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A Little Intro… So glad you’re back with us! Gonna try something I’ve never tried devotionally. Before going on to cover 1 & 2 Samuel & the early part of 1 Kings, I thought about mentioning Ruth, since her book occurs prior to that. Then I thought, how about “RUTH, & ALL THE SINGLE LADIES”? She has one of the best quotes for a wedding ceremony, “Entreat me not to leave thee, for whither thou goest, I will go and whither thou lodgest, I will lodge”…. and I’m guessing you know the rest from the KJV. It’s a beautiful passage, but with so much to look at, I thought it might be better to simply say she was a very blessed lady in the Old Testament who wound up in the Family Tree of Jesus because of her great loyalty to her mother-in-law. She also was David’s great Grandmother! But with so much to cover, I’d like to hold off on that story & include her with some other “single ladies”, whenever we get there again, perhaps with Mary Magdalene in the New Testament, we’ll see. Didn’t mean to leave her out, just saw a “5 day strategy line up” with these guys today and thought we better “get ‘er done” before Easter”! So the strategy is to look at 5 characters in sequence. There’s Eli, Samuel, Saul, David and Solomon in that order. And I want to look at 5 elements in their lives for the purpose of “contrast”…. 1--CALLING / 2--STRENGTH / 3--STRUGGLE / 4--PRAYER / & 5--LEGACY. You always have to “condense to contrast”, so I know I won’t cover everything, but I hope to accentuate the basics for our purpose of “helping us recall at a glance” at our age, what we possibly & probably already knew, we just had to be reminded of so we can “DUPLICATE the positives and RENOVATE the negatives”! And let me give a bit of a warning….I got a little out of control this week….there is so much to take in and process in Israel’s historical account of these characters. So let me humbly recommend that you take a DAY AT A TIME in your reading this week, so you won’t “grow weary in well-doing”. So here we go with a list of 5 GUYS….. 2 WERE GOOD & 3 WERE BORDERLINE! MONDAY….ELI (the “mixed bag” of a spiritual leader) His Calling….. In 1st Samuel, Eli was the priest at Ramah, so he is like a local church pastor. He would oversee the celebrations & gatherings & sacrifices of the people all throughout the year. Now the Old Testament people had a lot going on that called for more than a “sermon on Sunday & a Potluck”. Eli enters biblical history at that point with a moment of interaction with a childless wife in deep depression who came for family worship. His Strength….. I guess we could say Eli’s strength was that he showed up. While that’s a great part of being successful, he didn’t seem to do much more than that! He only lasts 4 chapters in the Bible so let’s get to the rest of our “characteristic contrasts” since unfortunately there’s more bad than good. His Struggle….. To start off with, Eli struggles with ASSUMING things. He misperceived that childless mother, Hannah as being drunk which was far from the truth in chapter 1. Turns out she was praying “in deep anguish with bitter tears”. She had been ridiculed by her “sister wife” (not sure what to call that & it is a TV show, you know…) So Hannah’s prayer was not one of “intoxication”, but one of “desperation”. She longed for a son and promised the Lord she’d give him right back to Him if granted the blessing of “motherhood”. After explaining that to Eli, he blessed her and “endorsed” her prayer in hopes that God would grant her request. And He did, and Hannah gave birth to Samuel and as soon as he was weaned, brought him back to Eli to be used as one of the youngest “altar boys” we hear of in Scripture! Hannah’s prayer in chapter is “way cool” so read that if you get a chance. But that brings us to Eli’s 2nd struggle, which I would call AVOIDING things. He confronted his sons, who were also in his ministry as a priest, but he never CONVINCED them what they were doing was wrong. How much more WRONG do you have to get than stealing the good part of the sacrifice & seducing the young ladies who assisted at the Tabernacle. God sent a messenger (2:27) to warn Eli that his warning to his sons wasn’t enough and they were actually BLASPHEMING God & weren’t disciplined by their father. So he knew what was coming. He just didn’t do ENOUGH about it. His Prayer….. I’ve tried to be gracious in my research, but I’ve failed to really see a verse that indicates a true prayer by Eli! So whoever coined the phrase, “they don’t have a prayer”, might have been referring to him! He did acknowledge Hannah’s prayer and agreed with her. And when Samuel retells God’s message to him on Eli’s behalf, he does say in 3:18, “it is the Lord’s will. Let Him do whatever He thinks best”! So while I appreciate Eli’s “non-argumentative” attitude, I hate that he waited too late to say to his kids, “What the heck do you think you’re doing?” Maybe if he could’ve sought the Lord’s