Artwork by Drew Pocza
When I hear of
individuals that God used throughout history and their lives end in disgrace I
am saddened. I am saddened mainly
because I see God how blessed these individuals throughout their lives and yet
in the end they turn from the One who blesses them abundantly. I am sure some of you may know of individuals
like this. If you don’t just read the
newspapers or watch the news, inevitably you will see someone like this. Maybe they weren’t “Heroes of the Faith” per
se but they may be people you looked up to or possibly someone who may have
even led you to the Lord and yet they passed from the earth denying the God
they at one time proudly proclaimed.
Unfortunately this is the story of
Solomon (our “hero” for today), yet his failures and ultimate disregard for God
in the latter end of his life didn’t hinder God from using him mightily for his
plan, purpose and Kingdom. Solomon’s
story is an interesting account to say the least and God did some fantastic
things through him. Even though he was
born with a silver spoon in his hand his life was not as easy going as one
would think and it certainly does not end the way one would expect.
Background
Before we begin I need to set the
stage as to how Solomon came to be King of Israel. As Todd shared a couple of weeks ago that David’s
life was tumultuous at best. Yes, he was
blessed, he was a man after God’s own heart and he was the greatest king Israel
has ever had. It is through his lineage
the Messiah would be born. He was the
man who came up with the plan to build a temple to the Lord. However he was also a man ridden with sin and
unfortunately it affected his family.
Shortly after David and Bathsheba lost
their first son due to David’s sin, Solomon was born to the couple. By rights Solomon was the second heir to the
throne of David, right behind Adonijah.
Unbeknownst to Adonijah he did not realize that David promised Bathsheba
that Solomon would be heir to the throne.
When David was on his deathbed Adonijah proclaimed himself as heir to
the King, yet Bathsheba and Nathan informed him that he was not king. Adonijah went away without an issue and thus
Solomon became king. There is a lot
involved in this story (which ends with the death of Adonijah and others) and I
would encourage you to read I Kings 1 & 2 to get the whole gruesome and
bloody story.
Solomon was the third king of Israel
and he succeeded his father David. He
began his reign as king on the right foot as he walked with God and sought him
in all he did. Unfortunately, unlike his
father, he did not walk with God through the course of his life. What Solomon is most famous for was his wealth,
wisdom, and women aplenty. He is believed to be the author of
Ecclesiastes (which some believe was his letter of repentance), The Song of
Songs (A steamy book to say the least) and is believed to have penned or
collected partial contents of Proverbs. He reigned as king for 40 years and
for most of those years the nation was at peace.
Today I would like to look at three
key aspects of Solomon’s life that can benefit us greatly. We will look at Solomon’s wisdom and wealth,
making a dream into reality and his fall from grace.
Solomon – A Man of Wisdom and Wealth
When one mentions the name Solomon the
casual Bible reader and serious Bible student often associate him with a leader
of great wisdom and wealth and rightly so.
Why is this? Because he was a
leader of a nation who had great wisdom (He is often referred as the wisest man
in the Bible) and he was a leader who had extreme wealth (I’ll show you in a
few moments).
In 1 King’s 3:3 we are told, “Solomon
loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father…” This is a great
way to start of your reign as a king. One
night in Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream and asked Solomon, “Ask
what I shall give to you?” Let’s take a
moment and pause. Let’s pretend for a
moment that God comes to you one night and asks you for anything you want. What would your response be? I find this to be one of the most difficult
questions to answer because my inner Pharisee wants to say, “Lord I want
whatever you can give to me that will benefit your Kingdom.” However my inner
sinner says, “Lord, give me stuff! Give
me money! Give me LOTS of money! Give me power and influence! I promise I will be good with it.” (I see how you are looking at me, don’t judge
me this is my dream.) Thankfully God has
never come to me and we have never had this discussion. Yet, he did have this conversation with
Solomon and he has (to use the words of the Grail Knight from Indiana Jones and
The Last Crusade), “Chosen wisely”. This
is what Solomon asks (I Kings 3:9), “Give your servant therefore an
understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and
evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” Solomon asks for wisdom to rule over the
nation of Israel and God grants him his wish (so to speak). He not only tells Solomon that He will give
him wisdom but He will also give him “both riches and honor, so no other king
shall compare with you, all your days.”
