Solomon

How did Solomon go from wise one to womanizer?

Solomon, King David’s twelfth son, succeeded him.  In a dream, God offered to grant Solomon anything he asked.  He should have asked for more wishes…  Instead, he asked for wisdom.  God was pleased, and communicated that some bonuses were coming his way as a reward: riches, success, and fame.  He was known for all of these things according to what we have in the biblical record – the only historical document recounting anything of Solomon’s reign.

Solomon is credited with writing many of the wise saying in the Bible’s book of Proverbs.  There are some great truths in those lines, and some pretty funny stuff, too.  “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool returns to his folly.”  And some great zingers about marriage that I won’t repeat in order to safeguard peace at home…

Two things stick with me about Solomon.  First, his insight regarding what’s worth pursuing in life, and second, the irony of his foolish shortsightedness regarding what might happen if he lost track of his faith.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon laments the apparent lack of meaning in life.  Recall that Solomon had wealth, fame, power, plenty of pleasure, and a long, peaceful reign.  His incredibly ornate palace, which was as nice if not nicer than the over-the-top Temple he constructed (sparing no expense) would put him on the old show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.  Yet his advice, after thinking deeply about life and its many vain pursuits, was quite simple: eat, drink, and be merry.

His words troubled me for many years.  How shallow!  Is that all you’ve got to say, Oh Wise One?  That’s pathetic!  His advice seemed no different than what any self-serving Westerner might say.  Where’s the compassion for the downtrodden, or passionate pursuit of justice for the oppressed?  Where’s the let’s change the world kind of stuff like Jesus said?  His advice just seemed so superficial and light. 

After having lived now for a touch over 30 years, however, I agree with Solomon.

I used to be caught up in the epic battle put forth by Evangelical Christianity: we need to save souls from an eternity in hell.  Pretty compelling cause.  Lots of emotion.  Sounds biblical.  But that went away when I discovered that the depth of the salvation proclaimed by Jesus was much bigger than what Evangelicalism was peddling.  For a while, I wondered what this who faith thing is about, if not the epic struggle to get more signed up for Jesus.  But when I reflected more and more on what Solomon was getting at, the more I resonated with the depth of what he was saying.  Eat, drink, and be merry.  Hmmm.

What do you think?  Shallow?

The reason I began liking it more and more wasn’t because I was giving up.  Quite the contrary.  I find it incredibly compelling.  What Solomon is essentially saying about defining the meaning of life is this: enjoy it.  Make the most of it.  See what you can do with the years you have to really live life the way it was meant to be lived.

At first glance, this seems to give license to all manner of hedonism – live it up without a care for anyone else – the world revolves around you.  But that’s not true.  Riches really don’t bring happiness – that’s a factual statistic.  Power doesn’t, either.  Promiscuity may be a kick for a moment, but leaves a hole in its wake.  Being drunk or stoned might relieve some pain for a night, but there’s hell to pay in the morning.

The wisdom of Solomon here is found by going after a deeper question: what way of living really leads to life to the fullest, if not self-centered, hedonistic pursuits?

Looking back through the lens of Jesus, who said that following him would lead to abundant life, I got my answer, and I believe I have experienced it to some degree.  The way of Jesus is a way to life lived with God.  It is a way that is filled with deep meaning, great fulfillment, and considerable sacrifice.  The way of Jesus puts others before self, always yields to God, and is comfortable with taking a hit for the greater good.  It is about as opposite of hedonism as a way could be.  It is a completely different approach to seeking life at its best, and it works. 

That’s where Solomon’s wisdom ran short.  He was so infatuated with so many other pursuits, and so many other women, that he lost touch with the woman he raved about in his writings.  Wisdom itself was a woman to be courted, to be romanced, to be honored.  It turns out that Jesus was thinking the same thing, because the Holy Spirit that he said would guide and direct his followers was the help-mete found in the Old Testament, the same gender as Eve.  Wisdom, and the Holy Spirit herself, is a feminine presence to behold and to obey.

