Introduction

Defining Success

Carolyn’s family is Dutch, and shuffleboard is a favourite game in their culture. Not the kind of shuffleboard you find on cruise ships. Dutch shuffleboard, or sjoelbak, is played on a long table where you slide wooden pucks into four compartments at the end of the table. Each compartment has a different point value, from 1 to 4.

A few years ago, I played sjoelbak again after a long time without playing. Since it had been a long time, I had forgotten an important rule. You get 4 points for a puck in the 4-point compartment, but if you get one puck in each of the four compartments, you earn 20 points for that set. I kept aiming for the 4-point compartment, thinking that was the best way to win. In the end, I lost because I forgot what true success in the game looked like.

Of course, winning a game isn’t really important in the big picture. But just like in the game, if we start out in life with the wrong idea of success, we’re almost certain to miss the mark.

So what does real success look like? What do you believe makes a life successful? Is it career achievements, a perfect family, financial independence, or maybe the envy of others? Many people spend their whole lives chasing these things, but could it be that this is the wrong idea of success? Might this be like me trying to win the game with a defective strategy? And if we’re aiming at the wrong target, we’re certainly not going to hit the right one. This is the tragedy of Solomon’s story, which we’ll examine today.

What Happened to Solomon?

Solomon’s turning away from God is one of the most puzzling stories in the Old Testament. When you read it, you might wonder, “How could someone so wise make such foolish choices?” God gave Solomon everything he needed for real success, but Solomon chose a different path. His story is a warning for us. Like Solomon, we have what we need for success if we define it God’s way. But if we chase after the world’s idea of success, we can end up lost, just like he did.

Solomon’s Advantages

Solomon’s story is so tragic because he’s set up with so many advantages. He was given a positive role model. Despite David’s many flaws, he wasn’t an idolater. He gave Solomon an example of what it looks like to be a king while staying devoted to God.

And while David’s kingdom had no shortage of wars, Solomon inherited a kingdom at peace. By the time he took the throne, the surrounding nations were all allies or vassals.

Finally, Solomon was blessed with divine wisdom. God appears to Solomon and asks him what he would like (1 Kings 3). Solomon, feeling out of his depth as a young man ruling a nation, asks for wisdom. Afterward, Solomon’s wisdom becomes the stuff of legends.

At the start of Solomon’s story, everything seems to be going well. He looks very successful, but as he gains more fame, power, and wealth, he slowly starts to follow his culture’s idea of success instead of God’s. By the end of his life, all that ‘success’ turned sour. Sadly, the things he did to look successful in the world’s eyes ended up tearing Israel apart.

Solomon’s Downfall

Accumulation

Solomon’s first fault was his endless appetite for accumulation. When God gave the law to Israel, he foresaw a time when the people might want a king. So he wrote a set of rules that governed what a monarchy should look like (their version of a constitutional monarchy). Kings were to have limits on their power. Most relevant for our discussion, in Deuteronomy 17 we read:

¹⁶ 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.” ¹⁷ He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold (Deuteronomy 17:16–17, NIV).

Horses are singled out here because they pulled chariots. Chariots could be used militarily (the tanks of their day) or as high-end transportation for rich and important people (the limousines of their day). In either case, they’re about status. But Solomon ignored this rule. As the writer of Kings said:

²⁶ 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. …²⁸ Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from Kue—the royal merchants purchased them from Kue at the current price. ²⁹ They imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. They also exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and of the Arameans (1 Kings 10:26, 28–29, NIV).

So Solomon didn’t just collect a lot of horses —he went all the way to Egypt (in violation of the rules) to get the best ones.

God also said the king should not have too much silver or gold, and Solomon broke that rule too:

¹⁴ The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents [~25 tons], ¹⁵ not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the territories. 

¹⁶ King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels [15 lbs] of gold went into each shield. ¹⁷ He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold, with three minas [~4 lbs] of gold in each shield. The king put them in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon…

²⁷ The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones… (1 Kings 10:14–17, 27, NIV).

That’s an incredible amount of gold, even by today’s standards. 666 Talents is more than the annual production of the Maccassa mine [A very rich local gold mine]. Solomon had so much gold that he made shields out of it, even though gold is too soft and heavy to use in battle—they’re purely decorative, and this isn’t gold leaf, like some tacky decorators like today. This is wasteful amounts of gold.

It’s hard to say exactly how much is too much, but when silver is as common as stones and pure gold is being used for decorations worth hundreds of millions of dollars today, it’s clear the line has been crossed.

