Our Stories
A Story
By Kelly Humphreys | posted 02/11/2010
"When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, ‘Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you.’" (Proverbs 4:3-5 - Solomon, talking about his father, David)
What kind of story am I living in? I’ve been asking myself this question lately, as I’ve been reading and hearing a lot about "story." There is a higher purpose in living life as a story, rather than just day-to-day, not seeing the bigger picture. I have also been reading an amazing, true story, as I’ve joined other people from our Creekside community who are reading the Bible through in four months.
But back to "story" - I was talking with my son Matt, who is within a few weeks of being 20, and we were chatting about our day (we both work at Starbucks, so it’s fun to debrief together). Then I started talking about what I had just read in the first few chapters of 1 Kings, how dramatic it was; I even acted it out a little. (I enjoy my son; he humors me.) I told him the story of how Solomon came to power, and how I found out what age Solomon was during this time and it surprised me:
When King David was very old, he was too frail to go outside, so he stayed in his bedchambers. Now evidently he had made it known that Solomon was to be king, but had not yet made it widely known or official. So his older son (Adonijah) decided he would be king; he wouldn’t ask for his father’s blessing, he’d just announce he was king. He got a few people in power to support him behind the king’s back, including a general named Joab, and also a priest. Then Adonijah gave a big party, a feast, and announced he was king. But he was sneaky and did not invite people who did not support him: Nathan the prophet, another priest, another general, David’s mighty men, and of course Solomon.
However, Nathan got wind of it and went to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mom, and asked her to go talk to the king about Adonijah announcing he was king. So she did, and they both talked to David about his promise to crown Solomon. David acted immediately, and told them what to do, even though he could not leave the bedchambers and do it himself. He had them lead Solomon around on the king’s mule to the palace and set him on David’s throne, announcing to all of Israel that Solomon was king. So they gladly did that; and Israel was so excited they blew their horns and raised their voices, and the ground shook.
Meanwhile back at the party, people were wondering what all the commotion was about. A messenger came in and told them their bad news: Solomon was king. Everyone immediately fled except for Adonijah, who feared for his life. He ran to the altar and took hold of its horns, pleading for sanctity. Nathan the prophet found this out and told Solomon, who told Nathan to bring his brother to him, telling him that if no evil were found in him, he would be okay. So Adonijah came to Solomon and bowed low, and was told to go home. (Later on he was killed because he had evil intentions and tried another power grab, but that’s another story.)
What was interesting to me - and the main reason I told Matt - was that Solomon was only 20 when he became king, the same age as my son. And he walked with God for years and did many right things.
Right after Solomon was crowned, God appeared to him in a dream and asked him what he wanted. Solomon said that he was young and inexperienced and asked for wisdom and discernment in leading the people of God. This pleased God, and God granted him this, and also gave him riches, honor and a long life, which unfortunately contributed to Solomon’s undoing. See, Solomon was very wise - there was and is no one to compare to him. The Bible says he wrote 1005 songs and 3000 proverbs, and we also know he wrote some books of the Bible. But even though he knew what to do, he ultimately did not follow it. He did not follow his father’s words, as in the above passage from Proverbs. He did not finish well. He married many, many foreign women and worshipped their false gods - even making idols for Israel to worship - and made God so angry that after Solomon died, the nation of Israel was split up. One tribe, Judah, was ruled by a descendant of David in the south (because God wanted to honor David), and the rest of the tribes were ruled by an unrelated person in the north, in the kingdom called Israel - all because Solomon did not follow his own wisdom, the wisdom of following God.
So that’s Solomon’s story (very condensed). What is yours? May we live with a higher purpose, a goal to please God, living with wisdom through the power of God, no matter what age we are.
Kelly can be reached via email.
