READING: 1 Kings 10-11, Luke 21:20-38
“And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David, and his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.”
1 Kings 11:43
I tell my seminary students, “How you finish is more important than how you start.” I want them to know that thought when they struggle as students, for many of them will improve through the years and finish better. More importantly, I encourage them to remember those words when they leave a ministry to begin serving in another one. If they leave a ministry poorly – perhaps by getting angry or disappointed with the church – that’s the way a congregation will remember them. They could have dropped out of heaven at the beginning of their ministry, but the church will still remember only their bad departure. Ending poorly can overshadow years of victory and success.
That reality can happen, too, when the latter years of our lives are displeasing to God. So we learned today with the painful account of the end of King Solomon’s life. God had given him wisdom and blessings, but the king still rejected God’s standards and married hundreds of women. While many of these marriages were probably for political reasons, Solomon nevertheless “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully” (1 Kgs. 11:6). He allowed foreign women to influence him wrongly, and he became an open idolater who lost his kingdom because of his sin. His ending was so tragic that it’s hard to fathom how far down he had gone since his reign had begun.
I am reminded again in today’s reading that all of us are susceptible to ending poorly. Lust for power and pleasure can take us only into disaster, regardless of how strongly we had committed our lives to God. Frankly, I know enough church leaders who chased their lusts and ended their ministries poorly that texts like these strike me with trepidation. And, they drive me to my knees – which is exactly where God wants me to be.
ACTION STEPS:
- Thank God each day that you live in victory for Him.
- Pray for your church staff, particularly praying that they will finish well.
PRAYER: “God, help me to be faithful to the end.”
TOMORROW’S READING: 1 Kings 12-13, Luke 22:1-30