PARABLES OF SOLOMON

The Book of Proverbs is unique for its employment of parabolic illustration. How loaded the book is with illustrations, metaphors and figures, taken from every realm! Among some of the parabolic gems is that of the Parable of the Houses with and without foundation (Proverbs 9:1; 24:3,27; see Proverbs 12:7; 14:11). How suggestive these passages are of Matthew 7:24-29 and 1 Corinthians 3:11-15. The seemingly strong house of the one is not so secure as the fragile tent of the other.

The solemn passage about those treating an invitation to the feast with contempt (Proverbs 1:24-27), should be compared with our Lord’s parable regarding the refusal of bidden guests to a lavish feast (Matthew 22:1-14).

The paragraph about humility in the presence of royalty and of the great (Proverbs 25:6-7) is almost identical to what our Lord had to say about those coveting high places having to take lower ones. In His adaptation of Solomon’s parabolic exhortation, our Lord points to His own example (Luke 14:10; Matthew 20:25; see John 2:28).

The power of a righteous king to scatter evil (Proverbs 20:8) may be placed alongside of the effect of our Lord’s reign when He sets up His throne (Matthew 25:30-46). A look from His righteous eyes will be sufficient to make those speechless who are detitute of the wedding garment.

The proverb “the king’s favor is toward a wise servant”, finds an echo in the parables where the servants show their wisdom by faithfulness in trading, diligence in serving, and constancy to watching. In Proverbs 8:34 the Lord Himself is speaking about the watching one just as He did in the gospels, “Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors” .

In this description of the path of the wicked, and how it can be avoided (Proverbs 4:20-27), Solomon uses language akin to that of our Lord’s parables in which He taught His disciples that defilment arises, not from what goes into the mouth as food, but from what comes out of the heart and mouth in speech.

The importance of keeping the heart with all diligence is the central thought in Solomon’s sevenfold chain of precepts. They divide themselves into two groups, the first three showing how the Word reaches the heart through the ear and the eye, and then, and then four teaching that the heart governs the walk. Did not our Lord Himself teach that, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks?” 

Further, Solomon uses a good deal of figurative speech about sowing and reaping (Proverbs 11:18,24; Proverbs 22:8; Ecclesiastes 11:6), all of which may be placed alongside of the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13), and also that which Paul wrote about the same theme (2 Corinthians 9:6; Galatians 6:7).

The Parable of the Rich Man (Luke 16:19-31) is an expansion of the proverb, “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath...He who trusts in his riches will fall (Proverbs 11:4,28).

Phrases like, “The righteous will flourish like foliage” and “The root of the righteous yields fruit” (Proverbs 11:28; 12:12), take on fresh meaning when compared with John 15. Then “he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough” (Proverbs 28:19), sums up the experience of the Prodigal Son. 

As for Proverbs 13:7, the same describes Him who sold all that He had that He might purchase the field and the pearl. This is the only time the word parable is found in Proverbs, although in a broad sense the word is sometimes used of a proverb. “The legs hang down from a lame man, and so is a parable in the mouth of fools” (Proverbs 26:7), implying that the spiritually blind can make no more use of a parable for guidance that can a lame man used his crippled legs. Is this not what our Lord had in mind when He said to His disciples, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that Seeing they may not see, And hearing they may not understand”? (Luke 8:10).

There is also The Parable of the Poor Wise Youth (Ecclesiastes 4:13-16). While the exact historical association of this brief parable may be difficult to determine, it is easily seen that in “the old and foolish king” Solomon gave a self-portrait. In the application of the parable, the poor wise youth is evidently the Lord Himself, “He comes out of prison to be king”. Surely this looks forward to a greater than Solomon. “Although he was born poor in his kingdom”. Solomon considers the kingdom of the second, that “stands in his place”. He contemplates the number of His subjects, “There was no end of all the people over whom he was made king”. Is this a prophecy of our Lord’s rejection, a hint of the long centuries after His incarnation, when men shall not have learned to rejoice in Him? Solomon’s Psalm (Psalm 2) tells of the glad day when all nations shall call the Lord blessed.

Solomon was a man of great intellectual ability who became legendary at a comparatively early age. He was credited with a great many poetic compositions, and was particularly adept at crystallising tha manifolfd aspects of life in the form of literary proverbs.

In the light of the New Testament, many of Solomon’s parables are not longer dark, for we can see in them prophecies of the Greater than him.

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