Reading First Kings

This book is once again another story of the tragedy of perhaps the most convoluted family in history. The book goes from good to bad over and over again. The cycle is almost enough to make your head spin like a record. One minute the people are loving God, and obeying Him with all of their heart, and the next, they are loving idols, and disobeying God, turning their backs on Him.

The book's central character is Solomon. His story is hilarious, and yet extremely saddening. It shows that God has a keen sense of ironic humour.

Solomon was David's youngest son, yet once again defying the traditional laws (much like David's anointment as king), Solomon is crowned the next king of Israel. His reign begins on a high note, with God continuing the same relationship that he originally had with David. He grants Solomon one thing, and Solomon being a smart, mature, leadership qualified man, chooses wisdom, in order to help govern his people in the best way possible.

But with all the wisdom in the world, after continually making amazing choices in regards to ruling over his people, Solomon messes up grandly in two ways. First, he gets distracted, and secondly, he falls away from God.

Solomon gets distracted by things of the world. Initially he starts off by committing his wisdom to use for God. He makes decisions that are meant to further God's kingdom, and dedicates himself to building a temple. But soon, Solomon attempts to build himself a kingdom. He starts by accumulating wealth and riches past that which was required for the temple. He also stockpiles women and wives, ending up with 700 wives. All of this distracted him for his real mission, and led him astray.

All of these distractions add up to Solomon falling away from God. In almost a mind-blowing fashion, Solomon loses his commitment to God. While the Bible does not explicitly state that Solomon loses his faith, there are references to his disobedience in later years. The story of Solomon ends rather abruptly turning to his descendants. The Bible does make mention of the fact that Solomon never fully turned away from God, but he also never fully committed himself to God.

This can remind us of the warning in Revelations 3:14-22, regarding being lukewarm. According to this passage, God spits out those who are lukewarm. He wants us to be fully committed, raring to go.

So with all the wisdom anyone could ever imagine, Solomon still made the wrong decision and chose the world over God. His legacy took a major hit because of that. This should serve as a warning sign for us. Rather then seek out wisdom, we should be seeking out God. Many fall under the false impression that wisdom will grant all the answers; only God could ever do that. Even with all the answers in the world, we will still mess up unless we act as servants for God, as partners with Him.

Wikipedia