“What are you doing here Elijah?”

This is the question we left off on in yesterday’s post.  The reason God’s question is so apt is that up until now, Elijah had been a man of great success.  More specifically, he’d been a servant of God (his name literally means something like “My God is Yahweh”) during a time of great cultural crisis.  And he kept his cool, so to speak, even when his fellow Israelites were fanning the very flames of hell.

You see, during this period in Israel’s history, the whole nation—even often the leaders—blended their devotion to God with devotion to a whole host of other gods and goddesses, chief among them being a being known as Baal.  It was during the reign of King Ahab—the king during Elijah’s ministry—that a temple and altar are built for Baal (1 Kings 16:31-33).  This all forms the backdrop for Elijah’s mission: to show God’s supremacy over Baal.

It’s worth noting that in our own world we live in a culture of intense spiritual confusion.  Not long ago people tended to be Christian almost as a matter of birthright.  As Americans, we encountered few Muslims or Buddhists or other such faiths, so we concluded that we must be “Christian.”  But in the years since World War II America has seen a great deal of immigration, and the modern movement toward globalization has meant that you and I occupy a world that is significantly more diverse than ever before.  In the face of such diversity, Christianity has lost a great deal of its public force as the “default” American religion, and in its place we celebrate the fact that ours is a nation of great religious pluralism. 

What is pluralism, you ask?  It’s a word we use to describe the diversity of different religions that all operate within our nation’s borders.  If you travel down the highway, you may encounter a bumper sticker that looks something like the image posted here.  “Coexist,” it exhorts us, and the letters of course come from the religious symbols of several major world religions.

Lesslie Newbigin, former missionary to India, has written extensively on this very issue.  If Newbigin were to see that bumper sticker, he’d say that it can mean one of two things:

• We should coexist because all religions are the same, or…
• We should coexist because all people should have the freedom to express their own religion.

As Christians, what do we make of this?  Well, whenever we ‘re faced with something like this, we have to ask ourselves: What can I affirm about this?  What might the gospel call me to challenge?  Positively, we may affirm that it there is indeed something good about a culture of religious pluralism, because the freedom of my neighbor to practice Islam assures me that I am free to practice Christianity.  This freedom is a good thing.  But we might also challenge any notion that says that all religions are essentially the same.  Theology aside, I don’t know how to respect my neighbor if I tell him or her that our beliefs are basically the same, and the things that make his beliefs so unique don’t really matter.  That’s not respect; that’s not compassion.  So we can live in harmony with other religions, but we can’t possibly harmonize these other belief systems with Christianity.

I mention all this because this is the essence of the cultural war going on in Elijah’s day.  Elijah’s mission, however, wasn’t primarily about shutting the doors to Baal’s temple; it was about making Baal’s temple go out of business.

Baal, as we mentioned, was one of a host of ancient gods, but the reason he was so popular was that he was thought to be in control of things like the seasons, the crops, and even the power of life over death. If your money came from agriculture, Baal would be a good god to have on your side.  He was useful; he served you as long as you served him.  Who wouldn’t want to devote themselves to Baal?

Elijah had already shown that God was a greater god than Baal.  In the presence of a widow he’d miraculously multiplied food and brought her son back from the dead.  And in 1 Kings 18, we find the most famous story of all: Elijah and the showdown at Mount Carmel.  This was Elijah’s challenge:

20 So Ahab summoned all the people of Israel and the prophets to Mount Carmel. 21 Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, “How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!” But the people were completely silent. (1 Kings 18:20-21)

In his careful study of this chapter, Roland de Vaux points out that Israel and the cult of Baal were thought to “share” this mountain.  So this was a test to see who would really triumph—God or Baal.

22 Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only prophet of the Lord who is left, but Baal has 450 prophets. 23 Now bring two bulls. The prophets of Baal may choose whichever one they wish and cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood of their altar, but without setting fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood on the altar, but not set fire to it.24 Then call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God!” And all the people agreed.

