Down to Business

1 Kings 2:45 ESV

But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the LORD forever.

King Solomon the simple name brings visions of opulence and wealth. Gold walls and an ivory throne with Gold inlay. The opulence and grandeur of Solomon and his court is one of mythic proportions. He begins his kingdom by ridding it of his father’s past failures. This is the last of the checklist that David had given him to fulfill. Shimei had cursed the LORD’s anointed and deserved to die, he had been given reprieve but had failed to keep his parole and forfeited his life. Notice however what Solomon points to, he points to the establishing of David’s throne forever!

This he does after completing the list he received from David. Joab was to be killed for his murder of the commanders of the army, and Shimei was to also be punished for his cursing of David on the day he was run out of Jerusalem. Solomon looks and sees that he had done all David had asked of him and thought the promise was his! The charge of David and the promise of God was much more than a simple check list thought! David’s charge comes earlier in the chapter. In verses two through nine is the entirety of the charge but Solomon disregards the first three verses and focuses on the “real” part of the list. You know the part that involves less touchy feely and more “real” work.

He takes the pragmatic approach and focuses all of his efforts on the securing of his kingdom in man centered realities and foolishly ignores the true reality of his kingdom. It was not to be established by the works of man’s hands, or alliances with foreign nations (1 Kings 3:1) it was to be established and made firm by obedience and devotion to God. Later he continues his pragmatic approach to establishing God’s Kingdom through alliances with more foreign nations, selling portions of the promised land (he needed craftsman and wood for the temple), he becomes an arms dealer to finance his kingdom, after all you need money to do God’s work don’t you?!

It is easy to look back with the 20/20 vision afforded to us and criticize past generations, but our churches are full of this reasoning. As bigger and better are needed to draw large crowds, churches fall further into the hole of pragmatic church growth, thinking that preaching, proclaiming, and sharing, God’s word won’t be enough. Billboard space needs purchased, radio advertisements, mass mailings (regular mail), church preschools… all these things are not evil, but when you are pursuing God’s kingdom with the means of this world rather than the means he has given for the purpose you are building a house of straw. Solomon’s Kingdom crumbled immediately after he left the throne, and the only reason it took that long was David’s faithfulness had sustained it for a generation past himself.

For all the Facebook shares of a beautiful picture with a scripture quote do to make me feel better. Know that God has ordained a means for the Kingdom to grow. It is your mouth. He has commanded his people to speak the truth of the Gospel (Man’s Condemnation and God’s righteous gift) and to go to the ends of the earth to share it! Will you trust God that faithfully following him, in study, prayer, worship, and sharing, is enough to Grow his kingdom?

CORAM DEO