“Now, my son, may the LORD be with you; and may you prosper, and build the house of the LORD your God, as He has said to you.”
—I Chronicles 22:11
David is getting old, and his years of staying one step ahead of Saul, his innumerable battles and campaigns against foes foreign and domestic, and the cares of his kingdom are all beginning to wear on him. Before he dies, though, he wants to accomplish one more great thing: build a Temple for God in Jerusalem. He feels it will be the capstone on his heroic life.
But God says, “No.” He would not have His House built by someone who had shed so much blood during his life (I Chronicles 22:8). He would not want it to be said that His House had been built by a man who had so little regard for life, for His way is dedicated to the ideas of abundant life and ultimately, eternal life. David’s blood-guilt, while it brought unity, security, and prosperity to Israel, made him unfit—disqualified—to erect God’s Temple, which was to be place of peace.
God, then, had promised David that he would produce an heir who would not have the stain of bloody conquest and murder on him. This heir, of course, was Solomon, whom He called “a man of rest” (I Chronicles 22:9). The name Solomon, which is derived from Hebrew shalom means “peaceful.” As the same verse points out, God would give Solomon rest from Israel’s enemies all around, and he would have “peace and quietness” all of his days. In an atmosphere where war and conflict were at an ebb, Solomon would have the time and resources to give the Temple what it deserved.
I Chronicles 22:11 begins David’s concluding statement to Solomon, ordering him to build the House of the Lord while also blessing him: “May the LORD be with you; and may you prosper.” The structure of the sentence suggests that David is implying that his blessing will give Solomon the proper foundation for being successful in building God’s House. Only with God’s guiding presence, along with growth and prosperity, could the Temple project be brought to fruition.
In the ensuing verses, David expands on his thought: “Only may the LORD give you wisdom and understanding, and give you charge concerning Israel, that you may keep the law of the LORD your God. Then you will prosper . . .” (I Chronicles 22:12-13). This shows that David saw a definitive process for success. First and foremost, God must be with us, and by His guidance, through His instruction in wisdom and understanding, we learn to practice His way of life, His law. After that comes prosperity.
Prosperity should not be seen in the narrow sense of wealth. Instead, the sense of the term applies more loosely to abundance of any sort, particularly the idea of the abundant life that Jesus taught in John 10:10. Walking in God’s ways, with Him at our side, guarantees a life filled with good things and with the promise of even greater things beyond this life. Whether we are rich or not is neither here nor there because we have God and wisdom and His promises, all of which should combine to bear good fruit and an abundance of what is truly important for godly living.
Solomon, of course, followed this advice in his early years, and God indeed gave him the wisdom, understanding, and prosperity so that he could complete the Temple. Later, he let his wives led him into idolatry so that he did evil in God’s sight (1 Kings 11:4-8), and God allowed the peace (and even some of the prosperity, as Solomon had to tax the population heavily to continue his projects) to evaporate (verses 14-40). This shows that the above process can also work in reverse, which makes Solomon’s life an example of this principle in both directions.
