1 Kings 2

A Throne For The King's Mother

And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a throne to be set for the king's mother; and she sat on his right hand. 1 Kings 2:19.

If I were to ask you what you thought the greatest thing about King Solomon I wonder what your answer would be.

Perhaps some of you would say his wealth and magnificence. We read of his wonderful ivory throne overlaid with gold, of the golden drinking vessels which were used in the palace, of the golden shields of his bodyguard. We learn that ships came from strange countries bearing treasure, that kings brought him costly gifts, and that in his reign silver was counted as stones. We are told that he “exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches.”

And yet at the end of his life Solomon found that all his glory was but “vanity of vanities.” In gaining his wealth he had lost something much more precious the love and trust of many of his people; and he knew that as regarded the best and highest things his life had been a failure. So I think we must admit that Solomon's wealth was not the greatest or best thing in his life.

Perhaps others of you say that the greatest thing about King Solomon was his wisdom. And you remind me that he chose above all things “an understanding heart.” You tell me how wisely he judged the people and how, when the Queen of Sheba came from far to prove him with hard questions, she went away saying that not the half had been told her of all his wisdom.

But although Solomon was a wise judge and was clever at answering riddles he was not always a wise ruler. He gained his magnificence at the price of the people's oppression, and it was largely owing to his misrule that the greater part of the kingdom was taken away from his son Rehoboam.

Shall I tell you what I think was the greatest thing about King Solomon, the thing I like best to remember about him? It was his reverence for his mother.

Right at the beginning of his reign we have a little picture of how he received his mother when she came to him with a petition. Solomon was only about twenty years old at the time. His head might well have been turned by his position. But when the queen mother came into his presence he did not wave her aside with a haughty gesture and tell her to await the king's pleasure. No, he paid her the greatest honor and deference that he knew. He “rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a throne to be set for the king's mother; and she sat on his right hand.”

I think that must have been one of the proudest moments of Solomon's life, when he rose up in all the glory of his young manhood and his power to welcome his mother, and to give her the seat of honor at his side.

Something very like this happened in the life of one of the Presidents of the United States.

His name was James Garfield and he started life as a poor boy in a little log cabin. Bit by bit, by dint of perseverance and hard work, he made his way up, until at last he was elected President of the United States.

As the day drew near for the inauguration ceremony when he was to be made President, he wrote to his old mother and asked her to accompany him to Washington, the capital city. His mother replied that she would be quite out of place among all the grand people who would take part in the ceremony, and that she would just stay at home and pray for him. But Garfield wrote back, “I'll not go without you!”

So together they travelled to Washington. They stayed in the same hotel, and when the time came for the ceremony Mrs. Garfield went out leaning on her son's arm and together they entered the carriage that was waiting for them. Together they drove to the Capitol, where the great ceremony was to take place. There they found waiting a great crowd of about a hundred thousand people. On the platform were all the celebrated men from all over the country judges, and governors, and ministers.

Together Garfield and his mother mounted the platform. And then he did a beautiful thing. In front of that great sea of faces all turned towards him, he gave his mother the chair, the seat of honor, that had been provided for himself. Then he delivered his inaugural address; and after he had taken the oath to be faithful to his office, he turned and put his arms round his mother and kissed her.

These are two pictures of how two great men treated their mother. How are you treating yours? Remember that the way in which you act towards your mother proves what kind of boy or girl you are. It is one of the very best signs if you are good to her, and one of the very worst if you treat her with contempt.

Now most of us would scorn to treat our mother with contempt, and yet we often give her a great deal of trouble. We say we love her, and we mean it too, but we are cross and disobedient and disobliging. We forget that the real proof that we love people is that we try to please them. The love that is all words and that costs us nothing isn't of much value.

I want to give you three reasons why you should be good to your mother.

1. And the first is because you will never again meet anyone like her. You may live till you are a hundred but you will never have a second mother. Nobody will love you again in just the same sort of way. Nobody will have so much patience with your faults.

My Mother she's so good to me,

If I was good as I could be,

I couldn't be as good no, sir!

Can't any boy be good as her!

She loves me when I'm glad or sad;

She loves me when I'm good or bad;

And, what's the funniest thing, she says,

She loves me when she punishes.

(James Whitcomb Riley)

It is from the love of our mothers that we can have a faint idea of God's love for us. They never stop loving us, and they never stop believing in us, not even when everybody else has given us up as a bad job, The greater number of us would not be half the men and women we are, if it were not for the love, and the care, and the prayers of our mothers.

2. The second reason why you should be good to your mother is that by so doing you will save yourself many bitter regrets. Many grown men would give all he possesses just to have his mother back again so that he might smooth out the wrinkles he had imprinted on her face and make up to her for all the sorrow he had caused her. You have still got your mother with you. Be good to her and you will live to be thankful for it. Remember any wrong or unworthy thing you do hurts her more than it hurts anyone else on earth, because she loves you most.

Here is a story told of another President of the United States George Washington. When he was a boy he resolved that he would go to sea as a midshipman. All the arrangements were made, his trunk was even packed and away, and George went to say good-bye to his mother. He found her in tears, and what do you think he did? He turned to a servant and said, “Go and find back my trunk. I will not go away and break my mother's heart.” His mother was so struck with his decision that she said, “God has promised to bless the children who honor their parents. I believe He will bless you.” And He did.

3. The third reason why you should be good to your mother is that it is one of the best ways to serve your country. Perhaps you think that seems like an odd thing to say, but it's like this. All through history it has been seen that the strongest and most prosperous people are those whose children obey the Fifth Commandment. If you don't learn early to obey and reverence your parents you won't learn later to obey and reverence authority. And a country where there is no reverence for authority is in a very shaky condition. So the very greatest service you can do for your country at present is to render honor and obedience to your parents.

Just one word more, and it is about One greater than Solomon. Jesus Christ was the Ruler not merely of a little Eastern kingdom but of all the earth, and yet almost all that we know of Him for eighteen years from the time He was twelve till He was thirty is that He was subject unto His parents. And when He was hanging on the cross, He forgot His own agony to give His sorrowing mother into the charge of the disciple He loved

Jesus Christ was the most tender and chivalrous of sons, and if we want to please and serve Him here below one of the first things we must do is to love, and reverence, and obey our mother.