Grace and Glory

Narrator: Chris Genthree
Duration: 5min
2 Chronicles 9:1‑12  •  4 min. read  •  grade level: 8
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2 Chron. 9:1-121And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem, with a very great company, and camels that bare spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. 2And Solomon told her all her questions: and there was nothing hid from Solomon which he told her not. 3And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, 4And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel; his cupbearers also, and their apparel; and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord; there was no more spirit in her. 5And she said to the king, It was a true report which I heard in mine own land of thine acts, and of thy wisdom: 6Howbeit I believed not their words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me: for thou exceedest the fame that I heard. 7Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom. 8Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne, to be king for the Lord thy God: because thy God loved Israel, to establish them for ever, therefore made he thee king over them, to do judgment and justice. 9And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices great abundance, and precious stones: neither was there any such spice as the queen of Sheba gave king Solomon. 10And the servants also of Huram, and the servants of Solomon, which brought gold from Ophir, brought algum trees and precious stones. 11And the king made of the algum trees terraces to the house of the Lord, and to the king's palace, and harps and psalteries for singers: and there were none such seen before in the land of Judah. 12And king Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which she had brought unto the king. So she turned, and went away to her own land, she and her servants. (2 Chronicles 9:1‑12)
It is grace which is exhibited in David, and glory in Solomon. Grace had a very full display in David. It raised him from being an outcast to a place of honor; it comforted and sustained him in sorrow, restored him from wandering, and kept him to the end in safety. But when the time came for glory to shine forth, grace having thus displayed itself to the full, David delivers the throne into the hand of Solomon.
Each of these, grace and glory, has its peculiar method. Grace only divides the scene with other principles; glory forms it all alone. Grace meets David in his degradation, sorrow, and defilement, and brings honor, comfort, and restoration, leaving the struggle between the former and the latter things in measure to the end, and the whole a divided empire. But glory holds the entire scene at its disposal, and leaves either a trace or a reflection of itself on everything. It is not God's bringing out His resources to mingle with man's circumstances, but it is the supreme presence of the Lord forming the whole sphere of the action itself. This can be seen in the chapter we are considering. There is no darkness at all upon the scene abroad, nor working of nature in the heart within-no trace of man or of his passions; the finger of God and the Spirit of God delineate and animate the whole picture.
The Queen of Sheba is the witness of this. Her consciousness of what she saw tells us of glory being everywhere in the regions of the king of Israel-the stirrings of her own heart tell us of the absence of all the ways and principles of nature. She saw not the slightest thing that did not reflect the glory. As the stars of the heaven differ in their glories, but each of them is glorious and lends something to the sum magnificence, so it is here. There is the house of the king, with the ascent up to the house of God, but there is also the meat of Solomon's table, and the apparel of his servants, and each contributes to the glorious whole. The glory was leaving its reflection on all she saw. It might have a small part in the account, but still it was glorious. And because it was small, it was even more worthy of notice by the Spirit-led soul that delights to put honor on the uncomely member. This enabled the queen to give greater testimony to the fact that glory was everywhere. Just as another voice of the same Spirit, anticipating the sanctity or cleanness of the antitype of Solomon's day, tells us of "Holiness unto the Lord" being, at that time, upon "the bells of the horses," and that "the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar" (Zech. 14). The glory had taken over the whole scene, and there was nothing hidden from the reach of its beams. It was a morning without clouds-there was no shadow anywhere. All was in the light. The very equipage of the attendants and their deportment reflected it. All was delivered into the liberty of the glory (Rom. 8:2121Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Romans 8:21)) and fashioned by the power of it.
The kingdom within was, however, as excellent in its own way as the kingdom without. If the day dawned around, the day-star had arisen in the heart of the queen of Sheba. There was no blemish of nature or of the flesh in her spirit, as there was no dimness or uncertainty in the scene around her. She was small in comparison with the king in Zion but in spite of this, she delighted in all that she saw, without envy or covetousness. She sought for wisdom, and valued the merchandise of it above gold or rubies. She offered the best of her land to king Solomon, doing all she could to beautify the house of God's glory. She considered nothing that she had too good for him.
0 the blessedness of all this within and abroad! Glory abroad, leaving its memorial everywhere and the beauty of the Spirit's mind within, ordering the whole conversation of the soul! Such scenes may be realized to the enjoyment of our hearts and eyes now, and to the glory of our Lord in the days of the kingdom!
It is well that now grace divides the scene with nature's misery and defilement, and it is well that then glory will know nothing but its own creation, for light and its principles will be triumphant. The light which God has brought in shines, it is most true, but shines in a dark place; the light that He will yet bring in will be light everywhere, the day-dawn around, and the day-star within (2 Pet. 1:1919We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: (2 Peter 1:19)). It is now the valley of Baca with wells of water; soon it will be the courts of unbroken, undivided praise (Psalm 84).
"The Lord will give grace and glory."