Solomon's fall from Grace

Today we hear that wonderful story about how God grants Solomon wisdom. He tells Solomon that he gives him everything if he keeps the commandments. It all starts so great but later Solomon turns his back towards God. The life with God is not always an easy one. And there is no guarantee that you will not fall from Grace, like Salomon eventually did. Having the Holy Spirit, a discerning mind like Salomon or being born again, does not save you if you do not have a humble mind. Humble enough to repent and return to God when you go of track.

We always think that once we are saved, we have the perfect immunity. But scripture tells us that is not totally true. We need to keep the work up and if we fall return to God and ask for his mercy. We have the example of King Saul, Judas, and King David (who repents and comes back to grace). I bet you can come up with other examples. And then today we have King Solomon who was God’s beloved and gifted with a discerning mind. In every generation we look up to people just to witness their fall later. People of faith and people in leadership. We feel shocked, astonished, or maybe sad. But one thing we know: it will never happen to us. Because we are “born again”, faithful and our lips confess Jesus as Lord. But confessing it is something else than living it. 
This is what we see when we look at the character from King Solomon’s leadership. God chose Solomon to build the temple at Jerusalem. Solomon was blessed with wisdom to discern between good and evil. Both inside and out, he was fully equipped to be the best king Israel had ever known. And for a long time, he was. This shows us that we must be careful in putting leaders on a pedestal. In a blink of an eye they can fall from grace.
 
Despite having his every physical and spiritual need met in abundance, Solomon decided he also needed many women. Scripture tells us he had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. And there is something important about these women. They were foreign women from countries that worship foreign God according to scripture. They were “from the nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, ‘You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods’” (1 Kings 11:2 NIV).
Unfortunately, that was exactly what happened to Solomon. Just as God said. Solomon the great and blessed king turned away from God. That what started so wonderful ended so sad. It is not for nothing that there is the saying: “he that aims high, can fall deep”.

God had blessed Solomon and yet he fell hard and deep. His desire for foreign women (and Gods) blinded his wisdom and replaced his love for God. So, at the end he became a mess that only vaguely resembled its former self. If he was not above these circumstances, neither are we. Our hearts are fickly when it comes through distractions and temptations. We are not likely to take that many spouses, but we do let things or people get in the way between us and God. The process of turning other things into gods can be subtle. Solomon shows us that we are not immune to these changes of heart. We must remember always that we are vulnerable and able to serve other gods besides him. We are broken human beings that live in a broken world. Gods enemy knows that and takes advantage of that to pull you away from God. Solomon’s fall into idolatry ultimately toppled a kingdom. No kingdom is immune for that if the leader instead of being humble turns towards arrogance. So many kingdoms in world history fell and still fall. No country is immune for that. If you turn your back towards gone, your nation will lose it's protection and that nation can be gone in the blink of an eye. But not only nations, also individuals must understand that there are consequences for turning your back to God. Not that God wants to. But it is a logical result of abandoning him.  

Solomon’s example is not one to scare us but to encourage us that we find the good life only with God. Other gods might show us that they have it…. but they do not. We need to walk with God everyday again to find true happiness. So, if you meet those other gods, tell them to pass your by. You have already a God and he is the best. The great and wise King Solomon fell from grace. The question is whether he was aware whether his actions were wrong. If not, then he must be blindsided by God when everything was taken from him. But still, God was merciful, as Jesus Christ was born from the lineage of King Solomon.  Even after the serious mistakes King Solomon made, in the long run God still permitted His own son to be born from his lineage.  This should give us hope for the times that we are tried. We know that we have a merciful God and if we keep on returning to him, we will always be fine in the end. We might fall, but if we walk our path with him…all will be well. To find the Kingdom of heaven we need to be aware of good and evil. And that what looks good can be evil, as it turns out to be in the case of Solomon. It is as Jesus tells us today. The kingdom of Heaven is hidden, and it is up to us to find it and to embrace it. That means that what is visible is not what we are looking for, but that what is invisible is what we should reach for. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit grants us the Spirit of discernment between the two and gives us the strength not to turn our back on God when we need him most. Amen.