This morning we are looking at chapter 13 of The Story and the life of
Solomon, the third king of Israel. I want us to take a look at his life as if
it were a black box. Doing so will help us look at what was done right and what
was done wrong. The hope being that we will be able to learn from his life and
learn what we should and should not do.
Let’s take a couple of steps back in The Story to review how we got to
where we are today. God called Abraham to become the father of the nation of
Israel. They soon ended up living in Egypt to avoid a famine and then became
slaves and continued to grow in number. God than called Moses to lead them out
of Egypt and the Nation of Israel began its journey wandering in the wilderness.
The Nation was formed with the mission of pointing other nations, all the
people of the world, to the one true God. God wants all people to come back to
Him and to spend eternity with Him.
God gave Israel the Promised Land and He allowed them to have kings.
The first king was Saul who failed to represent God. God then chose David as
king. David did represent God well, and even though he sinned against God, he
repented and captured the heart of a gracious God who is available to everyone.
This morning in 1 Kings 1, David is old and dying and he passes the leadership
of the nation of Israel to Solomon the son of Bathsheba.
1 Kings 1:29-30
“29 The king swore an oath and said,
“As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from every difficulty, 30 just
as I swore to you by the Lord God of Israel: Your son Solomon
is to become king after me, and he is the one who is to sit on my throne in my
place, that is exactly what I will do this very day.”
With a lot of pomp and circumstance and even some turmoil with
Adonijah, one of David’s other sons trying to become king; Solomon is made King
during David’s final days.
While things may have started out rocky, this was probably one of the
best times to be king. David had already defeated most of their enemies. If he
had not eliminated them, he had at least beaten them into submission for the
time being. Other nations were afraid of God and Israel and were willing to get
on their kings good side. Unlike today with our $17.7Billion national debt, the
Nation of Israel had an abundance of wealth. Solomon had everything handed to
him and even early on he showed his wisdom by how he initially responded to
Adonijah after he tried to sneak in his own coronation as king before David
could pass it on to Solomon.
1 Kings 1:51-52
“51 It was reported to Solomon: “Look, Adonijah fears King Solomon, and he has taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, ‘Let King Solomon first swear to me that he will not kill his servant with the sword.’” 52 Then Solomon said, “If he is a man of character, not a single hair of his will fall to the ground, but if evil is found in him, he dies.”
Solomon gave him the benefit of the doubt, let him return home until he later turned on Solomon and forced his hand.
David passed on a fair amount of fatherly and kingly wisdom, but these verses are arguably the most important.
1 Kings 2:2-3
2 “As for me, I am going the way of all of the earth. Be strong and be courageous like a man, 3 and keep your obligation to the Lord your God to walk in His ways and to keep His statutes, commands, ordinances, and decrees. This is written in the law of Moses, so that you will have success in everything you do and wherever you turn,”
David was reminding his son, the new king of Israel to follow the Lord. Remember that as a Nation the commitment was made to follow all of His commandments. He probably even told him, don’t make the same mistakes I did. You know I broke God’s law with your mom, don’t do anything like that it only causes heartache.
David reminded his son to follow the Lord. That is a great reminder for us as parents and grandparents to teach the next generations to honor God and follow His teachings.
We see that Solomon starts out his life honoring God and then something amazing happens.
1 Kings 3:5
“At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, Ask. What should I give you?”
God asks Solomon ask for anything, what do you want me to give you? Golly, that could get your mind spinning. Most of us would probably like to say that we would go with something like wisdom, but we would probably be tempted to respond with something a little more self serving.
Solomon even as a young king was wise beyond his years.
1 Kings 3:7-9
“7 “Lord my God, You have now made Your servant king in my father David’s place. Yet I am just a youth with no experience in leadership. 8 Your servant is among Your people You have chosen, a people too numerous to be numbered or counted. 9 So give Your servant an obedient heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”
Solomon does not give into any selfish desire and asks for wisdom so he could be a better ruler over the people God has put before him. Solomon was wise before God came to visit him, and the Bible tells us that God made him so wise that there has never been nor will there ever be anyone as wise as him.