25 Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “You go first, for there are many of you. Choose one of the bulls, and prepare it and call on the name of your god. But do not set fire to the wood.” (1 Kings 18:22-25)

Now, what follows is as fascinating as it is grotesque.  It was what was known as an “awakening” ceremony.  If the people were loud enough and worked themselves into a sufficient frenzy, then they could curry the favor of Baal and he would respond.  These rituals were known to a surprisingly wide array of ancient writers and historians, some of whom were openly repulsed by the sight of men and women cutting themselves in these ceremonies:

26 So they prepared one of the bulls and placed it on the altar. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning until noontime, shouting, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no reply of any kind. Then they danced, hobbling around the altar they had made.

27 About noontime Elijah began mocking them. “You’ll have to shout louder,” he scoffed, “for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, or is asleep and needs to be wakened!”

28 So they shouted louder, and following their normal custom, they cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out. 29 They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice, but still there was no sound, no reply, no response. (1 Kings 19:26-29)

Again, it’s darkly fascinating, but it availed nothing.  Now it was Elijah’s turn:

30 Then Elijah called to the people, “Come over here!” They all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been torn down. 31 He took twelve stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel, 32 and he used the stones to rebuild the altar in the name of the Lord. Then he dug a trench around the altar large enough to hold about three gallons 33 He piled wood on the altar, cut the bull into pieces, and laid the pieces on the wood.

Then he said, “Fill four large jars with water, and pour the water over the offering and the wood.”

34 After they had done this, he said, “Do the same thing again!” And when they were finished, he said, “Now do it a third time!” So they did as he said, 35 and the water ran around the altar and even filled the trench.

36 At the usual time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. 37 O Lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.”

38 Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench! 39 And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, “The Lord—he is God! Yes, the Lord is God!”

40 Then Elijah commanded, “Seize all the prophets of Baal. Don’t let a single one escape!” So the people seized them all, and Elijah took them down to the Kishon Valley and killed them there. (1 Kings 19:30-40)

God—working through Elijah—came through in a colossal display of power.  Elijah had demonstrated the laughable weakness of the Baal cult, and had done away with the people who promoted this worship to continue.

This isn’t as hard a lesson to apply today as you might think.  Again, we have to recognize that our own religious landscape isn’t much different.  Our schools, our neighborhoods, or workplaces are more religious diverse than they were even ten years ago.  Our mission—like Elijah—is to show that Jesus is superior to other belief systems.  How do we do that?  By demonstrating through our lives and testimony to the amazing power of God.

In the next section, Elijah prays to God who ends a three-year drought.  The very thing that the people looked to Baal for would be found instead in God.  What is it people are looking to other religions for?  Purpose?  Community?  God doesn’t deny these impulses, but instead shows that these desires are fulfilled through him.  But unlike Baal, unlike any other religion, we don’t meet these needs by reaching out to God, but we have these needs met through God reaching down to us.

How did it come to this?  How did it get so bad?

What goes up must come down, as they say.  But sometimes the fall seems so far and so unbearably long.

When Ahab got home, he told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, including the way he had killed all the prophets of Baal.

2 So Jezebel sent this message to Elijah: “May the gods strike me and even kill me if by this time tomorrow I have not killed you just as you killed them.”

3 Elijah was afraid and fled for his life. He went to Beersheba, a town in Judah, and he left his servant there. 4 Then he went on alone into the wilderness, traveling all day. He sat down under a solitary broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, Lord,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors who have already died.”5 Then he lay down and slept under the broom tree.

But as he was sleeping, an angel touched him and told him, “Get up and eat!” 6 He looked around and there beside his head was some bread baked on hot stones and a jar of water! So he ate and drank and lay down again.

7 Then the angel of the Lord came again and touched him and said, “Get up and eat some more, or the journey ahead will be too much for you.”

8 So he got up and ate and drank, and the food gave him enough strength to travel forty days and forty nights to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God. 9 There he came to a cave, where he spent the night.