strength & guidance before it got to that point? We never know what God is WILLING to do. We always know what He’s CAPABLE of! But the difference might just be more than a “prayer”, but rather “prayer with an honest spiritual talk” that God wants us to have as much as we can with our kids & grandkids if we see them headed off a holy path. His Legacy…… So what would Eli’s “legacy” be? Well, he recovered from misinterpreting Hannah’s prayer, but he didn’t from his sons’ immoral behavior that went unrepentant & undisciplined. He did bring Samuel up thru the ranks, so there’s that, but will get to the downside of that experience tomorrow. CONCLUSION Don’t you love it when a preacher says those words! And you know what it means, don’t you? Only that he’s trying his best to “land the plane”! Good luck with that when there’s so much neat stuff in the Bible to talk about! The application for us every day this week will be looking at ourselves in light of the“inspirational or depressing” character we see in Scripture. So how are we with our CALLING in this season of life? How’s our STRENGTH holding up? What’s our old or new STRUGGLE? Condense down your main PRAYER… And what do you hope for your LEGACY to be in light of all you’ve been thru so far in life? What do you hope to remembered for? So glad you’re with us today….. Praying God will speak to our hearts in light of these VERY HUMAN Biblical characters, who were somewhat like us….really CHARACTERS! Love you guys. And if you want to “skim ahead”, we’ll catch Samuel tomorrow, whose “DASH” runs from 1 Samuel 1 to the beginning of chapter 25. Like I said…..”skim” thru if you can. We’ll try to give the highlights & lowlights. Blessings on your Monday… TUESDAY…SAMUEL the PROPHET (from “altar boy” to retirement) Glad you’re back….here we go! His Calling…. Samuel was dedicated, not just from birth, but from conception! His mother, Hannah waited til he was “weaned”, whatever age that is, and then off to the Tabernacle he went ready to learn & serve the God who graciously gave him to his family. Now Samuel grew to be a great servant of God. His CALLING, if you will, would be to become a PROPHET, which began the first time God spoke directly to him (as God spoke AROUND Eli) in chapter 3. I believe our CALLING in the Kingdom can be “progressive”. No, that’s not about “bundles” like an insurance commercial, but some things do “accumulate” in our calling if God so chooses. In my life I felt “called to HELP” in the Kingdom of God. Sometimes that meant assisting & sometimes leading, but it has always meant SERVING & acknowledging who God is in my life. It began with a ministry of Kids & Youth until I realized I want to raise OUR kids with Sue Linn, not just raise everybody else’s kids, with all due respect if that makes sense. So Samuel is in for the LONG HAUL and he’s one of the “good guys”. He survives the death of his mentor, Eli, shortly after his initial calling and in chapter 7, leads Israel to a great victory, which leads us to the next part of our discussion….. His Strength….. Samuel PURGES the IDOLS before that battle, which is a great reflection of his character….SPIRITUAL INTEGRITY. In 7:5, he becomes that spiritual leader of the people as he prays for the people under his care. We’ll cover that in his PRAYER paragraph but it really was one of Samuel’s great strengths. He built an altar when led to and God used him to bring PEACE in the land during his time of leadership. 7:16 says he was a CIRCUIT JUDGE without the TV exposure and always RETURNED HOME when he was “off duty”. I like the guy already! His Struggle….. Though Samuel was faithful all his life to God’s calling (7:15), he did have a struggle. We’ll have to condense things because of time, but as he grew old (8:1….my how time flies!) his sons weren’t as INTEGRITY-oriented as their father and had a few “holes in their resumes” (a phrase my dear friend Ed Ferrari taught me years ago). So when it came time for Samuel to “pass the torch” the nation of Israel had become “infatuated” with the culture around them. They wanted to big dog, a champion, somebody SEXY! Yep, sometimes we as God’s people to look to “those around them more than the ONE above them”! They want a KING….like the other nations. Well Samuel takes it personally, but God reminds him, “they’re not rejecting you, Samuel, they’re REJECTING ME”. Might’ve helped Samuel a little bit, but he still felt like he’d let God down somehow. And in chapter 8, he WARNS the people of what a King will do and it won’t be pretty! But they still want one. All the “cool nations” have one! And the next guy in line with a whole new “JOB DESCRIPTION” is about to appear on the scene (Saul), but we’ll get to him more tomorrow. Samuel does the “HANDOFF” well and heads to the background, so he seems to not have any “founders issues”. There’s more neat stuff about Samuel and I’ll try to cover it briefly in his “legacy” paragraph. His Prayer….. His notable prayers include some major