“Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for

himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites.

And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn

to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these

statutes,

Deuteronomy 17: 18 – 19

Did Solomon know this Law exist in the Torah?

Definitely.

Did Solomon write for himself a copy of the law in a book from the one before the priests, the Levites?

I believe he did.

Did he read it all the days of his life?

Well, maybe he did.

Did he learn to fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words of the law and the statutes?

I am, in fact we all are, sure that he did not learn.

Bible Passage: 1 Kings 11

 

The commandments of God, especially those that dealt with morality, are not ambiguous that we can have any excuse to say that we don’t actually know God’s standard of morality in the Bible.

From the temple dedication prayer of Solomon in chapter 8, we can see that he knew very well what it meant to obey the word of God.

Let your heart therefore be loyal to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and keep

His commandments, as at this day.”

1 Kings 8: 61

But did Solomon himself honor what he had said in his prayer?

This is a clear warning to all of us that to know the commandments of God is one thing, but to really do it is totally another.

As what elder James also reminds us that only knowing the Word is not profitable unless we do it.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his

natural face in a mirror;

for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a

forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

James 1: 22 – 25

So we read in today’s chapter, obviously Solomon did not honor what he had prayed, he did the very opposite and became an apostate.

His actions must have saddened God a great deal because as the king of Israel, he was supposed to lead by example.

A phrase being used in this chapter regarding Solomon, which is being used very frequently on the bad kings of Israel, is “… did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, …” (v. 6)

But God loved Solomon (2 Samuel 12: 24 – 25), so God chastised him for what he had done by causing adversaries to trouble him.

So let us all be reminded, through today’s reading, that all of God’s commandments are life for us (John 12: 49 – 50). Knowing the words of God is undoubtedly very important and beneficial for our spiritual lives, but more importantly we need to obey and to do them.

Life and light are found in the inspired texts, but application of the inspired texts enables the life to enter into us to shine forth His glorious light.

Shalom

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