History is very important. Rick Joyner said in his book ‘Shadow of Things to Come’, ‘those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat the same thing’. History is a good thing, it is not a bad thing for history to repeat itself if the event is a good one. What is bad, is to have the ill of history repeating itself.
Bible is historical in nature, but it is given to us for life; to know God and to follow His will. The Bible is all about Christ. The centrality of the Bible is Jesus Christ.
My Pastor; Simeon Afolabi once said that ‘it takes an understanding of history to chart a course for the future. The glorious destiny of God for the Church can hardly be realized by a people who have no understanding of their roots’. Remember Paul the apostle pointed out that all that happened to our fathers were written for our examples, most especially those of us that live at the time that the age is drawing to a close (1 Corinthians 10:11).
In this piece we will be looking at a king in history. We want to do a character study on king Solomon (knowing fully well that Bible says we are kings and priests unto God; 1 Peter 2:9, Revelation 1:6, 5:10, 20:6). We will examine this not really in detail, so as to see through his life and trust God to teach us one or two things that can be of benefit to us as we continue in the race to eternity with Jesus Christ.
Things to Note in his life:
1. Background:
If someone should be a king, it should not be Solomon, judging from man’s standard. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and killed Urial the husband of Bathsheba when he discovered she was pregnant, as soon as he was dead, David married her and it was this union that produced Solomon (2 Samuel 11). But regardless of this background let us see things that Solomon enjoyed in God:
a. He enjoyed God’s favour he was made king instead of Adonijah his elder brother 1 King 2:13-15.
b. Even though he was young and inexperienced God still made him king over Israel 1 Chronicle 22:5-7
c. He was a child of great destiny; God spoke about him becoming a king even before he was born 1 Chronicle 22:9
What can we learn from this?
This is how our salvation and calling are; we are saved by grace not by works Ephesians 2:6-9. There was nothing in man that qualified him for salvation. The best of righteousness we could offer to God was like filthy rag before God. The more we tried to please God through His law the more we kept breaking it. But God who is rich in mercy sent His only begotten Son; Jesus Christ to die for us so that we can receive the Salvation that God offers.
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” Titus 3:5
“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,” 2 Timothy 1:9
Romans chapter 5:8 made us realize it was when we were yet sinners that Christ died for us so there is nothing good about us that should have attracted God’s Grace. This is why it is a great privilege. We are a people of privilege not right. All that we have in God is because of His grace and mercy so that at the end of the day, no man can boast about what he/she has (1 Corinthians 1:26-31). Even the ministry and the gifts we have are by God’s mercy and grace (2 Corinthians 4:1) so there is no need for boasting.
…to be continued.
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