A David to Solomon Era
2022 could have been your best year yet. Did you graduate? Buy a home? Get engaged or married? Land your dream job? Meet a health goal? Maybe this year is a year you can’t imagine topping. I want to tell you, even if you reigned in a kingdom as great as King David’s, there is always room for growth in what is yet to come.
In I Kings 2, although Solomon inherited essentially one of the first and most blessed kingdoms in all of history and not after any king, but a loved and respected one ‘after God’s own heart’¹, you’d imagine he could’ve cruise controlled his way through kingship. But immediately after David appointed his son king, Solomon got to work. He exiled Abiathar the priest, struck down Joab, and executed Shimei all in the first few verses describing him in his new role. This may seem harsh and cruel and also just pointless — if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, right?
Wrong. King Solomon heeded the advice his father told him when he was appointed king:
“I go the way of all the earth; be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man. And keep the charge of the Lord your God: to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn; that the Lord may fulfill His word…” 1 Kings 2:2–4
And how can this be done? By asking for the wisdom to better your kingdom:
“Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” 1 Kings 3:7–9
Solomon could have ignored these men and allowed them to remain in his kingdom and focussed on other parts, but he put in work to better his kingdom to please God. Why would King Solomon do this but to obey God’s command:
“For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” 2 Timothy 3:2–5
For you it may not be a person you need to cut out of your new year but a bad habit like vaping, cursing, or slothfulness. Maybe it’s a relationship you know is bringing you down, or a circumstance that is simply hindering you from “walking in His ways, keeping His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies.”
I encourage you to look into your heart and examine 2022. How can you elevate your kingdom and grow closer to the Lord your God in this new year?
Walk in Wisdom
See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God. Ephesians 5:15–21
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[1]: Acts 13:22