Deuteronomy also said the king must not take many wives. From our monogamous culture, ‘many’ would probably mean, “more than one.” While polygamy was common among kings and elites in the ancient world, Solomon’s harem is next level.

¹ King Solomon, however, loved [was joined to] many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. ² They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. ³ He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines…(1 Kings 11:1–3a, NIV).

We should understand the use of the word ‘love’ here loosely. If you think about the love you have for your spouse, you no doubt can figure out that it’s not possible to feel that for 1000 different women at the same time. The word can mean ‘join’, which seems to be the meaning. Solomon’s many marriages aren’t about being hyper-amorous; they’re about politics. Marrying women from nearby nations helped kings form alliances. Having a large harem also showed his people that he was a powerful and respected king. His accumulation of wealth and marriages were all about looking successful to people who saw success differently than God does.

Idolatry

Solomon’s second great sin was Idolatry. Solomon’s many politically expedient marriages showed that politics was more important than faithfulness to God’s law. The many foreign wives became a trap that caused Solomon a lot of problems.

…[Solomon’s] wives led him astray. ⁴ As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. ⁵ He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. ⁶ So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done. 

⁷ On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. ⁸ He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods (1 Kings 11:3–8, NIV).

Because Solomon married his wives to gain political favours, allowing them to practice their religion would be an expected diplomatic courtesy. So Solomon supported the construction of pagan shrines and high places.

While polytheists would have no problem adding the worship if Yahweh to their faith, God demands exclusive worship. So when Solomon accommodated his wives, even participating in pagan worship, he crossed a big red line.

Why does God care so much about worshiping other gods? The gods of Israel’s neighbours can’t help or save anyone, so when people turn to them, they’re putting their hope in something empty. Also, worshiping these gods often involved immoral and harmful practices, like cultic prostitution and child sacrifice. Only Yahweh can lead people to a good and flourishing life. The gods of other nations serve the interests of the powerful at the expense of the powerless —this prioritization of the rich over the poor leads to Solomon’s third major mistake: Oppression

Oppression

Israel became a nation when God delivered the people from slavery in Egypt. So the idea of slavery runs contrary to Israel’s true identity. Yet, following the practices of the nations around him, Solomon used forced labour (a euphemism for slavery) to construct the temple and his palace.

Solomon might justify using forced labour for the temple by saying that he needed a lot of help for such an ambitious project. But we must remember the scope of the project wasn’t defined by God. God had asked for a tent, the Tabernacle. It was constructed from materials freely given by the people. and constructed by people who volunteered, not people who were forced.

Building a grand, permanent structure wasn’t anything God asked for; rather, it was an accommodation to David, who wanted to honour God. God seems to have accepted David’s idea as a genuine expression of devotion. But by the time of Solomon, the temple became one more megaproject in a public works campaign that demonstrated Solomon’s great wealth and power. So he built a temple dedicated to a God who frees enslaved people and values justice for the poor by enslaving poor people.

Solomon also used forced labour to build his palace. And while the Temple took 7 years to complete, his palace took 13. That might say something about what mattered to Solomon. Of course, Solomon inherited a royal residence from his father David, but, wanting to present the image of success, he decided to build something much grander, even if doing so required the use of forced labour.

The Consequences

All of this accumulation, idolatry and oppression is finally too much, and God, who had been very patient with Solomon, promises consequences for his actions

⁹ The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. ¹⁰ Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command. ¹¹ So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. ¹² Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. ¹³ Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen” (1 Kings 11:9–13, NIV).

The peace that Solomon’s kingdom once enjoyed came to an end. The Edomites, who had been under Israel’s control, broke away. A new and hostile king took over in Aram, and one of Solomon’s own officials, Jeroboam, became a political threat.

After Solomon died, the people asked his son and heir, Rehoboam, to ease the forced labour and heavy taxes that Solomon’s ambitions had required. Rehoboam—a fool!—doubles down, trying to show his power by promising to make his demands even heavier. The people rebelled, and Israel split in two.

Solomon believed he was making his kingdom secure by following worldly wisdom. But he failed as a king by God’s standards, and all his efforts ended up meaning nothing. In the end, having God on your side matters more than anything: money or worldly success.