How cool would that be? I can’t even imagine. Well, God kept his word and gave to Solomon
all he promised. In 2 Chronicles 9 we
see that Solomon’s wealth and wisdom was well known and many nations heard of
his fame. The Queen of Sheba (modern day
Yemen) came to see Solomon and to test him to see if he was the real deal. Solomon answers all her questions she asks
and she saw his home, his table with food, his officials, his servants, his
clothes, his burnt offerings and she was speechless (2 Chron. 9:4). She was so impressed that she gave him gold,
spices and precious stones. In return
Solomon gave her anything she asked for.
Solomon had it all.
Solomon – A Man Who Makes a Dream a
Reality
God gives Solomon wisdom and in doing so he is
blessed beyond all kings before or after him.
With his wisdom and wealth come the ability and the calling to finally
build the Temple of God that his father envisioned. In his fourth year as king Solomon begins
building the house of the Lord. If you
recall David has the initial idea to build a temple or a house for God. As delighted as the Lord was He forbids David
to build it because he was a man of war.
God did tell him that David could collect all the materials and have a
vision for the temple and God would then commission Solomon to implement his
father’s vision. David was the visioneer
and Solomon made it a reality. You can
read all about it in 2 Kings 6 & 2 Chronicles 3 & 4. When the temple was complete Solomon brought
in the things that his father had dedicated and he also stored the silver,
gold, and all the vessels in the treasuries of God. He then assembles the elders of Israel and
all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the father’s houses of the people
of Israel to bring in the Ark of the Covenant.
Solomon then blesses the house of the
Lord and then prays a prayer of dedication of the Temple and offered a
sacrifice to the Lord... 22,000 Oxen and 120,000 sheep and held a seven day
feast for all of Israel. He held
nothing back for his God and for His people.
Solomon – His Fall From Grace (…and
possible repentance)
Unfortunately Solomon’s story doesn’t
end on a positive note. As we know God
gave him great wealth and wisdom, he blessed him in making the vision of his
father’s dream a reality however the Bible tells us that Solomon turned away from
the Lord. In I Kings 11 we see that
Solomon had a weakness and his weakness was women. He loved many foreign women and he
intermarried which is something the Lord explicitly had forbidden. The reason God didn’t want his people
intermarrying was not because he was racist but because he is a jealous God and
will take the back seat to no one. He
knew these women would turn his attention from Him and Solomon would easily be
swayed into following after their foreign gods.
He had 700 wives, princesses and 300 concubines. I am a poor mathematician but I do know that
this is a lot of women. 1 Kings 11:3
says, “his wives turned his heart after other gods.” This was Solomon’s downfall.
This infuriated the Lord and in his
loving grace and kindness warned Solomon to not follow after these foreign
gods. Solomon did not heed this warning
and as a result God told him he would divide the kingdom (after he
passed). Unfortunately we do not have
any detailed record that shows that Solomon ever repented of his sin and went
back to God. We can only speculate by
reading Ecclesiastes that Solomon may have possibly come to his senses towards
the end of his life. The writer exclaims
throughout the book that having everything means nothing if you don’t have
God. The book of Ecclesiastes closes
like this, “The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this
is the whole duty of man. For God will
bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing whether good or
evil.” This is the only hope we have
that Solomon came to his senses at the end of his life.
Conclusion
The reality is that whether Solomon
came to realize his folly before it was too late or not shouldn’t really matter
for us today. Why? Because we can learn from his successes and
mistakes and finish our lives in victory.
As I conclude I want to highlight some points that we can take with us
today from the life of Solomon.
1)
Seek the wisdom
of God in all your decisions in life and don’t be afraid to ask God for big things
for his glory. Whether you are an
employer, employee, student, stay home mom or dad, retiree, widow or widower
seek God first in all matters of your life.
So many of us feel unqualified for life or the duties that are placed
before us, seek God and his counsel. Ask
him to give you the wisdom to live your life so you may bring him honor and
glory in your life.
2)
We must always
be aware of what God is doing and what he is asking us to do. As you all know being a Christian is not
intended to be something you do, it’s something you are. We must be seeking his counsel and
determining what he is up to and be available for him to use us for his
glory. We are to dream. However our job is not just to dream about
what God can do, we need to find out He is doing and get on board with him so
the dream can become a reality.
3)
Keep your eyes
on Jesus. There are so many things in
this world vying for our attention, affection and devotion and they are all
attractive and compelling. God wants us
to keep our eyes on him. Whenever we
allow our worship turn from God to something else this is displeasing to God. May your legacy be this, “(Insert your name)
was a man/woman who loved the Lord, walked with the Lord and finished the race
with the Lord.”
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