Last week we looked at one of the high points of the Kingdom of Israel – David's desire to build a temple for God. Yet how quickly things can change. David's son Solomon was given everything he ever wanted. Power, riches, honour, a prosperous kingdom, right down to a plan and materials with which to build the temple. God was with him and even gave him knowledge and understanding beyond that of other men. But note that he was given wisdom to rule his subjects, not make the right choices for himself. In this he did make mistakes. The words recorded in the Proverbs (Note: one of the two chapters NOT written by Solomon) says; 'give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.' Unfortunately Solomon definitely fell into the category of having riches. He did fall away from God because he thought he already had everything he needed.
Our own lives can be similar to Solomon's. If we don't have to rely on God sometimes we can overlook him and think we don't need anyone. It's not until things start to go wrong do we turn to God.
Solomon's reign seems to have been idyllic. Yet as read the Bible we can see the unrest that crept in. At first there was just the conscripted foreigners, who build the temple and Solomon's palace. Later it seems he treated many of his subjects harshly. When he died, his son, Rehoboam became king. 1 Kings 12 records the unrest. Jeroboam was made spokesman to voice the dissatisfaction. We'll skip questions this week so you can read the chapter instead.
This is what happens when people turn away from God and trust in themselves or in riches. Simply, they didn't put God first.
The opposite situation occurred when Rehoboam was made king. He didn't trust God either. Jeroboam was told that he would be king of ten tribes. Instead of accepting this, he tried to dissuade people from visiting the temple in Jerusalem. He thought it would weaken his position if, each year, his subjects went down to Judah. So instead he did what he thought was best, not what God knew was best. He erected an alter so that people wouldn't go down to Jerusalem. Unlike others after him, or even Solomon himself, the alter wasn't to some foreign idol, but it was not what God wanted and had specifically told the Children of Israel this should not be done. As a result he was told the kingdom would also be taken from him.
So how does this apply to us? We too have been offered a kingdom. The choice is up to us, whether we follow God and enter the kingdom, or try to do our own thing and risk being excluded. We have to follow what God wants, not what we think is best. We also have to be careful not to let worldly things get between us and God.