; the
Psalms are imputed to David, because he
wrote at least twelve of them, according
to competent scholars, and is the
originator of this class of poetry. The
twelve Psalms of David are: III, IV,
VIII, XI, XV, XVIII, XIX, XXIV, XXIX,
XXXIII, CI, of the one hundred and
fifty.
The
remaining Psalms are the poems of the
eight following centuries, and celebrate
the festivals and victories, or mourn the
defeats and sorrows of the nation. This
book contains all the extant lyric poetry
of the ancient Hebrews. The spirit of
poetry includes at least two
elements--truth and beauty. There are two
worlds, an outer and an inner; a world of
sense and a world super-sensuous. One is
Real and must be perceived by revelation;
the other is unreal, the human concept of
the Real. To see this inner world, the
invisible, real and eternal world, and to
translate it into outward form, thus
enabling others to see what he sees, is
the function of the artist, the musician
and the poet.
In the
Psalms the soul reaches out to the Soul;
as the river seeks to be united to the
ocean. They are the cry of the soul to be
delivered from trouble and to find rest
in the Spirit. They have been called the
perfection of the lyric, and their
musical rhythm, from the diminuendo of
humility to the crescendo of triumph and
attainment is aptly so denominated. They
cover the whole gamut of soul experience;
and there is no mood inherent in the soul
of man, from repentance of sin, despair,
sorrow, helplessness, to trust, hope,
faith, love, triumph, but are expressed
in the Psalms. They are the natural
outpouring of the heart of man, who finds
it impossible to find rest save in unison
with God.
The Proverb
is associated with Solomon because he was
possibly the first of his race who took
the ethical view of life instead of the
spiritual. The Wisdom books of the
Hebrews represent a distinct departure of
thought from the national theme,
religion. The Proverbs are not poems,
they do not penetrate deeply into
spiritual causes; but the maker of a
proverb must have a keenly analytical
mind and be able to sum up concisely his
observation of a characteristic trait.
The Psalms are spiritual; Proverbs, on
the contrary, are a dissertation on the
folly of wickedness, not because it is a
sin against God, and a violation of
man’s spiritual nature, but because
the man who is wicked gets nowhere. It is
profitable to be good; it is unprofitable
to be wicked, is the verdict of the
Proverbs. The Psalm therefore comes from
the heart of man, the proverb from the
head. While the Psalms express our
emotions, and all that is finest in life
comes from the emotional or spiritual
nature, the proverb is a sanity we are
greatly in need of. Emotions without
balance are wasteful and non-productive;
and the proverb is always balanced. It
holds the mirror before the face, and we
see that every day is judgment day. The
sinner never conceals his folly, but
carries it where all may behold it, in
his face, actions and conditions. There
is no one great day in which the Lord
calls us to reward or retribution; but
each day has left the mark in his
character where all may read; not
God’s verdict of him but
man’s verdict of himself.
One who is
not familiar with Prof. Moulton’s
admirable arrangement of the Psalms can
scarcely appreciate the variety of
literature and beauty of expression
contained in the book of Psalms. Come to
the Psalms for comfort in any sorrow and
you may find it. Spiritual guidance is
found in the twenty-third, and the law of
supply in the thirty-seventh. If attacked
by discouragement read the one hundred
and twenty-sixth; if vanity seizes you,
read the nineteenth Psalm and see it fade
away in the grandeur of the Whole. To
walk above the material in the clear
light of the spiritual world, flee to the
ninety-first Psalm, and dwell under the
“shadow of the Almighty.”
The Greeks
made alive their mountains, rivers,
ocean, woods, glens, and glades, by
giving to each its presiding deity. The
Hebrew makes the universe alive with the
one Presence. It is an all-pervading,
unmistakable Presence; man cannot hide
from it. Gleaming behind the shadows of
sense, it will retain its unbroken
continuity until all men are alive with
the One Life forever.
* * * * *
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