Solomon Loved the Lord
“And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statues of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.” (1 Kings 3:3)
Solomon was one of David’s sons. He became Israel’s king when David died. As our passage says, “…Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statues of David his father:” Two verses later, we see God made an amazing offer to Solomon: “In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.” (1 Kings 3:5)
God literally offered Solomon anything he wanted! Here, in part, is Solomon’s answer:
“And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.
And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.
Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart, to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?” (1 Kings 3:7-9)
First, let’s look at Solomon himself. The Bible says, “And Solomon loved the LORD,” Solomon didn’t just fear the Lord, but he loved the Lord. If you know Jesus as your own personal Saviour, you have good reason to love the Lord. “We love him, because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)
We didn’t love God first. He loved us first. John 3:16, one of the most well-known verses in the Bible, says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” When you love, you give. God loved us and gave His Son Jesus, God the Son, to die for our sins on the cross and rose again.
Please ponder this thought for a minute. Every sin you would ever commit in your entire life was all taken on Jesus’ cross: “Who [Jesus] his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,” (1 Peter 2:24) Jesus did this out of love for us. We cannot comprehend with our intellect how God could take sins that weren’t even committed and put them on Jesus as He hung on the cross. Yet we can trust God’s Word that it’s true.
How can we trust something we don’t completely understand? We do it all the time. Most of us do not understand the electronic complexities of cell phones, but we know they work, right? So it is with God’s Word. We can’t completely understand it, but we can rejoice that it’s true.
We’ll look more at Solomon at another time. Meanwhile, If you know Jesus as your personal Saviour, take time often to thank Him for dying for you, rising again, and giving you eternal life. If you aren’t sure you’ll be in heaven when you die but you want to see from the Bible how you can be, please go to www.clevelandbaptist.org, click “Helpful Links”, then “How Do I Go to Heaven?”
Brian Miller 10/6/2021
Cleveland Baptist Church 4431 Tiedeman Road, Brooklyn, Ohio 44144 216/671-2822