Let’s take a closer look at King Solomon.
This king is said to be one of the wisest men who has ever lived. God gave him wisdom. Certainly then we would think God must love him!
God doesn’t have degrees of love for us. He created all of us and loves us the same – unconditionally and far more than we love him back.
Solomon was no different.
Let’s take a look (sparing judgment) so you can see that if God Loved and exalted Solomon – how He can, will, and does the same for us.
Solomon’s Dad was David and mom was Bathsheba (you can read more about their story later). His name means “peaceful” – and yet in order to be King he had to kill his half brother Adonijah and David’s general Joab because of a conspiracy.
Solomon wanted to be a good leader and wasn’t out just for money and fame. He asked God for wisdom as the one thing he wanted more than anything else. And so it was granted. He didn’t ask to have the self control once he had the wisdom. He just got the wisdom.
Here is where is starts to get interesting – he married the daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh for political reasons (love of power trumped Love of heart and soul).
Solomon could not control his lust for women. It’s thought that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines – 1000! Imagine that. How did he have any time to lead his community!
He built a temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah. It’s thought to be the first temple and is considered a wonder of the ancient world. It took 7 years to construct this facility.
He had an affinity for construction – he had a marvelous palace surrounded by gardens, roadways, and different government buildings. Solomon is thought to have had thousands of horses and chariots which allowed him to travel easily.
He made friends with neighboring leaders and built up an incredible economy through trade making him one of the wealthiest rulers of his time.
He ruled for 40 years, had an organized governmental system to distribute taxes fairly, elevated leaders into positions to help him oversee large territories, had peace in his community, built a lot of infrastructure and had a thriving economy and despite his worldly success – he stopped his pursuit of God.
He let the enticement of worldly pleasure, treasure, luxuries, the women, money and more taint him. He started to unfairly tax people and treated his labor like slaves.
Possession and fame were put over his relationship with God.
What do we seek after? What do we treasure? The Bible says that what we treasure is where our heart follows.
Solomon had great success which meant the fall may have been equally as great and painful.
We all have an opportunity to learn from Solomon and to keep our eyes focused on something higher and bigger than what we can temporarily get or achieve here while we spend only a short time on Earth.
Lord – grant me wisdom and also the self control to live in that wisdom. Thank you for providing more than I need – and that when I do not get what I want – it may be because you gave me something far more, exceedingly and abundantly more than I needed. Thank you for loving me just like you loved Solomon and most importantly thank you for sending Jesus to forgive me daily and to extend grace undeserved. Amen
School of Thoughts 