{"id":5028,"date":"2025-11-10T05:56:59","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T10:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5028"},"modified":"2025-11-10T05:56:59","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T10:56:59","slug":"2-chronicles-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/10\/2-chronicles-11\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Chronicles 1:1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here<\/a>
\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each day this month we\u2019re looking closely at one of the 1:1 verses of the Bible \u2013 exploring what we can learn from chapter one \/ verse one of various Old and New Testament books.<\/em>

\u201cSolomon son of David established\u00a0himself firmly over his kingdom, for the\u00a0Lord\u00a0his God was with\u00a0him and made him exceedingly great.\u201d

The reign of King Solomon represents the high water mark of the Old Testament.

For centuries, faithful Jews looked back to the time of Solomon and his father, King David, as a kind of Golden Age.

According to the opening sentence of 2 Chronicles, Solomon is one amazing guy \u2013 and it\u2019s all because \u201cGod was with him.\u201d

He is credited with composing 1,005 songs, authoring more than 3,000 proverbs, and expanding the boundaries of Israel to create a nation three times larger than its modern-day counterpart.\u00a0Some of the stone walls built during his administration are still standing three millennia later.\u00a0

In a scene resembling a real-life Aladdin story, God appears to Solomon and says, \u201cAsk for whatever you want me to give you.\u201d\u00a0The king of the universe is offering him anything<\/em>.\u00a0

Solomon asks for wisdom.\u00a0God is so impressed with this request \u2013 that he asks for wisdom instead of a bottomless bank account, or perfect abs, or a super-power worthy of a Marvel Comics character \u2013 that God also gives him, along with matchless discernment, virtually every other worldly blessing.\u00a0He will become known as the wisest and richest king in the world, and people will travel hundreds of miles just to experience the opulence of his court.\u00a0

Things begin so well.\u00a0

If the last word about Solomon was recorded in 2 Chronicles 1:1, he would be regarded as one of the Bible\u2019s brightest lights.\u00a0But when it comes to following God, it\u2019s not how you start.\u00a0It\u2019s how you finish.\u00a0

Over the course of just a handful of chapters, Solomon goes from extreme wisdom to extreme stupidity.\u00a0How in the world does this happen?\u00a0The answer is\u2026slowly<\/em>. That\u2019s always how erosion takes place.\u00a0

Solomon\u2019s spiritual disintegration can be tracked by three words that show up at important intersections in his story, all of which appear in the parallel account of his reign in the book of I Kings.

The first appears in I Kings 3:3: \u201cSolomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the statutes of his father David, except<\/u><\/em><\/strong> that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.\u201d\u00a0The king of Israel, in other words, leaves some wiggle room in his commitment.

\u201cHigh places\u201d were local hilltops that attracted pagan sex-and-religion cults.\u00a0Offering sacrifices and burning incense on a high place was a serious spiritual compromise.\u00a0The word \u201cexcept\u201d is evidence that Solomon\u2019s heart, unlike the heart of his father David, does not fully belong to God.

When it comes to spirituality, exceptions are dangerous.\u00a0\u201cI will serve you, Lord \u2013 except if you ask me to give up a lot of my free time.\u00a0I will obey you, Jesus \u2013 except for my online browsing habits.\u00a0I promise to be your person, Father \u2013 except for secretly undercutting my supervisor, which is something she richly deserves.\u201d\u00a0

When it comes to finishing strong, half-heartedness won\u2019t cut it.\u00a0\u201cExcept\u201d can\u2019t be in our vocabulary.\u00a0 \u00a0

The second word appears a few chapters later.\u00a0I Kings 6:38 tells us that \u201c\u2026the temple was finished in all its details, according to its specifications.\u00a0[Solomon] had spent seven years building it.\u201d\u00a0Continuing to the next chapter, \u201cIt took Solomon thirteen years, however<\/u><\/em><\/strong>, to complete the construction of his palace.\u201d

There\u2019s a warning light flashing here.\u00a0Solomon\u2019s palace turns out to be twice the size of the temple.\u00a0He allocates twice as much time and twice as many resources building his own house as he invests in God\u2019s house.\u00a0

What are you currently attempting to build \u2013 and for whose sake?

The most effective way to do a self-assessment of what I really believe in is to ask myself a trio of questions:\u00a0What shows up most often on my calendar?\u00a0What dominates my VISA bill?\u00a0What do I daydream about?\u00a0

We may say we\u2019re all-in for the things of God.\u00a0But is there an all-about-me \u201chowever\u201d lurking at the center of our lives?\u00a0 \u00a0

We arrive, finally, at I Kings 11:3, which is one of the most staggering verses in the Bible: \u201c[Solomon] had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines.\u201d\u00a0Apparently the king doesn\u2019t know how reality shows work.\u00a0During the last episode, he\u2019s supposed to give a single rose to the woman of his choice \u2013 a lady who is one in a thousand.\u00a0Instead, Solomon passes out a thousand roses.\u00a0And this is the wisest dude in the world?\u00a0

Unfortunately for Israel, Solomon\u2019s radically conflicted domestic life turns his heart away from God.\u00a0 \u00a0

God had stated clearly, \u2018You must not [marry women from nearby pagan cultures], because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.\u2019 Nevertheless<\/u><\/em><\/strong>, Solomon held fast to them in love\u201d (I Kings 11:2).

\u201cNevertheless\u201d is a tragic word.\u00a0God says, \u201cDon\u2019t do this.\u201d\u00a0But Solomon decides he knows better.\u00a0Having been given every advantage and every opportunity, he now charts his own path.\u00a0The very man who has overseen the construction of the ultimate monument to God, the Jerusalem temple, turns his own heart into a shopping mall for phony religions.

Except.\u00a0However.\u00a0Nevertheless.<\/strong>

These are the words that will ultimately determine whether our personal spiritual Golden Age is behind us or is still to come.\u00a0

It\u2019s worth noting that nobody awards a gold medal to the winner of the 98-meter dash.\u00a0

That\u2019s because it\u2019s not how you start.\u00a0

It\u2019s how you finish.<\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0 Each day this month we\u2019re looking closely at one of the 1:1 verses of the Bible \u2013 exploring what we can learn from chapter one \/ verse one of various Old and New Testament books. \u201cSolomon son of David established\u00a0himself firmly over his kingdom, for the\u00a0Lord\u00a0his God was with\u00a0him and made… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5029,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1029,1035],"class_list":["post-5028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-11-series","tag-compromise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5028"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5030,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5028\/revisions\/5030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}