Wisdom, Wealth, and the Danger of Drift
By Dean Collins
King Solomon was blessed by God with wisdom beyond anyone’s imagination. One way we receive wisdom comes from the school of hard knocks. The other way—referenced in yesterday’s devotional—is that we can ask God for wisdom, and he will answer our prayer. But Solomon’s wisdom was different than yours or mine in that it appears that God granted Solomon an abundance of wisdom all at once. But as we read about the rest of Solomon’s life, we notice that over time Solomon didn’t act on the wisdom that God provided.
In the last paragraph of 1 Kings 10, we see Solomon had begun to be enamored by himself. He was consistently getting feedback from other rulers and kings about how incredibly rich and wise he was compared to the other kings. We must remember that while Solomon was granted exceptional wisdom, he was still human and subject to the same temptations all of us have.
We note in verse 26 that the wise king started doing some gathering:
“And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.”
There is nothing wrong with a nice ride or a few horses, but I believe he likely wasn’t using his wisdom just to honor God. He might have gotten caught in impressing other rich and powerful people. He might have just ignored one of his father’s famous sayings found in Psalm 20: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” And later psalmists wrote a similar warning: “Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation” (Psalm 146). Once you get into the accumulation and gathering business, it is hard to break the cycle.
Paul warned about the love of money in saying “it is the root of all kinds of evil.” And evil comes in many forms. Solomon, unfortunately, took this gathering of money as a method of also gathering wives and concubines. 1 Kings 11 says that he loved many foreign women. And many is a few more than you might think!
Many of Solomon’s wives brought the worship of idols with them. Apparently, Solomon put the wisdom God had granted him on the shelf and failed to be obedient to God’s instructions forbidding idol worship. Both Ezra and Nehemiah, who lived after Solomon, understood the dangers of diluting one’s worship by marrying someone who worships idols and not Almighty God. Solomon’s temptation to collect riches, horses, and wives resulted in collecting practices of other religions.
Solomon’s disobedience reminds us that we must not only seek the wisdom of God daily, but we also need to have faithful Christians around us who keep us accountable so that we remain faithful to God and do not give in to pride or unchecked power. Jesus’ words to seek first the kingdom of God mean seeking him only as our source of wisdom and of life.
Father, we thank you for the gift of your son Jesus who gave his life to pay for our sins and to bring us into an eternal life with you. Today, we ask you for wisdom for this day and for a heart of obedience, that we may stay devoted to you first and only. We thank you that you did not ask us to live our lives of faith alone but rather with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We ask that you direct us to the people and the ways that we are to be accountable to each other in Christ so that we do not waiver in our obedience to you. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Your Time with God’s Word
1 Kings 10:23-29, 11:1-14; Psalm 20:7, 146:3; 1 Timothy 6:10 ESV
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