But the Lord said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:1-9)

God’s question must be one we’ve all asked ourselves from time to time.  What am I doing here?  How did it come to this?

For most of our series, we’ve looked at Godly figures whose drift from the faith came about through personal sin and greed.  Elijah’s story is very different—yet very, very human.

Christianity doesn’t always do well with suffering.  We usually greet it with a host of trite platitudes that never rise above the wisdom of a bumper sticker.  “You know, Elijah,” I can imagine someone saying, “God never closes a door without opening a window.”  Such statements, however well intended, fall flat in the face of those whose pain—like still waters—runs so deep no tears can seem to breach the surface.

We will explore more of what Elijah is going through in the days ahead.  For now I want us to sit and reflect on this story in all its rawness.  Live long enough, and you will bleed.  You will experience seasons in which you will wish you’d never been born.  You may even experience seasons where—like Elijah—death seems your only escape.

Suffering rips away the rose-colored lenses we wear and confronts us with the brute reality of the world.  Eljiah was at what seemed to be the losing end of a culture war.  He was despised, he was hunted.  His success—of which he’d had a lot—could sustain him no further.

In other words, Elijah is a lot like Jesus.

The story of the cross is, indeed, a story of God’s victory over sin, just as the story of the resurrection is a story of God’s victory over death.  But there, on the hillside known as Golgotha, we find the God of the universe hanging there in what the ancients knew to be the most wretched and shameful of deaths.  It is there that the relationship between Father and Son is strained past the point of breaking as Jesus cries, “My God, my God; why have you forsaken me?”  On the cross, Jesus experiences more than just death.  He experiences rejection.  He experiences ridicule. He experiences shame.   Through the cross, Jesus becomes the ultimate paradox: the God-forsaken Son of God.

Look at the story of Elijah again.  What do you notice?  For me, one of the things I notice is the absence of any sort of condemnation.  We might be tempted to respond to suffering by saying—to others or even ourselves—Don’t feel that way.  Cheer up.  It’ll get better tomorrow.  We might even be expecting God to give Elijah a hard time, as though he’d given up so easily.  But he doesn’t.  He feeds him—twice, as a matter of fact, sustenance for a forty-day journey ahead.

The gospel doesn’t attempt to wrest suffering away from us.  It reminds us that we have been provided for in the best way possible.  God provides blessings, he provides nourishment.  And most of all, he provides himself.

In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther wrote extensively on more topics than we might care to count.  But one theme that surfaces in his writings again and again is what we would call his “theology of the cross.”  For Luther, to “carry the cross” means something more than mere escapism or denial of life’s truest pains.  In fact, Luther would regard suffering as inevitable—but bearable, because of what Christ has already done for us.

In his famous “Sermon at Colberg,” Luther wrote:

“What makes this cross more agreeable and bearable for us is the fact that our dear God is ready to pour so many refreshing aromatics and cordials into our hearts that we are able to bear all our afflictions and tribulations….When the suffering and affliction is at its worst, it bears and presses down so grievously that one thinks he can endure no more and must surely perish.  But then, if you can think of Christ, the faithful God will come and will help you, as he has always helped his own from the beginning of the world; for he is the same God as he has always been.”

In the wilderness of our pain, God is indeed “the same God…he has always been.”  Jesus is enough for us—yesterday, today, and forever.

If you are in deep pain right now, take heart.  Cling to Jesus.  Participate in Christian community.  Worship—even if all you can sing is the blues.  And for those who might even be in a place of considering suicide I say only this: there’s not a soul on earth that would be better off without you.

God is good.  God provides.  And through the cross God also teaches us to suffer well.

When we hear the word “infidelity” it is an extramarital affair sort of thing that comes to mind. But the word has more generic meanings. The word “fidelis” in its Latin root means “faith” or “trust”.  Hence we have the motto of the U.S. Marine Corps of Semper Fidelis, or Semper Fi, which means “always faithful.”

And we much now hear the word “infidel,” most often associated with the view that Islamic extremists have toward those who are outside their true faith in the teaching they espouse from their holy book.

