Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2760
“Then Hiram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, Because the LORD has loved His people, He has made you king over them.” 2 Chronicles 2:11.
I THINK that you must have been struck with the deeply religious tone of the communications which passed between Solomon and Hiram. I am inclined to think that Hiram must have been a proselyte to the faith of Israel. At any rate, the dispatches between these two neighboring kings contain very gracious references to Jehovah and His dealings with His ancient people. Not that I recommend that the dispatches which are sent now between kings should be of a similar character, for that would be a piece of beggarly hypocrisy! What has God to do with the most of them? And what has He to do with the transactions of modern times, in which the invasion of countries by the more powerful is perpetually being justified by the laws of politics which seem to be the very reverse of the Laws of God? Oh, that better times might come, when kings would rule in righteousness! One almost despairs of them, but, at any rate, there is a King coming who will rule in righteousness! Make no delays, O our God!
In the letter, which was written by Hiram, we note that he declares his belief that Solomon was of such a character that his reign was a special blessing from God to His people. That is the meaning of our text—“Because the Lord has loved His people, He has made you king over them.” Such was the character of Solomon, in those early days before he began to decline from the splendor of his first estate, that even this heathen monarch could see that he was bound to be a blessing to the people. I wish that your life and mine, dear Friends, might always have that about it which should make even the worldling say, “That young man is likely to be a blessing to his family. That woman is sure to be a blessing to her husband and to her children.” I would to God that our character was so transparent, so true, pure and good, that all who knew us might feel that we were a blessing to those among whom we dwell!
I want you to notice, also, that Hiram here distinctly recognizes that every blessing comes from God. If Solomon is a blessing to his subjects, Hiram attributes that to the fact of God having placed him where he was. Now, if one who had been a heathen could thus trace a blessing back to God as its source, what heathen must those be who never do anything of the sort, but trace it to what they call, “good luck,” or to “chance,” or to anything rather than to God? O Beloved, whenever there is anything of good, anything of excellence, anything of happiness that comes to our door, let us praise and bless the God who gave it! We are all too apt to complain of Him when we suffer and ready enough to attribute our afflictions to Him. Surely, then, when plentiful mercies come to us, we should magnify and glorify the name of the Lord our God from whom they come! We should say of every mercy, in somewhat similar fashion to that of Hiram when he wrote to Solomon, “Because the Lord has loved His people, therefore has He done this and that for them.”
I purpose, however, to take our text right away from Solomon for, true as it was in his case, it is more emphatically true in reference to our King. It is still true, as was said in Thessalonica in Paul’s day, “There is another King, one Jesus,” and many here present, I am thankful to know, are His loyal subjects. King of kings is He to us and our soul loves to worship and adore Him. Well, now, God has been pleased to make Christ our King, so my text shall run thus— “Because the Lord has loved His people, He has made Jesus to be King over them.”
I. That shall be our first division, THE LOVE OF GOD HAS MADE JESUS TO BE OUR KING.
If we believe that, does it not prove that we do not regard the dominion of Jesus Christ as any burden whatever It is a proof that in our esteem His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Those who look on from the outside say, “We would rather be perfectly free—free thinkers and free livers.” And when they hear any of us say, with the Psalmist, “O Lord, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant and the son of Your handmaid: You have loosed my bonds,” they feel that they do not want to share any such servitude with us. But we are living and truthful witnesses to the fact that we do not look upon the rule of Christ over us as any hardship. On the contrary, we take delight in it! We trace it to the love of God, not to His anger—not even to His justice, or to any necessity that may constrain Him, but to His infinite love and to His gracious thought that He could not do any better thing for us than to give us Jesus Christ to be our King—and we devoutly thank and bless the Lord, this day, that He has set Him over us, to rule us and to have dominion over our spirit, soul and body henceforth and forever.