The Wisest Fool Who Ever Lived | 1 Kings 9–11

I just want to say to everyone how thankful I am for the privilege that you give to me, as one of the pastors here, to be able to open God’s word with you every week, and to look at what God has said to his people, and to rejoice in who God is to his people. It is truly one of the great privileges of my life to be one of the pastors of this church.

We continue on in our series in 1 Kings, a book that we have been working on for a few weeks, and we find ourselves in 1 Kings chapter 9. Here at PBC, we work our way through books of the Bible a little bit at a time, and we are working through the book of Kings together. We find ourselves in chapter 9. So if you have a Bible, please point your Bible to 1 Kings 9. Today we will be considering verses 9 through 11.

The main point that I’ll be making today, the central claim that I will seek to make from the text this morning, is this: King Solomon fails in his role, so God’s people must look beyond him to the King who was faithful, Jesus Christ, in whom they receive every covenant blessing.

Let’s pray. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord. I do not have the words of eternal life. I do not have the words that your people need to hear this morning. And so I ask, O Lord, that you would do by the power of your Holy Spirit what I cannot, which is speak through your word. For those who are afflicted, comfort them; for those who are comfortable, afflict them. Draw them ever more to the true reality of the glory of Jesus Christ, who is our faithful King. Give us ears to hear. For the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. Amen.

Solomon’s Shepard Tone

There is something in musical theory called a Shepard Tone. Three notes are played at the same time across multiple octaves — a low note, a middle note, and a high note, all played at once — and they slide up in pitch. And when the highest note gets too high to hear, a lower note sneaks in beneath and replaces it. But your brain can’t register the switch. And so what you hear is this pitch rising and rising and rising, even though it never does. It’s an illusion — sort of like a barber’s pole, where the stripes seem to be going up and up and up, but in fact they’re just spinning in a loop.

You have probably heard a Shepard Tone. Movie makers use it to build suspense and to engender feelings of panic. It makes you feel like something big is about to happen. Christopher Nolan movies do this a lot — if you’ve seen movies like Dunkirk, The Dark Knight, Inception, and Interstellar, all of these movies use a Shepard Tone.

Solomon’s kingdom is a bit of a Shepard Tone. If you’ve been with us in this series, then you know we’ve already read how Solomon has risen to power. He’s risen in wealth. He’s risen in wisdom. And in today’s passage, we will see Solomon’s glory continuing to rise — or at least that’s how it appears. That’s how it sounds. Because we’re so used to grading glory by the world’s standards, we see Solomon rising and we think he is rising. But in actual fact, Solomon’s glory is a barber’s pole, a Shepard Tone. It looks like it’s ascending, but it’s a trick. The wisest man becomes the greatest fool. And this passage keeps us in suspense, looking for and longing for the one whose glory is true, the one whose rise is true, whose rise is infinite. This passage keeps us looking and longing for the one who is greater than Solomon.

We have a lot to cover in 45 minutes — four movements in this text. I’ll give them to you as we go.

Movement One: The King Is Warned

1 Kings 9:1: “As soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord, the king’s house, and all that Solomon desired to build, the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he appeared to him at Gibeon. And the Lord said to him, ‘I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, “You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.” But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And this house will become a heap of ruins; everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, “Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?” Then they will say, “Because they abandoned the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold of other gods and worshiped them and served them; therefore the Lord has brought all this disaster on them.”‘”

Solomon becomes king — we saw this last week — and he just begins building things. Now, that’s not for amusement. It’s not a side project. Solomon building things is a fulfillment of his divine purpose. It is God’s purpose for him. It is God’s purpose through him. He is the son of David. By taking the throne of his father David, by building a house to the Lord, Solomon shows that he is not just David’s son, but he’s also God’s son. Yahweh had come to David and said that his son would be God’s son. And Solomon, fulfilling the role that God gave to David, is Solomon fulfilling the role that God gave to Israel, fulfilling the role that God gave to Abraham, fulfilling the role that God gave to Adam, the first man. There are 3,000 years of redemptive history packed into these first eleven chapters of 1 Kings.

