SOLOMON AND HEROD (1 Kings 5:9-11; Acts 12:20.)

Solomon is largely identified with the building of the house of God, the Temple, for which David, his beloved father, had planned, but which personally he was not permitted to build. In one sense like Moses, he was not permitted to enter into that for which he had labored.

Doubtless in both cases there were governmental reasons. We know it was the case with Moses, and while the shortcomings of the man after God's own heart occurred after he had been told that a son should build the house, yet all was in appropriate and beautiful order. He had much war and the time had not yet come.

Nor were either of the men of God, Moses and David, losers by not being thus actively permitted to enter into the earthly courts. They were both transferred to God's own land and the heavenly courts on high, compared with which the earthly scene was but a feeble and passing shadow.

Hiram king of Tyre had the men specially adapted to the work of hewing the timbers for the structure of the temple, and on the other hand his narrow strip of land along the coast of Tyre and Sidon was largely dependent upon the fertile land of Israel for the food required for their daily sustenance. So Hiram was glad to receive the wheat and oil liberally supplied by King Solomon. This dependence is spoken of in the book of Acts, where we are told of the land of Tyre and Sidon, "Their country was nourished by the king's country." Herod was the king, of a very different type from King Solomon. At this we will look later.

Solomon, as we have seen, was engaged in building a house for the Lord. "Solomon built Him a house." That which appeals to faith is the recognition of this. Solomon was not occupied with his own greatness and glory. As in his choice as to what blessing he would desire of the Lord, he took that which would enable him to rightly administer the government of God over His people-to represent in some worthy way Him who had put him in such a place, so now he is engaged in establishing a place of abode which would rightly, in some measure, be a fitting abode for the King of kings.

The effect of this upon Hiram is to produce worship. This is as it should be. In the coming day when the true Solomon-"a Greater than Solomon"-is upon His earthly throne, the nations will own Jehovah as indeed the only object of worship and obedience. "He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths" (Isa. 2:3).

Tyre and Sidon may rightly represent the earth, or world, side of things, taken up indeed most easily, with things which are but for a season, but which eventually will be brought under the Lord's sway.

They may also at this present time suggest the complete dependence of the world upon the "Possessor of heaven and earth" for "life and breath and all things."

God has stamped this lesson upon the very structure of the world and its relation to what is about it. Rain, which falls upon "the just and the unjust," and sunshine, upon "the evil and the good," are both from above. Then the world as a whole is "nourished by the King's country." Deprive it of sunlight, and life would soon cease; and if the rain did not fall, famine would soon ensue. Thoughtful men have recognized this. Life could not continue a day or hour apart from this heavenly sustenance.

How beautiful then is this brief glimpse of the relation between heaven and earth as seen in the lowly faith of King Solomon, and the bright response of Hiram-all going up as a sweet savor to Him from whom every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down. The worship leaves these men unmarred by their greatness and privileges.

In sad contrast to all this, how degrading and shocking is the scene in the book of Acts, all the more shameful as the fuller light of the Spirit's ministry of Christ in glory and the sanctuary then opened to faith, was now shining. Herod is seen as the relentless persecutor of the Church and of the Lord's servants. He slays James with the sword, and would have continued by the death of Peter. So far from being a builder of a house for the Lord, he is in purpose a destroyer of that house. So far from giving glory to the God of heaven and to His Son he has but one object-to please himself, and to get honor at the hand of man.

So on a set day, he harangues the men of Tyre and Sidon. Arrayed in all the royal pomp which he could assume, speaking perhaps words Of eloquence, he makes a great show of himself. There is no thought of God in it.

Similarly, the people give their adulation to a man, and utterly forget God. Indeed they ascribe it all to Herod as if he were God-"It is the voice of a god, and not of a man." Instead of rebuking their blasphemy, Herod takes all the glory to himself. The end comes suddenly. The gnawing worms of corruption bring to a speedy end the false glory of one who would dare to forget God. S. Ridout