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2
Chronicles Chapter Nine
2 Chronicles 9
Chapter Contents
The queen of Sheba. (1-12) Solomon's riches, and his
death. (13-31)
Commentary on 2 Chronicles 9:1-12
(Read 2 Chronicles 9:1-12)
This history has been considered, 1 Kings 10; yet because our Saviour has proposed
it as an example in seeking after him, Matthew 12:42, we must not pass it over without
observing, that those who know the worth of true wisdom will grudge no pains or
cost to obtain it. The queen of Sheba put herself to a great deal of trouble
and expense to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and yet, learning from him to serve
God, and do her duty, she thought herself well paid for her pains. Heavenly
wisdom is that pearl of great price, for which, if we part with all, we make a
good bargain.
Commentary on 2 Chronicles 9:13-31
(Read 2 Chronicles 9:13-31)
The imports here mentioned, would show that prosperity
drew the minds of Solomon and his subjects to the love of things curious and
uncommon, though useless in themselves. True wisdom and happiness are always
united together; but no such alliance exists between wealth and the enjoyment
of the things of this life. Let us then acquaint ourselves with the Saviour,
that we may find rest for our souls. Here is Solomon reigning in wealth and
power, in ease and fulness, the like of which could never since be found; for
the most known of the great princes of the earth were famed for their wars;
whereas Solomon reigned forty years in profound peace. The promise was
fulfilled, that God would give him riches and honour, such as no kings have had
or shall have. The lustre wherein he appeared, was typical of the spiritual
glory of the kingdom of the Messiah, and but a faint representation of His
throne, which is above every throne. Here is Solomon dying, and leaving all his
wealth and power to one who he knew would be a fool! Ecclesiastes 2:18,19. This was not only vanity,
but vexation of spirit. Neither power, wealth, nor wisdom, can ward off or
prepare for the stroke of death. But thanks be to God who giveth the victory to
the true believer, even over this dreaded enemy, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 2 Chronicles》
2 Chronicles 9
Verse 8
[8]
Blessed be the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne,
to be king for the LORD thy God: because thy God loved Israel, to establish
them for ever, therefore made he thee king over them, to do judgment and
justice.
For the Lord — In
the Lord's name and stead, in a special manner, because he sat in God's own
throne, and ruled over God's peculiar people, and did in an eminent manner
maintain the honour of God in his land, and in the eyes of all the world. Those
mercies are doubly sweet, in which we can taste the kindness and good will of
God as our God.
Verse 12
[12] And king Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she
asked, beside that which she had brought unto the king. So she turned, and went
away to her own land, she and her servants.
Besides —
Besides what he gave her of his royal bounty, as is expressed, 1 Kings 10:13, which was in compensation for her
presents.
Verse 23
[23] And
all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom,
that God had put in his heart.
And all the kings of the earth sought the
presence of Solomon — All in those parts of the world.
Verse 29
[29] Now
the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the
book of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in
the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat?
Iddo —
This, and the other prophets mentioned, were also historians, and wrote annals
of their times; out of which these sacred books were taken, either by these, or
other prophets.
Verse 31
[31] And Solomon slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David
his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead.
And Solomon slept — We
have here Solomon in his throne, and Solomon in his grave; for the throne could
not secure him from the grave. Here is he stripped of his pomp, and leaving all
his wealth and power, not to one whom he knew not whether he would be a wise
man or a fool; but one he knew would be a fool! This was not only vanity, but
vexation of spirit.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 2 Chronicles》
09 Chapter 9
Verses 1-12
And when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon.
The Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon
I. The spirit
which prompted the visit.
1. A spirit of curiosity.
2. A spirit of inquiry.
3. A spirit of restlessness.
4. A spirit of self-sacrifice.
She undertook a long and risky journey. A reproof, says Christ, to
indifference and stupidity concerning Himself.
II. The mutual
inter- course during the visit.
1. Solomon answered her questions.
2. Received her gifts.
III. The impressions
received from the visit.