ones…… In chapter 7, Samuel gathers all the people and prays on their behalf before the battle while they were to PURGE themselves of idols. Later in the same chapter he CALLS on the Lord and God answers with THUNDER just as he is offering the sacrifice. A great victory in battle ensued. In chapter 12, as Samuel is giving his “farewell address”, he asks the Lord to bring an “unseasonable rain” at harvest time and God does! It turns into a great opportunity for that answered prayer to lead into a rebuke of the people in asking for a king in the first place and in so doing rejecting the Lord as their King! You can kind of read into the account of Samuel saying, “take that you bunch of yahoos”! At the end of chapter 15 & early 16, when Saul has messed up, Samuel MOURNS for Saul,which I assume involved some prayers as well. And later when Samuel anoints David as a shepherd boy to become the next King of Israel, I’m assuming there was a prayer Samuel whispered in his ear as the oil ran down from his head to his shoulders, but I’m just assuming that was in the mix. His Legacy….. In reflecting on what Samuel was noted for, it was a lot of GOOD STUFF. Serving God at an early age. Telling the truth when it would make his mentor & hero, Eli really mad. Leading the people well all his life. Confronting the people well about wanting a king and rebuking Saul AS the king for his sin of listening to the people more than the Lord. Anointing David as he learned that “Man looks on the outer appearance, while God looks on the heart”. (16:7) Executing King Agag of the Amalekites, when it was Saul’s job that he had failed to do. Samuel is kind of a hero for us “Finishing Well” folks who are possibly retired (or maybe just a little tired) people. He stepped ASIDE when he needed to. And he stepped UP when he needed to. Kind of like you & me at our age & at our stage! I love the reference in 12:23 as Samuel finds his new footing with the people. He says, “As for me, I will certainly not sin against the Lord by ending my prayers for you. And I will continue to teach you what is good and right.” Our legacy in life, (like Samuel’s) is how we spiritually encourage those around us. Family and friends matter and always will! May we stay committed to our call to DISCIPLE the people within our sphere of influence to become learners and FOLLOWERS of the God of all creation, who sent His Son Jesus! Love you guys. WEDNESDAY…SAUL the 1st KING (what were we thinking?) If I can be honest at the beginning, this one is a heart-breaker. I look at Saul’s life and he had such a “tough row to hoe”, if you will allow me to borrow some “gardening/farming/agricultural vernacular”. Think about it. It’s a political & governmental role God did not want the people to desire. There’s that. Saul is a “first year model” of a King and everybody knows in the automotive world, never buy a first year edition! None of the bugs are worked out yet! He had great potential, but seemed to listen to everyone else except who he was supposed to…. God, and his mentor/prophet, Samuel. So here we go….. His Calling… We move in our character study from Priest (Eli), to Prophet (Samuel) to now, King (Saul). All had VERY different roles and purposes according to God’s expectation. As I said, Saul was desired by the people, selected by God and installed by Samuel. It wasn’t that the people wanted him specifically, they just wanted to have a king so they’d be like the other nations. Now just as a side note, it’s important to realize the basic difference in the roles God had people to take back then. A PROPHET would speak to people on behalf of God. A PRIEST would speak to God on behalf of people. And a KING would lead God’s people on His behalf. Hopefully that gives us some simple language to understand exactly WHAT each one was to be doing. And Samuel made it clear all that a king would do, what he would take from the people and all he would expect them to do. It ain’t all SUNSHINE, LOLLIPOPS & ROSES, as Leslie Gore sang in the 60’s. In chapter 8 Samuel tells them straight. He tries to talk the people out of the idea, but they are determined to make this change. And it’s good to remember that most every cultural change is spiritual in nature. It either brings us a little bit BACK to God or FARTHER AWAY from Him. Samuel says, “you’ll be begging for relief from the demands of the king before this is over, but God won’t help you”! (8:18) So in chapter 9 Samuel MEETS Saul, in chapter 10 he ANOINTS him as King, and within the next few verses, the people ACCLAIM him as the new leader of Israel, shouting “Long live the King”, except for a few scoundrels (the NLT refers to them as) who refuse to honor him with gifts, but Saul ignores them. Looks like you’d better have thick skin from day one! His Strength… Well, he was tall. Next question….. I hate to simplify his assets, but Saul did have a “presidential appearance” I guess. But in his defense, he did have his moments. But they were all determined