When Yahweh delivered his people Israel out of slavery in Egypt, he spoke to Moses. He told Moses, “You tell Pharaoh this: Israel is my firstborn son; let my son go, that he may serve me.” And so God delivered Israel out by his mighty hand, and he called them to himself in the wilderness, and he initiated a covenant with them. Now, if you’re new to Christianity, we keep using this word covenant — I’m really sorry about that. What we mean by that is an agreement. Covenant is a fancy Bible word that just means an agreement between two parties, with terms and conditions — blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. God enters into an agreement, a covenant, with his people. They’re to keep his statutes. They’re to be his people. They’re to walk uprightly before him and do all that he has commanded, and he will reveal himself to the rest of the world through them.

But Israel failed to keep that covenant. And so God narrowed the scope and said, in effect, “Let Israel have a king, and let the king represent all the people. If the king keeps my law, if the king walks before me with integrity of heart and does all that I command him, then I will bless the entire nation, and I will establish my justice and my righteousness, and I will call the nations to come and see and hear and believe.”

Solomon was supposed to be that king. There’s all sorts of expectation that he will be that king. So far, almost all the evidence that we have read up to this point points to the fact that Solomon is that king. He’s built the house of the Lord, and the Lord endorsed the building of the house with the glory of his presence.

Halfway into his reign — Solomon reigns for 40 years, and 20 years into his reign — the Lord appears to him for a second time. In verse 3, God says, “I’m putting my name here forever. My eyes and my heart will be in this place for all time” — unless, verses 6 to 13, unless the king fails. Verses 6–13 are a warning, and there is a lot riding on this man Solomon. So long as the king follows the Lord and keeps the commandments of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord, everything’s good — the people will be blessed, the nations will come. But if the king fails, breaks the covenant, breaks the agreement, if the king goes and serves other gods, then Yahweh will remove his hand of blessing from the people. Israel will be removed from the land. Rather than being a light to the nations, God says they will become a scorn, a mockery among the nations. They’ll become an omen of God’s judgment.

Movement Two: The King Is Prospered

The rest of chapter 9 and chapter 10 are the rising tones of Solomon’s glory. He continues to build. He is blessed by God with fabulous, unimaginable wealth. Politically speaking, this man is formidable — scary powerful business partners enter into agreements with Solomon, and if they don’t like the terms and conditions, there’s nothing they can do about it. He’s that powerful. He walks into an agreement, he makes the terms and conditions, and you can’t do anything about it. He’s got all the money. He’s got all the power. This is the fame of this king. His wealth, his glory — it is on the rise, and we feel pulled into it. Let’s take a look.

1 Kings 10:1: “Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind, and Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her. And she said to the king, ‘The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, but I did not believe them until I came and my own eyes had seen it, and behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard. Happy are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness.’ Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones. Never again came such an abundance of spices as those that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.”

Sheba is maybe modern-day Yemen, possibly Ethiopia. The queen hears of Solomon’s great wisdom and great wealth, and she is intrigued, and she comes to see. She brings with her an entourage of camels and spices and gold and precious stones. She comes bringing questions, and Solomon answers all of the queen’s questions, and she sees Solomon’s blessings and the blessings of God on the kingdom. She sees the wisdom of Solomon and the house that he has built. The Bible says she sees his food and his officials and his servants, their clothing, and the offerings that Solomon is making to the Lord, and she has never seen anything like this. It takes her breath away. And she says, in effect, “I heard that you were like this and I didn’t believe it, and now that I’m here and seeing it, I realize not even half of what I’ve heard is true — it’s way more.”

And notice verse 9: “Blessed be the Lord your God.” She’s giving praise to Yahweh, who has delighted in Solomon and set him on the throne of Israel. God loved Israel and put him on the throne to establish justice and righteousness on earth. Do you see how the author of Kings wants us to realize that Solomon is the fulfillment of the promises of that agreement God made with Israel? Be my people, follow my commandments — justice and righteousness will be established, the nations will come. What’s happening here? The king is on the throne, justice and righteousness are established, he has wisdom like no one else, riches like no one else, and the nations come.