But some of the same elements that cause a person to drift away from faithfulness to a marriage covenant or loyalty to any commitment are the constituent parts of how a person drifts from an initial good and healthy relationship with God. It could involve taking things for granted, or disappointment that things are not going as well as hoped. There could be an attraction to other people or interests that seem to be more exciting and immediately fulfilling.

And this is what happened to Solomon over time. The biblical narrative that lists success after success, blessing after blessing, takes a sudden turn in chapter 11 of 1 Kings …

11:1 – King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 4 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. 5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.

7 On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.

9 The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command. 11 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. 12 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. 13 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.”

That is a lot of wives to try to please. Forgive me if I seem to go psychoanalyst on you here, but I do see Solomon as someone who liked to please others. I understand this from the inside-out. For those of us who don’t like to disappoint anyone, it is an impossible task to please everyone, especially those who have systemic belief and core values differences.

And over time, Solomon’s many foreign wives apparently wore him down. This accumulation was not a part of what God gave him at the beginning. This was his own collection. God really did not want Israel intermarrying, the very reason being what happened with Solomon. His heart softened. He drifted a little bit here and there. He built places for them to worship, even to such gods as Molech – particularly detestable because of the infant sacrifices that were a part of this association. To get to that point, clearly Solomon had drifted a long way from the point of beginning and the first dream and communication with God.

All relationships in the material world need occasional evaluations that recall the beginning point and fidelity to that point. Businesses have purpose statements, and a good company will occasionally review the current state of affairs with the overall purpose. A good marriage needs regular devotion and introspective analysis as to the total fidelity with the covenant promises made on the day it was initiated. And so likewise the nature of our genuine, core-level, heartfelt commitment to relationship with God needs regular evaluation and renewal for it to take us from a good beginning to a great finish.

That is what we want – a good finish. As Paul said of his desire to finish well, “I want to know Christ—yes … I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me … Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

You can’t do that if you let yourself drift. So don’t drift! Press on.

I once knew a fellow many years ago in New Jersey who was a likeable sort of guy, but with a rather ragged and earthy edge about him. He had lived life a bit too much in the fast lane, foolishly dabbling into a partying and drinking side of adventure. He would hang around with those of us who were a part of the local running club, still jogging a bit, but certainly not able to do much. For someone like me who only knew him at this stage of life, it was rather difficult to imagine him at an earlier stage of his life when he was one of the better runners in the country. But bad lifetime choices had taken a toll upon him.

Our story today of Solomon and the dedication of the Temple is one of an incredible day and event. Knowing the tragic sadness and end of the story of Solomon and the split of his kingdom into a divided nation north and south, it is striking to see this Solomon of earlier years.

You will recall that David wanted to build a Temple for the Lord. God was blessed by the desire, being something that the Lord had not actually called upon David to do. It was decreed that this would not be something for David’s time, but that his son Solomon would make this happen. And to the great credit of David, he did not mourn over this or resent this loss of opportunity, but rather he used the remaining years of his life to make helpful preparations for this great project. There is a great and timeless generational lesson in that story.

So Solomon picks up the effort and does indeed make it happen. We read in 1 Kings 6:1-2 …

6:1 – In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord.

2 The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high.

The passage goes on to give details of the splendor of this structure, and then in verses 37-38 it says …

³⁷ The foundation of the temple of the Lord was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv. ³⁸ In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in all its details according to its specifications. He had spent seven years building it.

The actual presence of God within the House of the Lord was the Ark of the Covenant, being the place of atonement within the most holy place. So the key moment of the Temple was that of bringing the ark into this permanent structure …

8:1 – Then King Solomon summoned into his presence at Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families, to bring up the ark of the Lord’s covenant from Zion, the City of David. 2 All the Israelites came together to King Solomon at the time of the festival in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month.

3 When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark, 4 and they brought up the ark of the Lord and the tent of meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. The priests and Levites carried them up, 5 and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel that had gathered about him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted.

