“I sought the Lord, and He heard, and He answered…and that’s why I trust Him!”

This is a line for a current song of praise that assures us God indeed hears our prayers in ways that are best for us and gives Him glory.  But with each prayer we pray, we must believe that God will do what is best for us as He works to perfect His will in and through us. Our part is to obey what He says when He says it!  “Trust and obey for there’s no others way…,” a hymn of my youth sends its meaning and melody through my mind.

Jesus not only taught us how to pray to God, our Father in Heaven but He also demonstrated how prayer works in our lives. 

First, seek God each day. Ask God what He wants to do in us and through us.  Ask for His help in all we think, say, and do with a resolve to trust and obey what He says.  God answers all our prayers with “daily manna” portions that will challenge us to lean into His wisdom, insight, and understanding as we do His will.  In the process, we begin to know God with more knowledge of what He desires for us.  God’s Holy Spirit who lives in us to guide us to Truth does His work of producing God’s character within us. These holy traits will appear and be reflected in  behaviors more and more each day we trust and obey.  Paul lists these traits as “fruits of the Holy Spirit as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

But it all begins with sincere, humbled hearts fully committed to God who is ready to hear God and do what He says—all because we trust and obey.

God appeared to Solomon and promised blessing in exchange for obedience.

1 Kings 9

The Lord Appears to Solomon

When Solomon had finished building the temple of the Lord and the royal palace, and had achieved all he had desired to do, ² the Lord appeared to him a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. ³ The Lord said to him:

“I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

⁴ “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, ⁵I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’

⁶ “But if you or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, ⁷ then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. ⁸ This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ ⁹ People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the Lord their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why the Lord brought all this disaster on them.’”

Solomon’s Other Activities

¹⁰ At the end of twenty years, during which Solomon built these two buildings—the temple of the Lord and the royal palace— ¹¹ King Solomon gave twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram king of Tyre, because Hiram had supplied him with all the cedar and juniper and gold he wanted. ¹² But when Hiram went from Tyre to see the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them. ¹³ “What kind of towns are these you have given me, my brother?” he asked. And he called them the Land of Kabul, a name they have to this day. ¹⁴ Now Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents of gold.

¹⁵ Here is the account of the forced labor King Solomon conscripted to build the Lord’s temple, his own palace, the terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo and Gezer. ¹⁶ (Pharaoh king of Egypt had attacked and captured Gezer. He had set it on fire. He killed its Canaanite inhabitants and then gave it as a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon’s wife. ¹⁷ And Solomon rebuilt Gezer.) He built up Lower Beth Horon, ¹⁸ Baalath, and Tadmor in the desert, within his land, ¹⁹ as well as all his store cities and the towns for his chariots and for his horses—whatever he desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon and throughout all the territory he ruled.

²⁰ There were still people left from the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites (these peoples were not Israelites). ²¹ Solomon conscripted the descendants of all these peoples remaining in the land—whom the Israelites could not exterminate—to serve as slave labor, as it is to this day. ²² But Solomon did not make slaves of any of the Israelites; they were his fighting men, his government officials, his officers, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and charioteers. ²³ They were also the chief officials in charge of Solomon’s projects—550 officials supervising those who did the work.

²⁴ After Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace Solomon had built for her, he constructed the terraces.

²⁵ Three times a year Solomon sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar he had built for the Lord, burning incense before the Lord along with them, and so fulfilled the temple obligations.

²⁶ King Solomon also built ships at Ezion Geber, which is near Elath in Edom, on the shore of the Red Sea. ²⁷ And Hiram sent his men—sailors who knew the sea—to serve in the fleet with Solomon’s men. ²⁸ They sailed to Ophir and brought back 420 talents of gold, which they delivered to King Solomon.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

No matter what is happening around us, to us, or in us; we must seek God, trust Him, and obey what He says.  (Romans 12:1-2 give us the process.)

Solomon prayed.  God answered.  God assured Solomon that He had heard the king’s prayer and would answer it. God’s eyes would be on the house Solomon had built and dedicated, and His ears would be alert to hear the prayers of His people, (See also 2 Chronicles 7).  Here is a portion that might be familiar to us;

“Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place.” 2 Chronicles 7:14-15

God spoke specifically to Solomon, reminding him of the covenant God had made with his father, David (2 Samuel 7). God then reaffirmed the terms of the covenant and assured Solomon that David would always have a king on the throne IF his descendants obeyed the Law and walked in the fear of Him. Fear is awe of all God was, is, and always will be—God of all who is in all He created!  Where God guides; He provides! 

“When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still
And with all who will trust and obey

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey

Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies
But His smile quickly drives it away
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear
Can abide while we trust and obey”

Solomon’s Downfall—Not trusting and obeying

Solomon’s father, David, had conquered enemy territory and added it to the kingdom, but he hadn’t attempted to build an international network that would make Israel powerful among the nations. David was a mighty general who feared no enemy, but Solomon was a shrewd diplomat and politician who missed no opportunity to increase his wealth and power.  A demonstration of Solomon’s real heart is demonstrated in his poor relationship and cunning manipulation of Hiram.  If it were not for Hiram; the palace and Temple would not have been built!

Solomon “had it all” as the world sees it; but was spiritually bankrupt because of his lack of obedience to God.  Solomon’s gift of wisdom from God turned sour when the king relied only on himself while seeking to satisfy self.  At the end of his life Solomon writes;

“The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:

Meaningless! Meaningless! says the Teacher.
Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.

What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?
Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.” Ecclesiastes 1:1-4

Are you seeking the real meaning to life? Then seek first the One who is Life Eternal! Believe what Jesus did for us. Repent and be forgiven of all sins. Trust and obey the One who wants the best for us—for there’s no other Way!

Lord,

Thank you for the lessons of Solomon.  We see and find ourselves in Your Story of King Solomon.  If only we would first pause, pray, and ask what You want with a heart committed to trust and obey what you say!  Cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, refresh our souls, and restore the joy of your salvation within us. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

In Jesus Name, Amen