Sermons

Solomon says that whoever loves silver will never be satisfied with silver. He had known every kind of wealth and power, and he speaks these words because he had learned at first hand that greed is a mire from which, once a person has fallen in, there is no climbing out.

The story of two brothers who found a lump of gold shows this. Once they had divided the gold between them, each found himself hating the other, and they threw the gold into the river. The trouble lay not in the gold but in the human heart that changes in its presence, and that greed is, in the end, something Satan plants there.

People come into the world naked and leave it naked, taking with them nothing of all they have toiled for. Whatever wealth is gained, then, must not be clutched but shared, scattered abroad and given to relieve the needy. Life’s heavy burdens, too, must be laid on Christ rather than shouldered alone, for only then is true peace to be found.

When Solomon came to the throne, Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to congratulate him. In return Solomon asked him to send cedar and craftsmen for the building of the temple, and Hiram, greatly pleased, praised God and gave his help gladly.

David had shed much blood in war, and so building the temple was not his calling. That calling passed to Solomon, to whom God had granted peace throughout the land, and he made it plain to Hiram that this temple was both his father’s wish and the fulfillment of the covenant made with God. The riches, the workers, the friendship of a foreign king: all of it God had prepared beforehand.

Weigh up the credit for building the temple, and Solomon himself did not do a great deal. Even so, as a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, he took up that precious charge. We too have no merit to claim, yet God has called us his children and entrusted us with the task of living through the last days carrying the lamp of truth.

Those who go into the temple are told to guard their steps and not to speak rashly. To listen to the word is better than to offer many sacrifices, and whoever has made a vow should not be slow to pay it.

God is in heaven, and man is on earth. Words spoken in haste and vows left unkept are sin in themselves. What set Abel’s offering apart from Cain’s was not the gift that was brought but the life each had lived from day to day.

There is no cause for surprise at those who oppress the poor and trample on justice, for one higher than they is watching over them. May God’s people be those whose words and deeds agree, keeping the vows they have made.

At the end of his life, Solomon comes to realize that there is not a single person with whom he can share what is truly in his heart. He had power and wealth, yet he spent his wisdom on establishing himself and left his people in hardship, and after his death the kingdom was torn in two. David, by contrast, lived much of his life on the run, yet he still strove to keep himself from sin before God and gave himself up to protect his people.

What is amassed in this world crumbles like a sandcastle, but faith built up in walking with God, like a cord of three strands, does not break. With a faithful brother in the faith at one’s side, two can hold each other up and stand unshaken even when Satan tempts them. Whether it is wealth or position, the one who has gathered it for himself alone is left with no such brother.

Neither the king who enlarged his lands nor the king renowned for wisdom is remembered once a generation has passed. What is not forgotten is not achievement but only faith given in devotion to Christ. To build up those nearby in humility and love, forming bonds of faith like a cord of three strands, is the way an empty life becomes a life of true worth.

Solomon is the only king in Israel’s history to have ruled over all Israel from the beginning of his reign to its end. He appointed twelve district governors and charged them with providing for the royal household. The people grew as numerous as the sand by the sea, the land stretched as far as the Euphrates, and the people enjoyed peace under their vines and fig trees.

This abundance was not the reward of Solomon’s own brilliance. It came because God fulfilled, just as he had spoken, the covenant he made with David and the promise he gave at Gibeon. Yet even Solomon, for all his wisdom, stirred up resentment among the other tribes, Ephraim above all, through a policy that spared the tribe of Judah alone from taxation, and by multiplying horses and chariots he broke the command God had given concerning Israel’s kings. Even the wisdom and breadth of heart that God bestows become an opening for corruption when they are not used according to his will.

The cracks of Solomon’s reign became the seed of the kingdom’s later division. Had he gone on trusting God alone with the faith he first had, walking in humble obedience, the outcome would have been different. God looks for those who lean not on the strength of the world but on him alone, and still today he works in those who take one humble step of obedience.

Though God took from Job his wealth, his children and his health, Job did not let go of his faith. Doeg, by putting to death eighty-five priests and the people of the town of Nob, took his stand on the side of the world. Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, rejected the people’s plea to lighten their heavy yoke, and so tore the kingdom in two.

Comfort offered in words alone is no comfort at all. Those who will not share what they have find no one to comfort them, and after death they come under God’s judgment. But those who, like Job and Paul, have given themselves to the gospel have the Holy Spirit with them, comforting them at every moment.

The Holy Spirit is a protector stronger than any power in this world, and he gives a true comfort that not even parents can give. Solomon, for all the wealth and power in his grasp, looked back with regret on a life spent with an anxious heart; yet those who go through life with wealth in one hand and faith in the other leave Satan no foothold at all. Only a life of faith lived today will leave no regret at its end.

In the agony of nails driven through his hands and feet, Jesus said, “It is finished.” Three days later he rose from the dead and appeared first of all to Mary Magdalene.

The disciples saw the empty tomb, yet went quietly home without any great rejoicing. Mary, by contrast, took Jesus for an ordinary man, yet she would not leave the place, and in the end she met the risen Lord face to face. God looked not at the measure of her faith but at the sincerity with which she held on to the end.

The resurrection shows that there is an eternal life that death does not bring to an end. The disciples had locked the doors for fear of the Jews, and only after they had seen the risen Lord for themselves did they cast off their fear and come forward as his witnesses. Those who believe in that resurrection are not afraid of the world and can proclaim the gospel boldly.

Solomon offers a thousand burnt offerings at the high place in Gibeon. That night God appears to him in a dream and tells him to ask for whatever he wishes. Solomon asks neither for long life nor for wealth and honor, but for a listening heart that can discern between good and evil.

In the original language, this listening heart is a heart that hears the word of God and obeys it just as it is spoken. Later, when two women quarrel over one baby, Solomon orders the child divided in two. That ruling brings to light the heart of the true mother, who wants only to keep her child alive, and the baby is spared. The people who heard of the ruling stood in awe of the king and gave glory to God.

Asking for wisdom does not mean that wise decisions come of themselves. Wisdom shows itself when what was asked for is lived out according to the Word. When the church and God’s people hold fast to the Word and live by it, a life-giving authority is restored in the very place where they stand.

At death a person is cut off from the world entirely. There is no coming back to finish what was left undone, and nothing more that can be done for one’s family. Beast and human alike draw breath and return to the dust, but they differ in this: the spirit of a person goes up to God, while the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth.

If someone who bears a holy spirit lives like a beast, that sin will be judged when they meet God. Hezekiah was given fifteen more years after a mortal illness, and the son born to him in that time was Manasseh, who set up idols in the temple and committed the evil of making his children pass through the fire. In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, too, the rich man who had lived in luxury on earth begged in hell for a single drop of water, while Lazarus, who had gone hungry, forgot every earthly sorrow in Abraham’s bosom.

Since no one knows what tomorrow will bring, all a person can do is live today in goodness and honesty. No one should wound those close to them for the sake of their own feelings and pride; while there is still life, they must love, forgive and share. Whoever fills today with faith in this way has no fear of death, and even on this earth tastes beforehand the peace of heaven.

There is a time for everything. For people, each day brings something new, but God has governed that recurring course from the very beginning. Solomon envied those who had lived with joy of heart in God, for all that they lacked, more than those who had enjoyed riches as he had.

A life that treated the world as nothing more than a place to eat and drink stands as far from a life that used the world to prepare for entering the Kingdom of God as heaven is from earth. That there is an appointed time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up, shows how much it matters that people live in step with the right time. Because that time is set not by people but by God, putting off the moment to share the gospel because it feels awkward or troublesome is pride as well.

In season and out of season, the seed must be sown with prayer for the salvation of souls. The wisdom to discern when to hold on and when to let go is not human wisdom; it is gained only by being born again in God. Those who use the passing years as fertilizer for bearing fruit become God’s faithful servants.

Saul and Solomon both wanted to hand everything down to their children. Saul tried to kill David, and Solomon, never sure of his son Rehoboam, had to watch the kingdom fall apart.

The harder one clutches at things, the emptier life becomes. Blessing is not measured by how much or how little a person owns; the blessed life is one at peace in God alone, even in poverty. For all the wealth and glory he enjoyed, Solomon came to envy the peace of the poor in spirit.

God’s gift is not wealth or success but the salvation received through faith. Because a person’s place after death is decided by the faith held now, life must be lived in readiness, with a heart willing to go whenever he calls.

Solomon killed his brother to secure the throne and came to possess wisdom, wealth and power in full. Once he realized how great that power was, he began to live for himself alone; even after building the temple and the palace his heart remained unsatisfied, and he went after women, wine and pleasure.

Because selfish people make themselves the center of life, they pay no heed to the hearts of others and so grow ever harder, and the more wealth and power they gain, the unhappier they become. The more they try to fill the heart with the things of this world, the emptier it grows, for sin becomes a habit until even the inner struggle first felt fades away and the thought of turning back no longer arises.

Only when he had grown old and lost his strength did Solomon kneel before God, realizing that though he had enjoyed every kind of riches and glory, the grace of God alone gives true happiness. No one should wait to stand at the edge of a cliff before seeing the danger, or to fall before knowing the pain; the moment sin is recognized, it must be turned from without delay, so that life may be lived without regret.