The Rise and Fall of Solomon: A Lenten Meditation on 1st Kings

3:5-14

In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.  And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.  And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.  And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment; Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.  And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days.

 

11:4-12

For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.

For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father. Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods. And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice, And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which the Lord commanded. Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant. Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father's sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son.

 

To my reading, the story of Solomon is one of the most tragic in all of Scripture.  The son of the great King David, Solomon is chosen by God from among his brothers to inherit the throne, builds upon the kingdom by establishing the Temple and unparalleled wealth in Jerusalem, and by his gift of wisdom draws kings and queens from all over the eastern world to hear him speak.  He authored at least three books contained in the Old Testament canon (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon,) and various others alluded to in his historical accounts.  The prosperity of Israel was never again so great as it was under King Solomon, because God blessed him to lead the people in His Covenant established through Moses over 400 years earlier.  Solomon had all the blessings of God anyone could dream of, from power and wealth, to health and safety, to wisdom and the accolades of the world.  And yet, after ruling for 40 years in the providence and grace of God, Solomon’s later sins of idolatry and unfaithfulness condemned Israel to bloody civil war after his son ascended the throne.

 

For all of Solomon’s gifts and wisdom, he did not abide in the will and Word of God.  He yielded to his disordered passion for women, having gathered to himself nearly 1000 wives and concubines from pagan lands, who eventually did what God warned Moses such marriages would do:  they drew his heart away from God.  Unthinkably, the wisest man whom God ever raised up in the history of the world, surrendered to his passions and the persuasions of his consorts, and raised up pagan worship in the land which God alone gave to the children of Israel as an inheritance.  God alone saved them from slavery in Egypt and delivered the corrupt land of Canaan into their ancestral home, with the covenantal promise that so long as they abided in Him, the people would abide in the land.  With the fall of Solomon began the centuries long slide into war, subjugation, and captivity by foreign powers.  Despite the gold and opulence of the Temple and the kingdom under his reign, it would eventually be plundered and destroyed by those whom God raised up to condemn them, even as God preserved His remnant for the coming of His Messiah.

 

Solomon’s fall is more than a tragedy of antiquity for us to marvel over, but a cautionary tale for each of us to remember.  Solomon was of the same flesh and blood we are, and received from the Lord the same Word of Law and Gospel:  to abide in God by faith and repentance before His Eternal Word is to have life everlasting, and to reject God through unbelief before His Eternal Word is to invite eternal condemnation.  Solomon’s great warning to every believer of every time and place is not that we should fear missing the heights of his wisdom, but that in knowing the Word and will of God we might abandon His Gospel and be cursed under His Law.  Solomon inherited from his parents, as we have all inherited through Adam and Eve from our own parents, a sinful nature which is twisted and weak, inclined toward evil and away from God, because of that first great Fall of mankind in the Garden.  While wisdom is good and a blessing from God, it does not alone heal the heart of its fallen nature, for faith and grace are more than wisdom and knowledge.  As St. James would warn so many years later, even the demons know who Jesus is, and they fear God according to their knowledge of Him, so we know that saving faith is not merely knowledge.  Faith is a living trust in God above all things, which can only come as a gift through grace.  Solomon could no more save himself by the powerful gift of his wisdom upon the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, than Moses could save himself by the Law given to him on Mt. Sinai.  Wisdom and the Law of God are good and holy, but we being sinful and unclean, cannot be saved by them, but rather, only find ourselves condemned in the light of them.

 

Thus it is that Solomon’s hope is not his earthly majesty or renown, but the grace of Jesus Christ.  Only He who is the Eternal Word of God could become flesh and dwell among us, satisfying the Law on our behalf, and giving to us the grace and mercy He won through His Cross.  Only He who is the Word and Wisdom of God can lead the sinless life required by the Law, and give His life as a ransom for many.  Only Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God, could be the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world—both Solomon’s and ours.  No matter how many or how few the gifts of God are to each and every one of us, there is no gift greater than the gift of forgiveness, life, and salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. Whatever our strength of arms or cleverness of wit, our insight or our innovation, our wisdom or our education, there is no gift we have so precious to us than the grace of Jesus.

 

So too, during Lent, do we meditate not upon our strengths, but upon our weaknesses, so that the strength of God might be manifest toward us.  We are a people who are called to abide in the Word and will of God where alone is found life and salvation, and lean not upon our own perceived strengths or accomplishments.  For Jesus did not come to applaud the victorious, the magnificent, or the righteous, but to seek and to save the lost.  This is what Solomon knew, then forgot, and perhaps by his later testimony in Ecclesiastes returned to before his death:  that God alone saves, and that His Word is the life, light, and wisdom of all who abide in it.  For though sin and death is the common inherited fate of all mankind in this fallen earthly realm, grace and mercy and eternal life abound to all who abide in Jesus.  May the tragedy of Solomon call us likewise to faith and repentance, that we might not wander from the source of our life, in this world or the next.  Amen.