What kept Solomon from staying faithful to his first love?  Probably the same thing that keeps us from faithfulness, too.  We get distracted.  Blindsided.  Or maybe sometimes just apathy.  It makes sense that if we want to have a good life; we need to put ourselves first, so we do.  We listen to our instincts, to voices that affirm our egocentrism, our inalienable rights, voices that drown out calls for sacrifice.  We don’t notice it at first, but over time God’s voice seems whisper quiet.  Not because we have emulated Elijah in our quest for God’s presence, but because we have removed ourselves from the presence of God, and can scarcely recognize God’s voice anymore. 

Solomon died a wealthy man in a glorious palace.  But his lasting legacy was that his foolishness destroyed the foundation of the nation he led.  You and I don’t led nations, but we will leave a legacy.  We may die in good shape, but is that really enough?  Will those who follow us be inspired to listen more closely for God’s voice to speak?  Will those who witness us be compelled to believe that Jesus’ way works because they have seen its truth work in us?

May you eat, drink, and be merry!  May you seek the fullness of life from the giver of life!  May you seek the Holy Spirit as a the treasure she is, and find yourself enamored with her beauty, and compelled to do all you can to court her, the Breath of Life, and find yourself alive again.

David

We are uniquely made to live abundantly.  The question is, are we being ourselves, living the way we were are made to live in our pursuit of life?  Or are we trying to be someone else, playing according to how others have defined the game of life?

The story of David and Goliath is known universally (in the Western world, at least) as one of the most legendary underdog victory stories.  The story is applied to battles, politics, sports, medicine: any instance when incredible odds are overcome, the David and Goliath reference is applied.  Hearing the story inspires us to become more brave.  After all, wasn’t David’s victory secured because of his faith-based bravery?  Wasn’t it God who really won the battle for David, since the likelihood of victory was so remote?

Yes and yes.  And…  No and no.

Some say that this account is mostly legend – a tall tale that is more interested in promoting David than historical fact.  A pretty interesting case can be made for its historical merit, however.  The scene (1 Samuel 17) depicts two militaries in a stand off, each camped out above opposite sides of a valley.   As a means of limiting collateral damage, Israel’s foe offered an alternative: one warrior from each side fights to the death.  Winner takes all.  So, Goliath – an enormous man – was presented as the champion to beat from the Philistines. He stood in the valley, taunting the Israelites to engage, using all the tricks in the book: double dog daring, calling Israelites emasculating names, and even insulting Israel’s God.  Israel’s response?  Fearful silence.  Nobody wanted to engage Goliath in hand to hand combat – it was suicide.  That’s what everybody assumed.

Malcom Gladwell notes in his recent book, David and Goliath: “What many medical experts now believe, in fact, is that Goliath had a serious medical condition.  He looks and sounds like someone suffering from what is called acromegaly – a disease caused by a benign tumor of the pituitary gland.  The tumor causes an overproduction of human growth hormone, which would explain Goliath’s extraordinary size.  (The tallest person in history, Robert Wadlow, suffered from acromegaly.  At his death, he was eight foot eleven inches, and apparently still growing.  And furthermore, one of the common side effects of acromegaly is vision problems.”  Goliath’s size certainly fits, but so do other details in the story.  He had an attendant carrying a shield.  He referred to David as “sticks” and not “stick”.  Both of these details may suggest that Goliath had a vision problem.  He was known for hand-to-hand combat, but he couldn’t see the broad side of a barn.

