Announcements:

-Potluck after the service today

-Grenada Community Outreach – December 9thfrom 6-7:30 pm

-Missions presentation on the Houstons by the Clarks

Dismiss children for Club 3:16 (2nd-6th grade) and Kingdom Kids (4 yo-1st grade)

We are two weeks away from jumping into the gospel of Matthew and I am getting very excited about it. Last week, we talked about King David and how as a shepherd/king, he was a “type” of the Messiah. Jesus was the “Son of David” who was born in Bethlehem just as David was. David shepherded his sheep and then the people of Israel well while Jesus is the Good Shepherd who shepherds a flock that includes Jews and Gentiles. David ruled on the throne in Jerusalem and Jesus will rule forever on the throne of the New Jerusalem. Today, we are going to look at David’s son, Solomon, who built the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem. Because we recently covered the three books that Solomon wrote (Song of Solomon, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes), we are going to focus more on Solomon’s life and story today then his writings. His story can be found in 1 Kings 1-11 and 2 Chronicles 1-9.

Open in prayer

*Solomon was the son of David and Bathsheba. In 1 Kings 1:30, David says to Bathsheba, “I will surely carry out today what I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel: Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he will sit on my throne in my place.”*Right before his death, David said to Solomon in 1 Kings 2:2-4: 2“I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, show yourself a man, 3and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go, 4and that the Lord may keep his promise to me: ‘If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’”David, the man after God’s own heart, encourages Solomon to follow his example in obeying the Lord’s command and following Him wholeheartedly. At the beginning of his reign, Solomon was faithful to do this. *1 Kings 3:3 tells us, “Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the statutes of his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.” The only thing that Solomon was doing wrong was sacrificing at the high places instead of at the Tabernacle where the Israelites were supposed to do this but otherwise, Solomon loved and obeyed God.

This love is best evidenced by his famous prayer for wisdom found in 1 Kings 3 and 2 Chronicles 1. Look at 1 Kings 3:4-5, “4The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, ‘Ask for whatever you want me to give you.’” As a quick aside, I love how the Lord is so patient and gentle with us in revealing things in our lives that are not pleasing to Him. He will convict us on an issue like how we snap at our kids too easily or how we have gotten lazy in our time with Him and gently help us correct that issue. Just about the time we feel like we are making progress there, He gently points out another issue that He wants us to work on. He doesn’t condemn His children or show us all our faults at one time and say, “You are really bad at this whole Christian thing.” If you are thinking that, it is likely coming from the enemy who condemns instead of convicting. Solomon had this one issue in his life of sacrificing at the high places, but God didn’t wait until he was “perfect” to speak to him.

*So, God offers Solomon a blank check and this is Solomon’s response, “7Now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?” Solomon feels the weight of the task that faces him and feels completely inadequate, so he asks for the wisest thing he could ask for: wisdom. Another side note here: these are the types of political leaders that we want. Those who are not arrogant and proud but realize that they cannot do the job without God’s wisdom and discernment. God is pleased with Solomon’s request and He says, “12I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.” In addition, God also promises him riches and honor.

Solomon’s wisdom is quickly demonstrated in the second half of chapter 3. Two prostitutes come before him with both claiming that a baby is theirs. They had both had babies within three days of each other and the one woman tragically smothered her newborn while she was sleeping, and he died. The other woman accused her of taking her son while she was sleeping and putting the dead child in her bed. As they fought back and forth, Solomon asked for a sword and ordered that the living child be cut in two and half of him given to each woman. *Verse 26 says, “The woman whose son was alive was filled with compassion for her son and said to the king, ‘Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!’ But the other said, ‘Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!’” Let’s see if you can solve the riddle of who the real mom is. *After this, it says in verse 28, “When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice.”

*Solomon’s wisdom extended beyond judicial matters to many topics. 1 Kings 4:29-34 says, “29God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore…32He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five. 33He described plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. 34Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.” The wisdom that God gave to Solomon gave opportunities for people from many nations to also hear about the God of Israel.