Starting in verse 16 we see Solomon’s wisdom tested by two women. You are most likely familiar with this story and if you did this week’s reading you are definitely familiar with it. Two women come to Solomon claiming to be the mother of this baby. They are saying they both gave birth and at night one of the baby’s died and one of the mothers swapped the dead baby for the live baby. Looking at the women there is no way to tell who is telling the truth, so Solomon does something unexpected.
1 Kings 3:24
“24 The king continued, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought the sword to the king. 25 Solomon said, “Cut the living boy in two and give half to one and half to the other.”
The rightful mother at this moment was willing to give up her right to her baby so he could live. The other lady did not care and was like that works for me, that way neither of us has him. Solomon was able to use this test to determine who the real mother was and give her the child. Justice was served and God’s wisdom was witnessed by the Nation of Israel.
Solomon’s wisdom is recorded in the Old Testament books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. Here are a handful of examples from our reading this week.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
A Person’s steps are directed by the Lord, how then can anyone understand their own way?
The human spirit is the lamp of the Lord, that sheds light on one’s inmost being.
The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old.
To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor.
Those who guard their mouths and their tongues keep themselves from calamity.
So far as we have looked at Solomon’s life he is doing the right things. He has shown wisdom in dealing with his brother. He continued to follow in his father’s footsteps in following the Lord. He showed wisdom when asking the Lord to help him be a better leader, and he has put that gift from God to use as being that leader.
We should be looking at Solomon’s life so far and thinking about what we can do to learn from him. He follows God, hey that is something we need to do. We need to follow the Lord’s commands and let His Word lead our lives. We also need to use godly wisdom in our lives, and while we will never be as wise as Solomon we do have his writing and all of God’s Word to teach us. If we read our Bibles and apply its wisdom to our lives, we are learning from Solomon.
In the next few chapters we see that Solomon is able to do what David could not, build a temple for God. A beautiful and magnificent temple followed by the sacrifice of 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep to dedicate. The Glory of the Lord filled the temple.
God gave Solomon a blessing and a warning.
1 Kings 9:4-7
“4 As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and in what is right, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances, 5 I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel. 6 If you or your sons turn away from following Me and do not keep My commands—My statutes that I have set before you—and if you go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 I will cut off Israel from the land I gave them, and I will reject the temple I have sanctified for My name. Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.”
The Lord was pretty clear, follow me or I will pull away my blessing. Pretty simple and the same message we have seen throughout Judges. Follow the commands of the Lord and He will bless you, if you do not He will let you deal with the sinful mess you create on your own.
This was not the first time Solomon had heard this message, it was been told to him several times as if trying to emphasize a point. Follow God, Follow His commands, Live up to your Commitments!
Solomon the wisest man to ever live, who started out so strong, ends poorly.
Solomon had 700 wives from many different kingdoms and many different religious backgrounds. He has wives from nations that worshipped pagan gods. As Solomon grew old the influence of his wives grew and his dedication to the Lord began to wane. As his worship of the One True God became less important he began to worship idols with many of his wives. This angered the Lord.
1 Kings 11:9-11
“9 The Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from Yahweh, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10 He had commanded him about this, so that he would not follow other gods, but Solomon did not do what the Lord had commanded. 11 Then the Lord said to Solomon, “Since you have done this and did not keep My covenant and My statutes, which I commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.”
Solomon’s heart was divided and led astray God was angry and divided the kingdom.
We need to remember to not let people or things lead us astray. Even people we love can lead us away from God or lead us to break one of God’s commandments. We need to remember that God is first at all times, Honor Him, and Follow His Commands.
No one wakes up and says ‘I’d like to wreck my life and ruin all my relationships’ these things happen slowly. If the wisest man failed, then what about us?
We need to live our lives to point others to Jesus Christ, that needs to be our mission in life. We need to remember that how we live matters and it will influence others. Stay out of lukewarm waters by praying to finish strong, ask for wisdom, and be accountable to someone as needed.
God is first at all times, Honor Him, and Follow His Commands!
Prayers and Blessings!
Robert
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