THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
796
son Solomon king while he himself was yet alive, so David’s servants did as he commanded, and they took'Solomon, and made him ride on the king’s mule to a place near Jerusalem: there they an ointed him king, and blew the trumpet, and all the people rejoiced and said, God save King Solomon. Very early in Solomon’s reign as king he called all the people together, and if we could have been there we would have seen the peo ple all marching up to the same place where he was anointed king, and great herds of cattle and sheep being driven along. The tabernacle was at this place and there was to be a great sacrifice to the Lord. Solomon served the Lord, and he wished to lead all his people to serve Him too. One night God came to Solo mon in a dream and offered him any thing that he desired to have. God said to him, Ask what I shall give thee? Solomon answered, Give thy servant wis dom, that I may be able to rule well over thy people, the children of Israel. God was greatly pleased with the choice that Solomon made, and told him that be-, cause he had not asked for riches, or a long life, or the victory over his enemies, he would give him the wisdom he had asked for, and besides this riches and honor, more than any of the-kings who had been before him, or who should be after him; and if he would obey His commandments, God promised to give him long life also. Solomon told the Lord that he had so much to learn to be a good king to his people, and he wished more than anything else to have wisdom to know just the best way to care for the people at all times. Our memory verse tells us that Solomon made a very wise choice, for it says, that wisdom is better than rubies. Rubies are very precious stones and cost lots of money, but they can not help us, and they could not show Solomon how to be a good king, but God gave him wisdom, and then he gave him a great deal more as our story tells us. God always does much more
25:15; Prov. 3:1, 2, 16; 1 Tim. 4 :8 ).— Sel. , r. 15. Behold It was a dream. That God really spoke to Solomon and that the incident was no product of a dis ordered fancy, is evident from the out come. 'Solomon really obtained what God promise at this time.— Torrey. His dream was but an imaginary repetition of his former heart desires but God’s grant of it was real.— J. F. & B. ^3i{, Solomon’s Choice. 1 Kings 3:4-15. Memory Verse: “Wisdom is better than rubies.” Proverbs 8:11. Approach: If I was very rich and had just lots and lots of money, and 1 should tell you boys and girls you could each one choose something you wanted, and I would give you BEGINNERS w h a t e v e r y o u AND PRIMARY chose, I wonder Mabel L. Merrill what you would ask for? (Let the children express themselves as to choices they would make.) Now in our story this really happened to a young man, but God was the one who told him to choose and he could have anything he asked for. Let us bow our heads and thank God for the many blessings He is giving us every day. Lesson Story: David had been a faith ful king over God’s people Israel, but now he was getting old and could not do all the duties for the people, and David’s oldest son wanted to be the next king, but he was not the man God wanted to sit on the throne as king over His peo ple Israel. David had a son whose narno was Solomon and he was a good young man because he loved the Lord. It was said of Solomon that he loved the Lord. This was indeed a great honor to Solo mon. One is starting out right in life who really loves the Lord. Solomon was a very young man when he was made king, and we love and honor him be cause he made it his first business to be right with the Lord. Because David’s oldest son was selfish and tried to be king, David said he would make his
Made with FlippingBook HTML5