by whether he cooperated with God or whether he didn’t. Isn’t that the truth for all of us! Saul did have a success over the Ammonites in chapter 11, and his victories are recorded in 14:47-52, but his “highlight reel” pretty much ends there! His Struggle….. Some sermons or character assessments come in 3’s very easily. Saul gave us some examples unfortunately of what NOT to do. First of all, he was RELUCTANT. The Bible says on his day of inauguration, he couldn’t be found and was “hiding amongst the stuff” (KJV). Other translations call it the “baggage”. Remember, he’s head & shoulders taller than most everyone, so tall guys who are HESITANT to step up need a place to HIDE! He was also reluctant to tell his uncle of the calling on his life and experience he’d had with God (10:16). Maybe you’ve heard the quote, “Impression without Expression leads to Depression”. When God blesses you and you conveniently forget to mention Him publicly,you’re on you’re “on your way to a sad, sad day”. Now we move on to him being RESISTANT. That always follows a reluctant spirit. It actually is the next manifestation of the same attitude. In the battle with the Philistines (13:4), Saul resists the “role clarification & expectation” we talked about earlier. He became impatient when Samuel, who possibly got caught in traffic & was running late. So he decided to do Samuel’s job of sacrificing the burnt, & peace offerings, which was reserved for the “spiritual leader”, not the “political leader”. Saul’s defense to Samuel was simply, “I felt compelled” since you were late. He panicked. He viewed the sacrificial offerings with a type of “spiritual superstition”, that if they didn’t get done by somebody, then God won’t bless it! This was the beginning of the end of Saul’s leadership it appears. But his demise would go full blown in chapter 15 with the battle with the Amalekites. He should’ve have known God’s feeling about that country in the way they had historically treated His people! If Saul would have stayed awake during Sunday School, he might’ve recalled from Exodus 17: 14, “After the victory, the Lord instructed Moses, ‘Write this down on a scroll as a permanent reminder and read it aloud to Joshua: I will erase the memory of Amalek from under heaven”. That’s how God felt about them in light of how they had treated His people previously. And Saul got the call to lead that battle, but did not utterly destroy them, but rather listened to his men and saved the best for themselves with a few token sacrifices to the Lord. The thing about reluctance is it’s initially based on fear, which makes you very vulnerable to it turning into anger in time. Such was the case with Saul. He went from being reluctant, to resistant, to resentful as we’ll see in just a moment. And yes, preachers always have & usually will have 3 points that many times alliterate! Saul was RESENTFUL. As time went on, without covering every detail, Saul loses his grip on the Kingdom. He stays in office for 42 years, though. After the embarrassment concerning the Amalekite “victory”, Samuel mourns for Saul, but is interrupted by God saying He’s ready to move on, so let’s go find the next king. David is secretly anointed by Samuel (chapter 16), which leads to a music ministry for Saul’s depression and before you know it, David has defeated Goliath (more on that tomorrow) in chapter 17. By chapter 18, the ladies start singing & dancing that famous song, “Saul has Killed his 1000’s but David has killed his 10k”. That was a little too much for Saul to stomach. Reason being it revealed his failures. And the jealousy hits Saul hard with an overwhelming resentful urge to kill David by chapter 19. That pretty much was the theme of the rest of Saul’s life. Insecurity & resentment. A fear-based life that never gets resolved and healed by the grace of God thru a humble heart. And that becomes a terrible thing for the person as well as everyone else around them! His Prayer….. Plenty of opportunities, but never a moment in Scripture that seems to record an effective prayer. He did “ask the Lord” in chapter 28 what to do as he was overcome with fear. Notice the sad commentary in verse 6….. ”He asked the Lord what he should do, but the Lord refused to answer him, either by dreams or by sacred lots or by the prophets.” So what do you do when God is quiet? You either wait on the Lord….or you get a 2nd opinion. Saul’s unanswered prayer became an appeal to a witch from Endor. For you “Bewitched” TV show fans, you might recall the name of Samantha’s (Elizabeth Montgomery) mother. Go ahead….google it if you need to. I know….those TV script-writers did some Biblical research! So what happens when we turn away from God? What happens when resentment dominates our conscious self? What happens when we play more “defense than offense” in the Kingdom of God? That’s when we turn to someone or something else besides the Lord. And that leads us to our final commentary…. His Legacy…… I believe our