King Solomon

The story of a king who makes a special decision

Worship service, , , Evangelical Free Church Leichlingen, more...

automatically translated

Introduction

Today I would like to reflect with you on a person from the Bible that you probably all already know. Yes, at least the name is also known in a non-church environment, because one of his judgements has even become proverbial: Solomon's judgement.

Solomon was a special person at the time in several respects and one speciality was that he could do almost anything he wanted.

You have to consider that in earlier times people had to work a lot, so they had little time, they were often not educated and only had the knowledge they needed for their immediate lives. And this life often consisted only of work, sleep, war and religious duties. There was little time for hobbies and culture, and few people had the time, the means and the knowledge to experience the diversity of the world. Travelling or even going on holiday was probably hardly possible. People lived in a small world, a world that we today consider to be constricted.

But even if you compare rich people back then with normal people today, we are much better off. Our household appliances do a much better job than the slaves back then. Our homes are evenly heated. The water comes out of the tap and we couldn't even dream of electricity back then.

Then you have access to the world's knowledge, there are free libraries, there are online sources such as Wikipedia, there are free educational videos on the internet. And we have the education to be able to use this knowledge.

If you wanted to buy a book over 2000 years ago, it was really expensive and only rich people could afford it. The existing books, or more precisely, scrolls, were all painstakingly written by hand.

In principle, we all live like kings, even if we don't have a butler and therefore have to do some of the work ourselves.

And today I would like to look at a king with us, namely King Solomon, and compare him a little with us.

But let's start with the beginning of his life.

Previous history

His parents' background was pretty dirty. His mother Bathsheba was married to Uriah, a very decent, honourable man, and when he was at war, King David seduced Bathsheba and she became pregnant. To cover this up, David had Bathsheba's husband Uriah murdered and quickly married her. The child from this pregnancy then died.

A child can't help the misdeeds of its parents, but often enough it is still a burden for the child, because it often enough witnesses something. But Solomon was only born afterwards, when everything was over, and had nothing more to do with it (2 Samuel 12:24, 25; NL):

24 Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba and slept with her. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. David named him Solomon. The Lord loved the child 25 and sent Nathan the prophet, who named him Jedidiah on the Lord's behalf.

If you compare different translations, you realise that it is not quite clear whether the prophet Nathan only came to give Solomon a new name, or whether Solomon was handed over to Nathan's care to be educated. This is not entirely clear from the original text.

But the Lord loved the child. That's a great start to life. God loves every child, but he showed it to Solomon in a special way because he apparently had something special in mind for him.

Solomon did not appear for several chapters after this. It was only when David was already quite old and his reign came to an end that there was friction over his succession (1 Kings 1+2). David appoints Solomon as his successor and prophesies an even greater reign for him.

Then David gives Solomon some more orders for revenge and Solomon partly implements them directly, partly he makes his own decisions. But when you read the two chapters, you are not always sure whether Solomon is making the right decisions here. He is still quite young, but at the end of 1 Kings 2:46b; ELB it says:

And the kingdom was firmly established in the hand of Solomon.

So far, none of this has been anything special. It gets interesting in 1 Kings 3

Please, what should I give you

(1 Kings 3:3,4; NL)

3 Solomon loved the Lord and obeyed all but one of his father David's instructions: he also continued to use these altars on the hills for sacrifices and incense offerings. 4 The most important high place was in Gibeon, where the king went and offered 1,000 burnt offerings on the altar.

Using these sacrificial cult heights was actually wrong. I don't want to go into detail here, but it can be summarised as follows: Solomon wanted to do it right from the bottom of his heart, but did it wrong. Nevertheless, the following happened:

5 That night in Gibeon, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream. God said: "What do you want? Please, and I will give it to you!"

That's a promise that packs a punch. It's like a carte blanche, please and you shall have it.

How would you answer this question? (walk around with a radio mic?)

Of course, it's exciting to hear what spontaneously goes through your mind when you ask this question.

However, spontaneous is also somewhat unfair. For example, if something annoys or torments you, perhaps the car that keeps breaking down, then you might spontaneously blurt out: "A new car!" You can understand that, of course there is more at stake here and Solomon is worried (vv. 6-9):

6 Solomon replied: "You have done so much good to your servant David, my father, because he was honest and truthful and loyal to you from the heart. This goodness continues to this day, for you have given him a son who now sits on his throne. 7 O Lord my God, you have now made your servant king in place of my father David. But at heart I am still a child who does not know what to do. 8 Here I am in the midst of your chosen people, who are so great that no one can count them. 9 Give your servant an obedient heart, so that I may rule your people well and recognise the difference between good and evil. For who could rule this great people that belongs to you?"

Solomon first looks back and remembers what his father David and he himself experienced with God, what God has already done. He has a realistic and grateful view of the past.

And then he sees his own situation. In principle, he already understood what was later written down in Romans 12:16:

Don't think you're clever.

He realises that he doesn't really know what to do. And for his request, he has the big picture in mind and his task in the service of the people.

It's not always that easy. Often enough, the everyday, annoying problems, such as the broken car, take centre stage.

But when God asks you: "What do you want? Please, and I will give it to you!" then the big picture is more important. Solomon asks for an obedient heart so that he can rule well and recognise the difference between good and evil.

How would this be expressed in more modern language?

Make me a decent person? Does that fit? Almost. "Obedient heart" rather expresses the fact that you want to get this decency again and again because you don't have it yourself. But the difference between good and evil alone is not enough. He wants to hear, learn and never lose this listening, God-obedient attitude.

