Solomon: The King Who Had it All

Good morning, brothers, and welcome. I’m excited to be back with you this morning, again preaching through this Story series we started just after Christmas. So far, we’ve made it through the first two of what I would call five acts of this ‘upper story,’ that’s again, what God is doing; how he’s using the daily events and our lives, each of our ‘lower stories,’ to accomplish His plan, how we’re not necessarily means to His end. Still, we’re each invited to be a part of it, a part of His people, His family, the redemptive works, and the way through which He is doing all of that, establishing His Kingdom on earth, which is what we’ve been commanded to do through Christ.

So that’s where we are. I last preached on Ruth; that was part of God Building a Nation, which followed Creation in The Garden. Chaplains Hornbaker and Baek brought messages about the first kings of Israel. As we move towards the exile, we’ll encounter a lot of prophecies that will bring us to the next act, The Ministry of Jesus, which is followed by The Church, and of course, The New Garden to come.

Transition:

I’m not sure if I’ve lost you yet, I come from a school of thought that I don’t need to grab your attention; I simply need to keep it. You see, this is a little different than public speaking. You all came here to hear a word, maybe not this word, but something from God, right? So, I hope that happens; you see, we’re rooting for each other. You don’t need me to entertain you, but we both have a part to play, am I right? So, just to make sure my illustration makes sense, do we have any Southerners in the house today?

You see, Southerners have a lot of pride in that identity. You never have to guess if they’re around or not because they’ll tell you. All kidding aside, I think everyone should have at least one Southern friend, the things you’ll learn; for me, I married into a Southern family, and that’s an experience, especially if you’re not one—but the food!

One thing I’ve learned, and I’ve really embraced this quality, if you can’t tell, is that there’s never a shortcut to a point. It’s a journey. There’s a story, there are alternate driving directions, and there are peculiar disclaimers. One such lesson I learned is that, unlike birds and mammals that can heat their own bodies to a constant temperature, frogs are cold-blooded and depend greatly on their environment to regulate their body temperature. Now that’s not the point, you see, we all know that we learned that in high school biology; that’s part of the journey. After 11 ½ years of marriage, I’ve assimilated. What the Southerners bring to the table are the applications of this knowledge, things you would never think of. Things that kind of—make you scratch your head and lead to the kinds of questions you know better than to ask.

Illustration:

Frogs have this unique ability to freeze. It’s crazy if you’ve ever seen it. Because they depend so much on their environment to regulate their body temperature though they don’t respond as you might think they should when it changes. Do any of y’all Southerners know how to cook a frog? You boil it. But what happens if you put it in boiling water? It jumps out. So, apparently, you put it in room temperature water or lukewarm water and turn the burner up with it in there. And somehow, it works, and in the interest of avoiding all the questions I have, I want to go ahead and move on to today’s message, the ‘lower story’ coming from the life of Solomon.

Transition:

You see, the frog story is a metaphor. Today it’s Solomon, David’s son by Bathsheba. He was a frog any princess would kiss, and 700 of them actually do. But Solomon got himself into lukewarm water by the end and ended up cooked. But he started strong, and we want to take a look at his story and learn what we can. Because through this cautionary story, we are called to seek God’s presence and blessings through obedience and faithfulness while acknowledging our need for repentance and forgiveness.

Narrative:

Solomon’s story comes primarily from 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, the first half of which we’ll be covering today. The first thing we see him doing, if we look at the account in Chronicles, that is, is that he goes to the Lord’s Tabernacle, and he offers a thousand burnt offerings on it. This pleases God, so He invites Solomon to ask for anything. This is recorded in both 1 Kings 3:5 and 2 Chronicles 1:7. I’ll read parts of each:

Solomon’s request, from 1 Kings 3:7b–9 Scripture reads, “Yet I am just a youth with no experience in leadership, 8 your servant is among your people you have chosen, a people too many to be numbered or counted. 9 So give your servant a receptive heart to judge your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?”

From 2 Chronicles 1:11–12, 11 God said to Solomon, “Since this was in your heart, and you have not requested riches, wealth, or glory, or for the life of those who hate you, and you have not even requested long life, but you have requested for yourself wisdom and knowledge that you may judge my people over whom I have made you king, 12 wisdom and knowledge are given to you. I will also give you riches, wealth, and glory, unlike what was given to the kings who were before you, or will be given to those after you.”

