Covenant Promises (part 1)

The people of Judah and Israel were as innumerable as the sand on the seashore; they had plenty to eat and drink and were happy. – 1 Kings 4:20  (NET)

These words served and serve as an implicit and overt reminder of the faithfulness of the Creator God of Israel.  They are offered here in the midst of the recounting of what was taken to be the glorious reign of King Solomon.  Significantly, they function as the report of a time in which Israel, as a nation, was presumably largely fulfilling its covenant obligations.  By the author’s making mention of the sand on the seashore, this particular portion of Israel’s story fits neatly into the continuous narrative of the redemptive plan that is presented within Scripture. 

Specifically, it forces the listener/reader to consider the Creator God’s covenant with Abraham.  In Genesis, after the reported encounter with the angel of the Lord in the region of Moriah, in which the God of Abraham is said to have intervened in the issue of the sacrifice of Isaac, the text reads “I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be as countless as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore” (22:17a).  Naturally, these words in the Kings would be tied directly to the words in Genesis.   

Additionally, the fact that Israel is said to have had plenty to eat and drink, and this along with their being happy, ties the words of the Kings neatly with the list of blessings to be found in Deuteronomy.  Now, there is some debate as to the time of the composition of the final version of Deuteronomy (though oral tradition would play a vital role throughout Israel’s history regardless of the time in which Deuteronomy reached its final form), in which Israel’s God tells His covenant people that He will bless “the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.” 

Further, it is insisted that “Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed… The Lord will greatly multiply your children, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land which He promised your ancestors He would give you” (28:4b-5,11).   It is not at all a stretch to hear the fulfillment of this type of blessing, with such thoughts in mind, when the Kings author reports that Israel had plenty to eat and drink, and that they were happy.  Experiencing these types of blessings of livestock, herds, flocks, baskets, and bowls would certainly lead to contentment, which has always been understood to be a vital component of happiness.

Moving forward in the Kings, one is able to find that “Solomon ruled all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt.”  Furthermore, it is said that “These kingdoms paid tribute as Solomon’s subjects throughout his lifetime” (4:21).  As one remains ever mindful of the over-arching Scriptural narrative and that previously mentioned story of redemption that is the presumed terminus of the story, this reading forces another return to Genesis and the Abrahamic covenant.  Doing so, one finds that “the Lord made a covenant with Abraham,” saying “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River” (15:18).