Solomon, Joseph and Barack

 

In the seventeenth chapter of Deuteronomy Moses (?) continued writing instructions on various subjects including laws concerning Israel's kings.

           

"When you come to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, 'I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,' you may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you, 'You shall never return that way again.' And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.

"And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

           

At first blush it appears Solomon failed to follow the ban on acquiring many horses unless he considered them possessions of the government. I do not know about the ban on sending the people to Egypt for horses, he may have had the horses imported or he may have sent foreigners to Egypt. He also failed to follow the ban on many wives. Not sure about the ban on excessive gold for himself. He, like politicians today, may have considered the excessive gold and silver for the country and not himself at least until it came to spending it.

 

Solomon's wisdom appears to have been limited to select areas which certainly did not included domestic, moral or government areas. He was hard on the people and the son who became king acted like a spoiled brat. He married 699 wives and took 300 concubines instead of remaining faithful to his wife. Imagine how she felt. We may think higher of Solomon today than the people and his children did at that time. Who would have guessed the wealth God was going to give Solomon was to come from the people via high taxes.

 

We are told the OT gives us a window into how God dealt with his people at that time and we ignore the "windows" we do not like. For example: look at Joseph and what he did in Egypt during an economic crisis when he taxed the citizens into slavery to the government and made them pay interest on their own money. Then look at Solomon's high taxes. It suggests God favors tax and spend government which would certainly explain his response to the fervent prayers of Christians that he ensure the best person would be voted into office was Barack Obama TWICE!!

Don't forget Acts chapter 2:

And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.

I wonder what the next window will show us.