Obedience Part 3: Solomon's disobedience and punishment.

Yes, you read the title correctly...after the clear direction and amazing promises from God, King Solomon STILL chose to disobey! He KNEW the consequences and disobeyed. Not only that, he knew the "rewards" if he obeyed and disobeyed! UGGHHH. All I can say is UGGHHH. Reading about this makes me SO frustrated but unfortunately, I can relate so much. Often times I know what God is directing me to do or what He wants me to and I simply do not do it for one reason or another. It makes me sad to think of the ways that I have clearly disobeyed God and how much it must hurt Him. Let's take a look at how Solomon disobeyed and what happened as a result from 1 Kings 11:1-13...

We learn that Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines!!!!! from many different nations. The nations these women represented are nations that the Lord had told the Israelites not to intermarry with. God said,

"You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods." (1 Kings 11:2a)

Remember from the promises that God had made to Solomon that God said that he needed to keep His statutes and commandments. Well, this clearly was one of his statutes. And Solomon clearly did not obey,

"Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them [foreign women] in love." (1 Kings 11:2b)

And what happened??? Exactly what the Lord had said would happen...

"As 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....So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done." (1 Kings 11:4,6)

And the Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from Him even after He appeared to him twice (1 Kings 11:9) So, the Lord said to Solomon,

"Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime, I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen." (1 Kings 11:11-13)

God is true to His word. Solomon was punished and God was gracious enough to wait and withhold the punishment until his son's generation but doesn't that almost seem like worse punishment to you in the long run? Knowing that a decision you made to disobey is causing your son to be punished? I think so. I would imagine that Solomon thought about it. Too late unfortunately.

I find it so interesting that when God spoke to Solomon he said, "Since this is your ATTITUDE". The truth of the matter is that Solomon's outward actions are a reflection of his inward heart. God is concerned about the heart and the reason behind WHY King Solomon is doing this. I would imagine that it is because King Solomon does not trust God enough to believe His promises. To believe that God's design is best. He is fearful of God's plan and simply does not trust Him. Ever been there??? If we are honest we probably all have been there. On the outside we would say that we trust God but do our actions show that???

I will tell you that I have learned so much from this part of King Solomon's story. I want to serve and obey God all of my life. I want to know what He wants me to do and I want to do it. The truth is though that we NEED HIM. We cannot do it on our own strength as much as we say we want to. I am thankful for the lessons I am able to learn from reading about Solomon's mistakes. I pray that my life will be filled with obedience to my God. I am so thankful that HE has a plan for my life and my families lives. His plan and His desires are best. Let's not make the same mistake as Solomon. We must encourage each other always to seek after God and to follow His will at all times and not our own.

Obedience Part 2: God's promises to Solomon.

The Bible says that God appeared to Solomon TWICE in dreams. This does not mean that Solomon simply dreamed about God. The Bible clearly states that God appeared to him (1 Kings 11:9). In 1 Kings 3:6-15 we see Solomon talking to God and God responding. Solomon was young when he took over as king after the death of his father King David. He asked God for wisdom to lead and rule over the people. God was very pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom and not riches or long life. So not only did God give Solomon abundant wisdom, he gave him what he did not ask for: riches and long life. But then God spoke and presented Solomon with an IF/THEN statement,

"And IF you walk in my ways, keeping my statues and my commandments, as your father David walked, THEN I will lengthen your days."

Sounds simple doesn't it??? Sounds simple to me. If you desire long life...do these things...What is God asking Solomon to do?

1. Walk in His ways.
2. Keep his statues and commandments.

(He even had King David to use as a model for what TO do (although David is not free from mistakes and sin).
The result of obedience??? Solomon will live a long life. His days will be lengthened.

The result of disobedience??? Solomon's days will not be lengthened. He will not live a long life.

God then appeared to Solomon a second time in a dream (1 Kings 9:1-9). This time we read about God speaking to Solomon. God tells Solomon that He has heard his prayer and that He will answer it. He also gives him another if/then statement.

"As as for you, IF you walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, THEN I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, 'You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.' BUT if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, 'Why has the Lord done this to this land and to this house?' Then they will say, "Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshipped them and served them. Therefore the Lord has brought disaster on them.'"

Again, sounds simple doesn't it??? It sure does to me. If you desire a man to sit on the throne of Israel forever then do these things...What is God asking Solomon (and his children) to do here??

1. Walk before God with integrity of heart and uprightness (having David his father as a model)

2. Do all that God had commanded of him

3. Keep God's statutes and rules

4. Don't serve and worship other gods

The result of obedience??? There would always be a man (from David/Solomon's family) on the throne of Israel.

The result of disobedience??? Israel will be cut off from the land that was given to them, the house (temple in Jersualem) that was consecrated to God will be cast out of God's sight, Israel will become proverb among people and the house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone will know of King Solomon and his families disobedience.

King Solomon has a choice to make. In the following post we will look into what He decided to do...

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.