legacy is determined by how we LIVE, how we LOVE and how we LEAVE. Yep, that’s a me-quote. After a lot of years, you look around and put your own phrases together rather than everyone else’s. Saul struggled with living out his faith as a leader. I get it. It’s a lot of pressure & a tough challenge! There’s a lot of voices and agendas coming at you most all the time. And I feel for him as he had a difficult time staying close to the God who called him. He could’ve used a lot more mentoring from Samuel, but it seems he didn’t want that. He’d rather try to “prove himself” as a king “from the get go” all on his own. That is a trait that many times accompanies insecurity and we become dependent on God’s approval or the people’s opinions. But he struggled with relationships too. Remember his uncle who he didn’t tell about this new experience with God? And his relationship with his son, Jonathan, which was strained because of Saul’s hatred of David? And even within his daughters’ lives had to be filled with tension due to their marriages to David? But God can use us EVEN WHEN we fall short. Actually that’s what Paul told the Romans in 3:23…we ALL have fallen short of the glory of God. And like Saul, we all have left some things undone or poorly done in our lives. And we need the Lord to “work all things together for good” (Romans 8:28) in spite of our failed efforts at times. Saul’s life ended harshly in battle, dying alongside Jonathan & his other sons, with his head cut off as a Philistine trophy and his body fastened to a wall in mockery. David would grieve that loss tearfully in the beginning of 2 Samuel with the famous quote of “how the mighty have fallen”. But even in the midst of such noticeable failure, Saul led Israel 42 years. Most of them were pretty painful, but he still led in the midst of his struggle with human emotion. But he, like us all, and like John Newton, the writer of the famous hymn will always need to say together…. “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found. Was blind but now I see.” May we help one another see the grace of God even in the midst of the pain of our lives. Love you “Finishing Well Friends”…. THURSDAY…DAVID the GOOD KING (the apple of God’s eye) Let me acknowledge that the days on David and Solomon won’t cover Psalms and Proverbs since we’ll be devoting a whole week to each of those which will be coming soon. His Calling….. He started as a shepherd, minding his own business taking care of his father’s flocks in 1 Samuel 16. His first “call up to the majors” is when Samuel stops by to pick the next king. Samuel goes through each of David’s brothers thinking for sure God would pick one of them, but God gently reminded Samuel (as we said before, but bears repeating) that while “man looks on the outer appearance, God looks on the heart”. David progressed from his calling as a shepherd boy to a music therapist for King Saul because he was a great harpist who’s songs could “soothe the soul” (16:14-18). It would take David 17 chapters (15 in 1st Samuel and 2 in 2nd Samuel) before he would take the throne of Judah (divided Kingdom), and another 3 chapters before he would rule over all of the nation of Israel. So his “job description” evolved, but his real calling was still that of a shepherd, guiding & guarding the hearts of people rather than sheep. Much like when Jesus called His disciples, telling them if they would follow Him, He would one day make them “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:18-22) His Strength….. David had a courage & charisma like no one else around at that time. He also had the Spirit of God come upon him the moment the oil touched his head from the flask of Samuel (1 Samuel 16:13). 1 Samuel 13:14 & Acts 13:22 both bear out the fact that David was truly a “man after God’s own heart”. God needs people to step up in His Kingdom who desire the same things, the same way, with the same reason that He Himself does! David was that guy! He celebrated the goodness of God, he lamented the distance of God, and he invited the presence of God. In killing Goliath, his “objection” wasn’t that Israel was being bullied, but that Goliath was dishonoring and even mocking the character of the Living God! Sometimes, you can tell who God’s people are by what they REFUSE to TOLERATE! He also had a strength of friendship with Saul’s son, Jonathan, which had to be awkward most of the time. His Struggle….. Well the multiple marriages didn’t help. And while his marriage to Abigail seemed very dignified after she was widowed, his “kingly seduction” of Bathsheba was certainly a thing that the Bible was very clear about being something that “displeased Him” (2 Samuel 11:27). Then there’s the fatherhood thing. Whoa, did he have a hard time there! And why wouldn’t he with 6 kids with 6 different Mom’s, and that was just in the early part of his Kingship. There were more! That separation alone is a breeding ground for sibling rivalry and resentment! The part of