And Solomon loved God, and he built a temple where God would dwell and the people would worship Him. Solomon planned it to be the most beautiful building in the country. Nations all around Israel heard about Solomon. They heard of his wisdom and riches and came far and wide to visit.

Exposition:

That’s also where the trouble started; he got busy. Little by little, the burner got turned up. Was it sinful for him to build the Temple? By no means! Was it sinful to judge between his people, their problems, and lead? Absolutely not! But what happens when we’re busy? Was not the fourth commandment, Exodus 20:8, to remember the Sabbath? And pastors are perhaps most guilty or susceptible to this deception concerning responsibility; that more than what’s probably really dependent on them depends on them; us, me, I should say. Because it’s an office, and it’s good to stay accountable, to shoulder responsibility. But what happens when we’re so preoccupied in the thick of the trees? You lose sight of the forest.

Narrative:

So, 1 Kings 5-8 and 2 Chronicles 2-7 record Solomon’s undertaking of this massive building project, including the construction of the Temple and his own palace, and it showcases the wealth and glory of Israel to the surrounding nations. And this was prophesied—both in Genesis 12, that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you,” as well as affirmed later in Isaiah 42 as the “light unto the nations.” So, we can see how God’s upper story is taking form, it was said so in the first act, so to speak, and here we are in the second act, the ‘Building of a Nation,’ and it’s becoming so.

Solomon receives help from King Hiram of Tyre in procuring materials and skilled workers for the Temple. We can imagine there was some investment from Egypt as we see a marriage between Solomon and Pharaoh’s daughter in 1 Kings 3.

All this while he remains in the Lord’s favor, Solomon dedicating the Temple to God, offering sacrifices, God’s glory filling the Temple, signifying his presence among his people. And then recorded in both 2 Chronicles 7 and 1 Kings 9, God appears to him in a dream, promising to bless his reign if he remains faithful. This is an interesting point because later, in 1 Kings 11:1-2, we’re reminded that through his marriages to foreigners, he had violated the covenant. I think what’s being communicated between the lines here is that this is an opportunity for forgiveness. This is grace; God is allowing room for repentance. Unfortunately, this is a bit of foreshadowing because the burner’s on high, isn’t it?

He was done with the temple. In the midst of all his accumulation of wealth and power, creating alliances by taking wives—somewhere, he got lost and also began worshipping their gods, just as God had said would happen.

Exposition:

This is the warning. This is where we have to be careful ourselves. And we say to ourselves, “Well, chaplain, I only need one wife,” for some of us, even that’s a handful. What was the point of that fourth commandment? Jesus interprets that point for the Pharisees in Mark 2:27, that “the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” The Sabbath was meant to be a blessing rather than a burden to those who observe it.

A.J. Swoboda asks, in his book “After Doubt,” “What is the goal of the theological journey? …If our goal in deconstruction is getting back at our parents, we will get what we seek. If our goal is to deconstruct because we want to sleep with whomever we want, we’ll get what we want. If our goal is deconstructing because we want attention on social media, we’ll get what we want. God is generous. We usually get what we want. Jesus would often ask people, ‘What do you want?’ Why? Their goals mattered… If our goal is Jesus Christ at all costs, we’ll get Jesus Christ.”

Point:

Solomon asked for a worthy blessing, but we have to make sure we can separate our purposes from our callings. You are an individual. Everyone, repeat this with me, “my purpose is to glorify God & enjoy His blessing.” This doesn’t change. Our callings change; they’re seasonal. Kind of preaching to the choir here, but our callings are roles that God has given us in our life. So, our calls are seasonal, but our purpose stays the same. Our purpose is to glorify God & enjoy His blessing; our calls are roles we’ve been given to fulfill in seasons.

Transition:

Solomon’s narrative takes a darker turn as he confuses his call and his purpose. And the same is true for the frog; he becomes saturated in his work, involved in foreign alliances and marriages, and his heart is turned away from God. The 1 Kings account describes Solomon’s decline into idolatry and sin, ultimately leading to Israel’s division into two kingdoms, which we’ll address next week. The key takeaway is that there is no point at which he makes a decision. It’s an erosion. No one wakes up and says, “I’d like to wreck my life and ruin all my relationships.” These things happen slowly.

