Tag: 1 Kings 9

The Consequences of Compromise

Compromise has amassed quite a following for itself. We tend to see it as an almost-ideal solution to thorny problems. And often that is true. Often compromise is a great solution, but not always. We should not always default to compromising, instead assessing the situation and determining what course of action is most warranted.

A trivial example: some years ago my brother and his roommate were planning to make themselves some chocolate milk using a mix. They both poured glasses of milk and grabbed the chocolate sauce. But my brother’s roommate quickly realized that there wasn’t enough sauce for both of them to have a chocolate milk so it took it for himself. My brother said, “why not split it?” and his roommate replied, “Is it better for both of us to have bad chocolate milk, or one of us to have good chocolate milk?” My brother relented, seeing the truth in his logic. I would say that the Christian thing to do would have been to sacrifice my own pleasure and give the good one to my roommate, but in this case, my brother’s roommate was not a Christian.

In today’s reading we see a similar situation unfold; starting and ending with bad compromises. Numbers 33:55-56 reads:

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them.

Numbers 33:55-56 (NIV)

Yet Solomon decides that rather than drive those who remain OUT of the land, they will instead be used as cheap labour. Cheap labour to build the temple of the Lord, no less! Again, God offers a warning that Solomon takes no heed of. And then at the end of today’s reading we see this:

Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem.

2 Kings 10:26 (NIV)

Which looks eerily similar to this:

The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.”

Deuteronomy 17:16 (NIV)

How long do you think you can disregard the commands, decrees, regulations, and warnings of the Lord before it finally does you in? How long before spiritual disaster, calamity, or even death come to you? This, dear friends, is playing with fire and it’s a bad idea. Don’t test the Lord. That is a fool’s game.

Starting Well vs Finishing Well

Solomon finishes building the temple and the glory of the Lord fills it. It is an awe-inspiring moment, Solomon prays to dedicate the temple and the people make sacrifices to the Lord and good times are had by all. Then God appears before Solomon in a theophany and says that He has heard the prayers and petitions of the people, that he will protect the people from devastation if they humbled themselves and seek Him. He then re-affirms the conditional covenant made with David, then ends with the final half being a rather dire warning, for which no particular reaction or reflection on the part of Solomon is recorded.

When I was a teen my youth pastor used to take me to a youth convention called “Historymaker”. It was pretty rad. And there was such a powerful presence of God there and times of prayer and vulnerability and just being surrounded by so many students who wanted to be closer to God was inspiring. I wanted to press into God more deeply as a result of these events. And I was not alone. All my youth group friends were the same way. But the effects of that were tamped down and faded away once we left that “sacred” environment and returned to our “secular” lives. I dubbed this phenomenon the “Historymaker High”. The problem being that we wanted the FEELING of closeness with God to continue, but we were no longer spending 10+ hours every day in worship, prayer, and bible study… in fact I would wager that most of us were doing REALLY WELL if we spent 10+ hours a MONTH in worship, prayer, and bible study1!

We wanted the relationship to remain strong while we did nothing to nurture it. We did not stay close to God. Despite our pastor’s encouragement, we rarely cracked open our bibles, I doubt many of us even knew where the one we had WAS. And so as we casually, carelessly withdrew, we wondered why God felt to far away.

I see something similar happening with Solomon. Most of God’s message was warning. But Israel was pleased with His presence and approval of the temple that the warning seems to have gone almost unnoticed. Like they are hearing what they WANT to hear rather than taking heed of the rather intense warning on offer.

I’ll just come out and say it: how you start almost doesn’t matter. How you finish matters. I’ve seen so many. So. Many. Christians start out strong, on fire, excited! But once the ‘high’ wears off so does the passion. And that passion is what sustains you through the valleys when life is hard.

If you want to finish well, there are three simple things you need to do. Just three. Prayer, Scripture, and Fellowship. Prayer: talk to God, follow the ACTS pattern (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication). Scripture: Spend time in the Word. Every day. Even just 15 minutes. Watch the changes that happen! Fellowship: “It is not good for the man to be alone”, God Himself said it. Surround yourself with other Christians. Good ones. One who will tell you when you are being a moron and ones who expect the same from you.

It’s not rocket surgery, but it does take effort. I have found it to be more than worthy of that effort.

  1. I figure 1 hour at youth group and 1 hour at church per week works out to an average of 8 hours a month. ↩︎