Obedience Part 1: Why and who was Solomon?

So, I promised that I would write about what God has been teaching me about obedience through my study of 1 Kings and the life of Solomon and some of the other kings. At first, I was simply reading through 1 Kings until I came to this quote in the commentary section of my study Bible,

"The Bible is filled with stories of people who had direction from God and yet chose their own way. Their disobedience was rarely due to ignorance of what God wanted; rather, it grew out of stubborn selfishness." (Life Application Study Bible NASB pg. 579)

I decided to dig deeper into finding more specifics about what this was talking about. It truly interested me. Why? Because I often use the excuse, "Well, if I just knew for sure what God wanted me to do OF COURSE I would do it. I would do it wholeheartedly and I would not look back but right now, I just don't know for sure what he wants me to do." How many times have you said something like that??? In the midst of a time that you did not feel clear direction from God have you said something along these lines??? I know I have! But what I have found and want to share with you is that unfortunately, what you and I say we would do might not actually be what we would do if we were in that situation. Let's examine this further by looking at the life of King Solomon.

First of all, Who was King Solomon?
- He was the son of King David and Bathsheba.
- He was the builder of the temple in Jerusalem.
- He asked God for wisdom and God gave him wisdom and MORE (1 Kings 3:13).
- He was the wisest man who ever lived (1 Kings 4:30)
- He was very rich.
- He wrote Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, many proverbs and some psalms.
- He was known for having MANY pagan wives and concubines and and using wives to seal foreign agreements. (BAD)
- He was known for heavily taxing the people and working them VERY hard. (BAD)
- He allowed many of his wives to effect his loyalty to God. (VERY BAD)
- He reigned over Israel for 40 years.

Next, we will look at the promises from God to Solomon when God appeared to Solomon TWICE.