“As for you, if you will live in my presence, as did David your father, in pureness of heart and uprightness, doing everything I have ordered you to do, and observing my laws and rulings; then I will establish the throne of your rulership over Israel forever, just as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You will never lack a man on the throne of Israel.” – Isaiah 1:18
One of the main themes of this chapter is simple:
BEHAVIOR MATTERS, HOMIE!
From verses 4 through 9, the Lord makes clear 2 things.
If Solomon and His people are obedient to the Torah, they will be blessed.
If they are not obedient, they will be cursed.
And one of the terrible curses will be exile from the land and the Lord withdrawing His presence from the Temple.
Israel would also be looked upon with scorn by the nations.
The Lord delivers 4 non-negotiable conditions to Solomon as follows:
FIRST, Solomon must live in Adonai’s Presence.
This means being submissive to the Lord and obeying His commands.
SECOND, Solomon must uphold himself as a righteous king with purity in his heart.
We’re talking about obeying the Lord’s commands with a sincere heart.
Not just going through the motions for the heck of it.
THIRD, Solomon must actually obey the commands and not just pay lip service to doing so.
I’d say this is the biggest sin of the Christian church right here.
They say they love and worship God, but then they throw His Torah right in the trash, while happily praying over food the Messiah would never eat, and celebrating holidays no Jewish believer would ever observe.
FOURTH, we’re told Solomon must obey all the statutes, ordinances, and commands of God.
There are specific Hebrew terms for each of these words.
They are CHOQ, MISHPAT, and MITZVOT.
Together they form all the Lord’s rules when it comes to ritual purity and how to live a moral life.
Now it may seem like the Lord is imposing these conditions upon Solomon individually.
That’s not exactly true.
These conditions are all about how the Lord will deal with Israel as a nation.
Since Israel is a monarchy at this time, its national leadership is represented by one person: the King.
That’s why the Lord is presenting these conditions to Solomon.
But they apply to the whole nation.
So what is the big promise the Lord gives Solomon if he is diligent in keeping these conditions?
The promise is that the Lord guarantees a ruler from Solomon’s line will always sit on the throne.
One thing not to forget is that David had many sons through his multiple wives and concubines.
This means that to this day there are numerous family branches from the line of David alive and well today.
So just as God chose Aaron from the line of Levi, and then afterward his son Eleazar to be the line of the High Priests, that’s exactly what he established for Solomon.
However, this royal perpetuity was conditional.
If Solomon wanted to make sure a descendant of his always sat on his throne…
He and his people would have to keep those 4 “ifs” I just went over.
Ya feel me?
And that leads to your takeaway for today.
I wanna make this personal to you.
Go ahead and review the 4 conditions we just went over.
And then ask yourself…
“How can I apply these to my life?”
Seriously, do it.
Then ask yourself what blessings you have forfeited for not being diligent in your obedience.
And what blessings you can look forward to if you are obedient.
Go ahead and do it.
I think this exercise will cause you to seriously reflect on your relationship with the Lord.
I’ll leave it at that for today.
Leave a Reply