What made David think that he could handle Goliath?  It may have had something to do with David’s size, which was probably average at best.  David had courage, for sure.  But what won the battle for him was perspective.  David knew he didn’t have a chance beating Goliath in a cage fight, which he probably never considered as an option in the first place.  David, unlike Israel’s king and the whole of the military, knew that the way he would experience victory was not by trying to be Goliath, but rather in being fully David.  Goliath drew up terms that favored his strengths.  David played the game according to his strengths: an air assault.  He shed Saul’s suit of armor, gathered stones, grabbed his sling, and ran toward Goliath.  He knew he was a good shot, and Goliath’s head was a nice big target.  Goliath’s strength was no match for a marksman.  David, like many young men of his day, knew who to use a sling.  They could take out birds in flight, kill predatory animals at a distance, and likely competed with each other like people do today with their guns.

Gladwell sought insight from Eitan Hirsch, a ballistics expert with the Israeli Defense Forces, who recently did a series of calculations showing that a typical-size stone hurled by an expert slinger at a distance of thirty-five meters would have hit Goliath’s head with a velocity of thirty-four meters per second – more than enough to penetrate his skull and render him unconscious or dead.  In terms of stopping power, that is equivalent to a fair-size modern handgun.  “We find,” Hirsch writes, “that David could have slung and hit Goliath in little more than one second – a time so brief that Goliath would not have been able to protect himself and during which he would be stationary for all practical purposes.”

David was brave, for sure.  But the reason he won the battle that day was because he lived up to who he was instead of trying to be someone he wasn’t.  He capitalized on his strengths instead of being forced to play to the strengths of his competition.  Strategy born from knowing who he was and what he could do won the battle that day.

Goliaths abound in our world.  Individuals, communities, political parties, marketing machines, schools, churches, teams, etc., all demanding to be dealt with according to a certain set of requirements and expectations.  Many of these expectations favor a select few for success, and the rest to varying levels of failure.  In order to be of value, you have to look the part, act the part, abide by the rules of engagement, etc.  If you lose, you’re a loser.  But David didn’t approach Goliath like that.  Jesus didn’t live that way, either, and called for his followers to abandon such destructive, faithless pursuits.

Jesus’ day was filled with Goliaths, just like ours.  The Roman oppressors demanded compliance with their laws.  The religious leaders within Judaism feared losing favor and power with Rome, and protected their position by demanding unrealistic allegiance to their interpretation of Jewish law.  This generally resulted in common people feeling like losers.  They just couldn’t win.  And since these were representatives of God giving direction, they assumed that God thought they were losers, too.

Jesus turned all of that on it’s head, however.  Constantly.  Repeatedly.  He affirmed people for being people, and encouraged taking an entirely different approach to life that was rooted in the confidence that God viewed them as inherently good and worthy.  He encouraged people not to play by the rules of this world that hinder life at its best.  So he told people to forgive others, to turn the other cheek, to be generous, to not be judging, to serve instead of seeking to be served, to sacrifice for the good of others instead of selfishly hoarding.  Jesus’ presence, teaching, prayers, ministry – everything about him – was love communicating value to those who would hear it.  Not performance-based value, or worth determined by anything less than God’s word at creation: you are very good.

Stuff to think about…

1. What measures of success have been held before you throughout your life?  How have they impacted you?
2. When have you discovered that you were fighting a Goliath on Goliath’s terms?  How did you respond?
3. How do you balance the tension of living in the midst of all of culture’s pressures and living in the way of Jesus?  What keeps you focused?
4. Are there any areas of your life right now that need to be recalibrated toward Jesus’ way of thinking and being?  What might that look like?
5. In light of this, what do you wish you could tell your younger self, assuming you could use a time machine to do such a thing?  Who in your sphere today needs to hear what you would tell your younger self, since time machines are only in the beta stage? 

This week’s corporate prayer:

Creator God, you made us all in your image, saying: “This is good.”  We confess we forget this, labeling ourselves and each other as: those who fail, those who succeed; those who lose, those who win; those who are moral, those who are not; those who deserve justice, those who deserve judgment.  But even still, You made us all in your image, saying: “This is good.” Help us to live as you have created us to be, not as others see us.  Because it is you, the mysterious maker of the universe, who says to us: “I made you, and you are good!” – Terra Pennington