*I mentioned before that Israel was meant to be a missionary nation. Back in Genesis 12, we see the promise to Abraham that “you will be a blessing” and that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” We see a glimpse of this in 1 Kings 8:41-43 as Solomon is praying to dedicate the temple. He says, “41As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name—42for men will hear of your great name and your outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this temple, 43then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your name.” Israel was meant to shine as a holy nation so that God’s greatness would reverberate to the surrounding peoples and they would be saved. During Solomon’s lifetime, we have already seen that men of all nations were coming to Jerusalem and the opportunity for them to hear of Yahweh, the true God, was there. One of the most famous visitors was the Queen of Sheba which was to the south of Israel (likely in modern-day Ethiopia and Yemen). She came to find out if all the rumors about Solomon’s wisdom were true. *Listen to her reaction to what she saw and experienced in 1 Kings 10:6-9, “6She said to the king, ‘The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. 7But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. 8How happy your men must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! 9Praise be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king, to maintain justice and righteousness.” She was impressed not just by the wealth of Israel, but Solomon’s wisdom caused her to give praise to God. This is the type of king that God intended for Israel: one who would put God first, rule justly and fairly, and who would lead his people and the people of the surrounding nations to worship Yahweh as the true God. *The Queen of Sheba is mentioned in the New Testament in Matthew 12:42, “The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.”

Probably the crowning achievement of Solomon’s life was the building of the temple of God in Jerusalem. Up until that time, the Israelites were still worshiping at the Tabernacle which was the tent that Moses had given instructions for back in Exodus when the Israelites came out of Egypt. God had given the plans and instructions for the building of the temple to David but the job was left to Solomon to complete. For around 500 years, until Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquered Jerusalem, this temple was the hub of worship of God where sacrifices were made, and prayers and praises were offered. *When they completed the temple and dedicated it to the Lord, they placed the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies and 1 Kings 8:10-11 says, “10When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. 11And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of theLord filled his temple.”Although God is omnipresent, He caused His glory to fill the temple in a special way to signify to the people His nearness, glory, and power.

We see what the king was meant to be in 1 Kings 8:55-66 as Solomon dedicates the newly built temple to the Lord. During that time, he sets an example for the people by praying to God, praising and worshiping the Lord, and praying prayers of blessing over the people. He reminds the people of God’s faithfulness and the importance of following the Lord. At the end of that celebration it says, “66On the following day he sent the people away. They blessed the king and then went home, joyful and glad in heart for all the good things the Lord had done for his servant David and his people Israel.” The king was meant to shine the spotlight on God’s goodness through the way that he ruled so that people would follow the Lord. I wish that Solomon’s story ended here as a happy story but that is not the case.

*Let’s read from 1 Kings 11, “1King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2They were from 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. 3He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.” Solomon had an immense amount of wisdom; yet he fell into sin and strayed from God into idolatry. He knew what was right but thought that he was immune to the dangers. Solomon’s mistake is just like the mistakes that so many of us make. We know what God has said but we think that we can be the exception to the rule; we won’t fall into sin. This same thing plays out often with Christian young people who decide to date those who don’t know the Lord. They think that it won’t affect them, that they can manage it. We say, “I know what God says but I am different. It won’t affect me. It isn’t that big of a deal.” We often decide that we know better than God and stubbornly rebel and suffer the consequences of our actions. Perhaps Solomon tried to rationalize marrying these women by saying that they would start following his God, but the opposite took place. *His heart was led astray. “4As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 5He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.” What a tragic ending to an otherwise amazing man’s story. What is the moral of this story? Walking with God is a daily journey and we cannot ever think that we have arrived or that we are too spiritual to fall. How many pastors have destroyed their ministries through an extramarital affair because they thought they were above that type of thing? How many people in churches have become full of pride and difficult to be around?

*Two principles from Solomon’s life:

  1. Ask God for wisdom and expect Him to answer. You may not receive the same kind of wisdom that Solomon received so that you are an expert botanist, architect, zoologist, etc. but God will give you the wisdom that you need if you ask Him in faith. James 1:5-6, “5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” Ask God expectantly for the wisdom that you need, and God will answer that prayer affirmatively and generously.
  2. *Live each day in passionate pursuit of God. Don’t rely on what God did in your life last year or last month but seek today to know the Lord better. Galatians 5 says, “16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” Keeping in step with the Spirit gives the picture of two horses or oxen that are yoked together. Moment by moment, we follow His lead and direction. We should pray like David prayed in Psalm 63:1, “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” Some of you may say, “I can’t pray that way because I honestly don’t feel that way.” *Listen to this quote from A.W. Tozer from his famous book The Pursuit of God, “O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, ‘Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.’ Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.” There are some here today who have wandered away from the Lord and He feels so distant. You have made decisions and choices like Solomon did to go your own way instead of God’s way. Today, you can decide to turn around. I can’t tell you how many times I have come back to this prayer. “I want to want You God, I long to be filled with longing.” God answers those prayers when we pray them in faith. I want to finish the race well. I don’t want to be like Solomon who started out so well but limped across the finish line. Finishing well involves making wise decisions today, and the next day, and the day after that.

Close in prayer

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