“Then Solomon sat upon the throne of the Lord as king instead of David his father.” The throne upon which Solomon sat was not his own, but “the throne of the Lord.” Solomon, the son of David, was only a type of “David’s greater Son,” the Lord Jesus Christ.

God had promised David that from among his descendants “He would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.” He is the One “whose right it is,” whose is “the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,” and “of whose kingdom there shall be no end.”

As the type and representative of Jesus, “Solomon sat upon the throne of the Lord,” and his reign over Israel was a shadow, containing precious lessons, of the reign of Jesus Christ in the new earth when His kingdom shall come, and His will shall “be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

From the reign of David we saw how Jesus, the Lord’s Anointed, will at last take the kingdom which God has given Him, subdue all His enemies, and rule over the uttermost parts of the earth. In the reign of Solomon we have something of a picture of the peace, prosperity, and happiness that there will be in His kingdom, because of the wisdom and gentleness of the King.

The forty years of King Solomon’s reign were a time of peace, a time of which we are told that “Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.”

The people did not have to go to war, and were not kept in a state of fear and trouble. They dwelt safely, and were “quiet from fear of evil.” They rested in peace at their own homes, and had plenty of time to cultivate the ground, to plant and train their own vines and fig-trees, and gather and enjoy the fruits of their labour.

See how like this is to what God has told us of the time when we shall for ever dwell at peace in the kingdom of His Son: “They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them, They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat; for as the days of a tree are the days of My people, and Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble.”

Now we “hear of wars, and rumours of wars;” of “famines and pestilences and earthquakes;” and people are troubled as they see what is coming on the earth. But when Jesus shall take to Himself His power and reign as King of kings and Lord of lords, “He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth.” He says that those who dwell in His kingdom “shall no more say, I am sick; for the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.”

Then “He shall make the wilderness like Eden, and the desert like the garden of the Lord.” The whole earth shall be like the beautiful garden which the Lord God planted in the new earth. And as, in the beginning, He “took the man that He had formed, and put him in the Garden, to dress it and to keep it,” so when He again makes “all things new,” He will put the whole multitude that He has redeemed by His blood, into the earth which He has also redeemed and made to blossom again like Eden, to dress it and to keep it.

The kingdom of Jesus Christ will be just the kingdom that man lost through sin, the dominion which God gave in the beginning to the man that He made in His own image. And the work of all who dwell in this kingdom and share the dominion, will be the same that God first gave to Adam and Eve—to dress and keep the garden and take care of everything in it,—the beasts, birds and insects, as well as the plants and flowers.

Do you not long to have a home in this kingdom of “righteousness, peace, and joy”? Then let Jesus now reign in His kingdom within you, and take away from you everything that would keep you out of that happy land where there will be indeed, as the angels sang, “Peace on earth, goodwill toward men, and glory to God in the Highest.”

“O’er every foe victorious,
He on His throne shall rest;
From age to age more glorious,
All-blessing and all-blest.
The tide of time shall never
His covenant remove;
His name shall stand for ever,
His changeless came of Love.”

“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.” Isa. 35:1.

The Present Truth – March 29, 1900
E. J. Waggoner

Story in pdf  A Kingdom of Peace