In his earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus used the queen of Sheba as a positive example of someone who seeks to hear God’s word. The queen had a little bit of knowledge about who God was and what God was like, and what God’s king was like, and she traveled a very far distance, at great expense to herself, to learn. So if you’re here and you’re not a Christian, you’re going to see that Solomon is going to fail. But Jesus will come and do what Solomon failed to do. You need to see that there is someone greater than Solomon here. In Jesus Christ you will find out who God truly is. You will see that God is merciful and gracious and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Jesus goes to the cross to suffer the penalty of sin, and on the third day God raises him from the dead, to forgive sins and to reconcile sinners to God. This is the thing that God wants you to see. Be like the queen of Sheba — take the little information that you have heard and keep pursuing. Take this Bible home. If you don’t have a Bible, there are some stacked up on a table in the back. Take one with you. Open up the Gospel of Mark and begin reading it. Begin pursuing this King, and learn.

The queen leaves Solomon with roughly 9,000 pounds of gold, which is a lot — huge amounts of spices and precious stones as well. And as much as 9,000 pounds of gold is, it’s just a fraction of the amount of gold that is brought to Solomon. In one year, the Bible says the king received almost 50,000 pounds of gold. He had so much gold that he made shields out of gold — shields, things that you bang around. He has fleets of ships bringing him gold and silver and ivory and rare animals like apes and peacocks. He has a zoo in Jerusalem. He has so much silver that he floods the market and it becomes worthless.

And then Solomon makes himself a throne unlike any throne you’ve ever seen — the whole thing covered in ivory and the finest gold, six steps up to the seat, a golden lion sitting on each end of every step, and two more lions under the armrests. The lion of the tribe of Judah, looking down from his ivory throne. Behold, friends, the glory of wise Solomon, the one to whom the nations come.

Skip ahead in your Bible to verse 23. 1 Kings 10:23: “Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. Every one of them brought his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, myrrh, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year.” The whole earth — this man is an international celebrity. Thousands upon thousands of horses, an army that makes the earth shake when it moves. Can you see his glory? Can you hear the rising tones of Solomon’s wealth and fame? It just keeps going.

But let’s not forget — it’s not going up. It sounds like it’s going up because we’re so used to grading glory by the standards of the world. So what sounds to us like rising tones is just an illusion. Not all is as it should be. Riches are deceitful as a measurement of glory. In the way that Solomon was warned, friends, we too have been warned about riches. Jesus said it plainly: “Watch out, be on your guard against all forms of greed.” There are so many species of greed, and they come in so many forms. Jesus says life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. Church, beware of the deceitfulness of riches. The Bible says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything you need will be added to you.” Trust in the Lord as your provider, and recognize that whatever you have is a gift, and you are a steward. Steward well what you have — whether you have a lot or whether you have little — and purge yourself of the love of money by living below your means and giving generously to the cause of Christ in the advance of his gospel.

Movement Three: The King Has Wandered

The king has been warned. The king has prospered. And now we come to the third movement in our text. The king has wandered.

1 Kings 11:1: “Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh — Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women — from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, ‘You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.’ Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and for Molech, the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem, and so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.”

The wisest man who ever lived became a fool. The one who wrote 3,000 proverbs became a proverb himself. It’s tragic. The very man who warned his son about sexual sin commits sexual sin. It wasn’t that long ago, back in chapter 3, that we read Solomon loved the Lord. And now here we read Solomon loved many foreign women — 700 wives, 300 concubines. The king is collecting women like baseball cards, and that’s what they are to him. And it’s gross. But I suppose it makes sense when you’re grading glory according to the world’s standards. When you’ve enslaved all of your enemies, when silver is as common as stone, when you sit atop a six-step, lion-clad, ivory throne — what else is there? How else are you going to notch your belt? How else are you going to demonstrate your greatness? A harem of women — that’s what kings do, isn’t it?

Not God’s king. Again, the author of Kings assumes his readers know the Bible. Deuteronomy 17, the word of the Lord says, “A king shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.” Well — that’s three strikes. Excessive silver, yes. Excessive gold, yes. Many women — well, it depends on what you mean by many. Tell you what the Bible means by many: two is one too many. Seven hundred with three hundred in the bullpen is a blatant disregard for God’s word and a slight against the dignity of the finest thing in God’s creation.

Verse 2 says that Solomon clung to these women in love. That word “clung” is not an accidental word — it’s the same word in Genesis 2: “A man shall leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife” — singular, wife. Brothers, your Creator has given you two arms with which you can cling to one woman, not many, be they actual or virtual — one woman.