the Bathsheba incident that needs to be mentioned, I believe is not just the struggle with momentary lack of discretion in adultery and a persistent & pre-meditative sinfulness in the murder of her husband, Urriah, but also in the “cover up”. I have often wondered how things might have gone in the Bible if some accounts read . In this case, what if David would have repented earlier before he was exposed by the prophet Nathan and asked God for forgiveness BEFORE he had Urriah killed? I’ve wondered the same thing about Adam & Eve in the Garden of Eden. Not just in avoiding the devil and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil, but what if he would have INITIATED the return to God’s presence in brokenness? Would that have changed the outcome? I don’t know, but I wonder sometimes. David struggled. Just as we struggle. But boy, he sure was quick to cry out to the Lord in praise or in repentance! His Prayer….. Now in the legacy section I try to make the contrast between David’s prayer and his son Solomon’s. So I’ll save that for the next paragraph! And we’ll save the PSALMS, which became Israel’s HYMNAL for when my good friend, Matt Craig who is the Pastor at the 1st Christian Church in Scottsburg writes a whole devotional on the Psalms in a few weeks. But suffice it to say that David not only had a prayer, but a journal and worship book of “recorded prayers of his heart to the Shepherd of his soul”. His Legacy…… I love the commentary in Acts 13:36, that says that David “served God’s purpose in his own generation…” May that be said of us all some day! I believe his “legacy” was seen in so many of his deeds, but mostly in his “contrasting prayer” with his son Solomon. The reason I call it that is when David’s prayer is laid side by side Solomon’s prayer, you can see the difference in priority and passion. Here’s David’s “main prayer”, I believe….. Psalm 27:4 says, “The one thing I ask from the Lord—the thing I seek most—is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple.” Now compare that to Solomon’s prayer… 1 Kings 3:7-9 “Now, O Lord my God, you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t know his way around. And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted! Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?” The Bible says that Solomon’s prayer pleased God, but tomorrow we’ll discover that his “long term behavior” did not! The difference in the prayers is the difference in their legacies….. Solomon’s prayer for God’s WISDOM. David’s for God’s PRESENCE. There is a big difference! Looking forward to finishing this CONTRAST of characters with you tomorrow! FRIDAY…SOLOMON the WISE KING (but too many “proposals”) His Calling….. He was appointed King by his father, David, but not without the help of his mother, Bathsheba, and Nathan the prophet. Things were off to a rocky start as it began with one of his brothers attempting to get to the throne before he did! His Strength….. Solomon’s strength was also his weakness. He is known for the 3 W’s….wisdom / wealth / women. Not necessarily in that order. He excelled at all 3 equally! The wisdom was a gift. The wealth was a gift. Both were answers to prayers, or actually the wealth was a “special benefit”. Kind of an “Above & Beyond” blessing from God because of his humble prayer for wisdom. But the women? We’ll get to that in the next category of “his struggle”. Solomon pursued everything passionately in life. Book learning was high on his list. He did not spare any expense or leave any thrill inexperienced. But if you read the Book of Ecclesiastes, you’ll hear the regrets of an aging man who wants to spare us some heartache by telling us to “honor your Creator in your youth before you grow old and say life is not pleasant anymore”. (12:1) I know…some days feel a little like that already, with or without a hip replacement! And he finishes the book by concluding that we should “fear God and obey His commands because this is the whole duty of man”! Nothing like a “bottom line” from the one who finished first in his class! His Struggle….. Just like LL COOL J, “Ladies Love Cool Solomon”. Change the J to S and it all fits. He went for the record in all the wrong sports! The number of what appeared to be “political marriages” was astronomical! Why did he do such a thing? Because he could. “It’s good to be the king” is what he thought, I guess? But the kingdom went right through his fingers. Not in his LIFE TIME, but because of his LIFE CHOICES! His Prayer…… He had a great one in the beginning asking God for wisdom. And he had another great one at the Dedication of the Temple. Once again, he spared no expense but praised and worshiped God with what many have called and encouraged today, “reckless abandon”. It is a great thing to be UNINHIBITED in the presence of our God. But while showing a generous heart of worship wasn’t a problem for Solomon early on, showing RESTRAINT in loving a multitude of foreign women who brought the foreign gods was the problem. Prayers are reserved for the one true God. You can never have too many prayers to Him, but you can have too many “imaginated & fabricated” deities. (Yes, imaginated isn’t a word, but it rhymed and I had to make it up…just as those idols were “made up”) Because as we’ll see in his LEGACY, it’s one thing to have the Queen of Sheba come and bring gifts and take notes on your successful business path and strategy. But it’s a whole other thing to look at God face to Face at the end of your life & wonder when it was that you quit praying? His Legacy….. In 1 Kings 11:1-13 there is a lengthy passage which truly is the COMMENTARY or Legacy of Solomon’s life. Now I’m hoping all my “stupid stuff” doesn’t appear in print someday or at least not in ALL CAPS. But since it is Scripture and there for a reason, I think it’s appropriate to end today with God’s assessment, rather than mine on our very wise, yet very foolish friend, Solomon. Here goes… “Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh’s daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from among the Hittites. The Lord had clearly instructed the people of Israel, ‘You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods.’ Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway. He had 700 wives of royal birth & 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord. In Solomon’s old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the Lord his God, as his father David, had been. Solomon worshiped Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites. In this way, Solomon did what was evil in the Lord’s sight; he refused to follow the Lord completely, as his father David had done. On the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, he even built a pagan shrine for Chemosh, the detestable god of Moab, and another for Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites. Solomon built such shrines for all his foreign wives to use for burning incense and sacrificing to their gods. The Lord was very angry with Solomon, for his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. He had warned Solomon specifically about worshiping other gods, but Solomon did not listen to the Lord’s command. So now the Lord said to him, ‘Since you have not kept my covenant and have disobeyed my decrees, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants. But for the sake of your father, David, I will not do this while you are still alive. I will take the kingdom away from your son. And even so, I will not take the entire kingdom; I will let him be king of one tribe, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, my chosen city.” Now I know that was a “page full”! but my experience has been thru the years that too many times we learn the “cool parts” of the Bible heroes and miss the “hidden junk” that is there to WARN US and to HELP US to finish well! Solomon did not finish well! Did he accomplish a lot? Yes, he did. Was he the wisest among all people throughout history except for Jesus? Apparently so, at least in his early days. But did he FORGET the God who had delivered His people and generously given him some major wisdom? He most certainly did. And when did that downhill butt-slide begin to happen? When he started saying his “I DO’S to the wrong YA-HOOS”. When he thought he would just GOVERN THE PEOPLE, INSTEAD OF HIMSELF. When he thought I’ve prayed, I’m the King, I’m an author, and I have the world at my fingertips. And forgot the One who MADE the WORLD that he mistakenly thought he ruled over. May we NEVER QUIT following, quit praying, quit encouraging, or quit loving Him wholeheartedly, my friends! I’m of course just finishing this on Sunday night and will get it to our daughter who gets it ready for Monday morning. But as I write now, we don’t know who will win the NCAA Men’s Basketball title tonight, but boy did we see a comeback by Houston against Duke the other night! One of epic proportions! (Shout out to our dear friends Neal & Miriam Windham who are Texans cheering them on!). It was almost TOO LATE for any kind of comeback in my mind. But somehow they pulled it off. I wonder what Solomon could have done to pull off a comeback? Would it have called for as many divorces as there were marriages? I don’t think so. But it would have called for idols being torn down as we’ll see in future weeks that are what God blesses. When STRONGHOLDS come down and He is restored to His rightful place…that is when revival happens. That is when the hearts of people turn to Him. When He is exalted above all others in any culture or in any generation. OK. It’s been a long week. I pray you have a great weekend! Celebrate the goodness of God at your local church fellowship! Get ready because EASTER will be here soon! And don’t forget to buy your tickets here for the Night of Worship & Prayer May 4th at Jacob’s Well. Love you guys and may it be a very blessed weekend for you! gr
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