Narrative:

In 1 Kings 11, Five times in the first nine verses, we read of Solomon’s heart being led astray:

Verse 2, “You must not intermarry with them, and they must not intermarry with you, because they will turn your heart away to follow their gods”; verse 3, “He had seven hundred wives who were princesses and three hundred who were concubines, and they turned his heart away”; verse 4, “When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods”; also in verse 4, “He was not wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God, as his father David had been”; and in verse 9, “The LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.”

Solomon’s story began with the statement, “Solomon loved the LORD,” in 1 Kings 3:3; now it ends in a tragedy, “Solomon loved many foreign women,” in 11:1.

Transition:

I want to highlight what I said before, Solomon’s request was good, and God honored him for the selflessness of it. 1 Kings 3:9 “Give your servant a receptive heart to judge your people and to discern between good and evil.” But don’t let yourself get the cart before the Ox, seeking the blessing of God rather than God himself.

Ecclesiastes is attributed to Solomon, and we know he wrote Proverbs, so out of all his exploits and galivanting, we’re left with this story, and for what? History has a funny way of remembering us. So, he’s not mentioned in the “Hall of Faith” of Hebrews 11. For whatever that’s worth, we have his legacy for a reason, and I think it has a lot to do with hope and perseverance.

Application:

Today’s Scripture serves as a reminder about our hope and a warning about confusing our callings and purposes. Seek wisdom from God. Like Solomon, ask God for wisdom to discern His will and make wise life decisions. This can be done through prayer, reading the Bible, and seeking wise counsel from other believers.

But avoid the trap of accumulating wealth and power. Solomon’s turn to idolatry and sin, his ultimate downfall, serves as a cautionary tale for believers to avoid the dangers of pride and disobedience. The temptations of accumulating a sense of ownership of anything, whether its responsibility over something, obligations, and even, in a sense, a declaration of freedom from the burdens associated with those very things that were meant to bless. Remember to enjoy a Sabbath in your life.

Focus on stewardship and generosity. If we view our resources that way, it can be easier to view them as ways to bless others and further God’s kingdom than something to stockpile and become their sole benefactor.

Challenge:

We can do this by dedicating ourselves to God. Just as Solomon dedicated the Temple to God, we can dedicate ourselves to God and offer our lives as living sacrifices. This can involve a daily commitment to obeying God’s commands, sharing the Gospel with others, and striving to live in a way that reflects God’s character and love to the world, pursuing holiness and righteousness.

The story of Solomon’s life emphasizes the importance of seeking God’s presence and experiencing His glory. By seeking God’s presence, we can cultivate a deeper relationship with God. Through prayer, worship, and fellowship with other believers, we can finish better than Solomon.

Conclusion:

This story emphasizes the significance of repentance and forgiveness, exemplified by Solomon’s eventual downfall due to disobedience and idolatry. Through Solomon’s story, we are called to seek God’s presence and blessings through obedience and faithfulness while acknowledging our need for repentance and forgiveness. We are reminded of God’s faithfulness, mercy, and grace, as well as the consequences of sin and disobedience. Ultimately, this story underscores the centrality of Christ, who fulfills the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament, being the perfect and faithful king who made way for all people to have access to God’s presence and forgiveness, establishing a new covenant through his death and resurrection. So, embrace repentance and forgiveness. Like Solomon, we’re going to make mistakes and fall short of God’s standards. Following Christ’s example of sacrificial love, we can also extend forgiveness to others who have wronged us.

Close:

So, may we be encouraged and challenged to pursue God with all our hearts, minds, and souls and to live our lives in a way that honors and glorifies Him.

There are many people who are searching for meaning and purpose. The story of Solomon’s dedication of the Temple is a powerful reminder of the importance of spiritual renewal and revival that provides a message of hope and inspiration for those who are seeking meaning or purpose. Someone greater than Solomon is here.

Maybe today is a dedication or rededication of your temple where God’s presence can dwell. May we acknowledge God’s role in our achievements and always give Him the glory. Because as we prepare to go out from here today, I want you to remember that everyone will worship something or someone. Remember, God is generous; we usually get what we want. So, what or whom do you worship?

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