Tolerance

And Solomon sought to put Jeroboam to death. I Kings 11:40

Sought – What a sad and tragic end of the man who had everything!  Too often we think of Solomon’s wisdom, wonders and wealth.  We forget how far he fell.  The last recorded event of his life stands in utter opposition to the humble man who served God.  At the end of his life, Solomon seeks to kill the one God has chosen to lead Israel.  Solomon forgets everything he ever knew about the sovereignty of God.  He attempts to alter God’s prophetic word with his own hand.

What happened to this great king, the world’s wealthiest man, the man whose name is a synonym with wisdom?  He fell.  How did that happen?  Well, the simple answer is “women.”  Solomon’s wisdom seemed to apply to everything except God’s warning about the temptations of power.  The Lord told His servants, the kings, to be wary of the desire to accumulate, but Solomon’s addiction took hold.  Seven hundred wives.  Well, hardly wives, were they?  More like playthings, available for his pleasure.  And more! Three hundred concubines.  More women than any man could imagine.  Along with these women came their false gods and their idolatrous practices.  Solomon, the wisest man in the world, was a complete and utter fool in the face of his sexual addiction.   By the end of his life, only one thing controlled him – his desire to keep the power that fed his addiction.  He sought to kill God’s replacement because he could not admit his failure to be God’s servant.

There are at least two crucial lessons here.  The first is this:  great beginnings do not guarantee great endings.  A man may start with humble obedience but end in rebellious defiance.  Perseverance counts.  Over and over God tells us He defers expected consequences because of His relationship with David, and David was no saint.  But David sought humility, knew repentance and persevered.  Falling down is not as important as getting up again.  When Solomon fell, the pit was very, very deep.

If this warning were not enough, there is another lesson here.  Addictions demand fuel.  They clamor to be fed, but they can never be satisfied.  No man can remember who he slept with a year ago when there are thousands on the list.  These women are not persons.  They are food – food to quench the inexhaustible appetite for more.  Contemporary therapy calls this “tolerance.”  The more I indulge the addiction, the more it demands.  As I adjust to the new level of mood-altering abuse, my emotional-physical-psychological system becomes “tolerant” to the stimulus.  It is no longer sufficient to numb the pain.  So, I must have more.  And since there is no limit to the depth of emotional pain any man can endure, there is no limit to the need to feed the pain-numbing behavior.  Solomon was an addict.  Addiction has only one ultimate goal – destruction of everything a person is.  The world’s wisest man provides a lesson in sheer insanity.

Do you carry a red-flag mood-altering pain-numbing won’t-be-satisfied hunger?  Solomon’s fall started with one step away from God’s direction.  One step leads to a thousand.  This kind of hunger always does.

Topical Index: sought, Solomon, addiction, tolerance, 1 Kings 11:40