What comes to mind when you hear the name, Solomon? Wisdom? Wealth? Indiana Jones? Solomon was King David’s son and successor to his throne. Solomon had a front-row seat to the trials and blessings of being King-watching his father David. Before Solomon even became King, God chose him over David to be the one to build His Temple, God’s permanent dwelling place in Jerusalem. In I Kings 3:3-14 it says: “Solomon loved the Lord and followed all the decrees of his father, David”. One night God came to Solomon in a dream and gave Solomon the option of asking for anything He wanted – and Solomon asked for wisdom and knowledge. God was so pleased with this answer that He also blessed Solomon with wealth, fame, and a long life! But God had a caveat:
“As for you, if you will follow me with integrity and godliness, as David your
father did, obeying all my commands, decrees, and regulations, then I will
establish the throne of your dynasty over Israel forever. For I made this promise
to your father, David: ‘One of your descendants will always sit on the throne of
Israel.’ “But if you or your descendants abandon me and disobey the commands
and decrees I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods, then I
will uproot Israel from this land that I have given them. I will reject this Temple
that I have made holy to honor my name. I will make Israel an object of mockery
and ridicule among the nations. And though this Temple is impressive now, all
who pass by will be appalled and will gasp in horror. They will ask, ‘Why did the
Lord do such terrible things to this land and to this Temple?’ “And the answer
will be, ‘Because his people abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their
ancestors out of Egypt, and they worshiped other gods instead and bowed
down to them. That is why the Lord has brought all these disasters on them.’”
1 Kings 9:3-9 NLT
Simply, God was asking for obedience and allegiance. And Solomon delivered, and soon his wisdom became legendary. His knowledge, talents, and achievements were extraordinary! 1 Kings 4:29-34 NLT describes it this way:
“God gave Solomon very great wisdom and understanding, and knowledge as
vast as the sands of the seashore. In fact, his wisdom exceeded that of all the
wise men of the East and the wise men of Egypt. He was wiser than anyone else
. . . His fame spread throughout all the surrounding nations. He composed
some 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1,005 songs. He could speak with authority
about all kinds of plants, from the great cedar of Lebanon to the tiny hyssop that
grows from cracks in a wall. He could also speak about animals, birds, small
creatures, and fish. . .”
God used him to author several books in the Bible. Can you imagine having such a wealth of knowledge? And the attention to detail Solomon gave to the building of God’s Temple (which took 7 years by the way) and the building of his own lavish palace after that, was stunning! Even Jesus talked about the splendor of King Solomon in one of His parables (Matthew 6:29).
So King Solomon’s kingdom enjoyed great prosperity. God’s blessing, wisdom, and knowledge were poured onto him. The Bible tells us that Kings from every nation came to consult him and to hear the wisdom God had given him. (2Chronicles 9:23). Solomon had it all! But Solomon also had a weakness.
1 Kings 11:1-13 NLT tells us that Solomon loved many foreign women. Let’s stop right there. God had clearly instructed His people back in the days of Moses not to marry foreigners because He knew they would influence His people to idol worship, as was the custom in many foreign nations. So even though Solomon loved the Lord and had this wonderful history with the Lord, had witnessed God’s faithfulness, AND had all this God-given wisdom, he made a choice to ignore God’s instruction. He not only loved many foreign women, the bible says he had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines!
I wonder what Solomon told himself to justify his repeated disobedience? Did he think “I deserve to be happy”? “I can’t help what I love”. Maybe he told himself that “since I had all this wisdom, I surely would be able to see an issue before it became a problem”.
Not only did he marry foreign women, but he allowed his wives to turn his heart away from the Lord. The Bible tells us that in his old age, Solomon went so far as to build places for his wives to worship their foreign gods: shrines and temples to the gods of Chemosh, Moab, and Molech. And there’s more. The bible says King Solomon himself worshipped the foreign gods of Ashtoreth and Molech. Now if you don’t know much about the pagan worship of these gods, it was detestable! It involved child sacrifice, ritual prostitution, divinations, etc. How could Solomon go from loving and obeying the Lord, and enjoying so many blessings to doing this?!
The account in 1 Kings says that Solomon “refused to follow the Lord completely”. Even with all his wisdom, he chose to disobey. God was angry with Solomon and appeared to him twice and warned him specifically about
worshipping other gods. Solomon did not repent and change. God disciplined this disobedience in a way that affected his kingdom and his descendants forever.
Solomon’s story is a cautionary tale that we can learn from today. Here are a few of the lessons we can learn from Solomon:
- You cannot rest on your past spiritual achievements, God asks for continued
obedience. - Your spiritual gifting and blessings do not safeguard your free will.
- Be careful who you allow to influence your heart, especially those in your
inner circle of friends and family.Be careful who you allow to influence your heart, especially those in your
inner circle of friends and family. - When God warns you, listen and obey. Enough said.
- Your heart can lie to you. (Jeremiah 17:9) But God never will. (Numbers 23:19)
- Wisdom is not enough to be right with God, you must obey what He says.
I am reminded of the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23 NLT:
“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of
Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.
On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name
and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’
But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s
laws.’”
The people Jesus is describing here obviously had power and authority at one time to perform miracles in the name of Jesus. They had even cast out demons in His name and had been given the gift of prophecy – they were His followers.
What happened? Somewhere along their life journey, they had stopped doing God’s will, they were no longer obeying His instructions, heeding His warnings, listening to His voice. Although they had at one time been obedient and thriving in the will of God, their full obedience did not persist. I can imagine they even thought of themselves as Christians but had ignored the warning signs as they gradually gave their hearts to other things, justifying these choices in their lives until they were not completely faithful and no longer felt guilty about it.
Friends, we are not exempt from compromising our faith. I’m sure Solomon’s love and loyalty to God were genuine and real. We can’t think for a moment that the incredible things God has done in us and through us in the past cover the disobedient choices we might make tomorrow.
Peter tells us:
“. . . when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they
are worse off than before. It would be better if they had never known the way to
righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to
live a holy life.” 2 Peter 2:20-21 NLT
We are an imperfect people for sure. But we should be striving to be more like our heavenly Father every day. When we mess up, we should repent and turn back to God. His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:21-23 ESV).
We are an imperfect people for sure. But we should be striving to be more like our heavenly Father every day. When we mess up, we should repent and turn back to God. His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:21-23 ESV).
And what about wisdom? Over and over there are passages in the Bible that speak to the value of wisdom. It’s more valuable than gold (Proverbs 16:16). It blesses and protects the person that has it (Proverbs 4:6, 19:8). God gives it generously to those who ask Him (James 1:5). We need godly wisdom to navigate this life. But wisdom is not enough. It is not a substitute for obedience. We could have all the wisdom that God gives or all the wisdom of Solomon to know what we need to do, but then we need to do it or that wisdom is useless.
James reminds us of this very thing in James 4:17 ESV: “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” And much like the people Jesus talks about in Matthew 7:21-23, we may do many good things and offer them to God. We may prophesy in His name, cast out demons, and perform miracles in His name, but if we don’t continue to obey what He has asked us to do throughout our lives, we risk being separated from Him forever.
“. . . What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or
your obedience to His voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and
submission is better than offering the fat of rams.”1 Samuel 15:22 NLT
God chose us. Jesus died for us. We are called to live holy, obedient, and blessed lives till the very end.
Kim Hughes
