Solomon typifies Christ (Matt. 12:42) in speaking God's word of wisdom (13:35) and in building the church as the temple of God (16:18; 1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21-22), and the temple typifies Christ (Matt. 12:6) and the church as the unique building of God in the universe. These two—Christ and His Body, the church—are the center, the reality, and the goal of God's eternal economy.
Since Solomon and the temple built by him play the strongest roles in the history of Israel and occupy a wide realm in such a history, they are the strong evidence that the history of Israel concerns very much the fulfillment of God's eternal economy in the Old Testament in the way of typology. If our study of such a history is detached from the economy of God, our study will be a labor in vain. That Christ and the church are the centrality and universality of God's economy is universal in both the New Testament and the Old Testament. We need to see clearly that the books of history were written from the point of view of God's eternal economy concerning Christ and the church.