1 KINGS 9
Read 1 Kings 9:1-28
Solomon had completed his building project; ‘he had achieved all he had desired to do’ (v1). And it was good, God had given his seal of approval to the temple by filling it with his presence (8:10), but he didn’t leave it at that. The Lord wanted to have a quiet word with Solomon and let him know a couple of things.
First of all, the Lord encouraged Solomon saying that he approved of the temple and promised that his presence would always be in the temple. The Israelites could be assured that their God was with them, that his presence was amongst them there in the temple. Our God is not a distant God like the gods of the ancient Greeks. The Greek gods lived on the top of Mount Olympus, well away from all the people; but the Lord wants to be close to his people, to live among them and to be part of their lives on a day to day basis. What an encouragement that is to us and must have been to Solomon and his people.
Then the Lord further encouraged Solomon by repeating what he said when he first visited Solomon back in Chapter 3 Verse 14 (and also what Solomon’s father David advised him to do). If Solomon was to be faithful to the Lord, do what the Lord commands and observe his laws, then Solomon’s rule would be successful and there would be his descendant on the throne for all time. What a promise from the Lord!
But there was also a warning (vv6-9). If Solomon, or any of his descendants who became king, turned away from God and embraced idolatry, worshipping idols and gods, who of course were not God at all, then God would turn away from them. If that happened then God would withdraw from the temple and cut Israel off from the land. This would be a disaster for Israel. Not only would they lose the visible presence of God dwelling among them, which is what the temple represented, they would also lose their land, the Promised Land, which the Lord promised to Abraham all those generations ago and to which Moses led them after many years in the wilderness. We will keep these words in the back of our minds for future reference. They will come back to haunt the Israelites. Faithfulness is paramount in our relationship with the Lord. We will receive a godly blessing if we live a godly life. But if we turn our backs on God, then we can expect him to turn his back on us. Being gracious and merciful, he may still bring us back to himself; but cutting ourselves off from God can have dire consequences.
The remainder of the chapter looks at Solomon doing worldly king stuff. We see him carrying out the day to work of politics (10-14), defence (15-24), religion (25) and commerce (26-28). With the gift of wisdom that God gave him in Chapter 3 Solomon was able to be an effective ruler of God’s people and made the nation economically and politically stable. Solomon’s fame spread far and wide and we will see some of the consequences of that fame in the next chapter.