Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Ambition
- Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive. When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus. But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.
David has
retired; Solomon steps into leadership.
We see very clearly where Solomon begins. He has indeed heard the message that David
set before him. God made David great and
Solomon realizes that it is God who will make him great, too. In a deft move, once David is dead Solomon
goes to God and shows humbleness before Him.
When
Solomon is before God, God tells him that He will grant any request because of
His love and grace. Solomon has the
opportunity to ask for anything. What is
his ambition? At a young age, Solomon
shows maturity. Solomon asks that he
should be given wisdom so that he can rule well. He wants the ability to serve the people well
so that things will go well.
While
this is an awesome place to start, notice that the Chronicler doesn’t let us
stay there. Quickly, the Chronicler
starts to move us to Solomon’s wealth.
Solomon focuses on gold and silver.
Soon Solomon is focusing upon horses – and remember that God prohibited the
Hebrew for focusing on horses because He knew it would tie the Hebrew people
back to Egypt. Then Solomon focuses on
implements of war like chariots.
I think
the Chronicler’s point is pretty obvious.
We can have moments of brilliant humbleness before God in our life. But it is hard as a sinful human being to
stay there. Soon we find ourselves being
swayed by the things of the world. We
find ourselves caring about power, wealth, popularity, and other things. We will have grand moments of humble ambition
in our life. But we must be
careful. Our hearts will also turn to
the ambitious pursuit of other things.
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