In the second half of 2 Samuel, we read about the remainder of King David’s life, including his problems and successes. Absolam, his son, revolts against him and tries to become king in David’s place. We also learn about a few other of David’s victories that he enjoyed. As the end of his life drew nearer, David made his son, Solomon, king over Israel and later gave these final instructions to him.
2 Kings 2:2-4
2 “I am going where everyone on earth must someday go. Take courage and be a man. 3 Observe the requirements of the Lord your God, and follow all his ways. Keep the decrees, commands, regulations, and laws written in the Law of Moses so that you will be successful in all you do and wherever you go. 4 If you do this, then the Lord will keep the promise he made to me. He told me, ‘If your descendants live as they should and follow me faithfully with all their heart and soul, one of them will always sit on the throne of Israel.’
I get excited whenever I hear those words spoken or read them for myself! This is a powerful charge given from a father to his son to remain faithful to the LORD above all else. We see David use God’s personal name, reminding himself and his son that their God is always present (Psalm 23:4). Since God is near, David instructs Solomon to lean on Him as Solomon grieves his passing and for everything required for leading God’s people as he becomes their leader. David also defines what being a man really is. A man will know God and follow Him no matter if no one else is or if the conditions for doing so are unfavorable. Finally, David reminds his son that there is a blessing for submitting to the LORD and loving Him with all of his being. I hope that I am able to pass these truths down to my two boys even before my death so that they can be men the way God intends men to be. God desires men who are courageous in their faith in Him, who seek Him, and who will stand for Him.
After David passes (2 Samuel 1:10-12) and Solomon establishes his rule (2 Samuel 2:13-46), God provides Solomon with an opportunity to ask Him for anything! Solomon knows why his father was successful during his reign. He knew that his father had been honest, true, and faithful to the LORD during his rule (2 Samuel 3:6). Since Solomon knew the success of his reign would be directly impacted by his faithfulness or unfaithfulness to following God’s decrees and voice, he humbled himself and requested wisdom to govern God’s people. I cannot imagine that his father’s last words, his final charge, didn’t have an impact on how Solomon responded to God’s offer of granting him anything that he should ask from Him.
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. 8 And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted! 9 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?”
Solomon humbly asked for God’s help in leading His people. This newly established king felt the weight of responsibility for leading this nation with which God had entered into a relationship, beginning with Abraham. He acknowledged his need for God’s help in leading the great nation by admitting that he couldn’t do so in his own power and his own understanding. We, too, should humbly ask God to give us wisdom in all areas of life. From leading our families and children, managing our finances, for direction in serving His church, where to go to school, how to be the best boss or employee, and how we plan for or live out retirement. What did God think of Solomon’s request (Please note that His response and feelings towards Solomon’s request for wisdom are the same for us when we ask for understanding, too.)?
1 Kings 3:10-14
The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom. 11 So God replied, “Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people with justice and have not asked for a long life or wealth or the death of your enemies— 12 I will give you what you asked for! I will give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else has had or ever will have! 13 And I will also give you what you did not ask for—riches and fame! No other king in all the world will be compared to you for the rest of your life! 14 And if you follow me and obey my decrees and my commands as your father, David, did, I will give you a long life.”
The LORD was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom to govern God’s people with justice; God also exalted him in other areas of life because of his unselfish, humble request. God’s exalting of Solomon is an example of God exalting the humble person. God makes Solomon legendary for his wisdom (1 Kings 4:29-32). He extended Israel’s boundaries further than that of his father and amassed great wealth. The king even built the Temple in Jerusalem, thereby centralizing the worship of Yahweh. One could easily make the argument for Solomon and not David being the greatest king that sat on the throne of the nation. Solomon started strong (1 Kings 3:3). Still, how would he finish (Ecclesiastes 7:8)? While Solomon started off following David’s advice by being faithful to God and His Word, Solomon ignored the LORD’s instructions many times over, especially these in Deuteronomy 17:17.
The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the Lord. And he must not accumulate large amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself.
Thankfully our God is kind and longsuffering because Solomon ignored this law of God a 1,000 times over if you count his concubines. However, Solomon’s disobedience led to his heart worshiping other gods instead of Yahweh alone like David.
1 Kings 11:1-4
Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh’s daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from among the Hittites. 2 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. 3 He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord.
4 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.
How did the wisest king ever to rule over God’s people act so foolishly and, in the end, cost his son, his family line the monarchy of Israel? Like a train jumping its track, causing it to hurl itself towards a damaging demise, Solomon jumped from the track of living wisely to living foolishly when his fear of the Lord waned. Solomon wrote the following words concerning wisdom.
Proverbs 1:7
Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
If you desire to be wise, you must start by fearing the Lord.
As believers, we are not to fear the Lord like we are unredeemed sinners storing up for ourselves God’s wrath on the day of judgment. Yet fearing the Lord is more than simply being respectful of God. To fear God means we are to live in a state of being in reverential awe of the Lord. If we could imagine ourselves as a Hebrew who experienced life in bondage under the Egyptians, saw God’s power unleashed upon the oppressive nation and its gods, experienced the manifest presence of God, saw the Red Sea part when Moses lifted up the staff, traveled on dry ground through the Red Sea with watery walls on each side, and witnessed those same walls that offered a clear hike for you crash down on and drown Pharoah’s army then we would be led to a state of reverential awe like this generation of Hebrews was.
Exodus 14:31
When the people of Israel saw the mighty power that the Lord had unleashed against the Egyptians, they were filled with awe before him. They put their faith in the Lord and in his servant Moses.
With a divided heart, Solomon was unable to fear the Lord. He had lost the majestic wonder of the God of Israel and what He had done for Solomon and his ancestors. With his loyalty divided, Solomon had lost a clear picture of who God was.
To fear the Lord, you must have some comprehension of who He is.
Understanding who God is, is how being in awe of Him and wise living starts. The Israelites had experienced God as the only true sovereign, their deliverer, protector, guide, and mighty warrior. Take a worshipful moment to contemplate on God as these things to you. He has delivered you from the bondage and penalty of sin, made a way for you to enter His land of promise when there was no way, provided the way to be made right with Him through Jesus, and has given us His Spirit within us! We will be in awe when we think about how many ways our God has been good to us, what He has rescued us from, and where He is taking us to. We need daily reminders that no one is like our God to keep idols from being set up in our hearts! These reminders will go off daily within our spirit, like our device’s calendar reminders, as we spend time within our Bible’s pages.
To know who God is, we must know who He has revealed Himself as in His Word.
As a result of their newly shared knowledge of who God was, the Israelites feared Him. Because of their reverent awe, the Hebrews put their faith in the Lord and His servant Moses. Genuine faith always lives itself out in obedience. As long as Solomon’s heart was devoted to His God, he would fear Him and experience the blessings of living wisely. Solomon would have known who God was from his personal interaction with Him and because he was to read from a copy the Scriptures he had copied daily (Deuteronomy 17:18-20). God communicates with us through prayer, His Spirit, creation, other believers, and other means. Still, the gold standard to judge all other revelations and gain a proper understanding of God is to know what He has revealed and preserved of Himself in the Bible.
A fool can know God’s Word but refuse to follow it or govern their lives with it. A wise person knows how to apply their knowledge concerning God and His Word to everyday life. Solomon had a copy of God’s law, yet when he could ask God for anything, he asked for wisdom. Solomon requested that God help him know how to apply His Word in every situation he faced as a monarch (1 Chronicles 22:11-13). Today, if we want to know how to use God’s truth in our lives for every situation, we, too, must diligently study His Word to understand who He is and know what He desires, and in reverent awe of this divine revelation, humbly ask Him to give us a desire (Proverbs 2:6; James 1:5) to obey His commands and for insight to apply His instructions to everyday living.
One of the wisest people I know was one of my professors at John Wesley College. He had the habit of reading one chapter of Proverbs daily. I remember him being a man of great insight, knowledge, discipline, and wisdom. My professor being this kind of man shouldn’t come as a surprise because these characteristics are precisely the purpose of these proverbs being collected and shared (Proverbs 1:1-7). Dr. Ben is one of the countless examples of God’s Word being alive and living and thus able to transform lives! The transformation in reading Proverbs, yielding in obedience to the Spirit, and fearing the Lord is becoming wise and enjoying the benefits of wise living (Proverbs 2:11).
Living foolishly without regard for God and His ways leads to many heartaches and headaches in this life and ultimately an eternity separated from Him and His presence and blessings (Proverbs 2:20-22; 11:19). However, the wise person not only enjoys benefits himself but others around him also are blessed by the positive consequences of his smart living. While Solomon feared the LORD, the LORD blessed him, and the entire nation and neighboring nations benefited from God’s exaltation of this humble man. Yet, when Solomon’s heart was divided, we see his awe for the Lord diminish. Solomon’s shrunken view of his God led him to be unfaithful to God’s covenant resulting in the kingdom of Israel being divided after his death. The consequences of his foolish actions later in his life affected as many people as did his wise decisions earlier in his reign. May we heed Solomon’s own words from Ecclesiastes 7:8.
Finishing is better than starting.
Patience is better than pride.
We can avoid falling into the same trap that Solomon did later in his life by going to the Lord before making any decision with these verses as our prayer during every stage of our lives. By making these verses our prayer and humbly seeking God’s direction and wisdom, we can finish as strong, if not stronger, than we started in our walk with Jesus.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
6 Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.
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