“Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” Mark 4:18-19.
The king for our second example (first example, see Good Earth, Part 2, posted 3-13-22) will certainly surprise you, it is King Solomon. For Solomon it was “the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things” that were his downfall.
“Vanity [futility] of vanities,” says the Preacher [King Solomon]; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun?” Ecclesiastes 1:2-3.
“Whatever my [Solomon’s] eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor; and this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 2:10-11.
This is literally true, he built the temple, and his own grand residence; he had 700 wives and 300 concubines (in disobedience to God, Exodus 34:16, and Deuteronomy 7:3-4).
He had a throne made of ivory covered with gold, forty thousand stalls of horses (in disobedience to God, Deuteronomy 17:16), silver was as common in Jerusalem as stones, and this is just a fraction of it.
How is it that the absolute wisest of all kings would fall into this trap, for it says of him:
“And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statues of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense [to the Lord] at the high places.” 1 Kings 3:3.
It was at one of these high places in Gibeon that the Lord God appeared to Solomon in a dream.
“At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, ‘Ask! What shall I give you?” 1 Kings 3:5.
Solomon’s request for wisdom to enable him to rule God’s people well brought the following response from God.
“Then God said to him: ‘Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. And I have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. So if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.’” 1 Kings 3:11-14.
These things came about; Solomon was rich beyond belief, had wisdom that drew kings and wise men from all over to hear him including the Queen of Sheba who traveled 1200 miles from southern Arabia to see him.
After seeing his grandeur she exclaimed that of the fabulous stories she had heard of him, she had not heard the half of it.
After the temple was finished, and Solomon had dedicated it, God appeared to him a second time and gave the following blessings and warnings.
“Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ But if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.” 1 Kings 9:4-7.
Solomon was the richest, wisest king that ever lived, he loved God, and heard twice from the Lord Himself the things that were required of him; so what happened?
“Neither shall he [Israel’s king] multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.” Deuteronomy 17:17.
“But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites – from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, ‘You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. For surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.’ Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.” 1 Kings 11:1-4.
Solomon not only worshipped these false gods, he built up high places (a place for pagan worship) for despicable ones like Molech and Chemosh, abominations that required child sacrifice, which Israel would be tempted to follow along with their king.
“So the Lord became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the Lord had commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, ‘Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However I will not tear away the whole kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.’” 1 Kings 11:9-13.
By all appearances, this wisest of all kings did not repent, and when he found out who would take most of Israel from his son he, like Saul before him, attempted to kill him, see 1 Kings 11:40.
In the end, Solomon’s wisdom was of no use to him and he died at an age estimated to be about 58 years old. An age far less than his potential and without gaining the one blessing of God that was conditional.
“So if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” 1 Kings 3:14.
“…the cares of this world” Mark 4:19 seems to be one of the things that occupied Solomon’s mind as he examined the vanities of life, a thing that when dwelt upon too deeply can depress.
“For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.” Ecclesiastes 1:18.
“…the deceitfulness of riches”, perhaps it was the gold that flowed in from everywhere, that deceived Solomon into focusing on worldly ambitious building programs rather than on God, riches tend to shift our gaze to temporal things rather than the eternal.
Solomon’s greatest downfall perhaps came from, “…the desires for other things”, in this case, 700 wives and 300 concubines, entered in and choked the word and he became unfruitful.
This man wrote the book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, spoke three thousand proverbs and wrote one thousand and five songs, and ruled over forty years of peace in Israel.
That is his reputation of being a great and wise king, and so it should be. Yet the word was choked until it became unfruitful.
How could a man of such great wisdom do such foolish things? It is amazing how simple the answer is, he lacked something that many of us in this generation lack; Solomon lacked self-control.
“Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor; and this was my reward from all my labor.” Ecclesiastes 2:10.
Let us return to the promises of God.
“So if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” 1 Kings 3:14.
“Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ But if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them…” 1 Kings 9:4-7a.
It must be remembered that the greater the authority, the greater the damage when the person given it falls; whether king, president, policeman, pastor, teacher, even Sunday school teacher.
The damage from Solomon’s selfishness was catastrophic, not only shortening his life (King David lived to about 70), thus taking away time that he could have served God on this earth, but he did great damage to the nation.
As God had told him, the nation was split upon his death, Judah and Benjamin to the south and the other ten tribes to the north. Israel, the northern tribes, fell almost immediately into gross idolatry.
And having been enticed by Solomon’s apostasy many Israelites were also seduced into idolatry. This evil conduct eventually caused God to keep His word.
“I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them.” 1 Kings 9:7a above.
The verse above tells us that God will cut off Israel from the land that He had given them because Solomon or his sons had gone to serve other gods. It seems unfair to cut off Israel from the land because of the conduct of its kings.
However, there is a reason for this, simply put, as the king goes, so goes the nation. If a nation has a good king, the nation will be generally good, if the king is bad, it brings out the evil within that nation, bringing judgment upon the whole nation.
In short, the few years in which he deserted the Lord did far more damage to the nation than the good he did in most of the forty years of his reign.
The exception to this would be Solomon’s writings such as Proverbs and Ecclesiastes which have brought wisdom and blessing to mankind throughout the millennia.
Granted, you might say, however, even if he had done right by God and the nation had stayed whole, somebody somewhere along the line would have thrown a monkey wrench into the works.
History has shown this to be true, but the point is this; when God says to someone. “Here, I have this task for you to carry out.
It is up to us to carry out the thing that God has fitted us for, not look at it and say, “Well this is a pitiful job; I want the one he has over there.”
Or for that matter, we are not to look at the job given us and think that even if we do it, we will not accomplish much. The results are God’s business, ours is to put our heart into it.
If you have accepted Christ as your Savior in the past and feel as though you have a lot in common with Solomon (though not as rich), desiring riches and other things (put the name of the vice that ensnares you here), and have found yourself chasing smoke all your life, you do not have to accept your fate like Solomon did, or Saul for that matter.
Turn again to Jesus and confess your sin and remember what it was like with Him at first, repent, that is make a U-turn from where you are now, and return to the peace that is in Jesus by reading the Scriptures, praying, and having fellowship with other Christians.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.
“The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.” Psalm 145:18.
Good Earth, Part 3 taken from godisrevealed.com updated on 11-24-18 reposted on 3-16-22.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.