1. She was astonished at the magnificence of Solomon.
2. She was surprised at the wisdom of Solomon.
3. She was confirmed in her belief concerning Solomon.
Faith exercised will be greatly strengthened. This just the
result--
1. Of honest search after truth.
2. Of personal intercourse with Christ.
3. Of engagement in God’s service. (J. Wolfendale.)
Hard questions
This is what the Bible itself asks for; in effect the Bible says,
“Prove me, put me to the test, under all circumstances of triumph, joy, need,
fear, and see if I have not within me a better answer than can be found in any
other book.” This is the criticism to which Jesus Christ is always willing to
submit Himself. It is His complaint that we do not ask Him questions enough,
the assumption of course being that all inquiries are put in a reverent and
faithful spirit. There is a question-asking to which the Bible will pay no
heed, and there is a question-asking which Christ will regard as impious and
frivolous. Whatever we really want to know with our hearts, whatever is
necessary for us to know, Jesus Christ is willing to answer. When we bring our
riddles and enigmas to Christ, they must be riddles and enigmas that express
the very agony of desire. To our speculation or curiosity Christ may have
nothing to say, or if He condescend to speak to us it may be in tones of rebuke
and repulse. Do not be afraid to put hard questions to Christ. The Queen of
Sheba did not put any flippant questions to Solomon; she rather sought out the
most difficult inquiries which it was possible to propound. The meaning of this
is that we are to ask the very hardest questions which our soul wishes to have
answered, always remembering that there are some questions which need not be
answered in time, and which indeed could not be answered to our present
incomplete or depraved capacity and power. Properly considered, it may be
impossible to put any easy questions to Christ within the range of the scope
which His mission fills. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon
I. The meeting
together of these representatives of two different nations had the happy effect
of drawing closer the bonds or unity.
II. The beneficial
effect which the exhibition or the works of national industry may have upon the
thoughtful and well-governed mind. The things seen by the Queen of Sheba did
much to correct and enlarge her mind; far more than all her previous
intelligence and inquiry.
III. The spectacle
of works of art and man’s device, vast, multiform, and beautiful, reflects as
in a mirror the wondrous powers of man’s mind. As we turn from the statue to
the mind that sketched and the hand that chiselled out the wonderful design, so
let us turn from man with all his wonderful skill and give to God the glory.
The Queen of Sheba returned to her home with higher thoughts of God than she
had before.
IV. The impressive
spectacle of Solom’s devotion. The Queen admired “the ascent by which he went
up into the house of the Lord.” Some understand these words of a magnificent
communication which Solomon had prepared between his palace and the courts of
the temple; while others explain them of the cheerful and fervent solemnity
with which he worshipped, showing that his heart was deeply engaged in the
hallowed and hallowing service. (S. Bridge, M. A.)
Heart communing
We have in Christ one greater than Solomon.
I. We ought to
communicate with Him of all that is in our heart. Neglect of intercourse with
Jesus--
1. Is very unkind.
2. Betrays the sad fact of something wrong.
3. Shows a want of confidence in His love, sympathy, and wisdom.
4. Will be the cause
of uneasiness in ourselves.
5. Will involve the loss of counsel and help.
6. Is greatly aggravated by eagerness to tell our troubles to others.
II. We need not
cease communing for want of topics.
1. Our sorrows.
2. Our joys.
3. Our service.
4. Our plans.
5. Our success and failures.
6. Our desires.
7. Our fears.
8. Our lives.
9. Our mysteries.
III. Nor shall we
cease communing for want of reasons. Intercourse with Christ--
1. Is ennobling and elevating.
2. Consoling and encouraging.
3. Sanctifying and refining.
4. Safe and healthy.
5. Delightful and heavenly. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 8
Therefore made he thee king over them.
The Divine appointment of kings
I. That princes
are of Divine appointment.
II. That wise and
good rulers are a signal mark of the Divine love and favour to any nation.
III. The description
of the regal office and dignity, both in respect of God and of the people.
IV. That on the
advancement of a prince eminently qualified to serve God and his country we
ought to bless God, that is, to return the tribute of praise due to Him. (Abp.
Potter.)
The blessing of a Protestant king and royal family to the
nation:--
I. That it is God
who maketh kings, and setteth them on their thrones as His vicegerents to do
justice and judgment upon earth.
II. All kings
should remember that they sit upon the throne of the Lord their God, of whom
the Psalmist says, that righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His
seat. They must therefore be good and just, ruling in His fear, and after His
example. (John Donne, D. D.)
Verse 9
And of spices great abundance.
