Solomon

The fool

In general, a fool is someone that believes in himself rather than God (191). It is possible for a person to have a relationship with God and still be a fool (3684). Solomon described the fool that knows God, but does not understand his ways, as being unreliable, a bad investment with regards to doing God’s work (Proverbs 26:6-9). And yet, Solomon said, “Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope for a fool than of him” (Proverbs 26:12). To be wise in one’s own conceit means that in one’s view or opinion it is possible to master the art of living. In other words, the man wise in his own conceit can figure things out on his own, he doesn’t need God’s input.

The word hope is often used figuratively in the Bible to convey the idea of expectations (8615). The word translated hope in Proverbs 26:12, tiqvah literally means a cord that is used to bind things together (6961) or as an attachment. In this sense, you could say that having hope is being attached to a certain outcome. You want something in particular to happen. The problem with being attached to a certain outcome is that we might be disappointed when things don’t turn out as we expect them to. That’s why it is foolish to get our hearts set on something that is not God’s will.

When I was a young Christian, I had my heart set on having a big family. After I was married, I had three children and then my husband had a vasectomy. For a long time, I thought he had made a mistake and might change his mind about having more children. When he didn’t, I became resentful and felt my husband had cheated me out of my right to have more children if I wanted to. Eventually, I became angry at God because I was stuck with a husband that didn’t want children. Now that I have reached the age where I am no longer able to have children, I realize that it was not God’s will for me to have more than three children. Because I have matured in my faith and understand God’s ways a little better, I am very thankful that I have three children. Compared to having no children, three seems like a big family.

Self-control

When we are born again, our spirits become alive. Like our bodies, our spirits grow and mature, and must be nourished in order to develop properly. We know our spirits are healthy if they are producing fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). One of the fruits of the spirit is referred to as temperance, which is the exercising of self-control (1468).

Solomon was talking about self-control in Proverbs 25:28 when he said, “He that hath no rule over his spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls.” In other words, a lack of spiritual maturity leaves a person open  to attack. This is an interesting point because in Solomon’s time, people were not born again, the entire population of Israel was dead spiritually. That is why it was inevitable that the Israelites would end up in exile. They were spiritually defenseless.

Being born again doesn’t guarantee spiritual success. After I became a Christian, I read my Bible, attended church, and talked to God on a regular basis, but I still failed miserably with regards to spiritual growth. What I was lacking was spiritual exercise. The apostle Paul used the phrase “walk in the spirit” (Galatians 5:16) to describe spiritual exercise. What Paul meant was for us to allow the Holy Spirit to control our behavior. Really, self-control is not about us being in control, but the Holy Spirit overruling our sinful desires. We have to give him permission to do that.

It is natural to do what we want to. God made man with a free will, therefore, he respects our right to choose for ourselves what we do with our time on earth. When we choose to follow Christ, we are in essence saying that God knows better than we do what choices to make, and yet, most of the time we still do what we want to. It wasn’t until I became “like a city that is broken down, and without walls” (Proverbs 25:28) that I decided to exercise self-control and actually do what God told me to.

Memory

Buried deep within the unconscious mind are a million memories of things that have happened over a lifetime. It says in Proverbs 25:2 that “it is the glory of God to conceal a thing.” One of the reasons we cannot think as God does or understand his way of doing things is because we have so little access to the information that is stored in our brains. Most of the time we are inundated with too much information, more than our brains can process efficiently. Sometimes it may seem as if certain memories are hidden from us. It is as if they have been stored in a secret compartment that we no longer have access to.

Over the past few years, I have been going through a process of recovering memories associated with being raped when I was a teenager. During a conversation with my sister, I learned that she had shared information with someone that I thought was a secret between just the two of us. The knowledge of what had happened caused a shift in my thinking and suddenly everything connected to the event we were talking about became clear to me, it all made sense.

