But it is much more pertinent to ask what brought that proud fortress to the ground. It would have sustained unshaken the blows of engines of war ; it would have defied the hurtling storm and tempest, but it could not resist the gradual subsidence of its foundations, and so, while preserving a fair appearance almost to the last, it settled and settled, and at the last became a heap of ruins. Let us trace, then, as best we can, that downward course which ended in the builder of the temple building altars to Baal ; let us lay bare, if we can, this worm that was noiselessly but ceaselessly eating out his inner life. Perhaps we cannQt discover all its hidden workings, but we can surely see some. Up to the date of the dedication of the temple all would seem to have gone well. Unless the dedication prayer is, as some have bffi.rmed, the composition of a later age, the prince who poured out his soul before God in those earnest and gracious words c1UWot have erred very far from the right way. And the message OB. X, 14-29.] THE FI1tBT :BOOK OF KINGS. 217 -------------------------------- he received during the building of the temple confirms this view. It is message 11, not o_f warning but of encouragement. It is at the completion of the palaces that we discover the first certain token of defection. For it was then that the Lord appeared unto him the second time, and the communication then made was undeniably minatory, Its tone of thxeatening is inexplicable, except on the sup- position that Solomon's " heart was not right with the Lord," &c. A.t this period, then, about the twenty-fourth year of his reign, the destroying worm was already at work. Nor is it difficult to conjecture what was the first beginning of declension on Solomon's part. We find it in the erection of the palaces, or rather in the carnal mind and the self-love and the desire for ostentation which led to their erection. It is just possible that the building of these palaces was not, in itself, to be con- demned. It is suspicious, no doubt, and argues sel.:fishness and heartlessness, when, as in Russia, Turkey, &c., the huge and costly residences of the Crown con- trast everywhere with the wretched hovels of the peasantry. A.nd one would naturally expect the theocratic king to attain a higher level and to devote him- self more to the advancement of his people's good than ordinary rulers. But it must be remembered that under Solomon the Jewish people enjoyed an unprece- dented prosperity (eh. iv. 20, 21). The entire nation shared in the wealth and abundance of the court. We cannot be certain, consequently, that the palaces, per se, involved a departure from the law, the more so as some of them were necessary for purposes of state and justice (see on eh. vii. 7). But the matter appears in a very different light when we come to consider the way in which they were reared. Forced labour, on the part of the subject races at least, can no doubt be justified from Scripture (Josh. ix. 21 sqq.), at any rate, for the house of God (ver. 23), but not for the pleasure or aggrandisement of the monarch (1 Sam. viii. 11, 16). "It is not of the Lord of Hosts that the people shall weary themselves for very vanity'' (Hab. ii. IS). A.nd when we remember that J eroboa.m was probably encouraged to rebel by seeing and hearing the mw-murings of the house of Joseph (oh. xi. 28) of whose labours he was the overseer, and that this and similar burdens laid upon the people (eh. xii. 4) resulted in the revolt of the ten tribes, we can hardly suppose that Solomon completed his great undertakings (oh. ix. 16-19) without inflicting positive hardship and grave injustice on large numbers of his subjects. It is probable, indeed, that the woe pronounced against . a later monarch (Jer. xxii. 13, 14) had not been unmerited by him. He had "used his neighbour's service without wages,'' &c. Possibly he had raised his forest of cedar pillars, &c., by the sweat and groans of his serfs. It was a common thing for Eastern autocrats to do, but when "Jedidiah" did it, the cries of the oppressed labourer went up " into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." But whether the erection of the palaces was in itself wrong or not, and whether the raising of the " levy '' (eh. ix. 16) was oppressive or not, there can· be little doubt that the "proud look and high stoma.eh" (Psa. ci 6 ; cxxxi. 1, 2)-the very spirit which David he.d disclaimed-which prompted some of these understandings was altogether sinful. Solomon is now no longer the '' little child" he once was (oh. iii. 7). Now that he has "strengthened himself," like his son after him, he begins to forget his God e.nd to forsake His law (2 Chxon. xii. 1). It has been promised him that he shall exceed all other kings in wisdom and riches and honour (eh. iii, 12, 18) ; but this is not enough for him, he must surpass them also in the outward tokens of wealth and power. His palaces, to begin with, must be greater than theirs. He no longer covets the best gifts (see Homiletics, p. 55). The fine gold is become dim. Still, so far, there has been no deliberate, or perhaps even conscious, infrnction of the law-only the worldly a.nd sel.:fish mind. He ma.y well have argued that his state required this show of magnificence ; that the Canaanites were ordained of God to hew wood and draw water at his pleasure. But this only shows how slight o.re the beginnings of evil; how fine sometimes is the line which divides right from wrong, and how easily our judgment is warped by our inclinations. It is the ol<l etory, Homo vult decipi et decipiatur. • 218 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [OH, X. 14-29,
It is impossible to say in what precise order the records of Solomon's reign are to ~e arr~nged_, but it is probabl~ that the next downward step is to be traced in the alliance m which he engaged with the Tyrin.ns. We cannot blame him of course for the "le3:gue" of eh. v. 12. But for that, he could hardly have built the temple: to say nothmg of the palaces. Whether he was justified, however, in having at see. "a navy of Tarshish with the n01Vy of Hiram'' (eh. x. 22) may well be doubted. For it was part of God's plan that the Jewish people should " dwell alone and not be reckoned among the nations" (Num. xxiii. 9). Their geographical position was ~me of almost oo~plete isolation. They we1·e not destined to be a great com- mercial country. Their land was to be the theatre of om· redemption. Theirs were
" those holy fields Over whose acres wo.lked those blessed feet, Which eighteen hundred years ago were na.iled For our salvation, to the bitter cross ; "