Troublesome Topic: Lessons from the Life of Solomon

1. Only God sees the heart, so do not be quick to judge others. Many have assumed that Solomon was evil from the beginning of his reign as king, but the Bible says he loved God and did what was right in the eyes of God except that he worshipped God in a place other than the tabernacle (I Kings 3:3).

2. Be careful about things you consider to be little things. Small compromises usually lead to bigger ones. Solomon thought that accepting foreign wives would not be a problem, but he turned out to be wrong.

3. Don’t focus on accumulating material wealth, it is hollow, and its pleasure is short-lived.

4. Don’t put anything in first place in your life except God. He alone deserves that place and if you put something else in the place that God deserves it is idolatry. He does not take that lightly. Solomon seems to have placed the Shulammite in that #1 place in his life and so God took her from him. God sometimes asks us, “Am I enough?” Our answer should always be “yes,” and we should be willing to prove it.

5. If/when someone close to you dies, be sure to go through the entire grieving process. Don’t cut the process short as Solomon did.

6. If you are angry at God for whatever reason, tell Him about it. He can handle it. In the psalms of David we see him expressing his emotional state to God, regardless of what that emotion was. There are times when David told God he was angry at Him. That is the right thing to do. God wants us to bring all those issues to Him rather than hiding them or trying to fix things on our own.

7. Grand accomplishments need to be shared with someone special and even then they end up being hollow and short lived in light of eternity. Dear reader, I encourage you to focus your energy on things that will last forever.

The next lesson is: Types of Problematic Proverbs