6 The priests then brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim. 7 The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its carrying poles. 8 These poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are still there today. 9 There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt.

What an amazing scene this is! The presence of God was so “thick” that the priests could not long endure this cloud of God’s glory. And Solomon speaks at this moment to recall the history and significance of the event …

12 Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud; 13 I have indeed built a magnificent temple for you, a place for you to dwell forever.”

14 While the whole assembly of Israel was standing there, the king turned around and blessed them. 15 Then he said: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his own hand has fulfilled what he promised with his own mouth to my father David. For he said, 16 ‘Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I have not chosen a city in any tribe of Israel to have a temple built so that my Name might be there, but I have chosen David to rule my people Israel.’

17 “My father David had it in his heart to build a temple for the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel. 18 But the Lord said to my father David, ‘You did well to have it in your heart to build a temple for my Name. 19 Nevertheless, you are not the one to build the temple, but your son, your own flesh and blood—he is the one who will build the temple for my Name.’

20 “The Lord has kept the promise he made: I have succeeded David my father and now I sit on the throne of Israel, just as the Lord promised, and I have built the temple for the Name of the Lord, the God of Israel. 21 I have provided a place there for the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt.”

Solomon went on with an extended prayer of dedication from verses 22-53, which is rather awesome as well. And finally, the King addresses the people in a pastoral leadership sort of way …

54 When Solomon had finished all these prayers and supplications to the Lord, he rose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread out toward heaven. 55 He stood and blessed the whole assembly of Israel in a loud voice, saying:

56 “Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses. 57 May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us nor forsake us. 58 May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in obedience to him and keep the commands, decrees and laws he gave our ancestors. 59 And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel according to each day’s need, 60 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other. 61 And may your hearts be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time.”

What an amazing day. It had to be the greatest day of Solomon’s life, and that is saying something! The festive event went on for multiple days with tens of thousands of sacrifices. It was even a bigger event than the Olympics in Rio that we see on TV this week.

God appears again in a dream, as he had earlier and as we wrote about yesterday. So it says …

9:1 – When Solomon had finished building the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do, 2 the Lord appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 The Lord said to him:

“I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

4 “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, 5 I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’

6 “But if you or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. 8 This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ 9 People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why the Lord brought all this disaster on them.’”

Wow, what a story. Anyone who had all of this blessing and all of this affirmation from God would surely not fall prey to the sort of warnings that God had given in this dream. The remainder of the chapter and all of the following 10^th chapter of 1 Kings lists all of the deeds of the height of Solomon’s reign. He built many great structures, had a fleet of ships, and his wisdom was legendary along with his wealth – the rulers of the earth came to see it.

It is not an exaggeration at all to say that Solomon was THE GUY who indeed had it all. He could just rest in it all and enjoy all of this succession of successes, right? Nope. Even the guy with it all needed to work daily to be faithful to remain in obedient relationship with God. I think the timeless application of that is rather obvious to every last one of us!

I used to know this young, thin, athletic, super-healthy guy with long, black wavy hair who could eat anything and never gain weight or have any injurious effects of such. He looked a lot like me at that age. In fact, it was me. Struggling with health and aging issues are things that happen to other people, right? Not really. Ugh! It would be great to assume that our physical selves when in our 20s would last for a lifetime, but it doesn’t.

Nothing much stays the same. A business person has to make adjustments. Few successful businesses have managed to operate the same way they did before the advent of technological innovations like electronic banking and online marketing and the effects of internet commerce. Just because they were successful prior to such developments did not mean it would remain the same always. A business person can’t just drift along, expecting endless success.

Even a person who inherits wealth and blessing cannot assume that those resources and circumstances will always prevail through the years of a lifetime, not without being responsible and purposeful attention and the disciplines of management.

And we can’t just drift through life. We have to live intentionally. What begins well only ends well because of focused intent and attention.

