“Now King Solomon levied forced laborers from all Israel; and the forced laborers numbered 30,000 men….Now Solomon had 70,000 transporters, and 80,000 hewers of stone in the mountains, besides Solomon’s 3,300 chief deputies who were over the project and who ruled over the people who were doing the work” (1 Kings 5:13, 15-16).
Not all that glitters is gold. Indeed, the author of Kings goes to great lengths to portray Solomon as a Messianic figure who is profoundly wise and extraordinarily prosperous. Solomon is so successful that he even claims to be the son God promised to David (compare 1 Kings 5:5 with 2 Sam 7:12-13). But amid all this prosperity, the author of Kings highlights Solomon’s failure to obey the Torah.
Even while Solomon is building for God a glorious temple, he accomplishes this task through forced labor. The numbers of forced laborers from the tribes of Israel are staggering. Instead of being a king who had come to set our people free, Solomon acted like another Pharaoh who built significant buildings by using Hebrew slaves. Although Solomon may have been fooled into thinking he was fulfilling God’s Messianic promise to David (2 Samuel 7:12-16), he was fulfilling Samuel’s prophecy in 1 Samuel 8 (vv. 10-18) that Israel’s kings would oppress and enslave the Israelite people (1 Sam 8:10-18).
But how different is the Messiah Yeshua. He did not come to be served but to serve (Mark 10:45). He did not come to make us slaves but to free our captives (Luke 4:18-19). He did not impose forced labor upon us; he came to give us rest (Matt 11:28-30). He did not come to divide Jews from Gentiles, but to break down the wall of partition and make us one (Eph 2:14-15). And when he returns to sit upon David’s throne, all the nations who hate us now will never learn war again (Isa 2:4), and there will finally be lasting peace. Even so, come Lord Yeshua! “Let the mountains bring shalom to the people, and the hills, in righteousness…. In his days may the righteous flourish, and abundance of shalom till the moon is no more” (Psa 72:3, 7).
