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; to reel or stagger,” but it also describes vacillating as a “fluctuation in mind or opinion; to be unsteady or inconstant.” The idea is that Solomon, who is described early as loving God and walking in David’s statutes, erred from that path resulting in him sacrificing and burning incense on the high places. Even though God gave him a heart full of wisdom, in its humanity, it was not constant or stable. Whether he strayed by design, which is incomprehensible, or by mistake, which is more likely, Solomon missed the straight path and began wandering through the desert of his sin. Webster makes a side note when defining the connected word err saying, “Men err in judgment from ignorance, from want of attention to facts, or from previous bias of mind.” Solomon knew too much to plead ignorance, God having appeared to him twice and offered great wisdom. God loved Solomon, but Solomon loved other gods. As such, Solomon becomes illustrative of Israel itself.

Solomon did not live to a ripe old age. God himself said that there was no one else like Solomon with a “wise and discerning heart” (I Ki. 3:12), and God gave him everything he hadn’t asked for as well—riches and honor—with the potential for a long life IF he simply followed God’s ways. His father, David, a man after God’s own heart, told him to “be strong and show [himself] a man” (I Ki. 2:2) when he came to power as “a little child” (I Ki. 3:7, meaning he was probably 20-ish) not knowing how to rule, and Solomon died after reigning 40 years (I Ki. 11:42), meaning Solomon was approximately 60 years of age when he died. While 60 isn’t necessarily young, Solomon isn’t described anywhere as “old, advanced in age” (I Ki. 1:1) as is his father, David, is described who was probably 70 years of age at his death.

Solomon began well. Solomon’s prayer of dedication recognized that there was no God like the God of Israel on earth or in heaven who kept covenant with His servants who walked before him whole-heartedly (I Ki. 8:23). Solomon recognized that the very reaches of heaven couldn’t contain God, much less the house He allowed Solomon to build for Him (I Ki. 8:27). Solomon bowed down with his arms stretched to the heavens and prayed for God to listen to his prayers, and he prayed specifically:

1. For God to hear from heaven and forgive personal sin (I Ki. 8:30, 38-39). Solomon realized that men are unable to avoid sinning (v. 46) and would need forgiveness, so he asked for God to hear and forgive when men sinned and prayed to God for forgiveness.

2. For God to hear from heaven and act and judge between men (I Ki. 3:32). Solomon realized that men would sin against each other and prayed that God would hear their pleas for deliverance from the deeds of wicked men. God’s intervention is necessary to free men from evil.

3. For God to hear from heaven and forgive the sin of the nation Israel (I Ki. 8:34, 38-39). Solomon knew that the sin of an entire people group (v. 46) could offend God and cause His judgment to fall on them in various ways, and he pleaded with God to listen to their confessions and free them from self-harm on a national level.

4. For God to hear the prayers of the foreigner who seeks God (I Ki. 8:43). Solomon understood that many not of Israel (Gentiles) would pass through seeking God’s favor, and he prayed that all the peoples of the earth would know God’s name and fear Him like Israel did.

5. For God to hear the prayers of his people when they go to battle (I Ki. 8:44). Solomon realized that attacks would come, battles and wars would have to be fought as God led them, and he asked for God to maintain their cause. The man with 40,000 stalls of horses for his chariots and 12,000 horsemen didn’t trust in his power but in God to deliver.

6. For God to bring back a people taken captive because of their own sin (I Ki 8:46). Solomon foresaw the pervasive problem of sin leading his nation astray (after foreign gods) and God’s discipline and judgment of them because of it and prayed specifically that in their captivity, God would hear, maintain their cause, and forgive then for their transgressions, making “them objects of compassion before those who have taken them captive” (I Ki. 8:50).

When finished, Solomon raised up from his prayers and blessed the people of Israel, reminding them that God was faithful to His promises, and He had promised not to leave or forsake them IF they followed after Him with all of their hearts. 

Solomon’s benediction is telling. He prayed that God won’t leave them, that God would incline their hearts to Himself that they might keep His commandments and statutes, and that the words of his prayer would be near always that God would maintain their cause each day. Solomon’s prayer showed great trust in God, which is good, but it also showed that the Law wasn’t able to preserve the heart. Man couldn’t simply choose to follow after God with singular focus when he had a divided heart. He needed God’s preservation . . .  pointing the way to our need for Christ, our Rock, and the Spirit that dwells within us, convicting us and directing us—God with us! The end of Solomon’s benediction said this,

Let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to the LORD our God, to walk in His statues and to keep His commandments, as at this day. (I Ki. 8:61)

Solomon lost his anchor. Solomon’s life shows us that a heart full of supernatural wisdom from God could not supersede the heart’s pull towards sin. He ended up consumed by his love for “many foreign women” (1,000 to be exact, 700 princess wives and 300 concubines) who pulled his heart away from his devotion to God, as 1 Kings 11 details. 

One might ask what loving another (or in Solomon’s case many others) could possibly hurt, but God makes it clear that Solomon not only loved them but pursued their gods, who were detestable because of the human and child sacrifices (among many other reasons), chief being that God is a jealous God who suffers worship of nothing and no one else but Him. 

Solomon’s story, whose reign begins with the glory of being allowed to build a dwelling place for God’s name on earth, ends with the ignominy of building high places for Chemosh and Molech and all the gods of his foreign wives, suggesting more than him just humoring his many wives. God was very angry at him because of his heart being turned away and makes his pursuit of other gods very clear (I Ki. 11:9).

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God’s faithfulness . . . Even though Solomon was a flawed man, a sinner whose heart was turned away from whole-hearted devotion to the one true God, the faithful God who gave him the wisdom to pray heard his prayers and answered them in a mighty way. Ultimately, God gave us Jesus, who intervenes for us with the Father (Rom. 8:24), will be judge both of nations and individual hearts (Matt. 25:31-46), will save the Jew and the Gentile (Rom. 1:16), his kindness will lead us to repentance and victory as overcomers (1 Jn. 5:5, 18). In Christ, our Rock and Redeemer, we are captives set free. Solomon, in all his wisdom, shows us why we need Jesus.