Complacency and King Solomon

The past six to seven months of my life have been some-what lack luster when referring to my Christian walk. I don't feel driven to pray for others. I feel unmotivated to read the books of the Bible. I have retained little of my church experiences. What's wrong with me? I have become a victim of the mundane. I am complacent.

What do I mean? What is complacency? I define complacency to be a sense of boredom in the things of God in our life. This doesn't necessarily mean compromise of morals or lack of discipline in tradition. Complacency refers to feeling that God's impact in your life is routine.

When Israel demanded from God to have a king for them, He gave principles governing their king. In Deuteronomy 17:16-17, it says, "But he shall no multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, 'You shall not return that way again.' Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. (NKJ)" What does this have to do with complacency in our spiritual walk?

You may have guessed already, but let me explain anyway. Let's skip ahead to the stories of one of Israel's most famous kings. Solomon was King David's son who inherited his father's throne. He was the obvious choice for his title. Solomon's wisdom is still referred to today. He wrote several books of the Old Testament. He was great king, and He loved God. He even built God a temple, which is still famous.

Let's look at some of Solomon's accomplishments listed in 1 Kings 10:24-11:4.

"Now all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. Each man brought his present: articles of silver and gold, garments, armor, spices, horses, and mules, at a set rate year by year. And Solomon gathered chariots and horseman; he had one thousand four hundred horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar trees as abundant as the sycamores which are in the lowland. Also Solomon had horses imported from Egypt cost six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse one hundred and fifty; and thus, through their agents, they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria. But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh; women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites- from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, 'You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.' Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. (NJK)"

This account points out that the things forbidden by God (horses, gold and silver, and wives) were the exact things that Solomon accumulated. These things were symbols of earthly power. Other kingdoms would admire Solomon's greatness based on these aspects. However, he failed, because his heart was drawn away from the things of God.

I want to make a tangent statement right now. I've heard some quote the passage from Deuteronomy to mean that interracial marriages are forbidden by God, because we're not suppose to marry foreign wives. This is incorrect. The point was to preserve the Hebrew culture from integrating with pagan cultures. These foreign wives would pull them into a culture that God never wanted them to be a part of. For us today, we could marry someone of the same race or ethnicity that can still draw our hearts in the wrong direction. Our personal lifestyles must be preserved to God, and so faith is a more crucial criterion than race or ethnicity.

So how does this apply to me? I don't have much money (even less gold). I definitely don't have horses. My wife will be the first to tell you that I am fortunate to have her. There's no way I could ever have more than one. As is very common in the New Testament, we interpret aspects of the Old Testament in a spiritual context instead of a physical one.

Let's look at what horses, gold, and wives translate to us. In Psalms 33:17 says, "A horse is a vain hope for safety; neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. (NKJ)" The horse represents false securities in our life. Gold represents what the New Testament refers to as the pride of life or the lusts of this world: materialism, greed, power. Finally, wives refer to the lusts of the flesh.

If we are not careful, if we become complacent, we will be like Solomon. We will build in our lives false hopes, as the Psalms say have no strength. For example, some people depend on intelligence rather than on God. This is an example of a horse. Even though intelligence is a great blessing, our dependence should by with what God can do and not on our own strength. John Bevere has an excellent teaching on this entitled "Fit to be Chosen".

If we are not careful, we will build up our gold. Greed can easily influence us. And any guy can tell you, that if we are not careful, lusts will reach for our hearts. Before we know it, our hearts are in the wrong place.

So how do we avoid this? Is it inevitable? I think a dating scenario can provide a simple solution. If you're in a dating relationship and you don't continually build that relationship, the relationship starts to dry up. You have to be with someone in order to develop that connection. The same applies to God.

We need to spend time with God, not in routine, not trying to punch our time card, but out of a genuine desire to develop a relationship with God. This is how we can avoid complacency.

Note that Solomon did not purposely betray his God, but he was slowly and subtly subdued into following false gods. Complacency is subtle, and even devotionals can provide an avenue for it. We have to be watchful for complacency.

As usual, Jesus puts it best in John 15:4-8.

"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples."