The Golden Kingdom and the Greater King Text: 2 Chronicles 9:13-28
Introduction: The High Water Mark
When we come to a passage like this, we are looking at the high water mark of the Israelite monarchy. This is the apex, the golden age of a golden king. The sheer opulence described here is almost cartoonish to our modern sensibilities. It is a spectacle of wealth, power, and glory that the world had never seen. All the kings of the earth are streaming to Jerusalem, not as conquerors, but as students and tributaries, bringing their treasures to hear the wisdom God had placed in Solomon's heart. Silver was like stones in the street. Cedars were like common sycamores. This is the fulfillment of God's promise to Solomon, and through him, to David and to Israel.
But we must be careful how we read this. Our temptation is to read it in one of two wrong ways. The first is to see it as a simple morality tale about the dangers of wealth, a kind of prosperity gospel in reverse, where all this gold is just a prelude to the inevitable fall. The second is to read it with a kind of detached historical interest, as a quaint record of an ancient king's GDP. Both miss the point entirely.
This passage is not primarily about economics or personal morality. It is about typology and eschatology. It is a glorious, flashing, technicolor preview of a greater kingdom and a greater King. Solomon's reign is a shadow, a tangible, historical object lesson pointing to the substance, which is the reign of Jesus Christ. Everything you see here, the gold, the wisdom, the international acclaim, the peace, is a scale model of the true kingdom. And like any good object lesson, it also contains within it the seeds of its own failure, demonstrating precisely why the shadow is not enough and why we need the substance. Solomon, for all his glory, is a cracked vessel. This kingdom, for all its gold, will tarnish. This peace will be shattered. This is the peak, but the peak is also the precipice.
So as we walk through this catalog of riches, we must have two sets of eyes open. With one eye, we see the historical reality of God's blessing on a covenant-keeping people under their king. With the other, we see the prophetic picture of the coming Messiah, whose wisdom and riches are eternal, and whose kingdom will have no end. This is a portrait of Christ's kingdom, painted with Solomon's gold.
The Text
Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, besides that which the traders and merchants brought; and all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon. And King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold, using 600 shekels of beaten gold on each large shield. And he made 300 shields of beaten gold, using 300 shekels of gold on each shield, and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon. Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold. And there were six steps to the throne and a footstool in gold attached to the throne, and arms on each side of theseat, and two lions standing beside the arms. Twelve lions were also standing there on the six steps on the one side and on the other; nothing like it was made for any other kingdom. Now all King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; silver was not considered valuable in the days of Solomon. For the king had ships which went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram; once every three years the ships of Tarshish came carrying gold and silver, ivory and apes and peacocks. So King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. And all the kings of the earth were seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart. And they brought every man his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses and mules, a set amount year by year. And Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots and 12,000 horsemen, and he stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. And he was the ruler over all the kings from the River even to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt. The king also made silver as plentiful as stones in Jerusalem, and he made cedars as plentiful as sycamore trees that are in the Shephelah. And they were importing horses for Solomon from Egypt and from all countries.
(2 Chronicles 9:13-28 LSB)
A Weight of Glory and Warning (vv. 13-16)
The account begins with a very specific, and for us, a very provocative number.
"Now the weight of gold which came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold..." (2 Chronicles 9:13)
Now, we cannot read that number, 666, without our minds immediately jumping to the book of Revelation and the mark of the beast. And we should not dismiss this connection as a mere coincidence. The Holy Spirit is not clumsy. This number is a warning sign, a subtle crack appearing in the golden facade. On the one hand, this is a staggering amount of wealth, a clear fulfillment of God's promise to give Solomon riches and honor. A talent of gold was around 75 pounds. We are talking about 25 tons of gold annually. This is God's lavish blessing made visible.
But on the other hand, it is a sign of excess. In Deuteronomy 17, God laid out the law for Israel's future kings. He gave three specific prohibitions: the king must not multiply horses for himself, he must not multiply wives for himself, and he must not "greatly multiply for himself silver and gold." Solomon, as we will see, is going to go three for three. The number 666 in Scripture is the number of man falling short of the divine perfection of 777. It represents a humanistic system at its peak, a worldly glory that is impressive but ultimately godless. So here, at the very height of Solomon's glory, we are given a hint that his human wisdom, his human glory, and his human wealth are beginning to curve inward, away from God and toward himself. It is a picture of glorious blessing, but also of the temptation that comes with it.
This gold is then put on display. He makes 500 shields of beaten gold and places them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. These are not for battle; they are for pageantry. They are symbols of a kingdom so secure and so wealthy that it can afford to hang its wealth on the walls. This is a picture of profound peace and prosperity, the shalom that was the hallmark of his reign. But it is also a picture of trust in riches. David's trust was in the Lord, who was his shield (Psalm 3:3). Solomon's shields are made of gold.
The Throne of Judgment and Dominion (vv. 17-21)
Next, we see the centerpiece of his royal court, the great throne of ivory and gold.
"Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with pure gold... nothing like it was made for any other kingdom." (2 Chronicles 9:17, 19)
This throne is a masterpiece of political theology. It is a statement. The sheer craftsmanship and materials speak of unparalleled wealth. But the symbolism is what matters. The throne is the place of judgment and rule. It is flanked by lions, and twelve more lions line the six steps leading up to it. The lion is the symbol of the tribe of Judah, the royal tribe from which David and Solomon came. This throne is a declaration that the king from Judah reigns supreme. The twelve lions represent the twelve tribes of Israel, all united under his rule. This is a picture of a unified, powerful, and just kingdom.
This is a type of the throne of the "Lion of the tribe of Judah," Jesus Christ (Rev. 5:5). His throne is one of perfect justice and righteousness. All the tribes of the new Israel, people from every nation, will be gathered before His throne. Solomon's throne was unique on earth; Christ's throne is unique in all creation. The description of Solomon's wealth continues: all his drinking vessels were gold, and silver was "not considered valuable." This is economic hyperbole to make a theological point. In the kingdom at its zenith, what the world considers precious is treated as common. This points us to the New Jerusalem, where the very streets are paved with pure gold, like transparent glass (Rev. 21:21). The glory of Solomon's kingdom is a faint echo of the glory of the eternal city.
The Greater Solomon (vv. 22-24)
The summary statement of this whole era is given in verse 22.
"So King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom." (2 Chronicles 9:22)
This is the thesis statement. The two are linked: riches and wisdom. God gave him wisdom, and the riches followed. The nations recognized this. They didn't just send tribute; they "were seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart." This is a picture of the Gentile nations being drawn to the God of Israel through the wisdom of Israel's king. It is a fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise that through his seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
But again, this is a shadow. The Queen of Sheba came from the ends of the earth to hear Solomon's wisdom, and Jesus says to the Pharisees, "The Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here" (Matthew 12:42). Jesus is the true Solomon. He is the wisdom of God incarnate. The nations are drawn not to a physical temple in Jerusalem, but to Him. The gifts they bring are not gold and silver, but the spiritual sacrifices of praise and their very lives laid down in service to the King.
The Seeds of Disobedience (vv. 25-28)
The passage concludes with a description of Solomon's military might and trade network, and here the warning signs become flashing red lights.
"And Solomon had 4,000 stalls for horses and chariots and 12,000 horsemen... And they were importing horses for Solomon from Egypt and from all countries." (2 Chronicles 9:25, 28)
Here is the first of the Deuteronomic prohibitions explicitly violated. "The king... must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire more horses" (Deut. 17:16). Chariots and horses were the advanced military technology of the day. They were the tanks, the F-35s. To trust in horses was to trust in military might rather than in the Lord. Psalm 20 says, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God." Solomon's father, David, understood this. Solomon, in his wisdom, seems to be forgetting it. And where does he get these horses? From Egypt. He is creating a trade dependency on the very nation from which God had delivered His people. He is leading them, economically and militarily, back to Egypt.
The text then describes the vastness of his empire, from the Euphrates to the border of Egypt, a fulfillment of the land promise. It reiterates the incredible wealth, with silver like stones. Everything on the surface looks glorious. But underneath, the foundation is being compromised. He is multiplying gold. He is multiplying horses from Egypt. And as we know from the parallel account in 1 Kings, he was most certainly multiplying wives from foreign nations, who would "turn away his heart after other gods" (1 Kings 11:2). The very things that were forbidden are the things being celebrated as signs of his greatness. This is how compromise works. It dresses itself up in the robes of success, pragmatism, and worldly wisdom.
Conclusion: The Fool's Gold and the True Treasure
So what do we do with this? We see in Solomon's kingdom a beautiful, magnificent, and ultimately tragic picture. It shows us the glory of God's blessing when a nation is rightly ordered under a wise king. It is a taste of heaven on earth. The peace, the prosperity, the wisdom, the international acclaim, these are all good gifts from God. We should desire such blessings for our own nation. A rightly ordered Christian society will produce this kind of cultural fruit.
But it also shows us the profound danger of receiving those gifts and beginning to trust in the gifts rather than the Giver. Solomon's wisdom curdled into worldly pragmatism. His riches led to self-indulgence and idolatry. His strength led to a trust in military hardware instead of the living God. He took God's good gifts and made them into idols. He started with a request for wisdom to serve God's people, and ended by using that wisdom to serve his own appetites. The gold of the temple became the gold of his own palace. The wisdom for God's glory became a tool for his own aggrandizement.
This is why the gospel is such good news. Solomon is a failed type. He points to our need for a perfect King, one who cannot be corrupted. Jesus Christ is the true King who possesses all wisdom and riches. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him (Col. 2:3). All the fullness of God dwells in Him. He was tempted with all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and He did not bow. He had every right to earthly riches, but He became poor, that we through His poverty might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9).
The glory of Solomon's kingdom is fool's gold compared to the riches we have in Christ. Our treasure is not in gold that perishes, but in the blood of the Lamb. Our wisdom is not in shrewd political maneuvering, but in the "foolishness" of the cross. Our security is not in horses and chariots, but in the finished work of our risen King, who rules from a throne that cannot be shaken. Solomon's kingdom shows us the best that man can build with God's blessing, and it shows us that it is not enough. We need a better kingdom, a better righteousness, and a better King. And in the gospel, that is precisely what we have been given.