In spite of Solomon’s supernatural wisdom, it appears that he was unable to reflect on past mistakes or make sense of patterns in his own behavior. In Proverbs 25:3, Solomon said, “the heart of kings is unsearchable.” Solomon believed that God controlled his heart (Proverbs 21:1) to the extent that all his actions were divinely ordained. Solomon could not turn to the right or the left without God directing his footsteps (Proverbs 16:9), therefore his thought processes  were limited.

In order for us to understand why we do the things we do, we must be able to access our unconscious minds. It is possible that Solomon was referring to this when he said, “the heart of kings is unsearchable” because according to the Hebrew language, memory is an activity of the heart (3820). Just as trauma can cause various types of amnesia, so may God block certain memories in order to accomplish his purposes.

Compromise

Solomon’s wisdom was supernatural. His request for an understanding heart (1 Kings 3:9) was not about seeing things from a human perspective, but about seeing things from God’s perspective. Solomon’s wisdom enabled him to discern between good and evil and gave him experience in Divine things (2449). As a result of this understanding, it says in 2 Chronicles 8:11 that “Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David unto the house that he built for her; for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy whereunto the ark of the LORD hath come.”

Solomon’s solution of building a separate residence for his foreign wife was a compromise. Solomon didn’t want his marriage to interfere with God’s blessing on the nation of Israel, nor did he want to jeopardize his alliance with Pharaoh, so he came up with a solution that would keep everyone happy. In addition to his discernment of good and evil, Solomon also had prudence in secular matters. He was able to adapt what he knew to what he ought to do in any given situation.

The problem with Solomon’s compromise was it opened the door to secular worship practices in Israel. Solomon’s wife did not convert to Judaism, but remained an Egyptian both culturally and spiritually. She was afforded the luxury of living in God’s holy city without becoming holy herself. An example of this today is the person that goes to church every week, but never becomes a Christian. Solomon’s Egyptian wife never experienced conversion.

And

After Solomon became king, when he prayed for wisdom, God said to him, “Behold I have done according to thy word: lo, I have given thee a wise and 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” (1 Kings 3:12-13).

The full extent of Solomon’s riches is not known, but it says in 1 Kings 9:27-28, “And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fet from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.” Today the value of that gold shipment would be about $850 million, so Solomon was definitely a billionaire by today’s standards. I think it’s interesting that when Solomon asked for wisdom, God also gave him wealth. It would appear that they were a package deal, that he couldn’t have wisdom without wealth and vice versa.

When I was a brand new Christian, I asked God to give me a son. He told me that he would give me a son and he was going to give me a husband that would love me. At the time, I didn’t care much if I had a husband, and if I did have one, I didn’t expect him to love me. Now, I realize that a son without a father is not what God wanted for me. In order for my son to be the blessing I was hoping for, he needed a godly father that would raise him to be a follower of Jesus Christ, a true believer, as I am now. I didn’t know that a husband loving his wife was the best example there was of a godly man, and as a true believer in Jesus Christ, that’s what my son needed.

Accountability

Solomon was one of only a handful of men in the Old Testament that the LORD appeared to. Typically, God delivered his messages through prophets and occasionally through angels, but for his most important messages, the LORD delivered them personally. It says in 1 Kings 9:2 “that the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon.” “In Gibeon, the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night” (1 Kings 3:5). The word translated appeared, ra’ah basically connotes seeing with one’s eyes, but it can also represent perception in the sense of hearing something (7200). Whether or not he saw the LORD in a physical form is not clear, but Solomon knew without a doubt it was the LORD speaking to him.

Because the LORD told Solomon directly what he expected of him, Solomon was accountable for his behavior. The LORD said to Solomon, “if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and judgments: then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel” (1 Kings 9:4-5).

Night Watch

It’s hard to say what exactly went on in Solomon’s temple because what was prescribed was not always carried out. One of the reasons Israel went into exile was they were not observing certain portions of the law. Temple activities were intended to be continuous, with some things happening on a 24/7 basis. The priests who were responsible for maintaining these activities worked in shifts, rotating in and out over a period of time. Some of them worked through the night during what were called watches. “During Old Testament times the ‘night’ was divided into three watches: from sunset to 10 P.M., from 10 P.M. to 2 A.M., and from 2 A.M. to sunrise” (3915).