So on the one hand, you want to be open to God's words, to lessons to learn. You want to continue to develop, hopefully the new person will emerge more and more, but nevertheless you will never be finished. You need this obedient heart all your life.

Another point is that Solomon has his task in mind, namely to rule the people of Israel. He knows his task, it is clear. This is perhaps a little more difficult to determine for us personally. What is your and my task in the kingdom of God, in the church?

The day-to-day tasks, such as looking after the family, tidying up the flat and whatever else you can think of, you have them anyway, some more, some less. Solomon will probably not have tidied up himself, but he should have taken care of his family in some way. We know from the Bible that his father King David also neglected this task to some extent because he simply never set boundaries for some of his sons.

I believe that for every member of the congregation there are tasks in the congregation that are somehow tailored to him/her, which may be strenuous at times, but which are nevertheless suitable and ultimately also somehow enjoyable, perhaps even fun, if a Christian is allowed to have that ;-)

Sometimes these can be intellectually challenging tasks, e.g. when you are working on content, sometimes they can be emotionally challenging tasks when you are accompanying people and sometimes they can also be physically challenging tasks, e.g. working here on the building, and usually it is a mixture of several things. And of course there can also be several tasks.

Do you know your tasks and ask God for an obedient heart so that you can fulfil them properly?

God's answer

How does God react to Solomon's answer? (1 Kings 3:10-14; NL):

10 The Lord was pleased with Solomon's answer and rejoiced that he had asked him for wisdom. 11 So God said to him, "This was your request, not long life or riches for yourself or the death of your enemies. 12 Therefore I will give you what you have asked of me. I will give you wisdom and understanding such as no man before you has had and no man will have. 13 And I will also give you what you have not asked me for - wealth and honour. No king will be like you as long as you live. 14 And if you obey me and keep my laws and commandments, as your father David did, I will also give you long life."

What is the first question that comes to mind?

Perhaps: "Can I also become rich if I pray like Solomon?" ;-)

With such an attitude, a prayer for an obedient heart would of course no longer be honest.

I think you can deduce from this that an honest attitude pleases God, without ulterior motives, e.g. if I am sincere, then I will also get more ;-)

You can't control or manipulate God, but I do believe that God gives beyond asking and understanding.

Sometimes you don't believe that God gives through asking and understanding and it is sometimes a balancing act between gratitude and naming your own problems. It is of course wrong to suppress your own worries and problems. In the Bible we find plenty of examples of people shouting out their worries or even their aggression. There are psalms of vengeance, where you are amazed at what some psalmists feel and ask for. Or there is lamentation and lamentation, and that is perfectly fine. But it is also important not to forget what God has already done.

That's easy to say, of course, but a grateful life in which worries and problems are properly categorised, brought to God and faced up to them is the royal road.

The fact that Solomon gets so much here, I believe, also has to do with the fact that God still has a special plan for him.

He does not remain with his task, but with the new gifts he also receives new tasks, which he also implements. He uses his wisdom and passes it on.

In the following chapters (1 Kings 4 and following) we find descriptions of Solomon's wisdom, including his abilities as a king and also as a builder. He organises the building of the temple, he has a house built for himself, which he plans himself. Many foreign rulers visit him and are overwhelmed by his wisdom. It was a golden age for Israel.

Solomon's end

Unfortunately, things are not quite so golden at the end of Solomon's life (1 Kings 11:1-12; NL):

1 King Solomon loved many foreign women. In addition to Pharaoh's daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon and the Hittites. 2 These were the nations of which the Lord had clearly commanded his people: "Do not associate with them, for they will tempt you to worship their gods." Yet Solomon had a fondness for them. 3 He had 700 wives and 300 concubines, and they influenced his heart. 4 By the time Solomon had grown old, his wives had brought him to the point where he worshipped their gods. He no longer trusted in the Lord his God alone, as his father, King David, had done. 5 Solomon worshipped Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 And so Solomon did something that displeased the LORD; he no longer adhered exclusively to the LORD, as his father David had done. 7 He built an altar to Chemosh, the detestable god of Moab, on the mountain east of Jerusalem, and another to Moloch, the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8 Solomon did this for all his foreign wives who wanted to burn incense and sacrifice to their gods. 9 The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD God of Israel, even though he had appeared to him twice. 10 He had strongly warned Solomon not to worship other gods, but Solomon did not listen. 11 Then the Lord said to him, "Because you have not kept my covenant and have not obeyed my laws that I gave you, I will take your kingdom from you and give it to one of your servants. 12 But for the sake of your father David, I will not yet do it in your lifetime. I will first take it from your son.

All his wisdom and all his intellect did not prevent him from turning away from God. Apart from the harem, his actions here seem very modern.

Everyone should believe what they want, and we build everyone their own temple. Religion and faith are arbitrary. What's missing is the unspoken: "The main thing is that you believe something."

Somehow his obedient heart has been lost over time.

Of course, religious freedom is an important fundamental value of a society and a correct mandate for politicians. But one's own faith must never be arbitrary. If we ourselves are not sure that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, rose from the dead and died for our sins, then our faith is useless. The forgiveness of sins is real.

In 1 Corinthians 15:17; NL it says this quite emphatically:

But if Christ has not risen, then your faith is useless and you are still trapped in your sins.

And, of course, it's about convincing people of this. That is the overall mission, the overall task, the overall goal, from which all tasks in the community are derived in some form.

And we may not be as clever and wise as Solomon, but we can keep an obedient heart even in old age and walk the path with Jesus to the end, and that is what matters.

Summary

I'll come to the end: