10.2.11--Our Slow Fade (1 Kings--A Sermon on the Story of Solomon)

Friends, today I am going to share with you a Cajun secret. My dad’s side of the family has some Louisiana its blood, so I can claim to be at least in part a Cajun. And with this hallowed ancestry comes certain culinary characteristics. One is a craving for extremely hot food. When we have guests over to our house and we cook spicy food, I have to cook one batch for Jess and I and another batch for our guests because they aren’t used to the fiery onslaught their mouth is about to endure. Another is that secret recipes are passed down from father to daughter, mother to son, generation to generation. It might be the use of a specific spice, or a unique way to prepare a certain dish. It is one of these secrets that I am going to share with you today.

And it’s about frogs.

Now, every self-respecting Louisianite knows that if you put a live frog in a pot of boiling water, it will hop right back out and be a very unhappy amphibian. What some do not know, though, is that if you put a frog in room temperature water and then place it on a burner or over a fire, the frog will happily swim around while it is being boiled to death. So, if you are going to cook your frogs while they are still alive, make sure you bring the water to a boil while the frogs are in the pot. 

This way, your frog will… literally… croak.

Because of their skin and how their bodies regulate temperature, they cannot tell that the water is getting hotter and hotter. Soon, it is too late, and they are unable to get out. Their fate is sealed.

In our chapter this week from The Story, we read of the same thing happening to someone who would seemingly be the wisest of all the frogs. King Solomon, David’s son and heir to his throne, reined during one of the largest times of peace in Israel’s history. And in the beginning, he does absolutely everything right. Listen to the exchange between Solomon and God found in 1 Kings 3:

The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.  At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

“Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”

The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both riches and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. And if you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.”

Solomon was humble enough to ask for what he needed most, not what he wanted most. In wisdom, he asked for wisdom so that he would be equipped to complete the task to which God had called him. He knew that he was ill prepared for the grand task of leading the people of God, and he knew that only God could give him what he needed to see that task through.

In a way, he follows the advice that Jesus will give so many years later—he seeks first God’s kingdom and God’s will above and before his own gain. And in doing this, everything else he could have ever wanted or needed is added unto him. Solomon becomes the richest, most powerful, and most influential king in all of Israelite history, and it was all because he asked for wisdom—for the means to do the work to which God called him—instead of asking for personal gain.

Would you have done the same? I’d like to think I would, but I don’t know…

His wisdom is seen played out in many ways throughout his life and throughout the account of Scripture. From discerning the mother of a baby in dispute to making lasting trade alliances with all of the neighboring countries to astounding foreign royalty, Solomon shows the world that he is the wisest man alive, and Israel flourishes because of it. Solomon’s treasury is the largest in the world, his stables are full of the fastest and best bred horses in the world, and, as was the custom back then, his household grew constantly, so that toward the end of his life he had 700 wives and 300 concubines.

Can you imagine the family dinners?

It seems like Israel is moving toward utopia. Everything is right, and Solomon is ruling justly and fairly under God. But this is not how the story ends. As our chapter shows, Solomon, the wisest man alive, allows himself slowly and steadily to be swayed by his foreign wives and concubines. He starts allowing the worship of other Gods, and then, much to God’s disappointment, starts worshipping them himself! He bowed down to Ashtoreth, Ba’al, even Molek, a god who’s worshippers practiced horrible and heinous acts in the name of their god. He turned from God.

The wisest man alive was not above the slow and steady temptation to please those around him. And because of this, because Solomon’s allegiance to God was torn in two, God promised to tear the Israelite people into two. Solomon found himself boiling in a pot of temptation and sin, with no idea how he got there.

Have you ever been there? Have you ever found yourself in over your head with no idea how you got there? In this world we live in, the slippery slope of sin is an easy one to fall subject to. I mean, if even the wisest man alive could not overcome it, what kind of chance do we have?

The truth is that we don’t have a chance. We cannot overcome the temptations, the evils, the sins of this world. But Christ can, and Christ does for us. When we find ourselves in over our heads, when it seems like we’ve passed the point of no return, that is when Christ comes and pulls us out of the pit.

In Romans 3:23, Paul says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Later, Paul states that our wages, that which we have earned in our work in this world, are death. It is only through Christ that we receive life. Only through Christ that we are saved. Only through Christ can we be lifted out of the boiling water.

In just a few minutes, we will share in the Lord’s Supper. This holy gift of communion is our chance to remember and participate in Christ’s saving work in our lives. In the breaking of the bread, in the drinking of the juice, we remember his broken body, his spilt blood. In the sharing of this meal, we remember that Christ took our place and paid the price for us that we might live, and live eternally.

To continue our metaphor from the beginning, Christ not only lifts us out of our pots of boiling water; He takes our place so that we will never have to experience that pain, that death.

So may we remember Solomon, the wisest man alive. May we remember that even he succumbed to the temptation of sin, and that if even he can fall to it, we will as well. But may we remember all the more that Christ has saved us from ourselves and given us life where we have only deserved death. May we celebrate this fact, and may we share it with the world. Amen.