Matins Devotion: August 23, 2024

1 Kings 5

Theologically speaking, a “type” is someone or something that foreshadows someone or something to come. It’s a partial thing, something that has elements of the promised thing but doesn’t have all the elements of the promised thing. So the things the type has in common with the promised thing show us what the promised thing is going to be. And the things the type doesn’t have only serve to highlight how much greater the promised thing will be. This is something we see quite clearly throughout the life of King Solomon, who is a type of Christ.

Solomon is the son of David who rules upon his father’s throne. So is Jesus. But Solomon only rules for a time. Jesus rules forever. Solomon has divinely granted wisdom and a heart for justice. So does Jesus. But Solomon’s thinking and heart are corrupted. The mind and heart of Jesus never are. Solomon builds the house of God. So does Jesus, in a greater and fuller way, by bringing the true temple of His flesh into the world. Solomon builds the house of God with forced labor, with a draft, treating it like a military invasion. When Jesus builds the house of God, that is, when He wins salvation for the world, He does so without forced anything, without compulsion, without extracting an ounce of labor or taxes, without asking anything of you. He gives the full temple, full salvation, the full kingdom of God as a free gift.

So the wealth and power and wisdom and majesty of Solomon made him a type, a promise of the greater wealth and power and wisdom and majesty of Jesus Christ that is now your possession, given to you freely and fully in the death and resurrection of God’s Only Begotten Son. All your sins are forgiven. Everything keeping you outside the house of God has been erased forever. And now God Himself invites you to dwell within His temple, to take your place beside your brother, and to feast forever upon His righteousness.