Pursuing the Right Vision of Success

Two Visions of Success: Solomon had every advantage, but he was drawn toward a vision of success that was different from God’s. God wanted him to be fully devoted, but Solomon’s heart was divided. God wanted him to show restraint, but Solomon chose extravagance. God cares for the poor and needy, but Solomon exploited them. God wanted Solomon to trust him for security, but Solomon tried to find it in wealth, alliances and military force.

Because he chased the wrong idea of success, he missed the mark. In the aftermath of his rule, God showed that Solomon’s efforts to build a legacy apart from God couldn’t guarantee success. I wish Solomon’s story had a happy ending, but it ends on a sad note. Still, it can teach us something important.

When God promised David a dynasty, he thinks this is primarily about his Son Solomon sitting on his throne after he dies. At first, Solomon looked like the fulfillment of this promise, but in the end, he was a disappointment. God’s promise is truly fulfilled in Jesus, who is the king who truly lives by God’s wisdom (on top of being the second person of the Trinity).

Jesus shows us the true success that eluded Solomon. Jesus is humble and serves others; He doesn’t take advantage of the poor or vulnerable, but cares for them; He doesn’t look for security in military might, but through dependence on his Father; He doesn’t try to put God in a box (that’s certainly what the temple appears to be), but rather, he shows what faithfulness to God looks like in everyday life. While Solomon had more wisdom than any other king, Jesus is the very embodiment of God’s wisdom. In Solomon and Jesus, we see two very different ideas of success.

Equipped for Success

Now that we’ve looked at both Solomon’s and Jesus’ ideas of success, we can think about what success should look like in our own lives. Like Solomon, we’ve been given what we need to succeed (even though we’re not called to be royalty).

Solomon had his father David’s devotion to God as an example. We have Jesus’ example in the scriptures, and we also have as believers who came before us as role models. That’s why it’s important not just to read the Bible, but to spend time with other mature Christians. Seeing the lives of mature believers can be more powerful than just reading about them.

Of course, not every example in the church is helpful. We should evaluate which examples are worth imitating by looking at the results a person’s life produces. Some people leave behind hurt and brokenness. We should love people like that, but not copy their ways, even if they seem successful by the world’s standards.

Other people encourage everyone they meet, make people feel welcome, and face hard times with peace. These people may not have fancy titles or degrees, but the Spirit has shaped them. Their devotion helps us see what a successful Christian life really looks like.

Solomon inherited a peaceful kingdom. In a way, we have peace too. We have peace with God. Even though we are sinners and might expect punishment, God made the first move to bring us peace through Jesus’ blood.

We can also have peace even when life is chaotic. Our lives may be shaken by challenges or spiritual darkness, but Jesus has already overcome sin and death. So whatever we face, we know he has already won. Paul put it this way to encourage the struggling Christians in Rome:

³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written: 

“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered” (Romans 8:35–36, NIV).

In other words: Are our troubles a sign that God has failed us? Paul’s answer:

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:37–39, NIV).

Peace means we can rest in the assurance of God’s promises.

God gave Solomon great wisdom but Jesus is wiser still. In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul says that Jesus’ death and resurrection may seem foolish to the world, but they are actually the perfect display of God’s wisdom. Not because of how they look, but by what they achieve: Salvation So True wisdom isn’t about coming up with profound new ideas; It’s about living out God’s cross-shaped love and reflecting the Father, who is the source of all wisdom.

Conclusion

Like Solomon, we all come to a crossroads. We can choose a vision of success like the one Solomon chased. We can try to impress our culture, seeking wealth, achievement, power, or the envy of others. But Solomon did all that, but it didn’t lead him to life. Because that road doesn’t lead where he thought, he became responsible for the downfall of his country. He’s a warning sign of what happens when someone squanders the blessings God has given them.

He could have chosen differently. He could have ignored the world’s wisdom and looked for success that pleased God. And if he had, who knows how Israel’s story might have turned out differently? Maybe Solomon was on Jesus’ mind when he said:

¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (Matthew 7:13–14, NIV).

God’s idea of success can seem foolish to the world, and sometimes even to us. Like Solomon, we need to see things differently and learn to accept a new kind of wisdom that people have rarely chosen.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had to choose between two trees: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Eating from the Tree of Knowledge, they made a mistake we’ve all repeated. But despite our failures, God’s wisdom calls out to us, telling us where the target is. “This is the way. Walk in it!” So what voice do we listen to? The Sirens’ call of the crowd calling us to what we always thought we wanted, or the voice of God, telling us the way to life. In the end, all our wisdom and worldly success won’t matter at all if we don’t choose God’s way.