Solomon was not necessarily the first or most likely choice to follow David upon the throne, but it was in accord with God’s plan and had come to fruition. The transition was bumpy, but here he is as the king in Israel over a vast land and people. And we read about the early blessings that accrued to him and of his disposition toward the Lord…

3:1 – Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt and married his daughter. He brought her to the City of David until he finished building his palace and the temple of the Lord, and the wall around Jerusalem. 2 The people, however, were still sacrificing at the high places, because a temple had not yet been built for the Name of the Lord. 3 Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.

4 The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

Hold it, aren’t there some kinky sorts of things going on here? What is Solomon doing marrying a daughter of Pharaoh? Weren’t there any sweet, cute Jewish girls? Marrying internationally into the royalty of a neighboring nation was not unusual. It was a way of leading successfully and securing neighboring boundaries and friendly relations and commerce between world powers. It was not explicitly forbidden, though of course such a person was likely to bring along with them an alien, pagan faith. This relationship is spoken of rather positively in the Scripture, and Jewish tradition holds that she became a proselyte. We don’t know that for certain.

But there’s another “but” in these verses … an “except” about Solomon having a passion for God except for worshipping on the high places. This looks rather damning, in spite of the overall positive tone about Solomon in this section. And it indeed might not be as bad as it appears on the service. Let me say it this way: Instead of Solomon being given here a report card with five “A” grades and one “F,” we might see it as five stellar grades with one “C.”  There really was no centralized place of worship in Israel, as was God’s desire once the Promised Land was occupied. The ark itself was at various times in various places, with other articles of the tabernacle not always necessarily in the same place. The nation worshipped with sacrifices on “high places” here and there, too often falling into a syncretistic mingling with pagan Gods, though not necessarily always as such. We read in 1 Samuel 9 that Samuel offered sacrifices at various high places, but the “high places” were a sore spot in national history. Perhaps Solomon did not have quite the same high-level heart and passion to see a centralized place as did his father David.

And in verse 4, it is seen as a positive thing that Solomon went to a most important high place to offer sacrifices to God, and he took the entire leadership of the nation along with him (according to the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 1:2-3). This is essentially Solomon kicking off his administration as king by expressing his genuine trust in God in order to have His blessing for success in leading the chosen people.

3:5 – At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

6 Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

7 “Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”

10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. 13 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. 14 And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.” 15 Then Solomon awoke—and he realized it had been a dream.

He returned to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the Lord’s covenant and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then he gave a feast for all his court.

That God appeared to Solomon in an extraordinary way is evidence of God’s approval and affirmation of the sacrifices made and heartfelt desires of Solomon. In true humility, Solomon speaks of himself as a “little child” in terms of having the abilities to accomplish the tasks associated with the blessings he had inherited by ascending the throne. Instead of asking for the common desires of kings – riches, military might and security, “long live the king,” etc. – God was pleased to give Solomon his expressed desires, and all else added to it.

But as always, those blessing would be dependent upon Solomon upholding his responsibility to “walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did…”  Does this sound at all like “Seek first of the kingdom of God and his righteous, and all else will be added to you.”?  Yes it does, and the obedience and honoring thing is a part of that as well!

But in terms of application today, beyond the thought that it would be great to have some sort of presidential candidate of any sort who would have such a humble desire as the national leader, what do we take from this passage and story of Solomon’s life? It is that for us, having started well, to finish well we need to give diligence to an intentional faithfulness through all our days. In other words, and in the words of our series, we need to intently work on not “drifting” away from God.

You might argue or push back by saying, “Have I really begun well? I ain’t no Solomon.”  And yes, you have begun well if you have come to know Christ as Savior. The creator God of the universe has made you his child, having sought you out and brought his gift of grace to you. That’s big! That’s something most of the people of the world have frankly not experienced. And you have great resources: God living IN YOU in the form of the Holy Spirit, and you have the resource of the complete Word of God. In spite of living yet in this sin-saturated world with its inevitable sorrows, these resources are more than sufficient for your success in navigating it through to the end – a final home with God himself. So … don’t drift.