I think the hardest part of becoming a mom is attending to the needs of a newborn baby around the clock. Although we are used to sleeping at night, newborns have no awareness of time and do not differentiate between night and day. Their patterns are based on activity in the womb and must be adapted to sleeping only at night.

The Levites that served in the temple had to adapt their behavior to God’s patterns and ways of doing things. It says in Psalm 134:1, “Behold, bless ye the LORD, all ye servants of the LORD, which by night stand in the house of the LORD.” The word translated stand, amad basically means “to stand upright,” but “cultically (with reference to formal worship activities) this verb is used of approaching the altar to make a sacrifice. It describes the last stage of this approaching, ‘to stand finally and officially’ before the altar (before God; cf Deut 4:11). Such standing is not just standing still doing nothing but includes all that one does in ministering before God (Num 16:9)” (5975).

God’s response

It goes without saying that when we pray, we expect to get an answer, but I wonder, do we really? I’ve heard it said that prayer is supposed to be like having a conversation with God, and yet, I’m still amazed that the first time I prayed, God actually answered me.

When Solomon prayed at the dedication of the temple, God answered him, but not until several years later. It says in 2 Chronicles 7:11-12, “Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD, and the kings house: and all that came into Solomon’s heart to make in the house of the LORD, and in his own house, he prosperously affected. And the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice.” It says in 2 Chronicles 8:1 that it took Solomon 20 years to build “the house of the LORD, and his own house,” so it appears God’s response came at least 13 years after Solomon prayed at the temple dedication (1 Kings 6:38 – 7:1).

The obvious question is, why did it take the LORD so long to respond? God operates outside of time, so from his perspective, there was no delay. His response came when the outcome had been decided. Because we have free will, our actions to a certain extent determine God’s responses to our prayers.

God’s response to Solomon contained an if/then statement. “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). Prayer alone does not get God’s attention. God looks for evidence of repentance in our actions before he intervenes. Even though Solomon prayed on his knees with his hands raised toward heaven, his actions demonstrated his real priorities. Solomon spent seven years building the house of the LORD, “But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years” (1 Kings 7:1).

Prayer

In addition to being Israel’s king, Solomon was a spiritual leader of the people. His prayer of dedication was an important one because it was made “before all the congregation of Israel” (2 Chronicles 6:13). In order to be certain that everyone could see him, Solomon had a platform erected that was “five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high.” Then he, “kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven” (2 Chronicles 6:13). Most likely, Solomon wanted everyone to know that he worshipped the LORD like his father David had and would depend on God for guidance as he led the people.

Solomon’s prayer of dedication was quite long for a public prayer. He recounted many details of God’s covenant with Israel. The words recorded are probably a summary rather than an exact dictation of what he said. The entire prayer may have lasted as long as 30 – 60 minutes. For Solomon to be on his knees with his hands raised heavenward for that length of time was an excessive display of devotion. I doubt he could not have done it unless he was accustomed to praying in that posture.

It is likely that David taught Solomon how to pray and the two of them may have even prayed together. Solomon had a much different relationship with the LORD than his father David did, but it is clear that Solomon understood the importance and power of prayer.

Worship

Worship can be a supernatural experience. I think it is possible in the spiritual realm that our voices and those of angels are joined together as we worship the Lord. It could be that worship is the intersection between two realms and we and/or God are somehow transported into each others’ presence as we sing praises and lift our voices to heaven.

During the dedication of Solomon’s temple, when the ark was brought into the most holy place, it says in 2 Chronicles 5:13:

It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lift up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD.

The reference to “singers were as one” and “to make one sound” implies that the priests were performing in perfect unison. What is not stated, but could also be true is that the natural and supernatural were also as one, which is why the house was filled with a cloud indicating the presence of God.

Many times as I have been worshipping at church, I have felt the presence of God enter the sanctuary. Although God’s heavenly host is invisible, and typically imperceptible, I’m sure they accompany him wherever he goes, uniting the two realms in which he exists.