Solomon and the Spirit of Prophecy

In I Kings 4:1-21 is a listing of the various officers who led out in the affairs of Solomon’s kingdom. In this list are no references to any prophet who gave counsel to Solomon. In David’s kingdom there are various references to prophets who counseled with David during his reign. Among those prophets are Gad the king’s seer; and Nathan the prophet. II Chronicles 29:25. Also listed is a series of singers who "prophesied" for David. This list consists of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthan. I Chronicles 25:1-5. In verse 5 Heman is listed as the King’s seer in the word of God. Matthew Henry’s commentary on this verse suggests that Heman, and Asaph, and Jeduthun may have been trained in the school of the prophets when Samuel had been alive. None the less it is interesting that in the list of Solomon, and in much of his story there is little mention of prophecy or prophets.

In II Chronicles 9:29 there is a list of prophets who recorded the events of Solomon’s life. This list consisted of Nathan the prophet, who anointed Solomon, Ahijah the Shilonite who prophesied to Jeroboam the Son of Nebat in I Kings 11:29-39, and Iddo the seer. We have no record of any of these prophets interacting with Solomon during his reign.

Now the part of this story that is interesting is one would think that with all of Solomon’s wisdom he would see the value of interacting with the prophets or of asking God for the presence of the gift of prophecy in the land. It is possible that Solomon perceived himself as a prophet since God came to him to speak to him in the night dreams. I Kings 3:5-15; I kings 6:11-13; I Kings 9:2-9. In the book Prophets and Kings – by E.G. White – page 77 there is a statement that the message of I Kings 11:9-13 was delivered by a prophet but we are not told who that was.

It appears that David, a prophet himself, was truly appreciative of the gift of prophecy and he sought out after Divine instruction through prophets and through seeking to inquire of the Lord through the High Priest and through the "ephod". I Samuel 30:7-8. This is repeated in II Samuel 5:17-25 when David inquired after the Lord as to whether to battle with the Philistines. In all of these efforts David was willing to humble himself before God, and was willing to obey the counsel that came to him. We do not know if Solomon was of this spirit of meekness or whether he trusted in his own wisdom.

In Ecclesiastes 1-2 we see Solomon seeking to "commune with mine own heart" as to what he should do and whether he should follow a certain line of reasoning or action. We do know that Solomon disobeyed the commands of God through Moses in Deuteronomy 17:14-20 and so we have some evidence that he had greater faith in himself than in God and was content to trust in the wisdom granted to him by God. Of course we know that the heart of a man is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked and who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9 Apparently Solomon did not learn this until the ends of his days when he finally recognized his foolishness and his need of a Saviour.

Again, it is hopeful that we can learn the lessons from Solomon’s fall, and from his many mistakes. It is this writer’s hope that we will ask God for a willing heart to listen to the prophets of old and to study out the things that God has wanted us to understand about the gift of prophecy. Hopefully, we may seek this gift from God and when He sends a prophet that we will be willing to respond to them.

In Amos 3:7 we are told that "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets." Amos 3:7 We are told that the Spirit of Christ was in the prophets and that what they wrote was for us. I Peter 1:10-12. To receive a prophet and to believe what a prophet says is considered by God to be an act of submission to Him and an acceptance of a wise gift from Him that will bless us. II Chronicles 20:14-20. On the other hand, to have God send us prophets and for us to reject them, is in effect a rejection of Him. II Chronicles 36:15-16; John 5:45-47; Matthew 21:33-46

All through Bible history God has sent His prophets to His people to guide, instruct, and encourage them. Yet the general nature of the people is that they usually do not want to hear the Words of God through His prophets, and the life of a prophet was always at high risk and many prophets died at the hands of God’s people. Acts 7:51-60 Yet God, in His great mercy keeps sending His prophets because He knows the needs of His people.

In fact one of the signs of God’s last day church is that the gift of prophecy is one of the identifying marks of His true church. In Revelation 12:17 we have the following statement by the prophet John and he says "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and wen to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus." Jesus follows this thought up with the following text, also in Revelation 19:10 "And I fell at his feet to worship him ( the angel giving the message to John). And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy." So we can see that in God’s remnant church the commandments of God are a central feature as well as the gift of the Spirit of Prophecy.

This gift of prophecy will be an identifying mark all of the way to the end of time.
God also says that there will be many false prophets and false Christs that will come in the end and will intend to deceive the very elect of God. Matthew 24:23-27. So when God sends out true prophets, Satan will also send out false prophets with the intent to deceive. This will continue to the very time of the coming of Jesus in the clouds of heaven. So God wants us to spend enough time His Word so that we will know how to determine a false prophet from true prophet.

God has provided a few fundamental concepts so that we can know on whose side the prophets really are on. Here is a short list for you to meditate upon and which will give you some ideas of how to assess a prophet, whether they be good or evil.

A true prophet of God will acknowledge that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh of mankind. Anyone who denies this truth is not of God, according to the Bible. I John 4:1-3

The Bible says that you can identify a false prophet by his fruit. One of those fruits is whether the prophet will listen to the sayings of Christ and then actually do them. Those who do the sayings of Christ are of Christ and the false ones will talk it but not do them. Matthew 7:15-28

A true prophet will be in harmony with God’s Word, His Commandments, and His prophets. Isaiah 8:20

A true prophet will teach that Jesus is the True Lord of the universe. I Corinthians 12:3.

A true prophet will teach that Jesus of Nazareth is the true Anointed One, or the Christ, and that Jesus is the sent of the Father. I John 2:22

A true prophet will teach that Jesus is the Son of God. I John 4:15

A true prophet, when their prophecies come true will encourage people to continue to obey God in all that He has taught through the Word of God. Deuteronomy 13:1-4

A false prophet will teach in such a manner as to violate one or all of the concepts above.

The above principles are important because we need to know how to identify the true gift of prophecy and to avoid the false gift of prophecy. In a previous study we examined the similarities between Solomon, when he was in apostasy, and the beast of Revelation 13. We have seen how this beast of Revelation 13, sought to present blasphemies as truth, to blaspheme the name of God, to seek to distort the truths about God’s sanctuary/temple, and to blaspheme those who are of heaven. Revelation 13:6. This beast also persecuted God’s saints through time, was slain, was resurrected near the end of time, and who seeks worship again by forcing people to accept error and false miracles. Revelation 13:7-17.

This beast is symbolized in Revelation 16:13-14 as part of a system consisting of a dragon (Revelation 12:3-9,13-17; 13:2), a beast (Rev 17:3; 7-17, and a false prophet. Unclean frog like beasts come out of the mouths of these three entities which are the spirits of devils that are able to work miracles and they want to bring all of the world to battle against God Almighty. When these agents of Satan come to us, looking good (II Corinthians 11:13-15; II Thessalonians 2:1-13) we want to be able to stand firm with God on the truths of His Word. We do not need to fall like Solomon, and we can stand if we learn the lessons from Solomon’s experience.

When Solomon finally was reclaimed from Satan, he was able to state the following in his book of confession – "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 If we heed these messages we will be able to distinguish between the false and the true and we will need to hold on to the truth though everything else fails.