Avoiding Solomon’s Seduction
February 2023 / Crisis Leadership - Lesson #1
“Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on his throne as king to rule for the LORD your God. Because of the love of your God for Israel and his desire to uphold them forever, he has made you king over them, to maintain justice and righteousness” (2 Chronicles 9:8a).
Tick…tick…tick…tick.
When the queen of Sheba hit town she was stunned by what she saw politically and personally. Jerusalem under Solomon’s reign burst before her, like a platter of treats being served up by a waiter. “WOW!” was the only word for Old Jedidiah’s military, economic, and spiritual leadership. “GINORMOUS!” was the only word for his personal worth and influence. Solomon had asked for wisdom. God gave in spades. And Solomon was successful and then some.
Are not those the characteristics we want others to see in us? …in our sphere of leadership corporately or individually? “That guy there - he is a success at work.” “That lady. See her. She’s indispensable to the team. Her efforts strengthen the company and position it for the future.” And in our personal life, we want others at times to take note of our income, net-worth, family, and influence. Not necessarily in a full blown hedonistic manner, but we all want to be seen as difference makers. People who got in the game. Players successful for family and self.
Tick…tick…tick…tick.
But what was NOT SEEN by others was an attitude in Solomon’s heart. “Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the City of David to the palace he had built for her, for he said, ‘My wife must not live in the palace of David king of Israel, because the places the ark of the LORD has entered are holy’” (2 Chronicles 8:11). Sadly, just one verse shows the beginning of the end for Solomon. Against God’s will Solomon takes more than one wife, marrying the princess of Egypt. In the midst of this sin he does rightly admit that because she has no faith in God it would not be right to have her live in the presence of the ark where one is to have a right relationship with God trusting in him as LORD and Savior. He builds her a palace of her own.
But then, as so often happens over time, he doesn’t follow through with the courage to teach her the truth about the LORD. He fails to hold to his convictions about the one true God. Rather he begins to worship not only the false gods of Egypt but later the other false gods of the 700 wives and 300 concubines he takes as his own (Some question his status of wisest to ever live on this basis alone!).
Tick…tick…tick…tick.
Slowly, imperceptibly, the seduction of Solomon takes place until we read: “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” (1 Kings 11:4-8). In the midst of all the outstanding things Solomon had going for him, he allowed one area of his life to stand “outside his commitment to God.” In his relationship with his many wives he compromised both his morality and conviction for the one true God and tick…tick…tick…tick, as far as we know, went off.
Amazing. All we have to do is choose to leave one area of our life outside of God’s control, one area to be un-yielded to him and it so easily becomes over time a fatal flaw. A disaster waiting to happen. A ticking time bomb. If in quiet moments you can hear the tick…tick…tick…tick in your soul, please, don’t wait any longer. Defuse it through God-honoring repentance. God through Paul implores, “Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God” (2 Corinthians 7:1).
What promises? That in Christ irrespective of what you have done you are never beyond forgiveness. That the penalty of your sin was placed on Christ on the cross. Your past is past. You don’t have to earn your way back to God. You are forgiven. Every day in Jesus is a genesis day. His mercies are new every morning and now thanks to the love of Jesus you have a new zeal to love him anew. Now tick…tick…tick…tick is replaced with the daily lub…dub…dub….dub of the heart of the gospel in Christ.
A Killeen man had a fine canary whose song was unusually beautiful. During the summer, it seemed a shame to keep this Mariah Carey of a canary inside the house all the time. So he placed the cage in a nearby tree off the front porch for the bird to enjoy the fresh air.
Many sparrows frequented this tree and were attracted to the cage. At first the canary was frightened, but soon enjoyed her companions. But gradually and almost imperceptibly she lost the sweetness of her song. By the end of the summer her “singing” was little more than the twitter of sparrows. Unaware of the effect of her surroundings on her she lost the conviction to sing uniquely and beautifully as God had gifted her to do.
Lub…dub…dub…dub.
It’s the heart of the love of the gospel. Hear it often in his Word and Sacraments and keep singing for him as he has uniquely gifted you to. This is good leadership in a culture of crisis.
Listening to and loving Jesus with you,
Pastor Tim