Good final weekend of November to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
This is normally a special weekend of transition as our world enters the Christmas frenzy! For the next four weeks almost everything, almost everywhere, incessantly, will have a Christmas flavor and for the most part that will have little to do with Jesus Christ or God’s purpose in sending God the Son to earth! It will have everything to do with economics and the pursuit of personal happiness!
Similarly, the days and years which followed the remarkable events in Jerusalem, which we’ve considered in the past few days: the construction and dedication of the great Temple of God, were very different from what we’ve seen in God’s Grand Narrative thus far. 1 Kings 9&10 and 2 Chronicles 8&9 describe years of fantastic economic prosperity, construction growth and even international treaties all of which elevated both King Solomon and the small nation of Israel to dominance in that era of history in that part of the world.
As we read those descriptive chapters you will be amazed at the wealth and splendor described, as well as the reputation of wisdom and global influence King Solomon was living! God’s promise to Solomon had come true in great abundance! (1 Kings 3:12,13) This summarizing statement seems to say it all in a few words: “King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. The whole world sought audience with Solomon, to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift…” (1 Kings 10:23-25)
Do you hear a recognition that God was the source of Solomon’s wisdom, even from people who had no understanding about the God of Israel? Do you also see how the vast wealth of King Solomon grew exponentially over the years as visiting heads of State sought to outdo each other with their outrageous gifts for Solomon?
While these four chapters of 1 Kings 9,10 and 2 Chronicles 8,9 are very similar in their description of those decades of abundance, peace and prosperity under Solomon’s 40 year reign, I see ONE major difference. It is found in their description of the end of Solomon’s reign and his legacy. The writer of 2 Chronicles simply reports: “Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel for 40 years. Then he rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David, his father. And Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king.” (2 Chronicles 9:30,31)
While this is true, it is far from the whole story and especially that part of Solomon’s life story which is so important for us to understand. I Kings 11 explains Solomon’s moral collapse, his leadership failure and its profound damage to the people of Israel in that era, as well as the long term damage to Israel as a nation, for the next several centuries!! We need to look closely and learn important lessons today, my friends! As we look at the story of our own lives can we be honest with ourselves and our descendants?
In his old age King David had challenged his son Solomon to prioritize his respect for Holy God and his faithful obedience to God’s commands and instructions. David promised that if Solomon did that, God’s blessing would be enormous! But David had also warned his son Solomon that if he turned away from God, God would remove His hand of blessing and devastation would come upon Solomon and Israel. (1 Chronicles 28:8,9) Pause.
Think back over your life story. Was there warning and wisdom given to you by older, wiser people, which you ignored? What damage resulted from that in your life and the lives of other people whom your life touched?
Solomon of course knew very well the tragic story of his father David and his mother Bathsheba and the disasters which resulted, affecting so many people, as recorded in 2 Samuel 11,12. In his God given wisdom Solomon had written in Proverbs 4:23: “Above all else guard your heart, for everything in your life flows from your heart.”
But Solomon didn’t take his own advice, and 1 Kings 11 records this painful legacy of King Solomon: “King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women… they were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, ‘You must not intermarry with them because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.‘ Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods and he was not fully devoted to the LORD…” (1 Kings 11:1-4)
Pause and contemplate what those words mean. 1000 women, all with intimate influence in Solomon’s life, the majority of whom had little knowledge of or respect for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These women had no understanding of God’s significant role in the history of the people of Israel. We must ask ourselves… who are the people we have ALLOWED or INVITED to influence our hearts and minds? Influence is POWERFUL but only because we allow it to affect how we think and feel!! Can we identify HOW and WHY we have allowed influential people to shape our values, our world view, our priorities, our character, especially our spirituality? Pause…
Was Solomon blind to the effects these foreign women were having on him or was he prideful, confident he could manage his moral and spiritual drift, or was he thinking he would return to God near the end of his life? And what about us? WHY have we allowed other people to have such influence in who we have become; in how we think; in our attitudes and opinions?
In fact the next verses describe King Solomon’s abandonment of God as he embraced the worship habits and the wicked, immoral lifestyles of his foreign wives. Watch that friends. Our hearts cannot embrace antithetical truths simultaneously! So, to please his women Solomon built altars and worship places for his wives and their gods on the hill east of Jerusalem! (1 Kings 11:5-8) Now wait a minute, what is the hill east of Jerusalem? It’s the Mount of Olives!!! Yes, on that famous hillside, facing Jerusalem and the great Temple of God, King Solomon erected despicable, immoral, even child sacrificing temples for the foreign false gods of his wives!
Unquestionably, as we’ve seen, King Solomon was the most influential man of his era, thus many people in Jerusalem and throughout Israel followed his lead, embracing these wicked gods of the nations around Israel. Idolatry became commonplace in Israel only a few years after that great dedication of the Temple of God when the Glory of God filled that temple! (1 Kings 8:10,11) So while Jerusalem was experiencing unparalleled economic benefit, morally and spiritually Jerusalem was imploding even though the magnificent Temple of God was the centerpiece of Jerusalem, built on the highest point in the city!
We need to pause right here. Put yourself there in Jerusalem during that time in history. Stand on the Mount of Olives and look both at the great Temple bustling with priests and Levites but also look at the workmen building all types of shrines to foreign false gods on the Mount of Olives! Look at smoke rising from many different altars. Now, with the same eyes, look at your city and mine. Look beyond the economic prosperity. What do we see in the priorities and passions of the people we rub shoulders with everyday? Who is God in their lives and ours?
Tomorrow we’ll see what happened in Jerusalem as Solomon’s life ended leaving a legacy far different from how he began! What will we need to do to prevent the same thing in our legacy, in our cities?
More notes are available for consideration at the “Grand Narrative” link below, as is a wonderful worship song about our great God, as we spend this weekend transitioning from Thanksgiving to busy December! And I’ll meet you here again on Monday.
Today’s Scripture: 1 Kings 11.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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