Before King David died, he made certain that Solomon was appointed as king in his place!
Solomon, at that point, was fully dedicated to the Lord God! He fulfilled the wishes of his father, David, and established his kingdom with the full acceptance of the people of Judah [southern kingdom, 2 tribes] and Israel [northern kingdom, 10 tribes – eventually known as Samaria].
Early in his rule, God gave him a dream in which He said: “What can I give you? Ask.”
Solomon’s response to God in this dream was beautiful: I Kings 3:6-9 TM
[All
scripture quotes from The Message Bible unless otherwise noted]
“You
were extravagantly generous in love with David my father, and he lived
faithfully in your presence, his relationships were just and his heart right.
And you have persisted in this great and generous love by giving him—and this
very day!—a son to sit on his throne.
“And
now here I am: God, my God, you have made me, your servant, ruler of the
kingdom in place of David my father. I’m too young for this, a mere child! I
don’t know the ropes, hardly know the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of this job. And here I
am, set down in the middle of the people you’ve chosen, a great people—far too
many to ever count.
“Here’s
what I want: Give me a God-listening heart so I can lead your people well,
discerning the difference between good and evil. For who on their own is
capable of leading your glorious people?”
God’s response was one of great pleasure: [vs.10-14]
God,
the Master, was delighted with Solomon’s response. And God said to him,
“Because
you have asked for this and haven’t grasped after a long life, or riches, or
the doom of your enemies, but you have asked for the ability to lead and govern
well, I’ll give you what you’ve asked for—I’m giving you a wise and mature
heart. There’s never been one like you before; and there’ll be no one after. As
a bonus, I’m giving you both the wealth and glory you didn’t ask for—there’s
not a king anywhere who will come up to your mark. And if you stay on course,
keeping your eye on the life-map and the God-signs as your father David did,
I’ll also give you a long life.”
God
gave Solomon wisdom—the deepest of understanding and the largest of hearts.
There was nothing beyond him, nothing he couldn’t handle. Solomon’s wisdom
outclassed the vaunted wisdom of wise men of the East, outshone the famous
wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than anyone—wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, wiser
than Heman, wiser than Calcol and Darda the sons of Mahol. He became famous
among all the surrounding nations. He created 3,000 proverbs; his songs added
up to 1,005. He knew all about plants, from the huge cedar that grows in
Lebanon to the tiny hyssop that grows in the cracks of a wall. He understood
everything about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. Sent by kings from all
over the earth who had heard of his reputation, people came from far and near
to listen to the wisdom of Solomon.
All of this causes us to be quite impressed with this young leader! But as I was reading through these passages this morning I noticed a verse that indicates a chink in Solomon’s character.
Solomon
loved God and continued to live in the God-honoring ways of David his
father, except that he also worshiped at the local shrines, offering
sacrifices and burning incense. [3:3]
It’s a minor observation – hardly worth mentioning, right?
It may be an indication that Solomon was a people-pleaser. He didn’t want to offend any of the groups who believed in these shrines; so he participated in their worship, even to the extent of offering sacrifices and burning incense.
We’re immediately reminded of the first two commandments: [Deuteronomy 5:7-9]
No other gods, only me.
No carved gods of any size, shape, or form of anything whatever, whether of things
that fly or walk or swim. Don’t bow down to them and don’t serve them
because I am God, your God, and I’m a most jealous God.
___________________________________________________________________
King Solomon
began building the Temple in the fourth year of his reign and completed it in
his eleventh year. At that point, the [unknown]
author of Kings made an astute observation about Solomon: [I Kings 11:1-8]
King
Solomon was obsessed with women. Pharaoh’s daughter was only the first of the
many foreign women he loved—Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite.
He took them from the surrounding pagan nations of which God had
clearly warned Israel,
“You
must not marry them; they’ll seduce you into infatuations with their gods.”
Solomon fell in love with them anyway, refusing to give them up. He had seven
hundred royal wives and three hundred concubines—a thousand women in all! And
they did seduce him away from God. As Solomon grew older, his wives beguiled
him with their alien gods and he became unfaithful—he didn’t stay true to
his God as his father David had done. Solomon took up with Ashtoreth,
the whore goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech, the horrible god of the
Ammonites.
Solomon
openly defied God; he did not follow in his father David’s footsteps. He
went on to build a sacred shrine to Chemosh, the horrible god of Moab, and to
Molech, the horrible god of the Ammonites, on a hill just east of Jerusalem. He
built similar shrines for all his foreign wives, who then polluted the
countryside with the smoke and stench of their sacrifices.
Obviously,
God saw all that Solomon had done and reacted:
[I Kings 11:9-13]
God was
furious with Solomon for abandoning the God of Israel, the God who
had twice appeared to him and had so clearly commanded him not to fool around
with other gods. Solomon faithlessly disobeyed God’s orders.
God said
to Solomon, “Since this is the way it is with you, that you have no intention
of keeping faith with me and doing what I have commanded, I’m going to rip the
kingdom from you and hand it over to someone else. But out of respect for your
father David I won’t do it in your lifetime. It’s your son who will pay—I’ll
rip it right out of his grasp. Even then I won’t take it all; I’ll leave him
one tribe in honor of my servant David and out of respect for my chosen city
Jerusalem.”
________________________________
COMPROMISE IS OUR ENEMY!
In the very beginning, Solomon harbored a small space for compromise. It grew and multiplied until it replaced his deep devotion to God!
We’re all susceptible to this kind of undermining! We weaken the foundations of our love for God and devotion to His ways by holding on to certain practices or beliefs. At first, they don’t seem so bad. It may be ‘just our little secret’. But, over time, they grow and begin to take on greater power and influence in our lives.
The end result can be tragic – THE LOSS OF OUR FAITH AND THE DISCREDITING OF OUR WITNESS!
Compromise has no place in a Christian’s life! Our dedication to God and His ways must be absolute! God will only accept first place in our lives! He must be on the throne!
If compromise has been part of your life, you are not deceiving God! He knows!
We must confess these secret desires or practices and terminate them!
We must daily declare our loyalty to God by devoting ourselves fully to His ways!
Perhaps without realizing it, this wise man – Solomon – passed on devastating circumstances to his heirs. The degeneration of his faith precipitated the utter failure and godlessness of the next generation! We must be diligent to pass on faithfulness, integrity and devotion to our follow-up generations! Their destiny depends on our consistency!