So what is Solomon thinking? Listen — this is not about sensual pleasure. This is about power. This is about glory. These women are trophies, tokens of political power, because the kings of the nations surrounding Israel are just throwing their daughters at him. Who wants to be on the wrong side of the guy with golden shields? Not me. And so Solomon is just taking them and adding them as trophies on the shelf, saying to the nations of the world, “Look at me. Fear me.” And the nations probably do fear him. But God does not fear him. God will not be mocked.

Verse 4: “When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart.” Isn’t that what God said would happen? God will not be mocked. The son of God, who was meant to be a beacon of God’s blessing on account of his pride and his disobedience, becomes an omen of God’s judgment.

That phrase in verse 4, “when Solomon was old,” grieves me. As a man ages, he’s meant to increase in holiness and purity and righteousness and gentleness and joy and encouragement. It grieves me because just a few weeks ago, after service, I received an email from a brother pastor, a friend of mine, old enough to be my father, a few years from finishing his ministry, who that day resigned from ministry due to impropriety with a woman in his church. Brothers, guard your heart and never let down your guard. Don’t fool with sin. God will not be mocked. I’ve been a pastor long enough to know that temptation is no respecter of age. If you are middle-aged like me, or if you are an older saint, the message is the same: guard your heart and do not let your guard down. You do not retire from Christlikeness, ever. Understand — temptation does not come and knock on the front door like it did in your twenties. It seeps in through the cracks in the foundation, in the form of bitterness and discontentment and judgmentalism and murmuring and gossiping and idleness.

When Solomon was young, he built a house for the Lord. When Solomon is old, he’s building high places to demons. Molech is a monster that demands child sacrifice, and Solomon is building a temple to that monster. So, PBC, whatever your age, do not take sin lightly. No matter what sin you have committed, no matter how long you’ve been committing it, turn to the Lord for mercy and you will receive grace. There is more grace in Jesus than there is sin in you.

Have you noticed the strange way that this text talks about King David? Did it catch your ear? When God speaks of David, he keeps saying that David was faithful and walked with integrity. You’ve read your Bible — you know that’s not entirely true. So what is this, revisionist history? It’s not revision, it’s repentance. First of all, David never worshiped false gods. But most of all, when David was confronted by his sin, he dealt with God. David was not a perfect man. He was a sinner just like all of us. It’s just that when David was confronted with his sin, he took it to the Lord. He repented before the Lord.

So, friend, no matter what you have done, turn to the Lord. Do business with God today before you leave this place, and then talk to someone. The Bible says, “Confess your sins to one another.” Find a man or a woman in the church and confess to them what you have done. Find a pastor and confess to them. We will lock arms with you and help you walk in repentance and bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

Movement Four: The Kingdom Is Torn

So the Lord warned Solomon. Solomon ignored the warning. And now we come to our last movement: the kingdom is torn.

Verse 9: “And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the Lord commanded.” Verse 11: “Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, ‘Since this has been your practice, and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.'”

The Lord appears to Solomon and tells him what’s about to happen: the kingdom, young man, is going to be torn from you. No — let me say that again. The kingdom, old man, is going to be torn from you. Torn. Torn. Torn. Once again, the author of Kings assumes you know your Bible, and you know that word. If you’re familiar with your Bible, you’ve heard that word before — kingdom being torn.

A good while before Solomon is born, Israel demands a king of their own, like the nations. And God comes to them and gives them Saul — it’s not God’s choice, it’s their choice. And Saul doesn’t listen to the word of the Lord. And so the Lord sends a prophet called Samuel to Saul and says, “You’ve not obeyed the Lord — the kingdom is going to be given to another.” And then Samuel turns to leave, and Saul takes hold of his robe, and it rips. And Samuel says, “Just as you have torn my garment, the kingdom will be torn from you.” Here the Lord tells Solomon the very same thing: the kingdom is going to be torn from you.

When Saul hears that the kingdom is going to be torn from him, you know what he does? He goes and finds the guy to whom the kingdom is going to be given — a young kid named David — and spends the rest of his life trying to kill David. Rather than receiving the rebuke, the discipline of the Lord, and repenting before the Lord, Saul doubles down and tries to kill David.

Skip ahead to verse 26: “Jeroboam the servant of Solomon, the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow, also lifted up his hand against the king. And this is the reason why he lifted up his hand against the king: Solomon built the Millo, which was like a huge fortress that lifted the temple up high, and closed up the breach of the city of David his father. The man Jeroboam was very able, and when Solomon saw that the young man was industrious he gave him charge over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph. And at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Now Ahijah was dressed in a new garment, and the two of them were alone in the open country. Then Ahijah laid hold of the new garment that was on him and tore it into twelve pieces, and said to Jeroboam, ‘Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I am about to tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give you ten tribes. But he shall have one tribe, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh, the god of Moab, and Milcom, the god of the Ammonites, and they have not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight and keeping my statutes and my rules, as David his father did. Nevertheless, I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him ruler all the days of his life, for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my statutes. But I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand and will give it to you — ten tribes.'”

The original readers would have heard this and recognized what the author is doing. The Lord comes to the king and tells him that since he has not listened to God’s word, just like Saul, the kingdom will be torn from him — just like Saul. It will be given to another man — just like Saul. And there’s a prophet whose garment is torn — just like what happened to Saul. Echoes of Saul, and echoes, and echoes.

And there’s more. Skip down to verse 40: “Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon. Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon? And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father, and Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.”

Verse 40 lands with a cinematic boom: “Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam.” Do you see what the author is doing? Solomon is the new Saul. As David was to Saul, Jeroboam is a faithful servant. And as Saul did with David, Solomon seeks to kill him. The wisest man who ever lived, his soul so riddled by compromise, refuses to bow his head in submission to the Lord and goes after Jeroboam, who — not ironically — has to flee to Egypt. We’ll deal with him next Lord’s Day, where the Lord will fulfill his word, and the kingdom will be taken from Solomon, where it will be divided, and will never again be united.

What Will Be Your Legacy?

And so here we are, at the funeral of the wisest man who has ever lived. What should we make of this man’s life? What is Solomon’s legacy? Shall we grade him by the standards of the world? If so, this man was a huge success — a thousand anniversaries a year, more money than Elon Musk. Huge success. Will we remember him for what he built in the first twenty years of his reign, or in the last twenty years?

A text like this causes us to ask: how will we be remembered? What, my friends, will be the legacy of your life? Sisters, will you be remembered as a woman beautiful before her God, resolute in her faith, who trusted the Lord in all sorts of sickness and affliction and setback and hardship and difficulty — a woman who was committed to the glory of Christ in the advance of the gospel? Or will you be remembered as a bitter, implacable old woman? Brothers, will you be remembered as a man of joy, a generous man with his compliments, with his finances, with his time, who served the Lord and served his church? Or will you be remembered as miserly and crotchety, a do-nothing old man who could not be pleased?

PBC, let us endeavor, the Lord enabling, to be the sort of people who are remembered for building the house for the name of the Lord, for serving the church of Jesus Christ. Let us be remembered for our selflessness and our joyful generosity. Let us be remembered as storehouses of encouragement, with rich insights into God’s grace.

I’ve done a lot of funerals. I’ve sat with a lot of families reminiscing about their loved one. I’ve heard a lot of people talking about how dad loved the Buckeyes and fishing. I love the Buckeyes. I love fishing. But if the day comes when I go on to be with the Lord, and the thing that my kids are thinking about is that I loved the Buckeyes and fishing, I have failed. It’s a tragedy.

Let us be remembered for treasuring Christ, for spending ourselves to see Christ exalted, for praying with people, for talking with people, for teaching people about the glories of God’s grace. We come to church and we sing, “All I have is Christ, Jesus is my life.” Would that it would be true, and would that other people would know it.

So I close with this: whatever way you have wasted some part of your life, all I’m asking is that you follow a text like this one through, up to Jesus Christ, who is the greater Solomon. See how he left the riches of heaven to become man, how he became poor to make many rich, and that the King of heaven came to serve, not to be served, and to reveal the true heart of the Father — the heart of mercy and grace and love. And that part of your life of which you might not be so proud — just hand it over to him. Make it an offering of worship to this one who did what you did not, and he will take you in, and he will redeem what you have lost, and rewrite your story — the story of repentance.

May the Lord make it so among all of us. Let’s pray. I pray, O Lord, that you would make these things true of us — that we would be a people who spend our lives on the advance of your gospel, not seeking glory for ourselves, but for his name and his name alone. In Jesus’ name we ask.