What Does God Want?

Solomon had been greatly blessed by God with wisdom, wealth, fame, and peace. Now half way through his 40 year reign, the building of the Temple and his palaces were completed, God appears to Solomon a second time and gave this message to him.

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, I 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.’ (1 Kings 9:4-5, NIV).

These blessings of wisdom, fortune, and success were not rewards for Solomon’s good behavior. They were given before he had done anything. They were gifts of grace. In 1 Chronicles 22:14 we find that David had left Solomon a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, quantities of bronze and iron too great to be weighed, and wood and stone for the purpose of building the temple. A talent was about 75lbs. That translates into 7.5 million pounds of gold with a current market value of $131 billion, and 75 million pounds of silver worth $16 billion. That doesn’t include the cost of the bronze, iron, wood, or stone!

In giving Solomon wisdom and in providing him with both wealth within and peace without, God made it possible for him to be able to build the Temple and his palaces. God had been good to His word.

Now, seeing that God was gracious, loving, and trustworthy, God reminds Solomon that he is expected to reflect that faithfulness and integrity back to God by walking before God in faithfulness, integrity of heart, and uprightness, and do all He is commanded and follow His decrees and laws. We know from Jesus that the Law was summed up in the great commandment: Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV), ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ God was saying: “Love me. Love my people. Lead them in love. Teach them to love me and my people. Do that and I will establish you and your family forever.”

We have been given a full pardon in Christ. There is no condemnation for he or she who is in Christ. That grace covers everything—no exceptions, exemptions, or exclusions. Every sin the Christian commits, no matter how heinous it is, is matched by grace. But God makes it clear that grace is given not so we can be free to sin, but so that we can be learning to walk before God faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness without fear of being condemned when we fail. We don’t need to worry about whether grace will be there when we fall, it will be. Since that is the case, let us repent and confess our sins when we fall down, get back up and continue walking with Jesus and learning to live in His grace and truth. As Charlie Jones loved to say, “You can run the race with joy because the race is fixed!”