{Lessons from the Life of Solomon}
1 Kings 3: Solomon seeks wisdom and discernment, and it pleases the LORD!
"9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” 10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this." (v.9-10)
1 Kings 8: Solomon builds the temple and praises God!
"22 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven, 23 and said, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart" (v.22-24)
1 Kings 3-8: Solomon builds high places and compromises.
1 Kings 11: Solomon takes many wives and follows after other gods.
“For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.” (v.4)
"So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done." (v.6)
Wait.
What?
Solomon, who was the wisest man to ever walk the earth, who pleased the LORD with his prayer request, who built the temple, ends his life . . . following after other gods?
It is painful to see the progression in Solomon’s life from 1 Kings 3 to 1 Kings 11; from Proverbs to Ecclesiastes, from wisdom, to indulgence, to cynicism. What went wrong?
Solomon had high places. Places of compromise.
Compromise is subtle. It creeps in just a tiny bit, and a tiny bit more. Like a boat that gets off just one degree and ends up far away from its destination, so it is with compromise.
It takes just a little compromise, a high place there, self-indulgence here, taking another daughter of the king as your wife, and before you know it . . . you’re writing cynical books and following after other gods.
LORD please keep me from ending up like Solomon. Please show me:
Where do I compromise?
What are my high places?
Where am I following after other gods?
How do I guard my heart from the pollution of self-indulgence?
How can I keep my mind from cynicism?
How do I keep from ending my life like 1 Kings 11:4?
Help me to stay close to you, on Your path, in obedience to Your ways.