The spicery of religion
Solomon had a great reputation for the conundrums and riddles that
he made and guessed. The Solomonic navy visited all the world, and the sailors,
of course, talked about the wealth of their king, and about the riddles and
enigmas that he made and solved; and the news spread until Queen Balkis, away
off south, heard of it, and sent messengers with a few riddles that she would
like to have Solomon solve, and a few puzzles that she would like to have him
find out: Queen Balkis was so pleased with the acuteness of Solomon, that she
said: “I’ll just go and see him for myself.” Yonder it comes--the
cavalcade--horses and dromedaries, chariots and charioteers, jingling harness
and clattering hoofs, and blazing shields, and flying ensigns, and clapping
cymbals. The place is saturated with the perfume. She brings cinnamon, and
saffron, and calamus, and frankincense, and all manner of sweet spices. I shall
take the responsibility of saying that all the spikenard and cassia and
frankincense which the Queen of Sheba brought to Solomon is mightily suggestive
of the sweet spices of our holy religion.
I. Men require
more of the spicery of religion to brighten their life and sweeten their
disposition amid the capes and duties of life.
II. We need to put
more spice and enlivement in our religious teaching.
III. We want more
life and slice in our Christian work.
IV. We need more
spice and enlivenment in our Church music.
V. The religion of
Christ is a present and everlasting redolence that counteracts all trouble. It
lifted Samuel Rutherford into a revelry of spiritual delight while he was in physical
agonies. It helped Richard Baxter until, in the midst of such a complication of
diseases as perhaps no other man ever suffered, he wrote “The Saint’
Everlasting Rest.” And it poured light on John Bunyan’s dungeon--the light of
the shining gate of the shining city. Oh, you sin-parched and you
trouble-pounded, here is comfort, here is satisfaction. I cannot tell you what
the Lord offers you hereafter so well as I can tell you now. “It doth not yet
appear what we shall be.” May God grant that through your own practical
experience you may find that religion’s ways are ways of pleasantness, and that
all her paths are paths of peace--that it is perfume now and perfume for ever.
(T. De Witt Talmage.)
Spiced work
More than that, we want more life and spice in our Christian work.
The poor do not want so much to be groaned over as sung to. With the bread, and
medicines, and the garments you give them, let there be an accompaniment of
smiles and brisk encouragement. Do not stand and talk to them about the
wretchedness of their abode, and the hunger of their looks, and the hardness of
their lot. Ah! they know it better than you can tell them. Show them the bright
side of the thing, if there be any bright side. Tell them good times will come.
Tell them that for the children of God there is immortal rescue. Wake them up
out of their stolidity by an inspiring laugh, and while you send in practical
help, like the Queen of Sheba, also send in the spices. There are two ways of
meeting the poor. One is to come into their house with a nose elevated in
disgust, as much as to say: “I don’t see how you live here in this
neighbourhood. It actually makes me sick. There is that bundle; take it, you
poor miserable wretch, and make the most of it.” Another way is to go into the
abode of the poor in a manner which seems to say: “The blessed Lord sent me. He
was poor Himself. It is not more for the good I am going to try to do you than
it is for the good that you can do me.” Coming in that spirit, the gift will be
as aromatic as the spikenard on the feet of Christ, and all the hovels in that
alley will be fragrant with the spice. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Spiced life
The fact is that the duties and cares of this life, coming to us
from time to time, are stupid often, and inane and intolerable. Here are men
who have been battering, climbing, pounding, hammering for twenty years, forty
years, fifty years. One great, long drudgery has their life been. Their face
anxious, their feelings benumbed, their days monotonous. What is necessary to
brighten up that man’s life, and to sweeten that acid disposition, and to put
sparkle into the man’s spirits? The spicery of our holy religion. Why, it
between the losses of life there dashed a gleam of an eternal gain; if between
the betrayals of life there came the gleam of the undying friendship of Christ;
it in dull times in business we found ministering spirits flying to and fro in
our office, and store, and shop, every-day life, instead of being a stupid
monotone, would be a glorious inspiration, penduluming between calm
satisfaction and high rapture. How any woman keeps house without the religion
of Christ to help her is a mystery to me. To have to spend the greater part of
one’s life, as many women do, in planning for the meals, and stitching garments
that will soon be rent again, and deploring breakages, and supervising tardy
subordinates, and driving off dust that soon again will settle, and doing the
same thing day in and day out, and year in and year out, until the hair
silvers, and the back stoops, and the spectacles crawl to the eyes, and the
grave breaks open under the thin sole of the shoe--oh, it is a long monotony!
But when Christ comes to the drawing-room, and comes to the kitchen, and comes
to the nursery, and comes to the dwelling, then how cheery become all womanly
duties! She is never alone now. Martha gets through fretting and joins Mary at
the feet of Jesus. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
And apes, and peacocks.
