METAPHYSICAL BIBLE INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
This is a series of lectures given by Mr. Edward Rabel, member of the faculty of S.M.R.S.
Fall semester 1975 - 2nd. Yr. Class. Lecture given on November 7, 1975
Topic: 61
I Kings 1 through 1 Kings 16, p. 251 of transcript.
King Solomon
O.K. Now, let's go on to King Solomon, the son of David. His activities are contained in I Kings, the first 16 chapters and II Chronicles, first 20 chapters. By the way, folks, all this technical information that I am giving you is all clearly and beautifully found in your book "Let There Be Light".
The word Solomon itself means whole, complete and peace. Metaphysically he represents the beginning of spiritual understanding. See? We have characters in our stories so far who are symbols of spiritual understanding advanced beyond Solomon. I told you before that the Bible narrative isn't tracing a sequential or progressive unfoldment in any individual, that there would be backtrackings and detours and all that, there would be a lot of repetition, so Solomon stands for only the beginning of spiritual understanding, he does not stand for spiritual understanding but the beginning. Jesus, only Jesus stands for spiritual understanding.
So King Solomon stands for only the beginning and some development of it, and possibly the thing that King Solomon is most admired for it is his prayer for an understanding heart (I Kings 3:9):
"Give thy servant an understanding heart"
is one of the most quotable lines in the Old Testament, and we find, when we read through his stories that he does indeed do many wise and good things, but also he does some very, very hasty and foolish things, too. But this is quite typical of the developing of understanding as a whole. We do hasty and foolish things not because we lack understanding, but because the current state of us has more than one side to it, every level of us, every factor in us at this stage, as we are now as a human family, has this two-faceness about it, this duality, this polarity, and so it is possible for a very wise person within the same day act like a very foolish person, have you noticed it? How is that all saying, "the bigger they get, the higher they fall," such would be the case as long as man still functions in this dual state, this two-sides-of-the-coin level of existence we are now going through.
We will stop here with Solomon and will take our Elijah and Elisha, next.
Transcribed by Margaret Garvin on February 8, 2015.
