Arrest the Decay – 1 Kings 9:10-28

The Second Law of Thermodynamics tells us, in the words of Bertrand Russell, “It seems that the world was created at some not infinitely remote date, and was then far more full of inequalities than it is now; but from the moment of creation it has been continually running down, and will ultimately stop for all practical purposes unless it is again wound up.” And we may say the same thing about all endeavors, including our spiritual lives.

Solomon does not seem to keep winding up again. Things are decaying.

At the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the king’s house, and Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar and cypress timber and gold, as much as he desired, King Solomon gave to Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. But when Hiram came from Tyre to see the cities that Solomon had given him, they did not please him. Therefore he said, “What kind of cities are these that you have given me, my brother?” So they are called the land of Cabul to this day. Hiram had sent to the king 120 talents of gold.

And this is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon drafted to build the house of the LORD and his own house and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer (Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and captured Gezer and burned it with fire, and had killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and had given it as dowry to his daughter, Solomon’s wife; so Solomon rebuilt Gezer) and Lower Beth-horon and Baalath and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land of Judah, and all the store cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. All the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the people of Israel—their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the people of Israel were unable to devote to destruction—these Solomon drafted to be slaves, and so they are to this day. But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves. They were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders and his horsemen.

These were the chief officers who were over Solomon’s work: 550 who had charge of the people who carried on the work.

But Pharaoh’s daughter went up from the city of David to her own house that Solomon had built for her. Then he built the Millo.

Three times a year Solomon used to offer up burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar that he built to the LORD, making offerings with it before the LORD. So he finished the house.

King Solomon built a fleet of ships at Ezion-geber, which is near Eloth on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent with the fleet his servants, seamen who were familiar with the sea, together with the servants of Solomon. And they went to Ophir and brought from there gold, 420 talents, and they brought it to King Solomon. (1 Kings 9:10-28, ESV)

As with anything humans do there is a tendency to decay, and here, even in the midst of Solomon’s greatness, there are signs of decay. He has completed a magnificent complex including his royal palace and the Temple, twenty years in the making. But when he rewards Hiram, his supplier of materials for the Temple and his house, he gives him cities that are of poor quality. Hiram is the subordinate in this relationship and all he can do is complain. But his relationship with Solomon is tarnished.

Solomon is a builder and he uses forced labor from among the Canaanites who still remain in Israel. He does not enslave his own people but gives them positions of responsibility in his workforce. He has established in this matter a relationship with Egypt, marrying Pharaoh’s daughter, accepting a Philistine city from him as dowry. He increases his wealth by building a trading fleet.

Solomon still worships at the Temple, but we are beginning to see hints of a change in his otherwise humble posture before Yahweh. You and I must also watch for the decay in our relationship with God. We will see signs of it in the ways we deal with those in our lives, not giving to them what they deserve because we don’t have to (we hold the power in the relationship), compromising with others instead of acting in integrity. Who is it that enriches us? Are we depending on God or are we finding ways of our own to increase our wealth? These are the issues we must attend to if we are to arrest the decay.