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Welcome to the Well Soul Podcast, where we pause to drink in Scripture, reflect and pray. I am your host, Seana Scott, and sometimes life leaves our souls feeling parched, so come to the well of living water that never runs dry.
In today's episode, we will look at the reign of Solomon, King David's son. If this is your first time listening, I encourage you to start at the beginning of the Story of the Gospel episodes.
So far in the Story of the Gospel, we meditated on creation and then humanity's sin that shattered Shalom and God declaring a promise in the middle of the mess that one day someone from the line of the woman would crush the serpent's head. We saw in the stories of Noah and the Tower of Babel that when given a chance, humanity sins.
And we saw God's redemptive plan start to unfold when he made an unconditional promise to Abraham for land. seed, and through him all the earth would be blessed. So land, descendants, and a blessing.
We then dwelled on God's faithfulness to deliver Israel, Abraham's descendants, from slavery in Egypt, and Tamar's righteousness to continue the line of Judah, the line of the Messiah, even in unconventional ways.
And we meditated on God giving the law through Moses to Israel, and Israel's sin for not trusting God when they came to the edge of the Promised Land, so they wandered the wilderness for forty years.
And then we considered God's reiterating of the importance of following Him as Israel entered the Promised Land, and we saw the cycle of Israel's Sin and God using judges to rescue them.
And we saw the story of God's faithfulness to do his work with faith-filled people like Ruth, the mother of Obed, the father of Jesse, who was the father of King David.
And last week we meditated on God's promise to David, which unfolds even further the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham, that through Abraham, the whole world would be blessed—and through David, God would place a forever king on a forever throne that blesses the whole world.
Today we slow down the storyline for two weeks to meditate on the life of David's son Solomon. Noted as the wisest man who ever lived. Who when asked by God what he wanted, Solomon asked for wisdom. But we will see, even with all the wisdom of the world, Solomon lacked character and it will cost Israel greatly.
Now after David died, the kingship passed down to Solomon, David's son. We could read about the kings of Israel in 1 and 2 Kings. The books of Kings starts with Solomon and his building of the temple, and him asking God for wisdom. But then we read, and we also see Solomon not acting in the wisdom of God.
First he killed off political threats, and then married many, many women, hundreds of women. for political advancement and welcomed their gods and introduced the worship of those gods into Israel. He focuses on accumulating wealth and horses and building an army and enslaved people for his massive construction plans.
Today, we step back into Deuteronomy 17, the guidelines God gave the nation of Israel before they entered the promised land for how kings should reign. Let's listen to God's guidelines and compare them to what we know about how Solomon ran the kingdom.
Before I read, take a deep breath. Invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you through God's word.
Come Holy Spirit. Come.
Deuteronomy 17:14-20.
14 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” 15 be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite. 16 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” 17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.
18 When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. 19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees 20 and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.
What did you notice about this passage? Dwell on this for a moment.
Now we know what King Solomon did—as my professor put it—he was wise in the ways of the world, but not wise in the ways of following God. In other words, he let his heart stray to seek after everything this world can offer while neglecting what God offers, himself, his presence, his blessing, his righteousness.
And we will see Solomon's choices had a disastrous result.
God gives us his instructions for good reasons. He is good and his ways are good.
But let's not be too hasty to point a finger at Solomon because don't we do the same? Don't we sometimes neglect God's word? Don't we sometimes listen to God's word and then live as if we never heard?
Sit with this thought for a moment, then pray about this or anything else the Spirit brings to mind.
Let's pray. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, one and only true God, we worship You. Thank you, Lord, for your Word, which teaches us who you are, who we are, and how to have a right relationship with You. Forgive us, Lord, for neglecting the reading of your Word. And forgive us, Lord, for neglecting obedience to the Word that we already know. Oh Lord, convict our hearts and lead us in the way of righteousness today. In Jesus's name, Amen.
Thank you for joining me today on the Well Soul podcast for our story of the Gospel journey. I invite you to join the Well Soul community and receive encouragement and resources directly in your inbox every week. See the link in the show notes to sign up. You can also follow the Well Soul on Instagram. In closing, I remember my late friend, Brian Vasquez, who made this podcast possible. God bless you and I pray that you have a well soul.