The Story Week 13

This chapter covers the rise and fall of the last king of united Israel; Solomon. Let’s start by just going over what we know about Solomon. He wrote Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. He was wise. He was David’s son. That covers what most people know about Solomon. Here’s some more of his story.

David got old and passed off the kingdom to Solomon. Before he died David gave Solomon a huge challenge. (Read the Story page 176, top paragraph). David’s charge to his son is basically this: Continue to serve God with passion and integrity and you’ll go down in history as a great king. If you don’t honor God, your reign is going to suck. Solomon starts really strong. He builds the first permanent temple for Yahweh. He worships God with a sincere heart. He’s humble and pure in heart. At one point God was so impressed with how Solomon loved righteousness and how he served the Lord that God said he would grant Solomon anything he wished. Solomon asked for wisdom to properly lead Israel. God gave him wisdom and everything else he could have asked for but didn’t.

            Solomon rules over Israel and his wisdom becomes world-renowned. People came from all over the world to hear him speak his wisdom. David extended Israel’s borders with the sword. Solomon maintained it with diplomacy and smooth talking. He ruled Israel so well that the country became very rich. The text says silver became worthless because everyone had so much. One of the results of Israel’s great wealth and growth was that Solomon obtained many, many...many wives. 700 wives and 300 concubines. That’s a lot of esposas. Solomon’s rule starts amazingly well, but ends very amazingly not well. He starts to let all these wives distract him from serving God alone and he starts dabbling in the religions of these wives from other countries. Because he ends up worshipping other gods, the one true God sends Israel down a road of several hundred years of war and turmoil.

            I want to focus on 2 things in this part of the story. The first thing that jumps out to me in this story is Solomon’s decision to ask for wisdom. Imagine the God of the universe shows up and says, “I like the cut of your jib. I’ll give you one thing, but it can be absolutely anything you want.” What would you ask for? Solomon asks for wisdom to rule Israel well. Imagine using that one request to ask for the know-how to do your job better. Because his request is so pure, humble and selfless, God says I’ll give you that plus everything else. The beauty of this part of the story is that Solomon put the first things first.

            Establishing a proper list of priorities is essential in the Jesus life. In this life the number one priority must be knowing and serving God, and when we do that the other things fall into their proper place on the list. Jesus said this exact thing in Matthew 6:33 “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”

            Everybody is seeking something. Everybody wants something: A fulfilling career, financial security, social approval, acceptance, family peace, success, fame, achievement, companionship, marriage, and on and on. The biblical message is that when you put these things in their proper place, behind Jesus, then these things will be taken care of in 1 of 2 ways. Either God will give them to you, or you will realize they aren’t as important as you thought.  

            So, what does it mean to seek the kingdom of God? If we aren’t careful “seek the kingdom of God” can become one of those annoyingly vague churchy statements that doesn’t really mean anything at all. First, what is the kingdom of God? It is not a fairy tale description of a magical place in a land far away. A king’s kingdom is the area or realm in which the king rules and has authority. When we allow Jesus to have the rightful place of rule in our lives, when we submit to God’s rule, when we turn over control of our lives to Jesus; that is the kingdom of God. Seeking God’s kingdom is not some weird super mystical thing where we meditate until we get some secret revelation or walk around singing hymns and Jesus juking everyone. It’s letting Jesus be the true Lord of our lives. When someone says something harsh and you choose to be forgiving instead of coming back harsh; that’s the Kingdom of God. When you feel the temptation to look at things on the computer that you shouldn’t, but choose not to; that’s the Kingdom of God. When you want to buy that new              but don’t because you’ve committed helping missionaries; that’s the Kingdom of God. You get the point.

            That’s the good. Here’s the bad. The second thing I want to focus on is how Solomon’s reign ended. Solomon had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. He allowed his focus to shift from pleasing God to trying to please all of these wives. His loyalty became divided. This takes up a small part of scripture, but this probably didn’t happen quickly. It’s not like Solomon went to bed on Thursday completely devoted to Yahweh and woke up on Friday worshipping pagan gods. Solomon gradually went off course, first allowing his wives to retain their pagan practices, then becoming curious about their practices, and then dabbling a little in them himself, and then before he knows it he’s worshipping false gods.

            There is a vitally important truth here concerning how we serve God. A little error, unchecked, becomes a big problem over time. Going off course just a little bit doesn’t seem so detrimental at first, but eventually it will lead you far off course.

In the Marine Corps land-nav skill are essential, at least if your infantry. I was point man for my platoon because my land-nav skills were decent. The thing about land-nav is that you have to recheck your azimuth every so often to make sure you are still heading towards the objective. If you pick any point on the equator and travel all the way around the world, coming back to same line of longitude, but your direction is only 1 degree different than the equator you will stop about 500 miles away from your starting point.

In 1979 a sightseeing jet carrying tourists from New Zealand set out to fly over a certain part of Antarctica that would give the passengers a great view of ice sheets and frozen tundra. The night before they took off flight technicians loaded an upgraded navigation software that changed the flight direction by about one degree. Nobody told the pilots. Because the blinding white terrain all blended together they relied completely on instruments for the course. Unfortunately, the pilot’s figures did not match the new software in the instruments and they were actually 28 miles away from where they thought they were. The plain collided with Mount Erebus and all 157 people on the plain died.

We all get off course here and there. But when we continue in a direction that’s a little off course without making corrections we end up very far off course and that can be very dangerous. The fatal point in Solomon’s story is when he decided, “I’m going to serve God whole heartedly in every area…except with my wives.” God had said in Moses’ law not to intermarry with women from other nations. This was not an issue of racial discrimination. The law also prescribed how to graft a non-Jew into Israel, at which point that person could marry any Jew (ie Rahab). The issue was blending religions. Solomon’s fatal flaw was when he ignored God’s direction in this area and said, “I’ll serve God, except…” Think about your life and your faith as it is right now. Are there things in your life that you are allowing because you think they aren’t a big enough deal to warrant fixing? If you honestly search your heart would you say, “I’m willing to serve God in everything, except                                      ?”

The Story Week 11

Sorry, I got sidetracked and didn't post there for a few weeks. Let's get back on track. I want to tackle this chapter by dividing it up by characters. I want to focus our attention on the 3 main characters in this chapter because all of us are, in some ways, similar to these characters. Let’s work backwards from bad to better.  

Saul
Saul started out as an alright guy. However, somewhere along the way he became full of himself, greedy, cruel and disregarded the things God. God had picked him as the first monarch of the chosen nation, and that went to his head. God’s blessing can actually turn into a burden and problem if we don’t handle it correctly. A talent can become a stumbling block. A relationship can cause stress and sin instead of comfort and godliness, etc.

Saul’s issues before David comes on the scene are obviously centered around his own poor decision making. The worst decision being that he thought he could approach God on his own terms by offering a sacrifice Samuel was to make. When he does that the Bible says “the Spirit of the Lord left Saul.” From then on it pops up throughout the story that Saul is tormented by a spirit from the Lord. “The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully on Saul.” What does this mean? How can this be the case when the Bible teaches that God is completely just and does not do anything that could be considered wrong? Gen 18:25, Deut 32:4.

We need to understand several things about ancient Hebrew thinking, literature and definitions. First, ancient Hebrew writers commonly employed a literary tool called a “metonymy of subject” in which someone who passively allows something to happen is said to actually have done it. So it is possible that saying this evil spirit was from the Lord could actually mean the Lord didn’t stop something that was trying to happen. Next we need to understand the words. Evil (ra or ra-ah) can mean evil in the spiritual sense. However, this word also often meant anything negative in any way. It is elsewhere translated as angry, unhappy, bad, sad, and tormenting. Spirit (ruach) is also a very broad term that can mean spirit, soul, breadth, wind, mind, attitude, or disposition. So, to say an evil spirit came from the Lord can mean anything from God sent a demon to torment Saul, to God stepped back and allowed Saul’s disposition to become aggravated. Which one makes more sense in light of God’s character?

Do you want to know my theory on what’s going on here?
-Saul rashly made his soldiers take ridiculous oaths.
-He was ready to kill his son because he ate honey. Had the crowd not intervened he would have.
-He was paranoid that David was trying to kill him, or at least trying to take his kingdom.
-He was prone to outbursts of anger and violence (chucking spears at David).
-Saul was bothered that girls sang songs that David killed more people (self important).
 -Saul was often troubled and music calmed him greatly.
-Saul committed suicide on the battlefield.

Symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia from the Mayo Clinic
• Auditory hallucinations, such as hearing voices
• Delusions, such as believing a co-worker wants to poison you
• Anxiety
• Anger
• Emotional distance
• Violence
• Argumentativeness
• Self-important or condescending manner
• Suicidal thoughts and behavior
A 2006 study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry concluded that music was nearly always soothing during a schizophrenic episode and patients engaged in music therapy had a measurable decrease in symptoms. David played music for Saul and it soothed him. I think Saul was schizophrenic and God kept it at bay because he had chosen Saul as king. I think after Saul disobeyed God so many times and God removed his anointing from Saul it allowed the mental illness to run its course.

 Now, just because you aren’t schizophrenic that doesn’t mean there is nothing to learn from Saul. AND, I’m not saying that if you struggle with a sin God will strike you with schizophrenia. There are some things we see in Saul that could pop up in us without being diagnosed with a mental illness. Jealousy is probably the biggest.  

Jonathan
Saul’s son and assumed heir to the throne sees this kid David kill Goliath and is so full of respect and admiration that they become best friends. The thing about Jonathan that I want to focus on is his humble recognition of David’s greatness and his loyalty to the future king. Think about that, Jonathan is actually the next in line to be king when he meets David. However, one of the first things he does is give David his royal robe. That was not just sign of friendship. That was a recognition of authority. The royal robe was to be worn only by royalty.

The story of David and Jonathan is one of the most famous stories, not just in the Bible but also in all of antiquity, of devoted brotherly friendship. How can we develop this level of friendship with the people around us? Well, we aren’t going to be at that level with every person we know. We just aren’t. There are people you naturally closer to than others. But we can develop every friendship we have to be a little better than it is now. The key to their friendship is that Jonathan valued David above himself and vice versa. They were both had a claim to the throne (one by blood and the other by prophecy) but there is not a hint of bitterness, resentment, jealousy, competition or striving for power between them. The only dynamic that is clearly present is an ongoing concern for the other person’s well being. If you want to have this kind of friendship you have to be this kind of friend. You have to put competitiveness and jealousy aside and genuinely want good fortune for the other person.

 Also, and kind of related to that last idea, you have to see greatness in others. If all of my relationships function to make me feel good and confirm to me how great I am, I’ll never have the kind of friendships David and Jonathan had. Lastly, you have to stay committed to friendships when it gets difficult. Think of how much easier it would have been for Jonathan to bail out of this friendship.

 David
Of course, the main character in this part of the story is David. The great thing about David’s story is that it shows the great disparity between how people assess things and how God assesses things. Nobody around David saw anything great in David. His brothers belittle him and yell at him for leaving the sheep long enough to check on his brothers, but God said he cared for the sheep selflessly and faithfully. Goliath calls him a twig, but God calls him the Branch of Jesse, from whom a root would grow that would be the Messiah. Even his own father didn’t bother calling for him when Samuel said, “one of your sons will be king”, but God said “that’s the next king.”
What did God see in David that impressed him so much?
 1. He was faithful when nobody was looking. When he is convincing Saul to let him fight Goliath he recounts how he fought off ferocious beasts to save his sheep. When David was about 16 he was wandering the wilderness for days at a time, figuring out where water and vegetation were and fighting off bears and lions with a stick! Acting with courage and integrity when nobody is around to pat you on the back is the foundation of greatness.
2. He was a faithful friend to Jonathan. I’ve already talked about Jonathan’s side of this, but the friendship was mutual.
3. He respected authority. In the Marine Corps you can always tell which Marines will be the worst Sergeants because they are the Lance Corporals and Corporals who are constantly trash talking and pushing limits with Sergeants. Those who made the best NCO’s were the most respectful when they had no rank. In order to be a respected authority you must respect authority.
4. He was a man after God’s heart. What does that mean? It means what David wanted most in life was whatever God wanted. He didn’t try to bend God to his will but tried to bend himself to God’s will. So in David, God saw a loyal, humble and courageous person who wanted to please God at all costs and respected his leader even though his leader really sucked. (Obviously, this is way before the whole Bathsheba debacle, but at this point David’s integrity and loyal heart are what got God’s attention).

 So, which of these people do you associate with most? It’s probably some sort of mix. The reality is all of us have some very messed up stuff that we need to learn how to keep in check. Like Saul, we must learn to let God lead our lives or we can lose what God has given us. Like David we all have the potential to do amazing things way beyond what we think we are capable of. Like Jonathan we can all be that kind of friend who is loyal, sees the best in others, and is instrumental in getting others to the place God wants them.