Apes and peacocks
(to children):--We learn from this passage--
I. That a rich man
can get, as far as worldly goods are concerned, almost what he likes in this
world.
II. What even wise
men will do, when they have more money than they know how to use. Such was
Solomon’s position; apes and peacocks were costly, and so he had a special
desire to have s goodly number about him. (D. Davies.)
Apes
I. The ape is
something like us, and yet he is very much unlike us.
1. He cannot speak.
2. He cannot learn.
3. He has no foresight or forethought. It is wonderful how deceptive
appearances can be.
II. The ape is only
a caricature of a man, and does not imitate him in his better movements or
habits; so you generally find that if a child or man apes another, he apes him
only in his failings. I saw a boy the other day, who could not have been more
than eleven, vigorously puffing the end of a cigar that he had picked up
somewhere. He evidently thought he looked like a man, but I need not tell you
how disgusted I felt, and wished that he could imitate the man in a more manly
way. He stupidly aped a gentleman whose failing was that he smoked at all.
Learn to be natural. Let the one desire of your life be to be true. Never put on
a false look or try to live under false pretences. (D. Davies.)
Peacocks
The peacock has a beautiful tail, and in this respect no bird can
match him. But the more you know about him the less you think of his tail. He
can only screech hideously when he tries to sing. He is also a very gluttonous
and a very selfish and destructive character. The beautiful bird has nothing to
commend it except its beautiful feathers. Its characteristic failing is vanity.
I. I want you to
remember that there are some people in the world like that peacock. Everything
depends upon their dress, or their outward appearance. But if you get to know
their disposition and their conduct, you will very often cease to be charmed
with their dress.
II. I want you to
guard yourselves against attaching too much importance to appearances. God does
not. Learn that the truest ornament is “a meek and gentle spirit, which in the
sight of God is of great price.” (D. Davies.)
Verse 31
And Solomon slept with his fathers.
The death of Solomon
Such is the sole record of the departure of the most magnificent
king of the Israelitish nation.
1. Why is this? For it was not so with David, his father, whose last
days, and almost last thoughts, last prayers and exhortations, are fully
detailed.
2. Nothing on the first sight, in popular judgment, appears more
excellent and full of hope than that petition of Solomon when, just called to
the throne, he asked of God wisdom and knowledge, “that I may go out and come
in before this people.” God granted him his request. His reign proved to be one
of unexampled splendour. Prosperity almost to overflow poured in upon the
nation. But as the monarch’s glory increased, his personal character declined.
He sank morally and religiously. He became tyrannical and despotic, and
grievously oppressed his subjects. Then intense sensuality set in. So deeply
did he fall that his name has been connected with the practice of the magical
arts and sorceries denounced in the law of Moses.
3. How shall we account for this? Was it that from the first his
heart was not set upon God, but upon self? that when he asked at first for
wisdom to rule God’s people, he only thought of the honour he would gain thereby?
Or is it that we here witness in an individual the corrupting influences of a
civilisation not merely luxurious, but high and cultivated, when it discards
the faith in God?
4. Whichever it be, by both alternatives we are warned that wisdom,
even high, intellectual, and varied, is not godliness, and cannot take its
place; that where it is unsanctified, a worm lies at its root.
5. It is a solemn thought that the temple, the culminating point of
Solomon’s glory, was the harbinger, and in a degree the cause, of the decline
of his nation. The exactions and the oppressive burdens its extravagant cost
entailed upon the people alienated them, made the monarchy hateful, and
prepared the nation for revolt:
6. Twice since has the same thing been witnessed. The sale of
indulgences to help the building of St. Peter’s led to the disruption of a
large part of Christendom. So also the gorgeous palace of the French monarch,
the memorial of his boundless luxury and consequent oppression, was the prelude
of that great convulsion from which the nation has never recovered. Such is the
logic of mere human splendour and luxury.
7. What was the end of this renowned monarch? What was the final
stamp set upon his character? Scripture is silent on the point, and Christendom
has always been divided in regard to it. Those who have thought and hoped the
best of him have rested their hopes chiefly on the tenor of the Book of
Ecclesiastes. But no tone of repentance pervades this solemn writing; no
utterance of contrition or even personal remorse; not one such anguished cry
for forgiveness as pervades several of David’s psalms; no humiliation appears
in it, not even such as Ahab’s; no confession, even such as Saul’s. Solomon
appears to pass away and, “make no sign,” (Archdeacon Grant, D. C. L.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》