1 Kings 10
I encourage you to take time and read for yourself 1 Kings chapter 10. As we go through this sermon on the good and bad choices of Soloman, a huge turning point happens here for the king. We must identify that in the first half of chapter 10 the queen of Sheba had heard rumors of Solomon's wealth and wisdom; she wanted to put that to the test to see if what she had heard was true. I imagine that these rumors she was hearing sounded too good to be true, so she sent off to test him. As we read in chapter 10, she was amazed and what she heard could not truly explain the amount of wisdom and wealth Solomon had. There was truly no other king or person like him! I want to take a moment and really understand what queen of Sheba saw and why she was amazed, we read in verses 4 and 5:
“When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed.”
We often think of wisdom as just head smarts, but we can argue that true wisdom is demonstrated in life. God had truly blessed King Solomon with wealth and wisdom, which leads into the second half of this chapter. We are now at the highest part of King Solomon's reign before issues come to the surface. We must understand that the tension that arises is not because of the blessings themselves. We see back in Chapter 3 when God promises wisdom, riches, and honor to Solomon the issue is that the blessings would soon become more important than God.
To this day there has been no human as rich as King Solomon, he had it all. However, Solomon was human. You see although Solomon was the wisest person, Jesus is still greater. Soloman owned A LOT of things, Jesus owns everything. Solomon ruled an earthly kingdom; Jesus is King of Kings. We must be careful to learn a very important lesson from King Solomon: The blessings that God gives to us are not sinful, but when we make them more important they become sinful. Solomon would go on to experience a downfall. There was no one like him, I am not sure if there will ever be anyone like him, but we must learn from Solomon.
“When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed.”
We often think of wisdom as just head smarts, but we can argue that true wisdom is demonstrated in life. God had truly blessed King Solomon with wealth and wisdom, which leads into the second half of this chapter. We are now at the highest part of King Solomon's reign before issues come to the surface. We must understand that the tension that arises is not because of the blessings themselves. We see back in Chapter 3 when God promises wisdom, riches, and honor to Solomon the issue is that the blessings would soon become more important than God.
To this day there has been no human as rich as King Solomon, he had it all. However, Solomon was human. You see although Solomon was the wisest person, Jesus is still greater. Soloman owned A LOT of things, Jesus owns everything. Solomon ruled an earthly kingdom; Jesus is King of Kings. We must be careful to learn a very important lesson from King Solomon: The blessings that God gives to us are not sinful, but when we make them more important they become sinful. Solomon would go on to experience a downfall. There was no one like him, I am not sure if there will ever be anyone like him, but we must learn from Solomon.
Posted in Devotional