Why We Need The Rock (1 Kings 8-11)
The scene could be a common one found in blockbuster movies. The close-up of the hopelessly lost protagonist stumbling through the hot sands suddenly pans out allowing the viewer to see the vastness of the desert and the seemingly-straight path across it that in reality zigs and zags, wandering through the desert. This could be a simile for one who claims to follow God but is lost in sin. Solomon was an Old Testament character who vacillated from the path of righteousness, who rejected the God of his salvation, and who couldn’t see the foolishness of his path. He might as well have been lost in a desert by the end of his life. Ironically, “God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the seashore” (I Ki. 4:29) because he had asked for wisdom to lead instead of a long life, riches, or vengeance on his enemies. Solomon vacillated. Webster’s 1828 dictionary describes vacillation as “a wavering; to move one way and the other;