The Secret of Solomon
Isn’t it interesting to know that the Lord appeared to Solomon twice to tell him He has answered his prayers? The first time, the Lord had gave him a blank cheque to ‘Ask what I shall give thee’ (Anything, just anything). 1Kg. 3:5. The second time, ‘… the LORD appeared to Solomon as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon, And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me …’ 1Kg. 9:2-3. Read more
What could make God to be so impressed with Solomon to appear to him two times? Has God appeared to you before consequent upon your prayers? Have you prayed through like this before to the extent that God personally appear to you to give you a blank cheque? If God were to tell you ‘ask what I shall give thee’, what would you ask?
Usually, God sends Angels to give answers to people’s request (Dan. 10:12) but this time, God came down PERSONALLY to answer Solomon. What type of prayer did he pray that God could not just ignore? We will soon find out. But first, we must realize that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). If you do what Solomon did, God will do what He did with Solomon. If you do more, God will do more.
Isn’t this a contrast to James 4:3 that says: we ask and receive not because we ask amiss? Countless millions pray daily without answer to their prayers. Perhaps you fall into this category. We will be looking at one of the many types of prayers God cannot ignore and that is the type of prayer Solomon prayed.
At the first time, ‘…the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar’ (1Kg. 3:5).
The second time, ‘Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings … two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD. 1Kg. 8:63.
Do you see the type of prayer Solomon prayed? A prayer of sacrifice! First time, Solomon sacrificed 1,000 sheep as offerings to God. How much do you think 1000 rams could cost in your local currency? Perhaps not a small amount, multiply that by one thousand! Waow! Isn’t that marvelous? In one single sweep! He did it not because he had or that he was ‘bribing’ God, but because he loved God.
Perhaps you had made that kind of sacrifice before but nothing did happen. Well, God always look at the motive behind it. Maybe you did it as an investment strategy. You had been told in a church or crusade or you read it in a book to do that because plenty will come. That is a wrong motive. ‘God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth, so shall he reap’. Your motive is primarily to rob God and will a man rob God? Although, your action is right, but the motive is selfish. It is for you, not for God. It’s like a man who feeds his fowls well. Is it not so that they can be big enough to eat? It is to self, not unto Him. He will not share His glory!
But God will always honour a type of sacrifice with a broken and a contrite heart. God tore heaven for Solomon’s sake. Perhaps that was the first of its kind and the whole of heaven stood still and was ‘disturbed’ with the aroma! 1000 sheep for a single sacrifice! God didn’t send any angel, He came down personally. You know the result: ‘So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom’1Kg. 10:23.
Solomon again, at another time sacrificed 22,000 bulls and 120,000 sheep! Ah! Isn’t that incredulous, yet it is true! Again, God came down personally!
Do you want God to come down personally on your behalf? Do what Solomon did. Pray a prayer of sacrifice. Your prayers are too much of promises; ‘If you do this, I will do this’. Leave what you can’t do and do what you can (Eccl. 5:4). No empty promises! Give what you can afford. There is something you can give to God that will be a sacrifice. David said ‘I will not give unto God that which costs me nothing’ (2Sam. 24:24). But you give to God left-overs. Your offering in the church is the change you collected from taxi or the bread vendour, tartared, mutilated and smelling, yet you drop it in the offering bowl. That rejected money is the one you dispose of in the bowl. There are dresses you haven’t used for over 6months now yet you wont give out. The shoe you wore in the 60s are there, rotten. Someone could’ve been grateful eternally if you gave it. Until you release what you have, you can’t get what you need.
Let me ask you this serious question: apart from your tithe and offering, (that is if you are even faithful in that, anyway) how often do you give to the work of God? Is it sacrificial? How then do you think God can personally intervene in your matter? Remember the widow of Zarepath. If she held on to her morsel of bread, she would have died with her son, but she sacrificed it and lived (1Kg. 17:10). What she did was more than giving. It is sacrifice; holy and acceptable unto God which is a reasonable service. The sacrifice is not what you give but what is left. You have stayed too long at the level of giving: God expects you to move up the ladder. ‘The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart’. Ps. 51:7. It must be broken. It is in the ‘breaking’ that the acceptance is. Jesus broke his body and shared it with His disciples. (Mat. 26:26). ‘He that goeth forth and WEEPETH, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him’ Ps. 126:6. Yes, it makes weep, but at the end it’s rejoicing!
There is no love without giving although there may be giving without love (Jn. 3:16). If you love God, you will give to Him.
Even Satan require sacrifices from his subjects, how much more God. God is far too lenient with us. Who could go to Satan’s shrine without a sacrifice? Nobody dares it, not even his priests. But we go to His house empty handed. Satan, at times, requires human sacrifice, that is if he did not require the head of the person himself. But the Lord is gracious; He does not require from you what he has not given you.
There is something you have that if given to God as a sacrifice, the heavens will stand still. Everybody has something to sacrifice. The reason why we don’t do it is because of the pain. Sacrifice is painful, but we must endure just like Jesus did. ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’ Phil. 2:6-11.
Jesus made Himself of no reputation. He endured the cross, despised the shame, humbled Himself, became obedient, even unto death. To crown it all, He laid down his life! What greater sacrifice can there be than this? Because of this, God exalted His name.
Look at Solomon’s father, David. He gave God a ‘dance sacrifice’. He danced so much that even his wife wondered of he had forgotten that he was a king. It was a ridiculous dance, but for God. Apparently God was pleased! David told his wife: ‘I am dancing to God that preferred me more than your father’! Waow! Isn’t that something? Because she took offence in that which God was pleased in, she became barren, the only woman barren in the Bible. God is a jealous God! Give Him a sacrifice and watch your enemies silenced before Him! If you don’t do the ridiculous, the miraculous cannot happen. If it doesn’t pain you, it cannot affect the heavens. If it is not foolish, it cannot feeling. ‘Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men… But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are ‘ 1Cor. 1:27-28.
How easy do you think it is for God to sacrifice His Son, his only son? Even God sacrificed! Or how easy do you think it is for His Son to sacrifice His Life, His only Life. Then you are not exempted. The first sacrifice is your life, your only life! You must sacrifice it, pour it out for God. No wonder Paul rebuked the church at Jerusalem when they were weeping for him: ‘What mean ye to weep and to\ break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus’ Acts 21:13. Allelujah! He knew the secret: ‘For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it’ Mk. 8:35.
Solomon sacrificed 22,00 bulls and 120,000 sheep! How many people will kill it, for how many days? How long will they cut and where? It must have disturbed even the earth before it disturbed the heaven and God came down personally. If you want God to come down personally on your behalf, you’ve got to do the ridiculous!
God asked Abraham to sacrifice ‘your son, your only son, whom thou lovest’ (Gen. 22:2). Why didn’t he ask him to sacrifice Ishmael, but the one he lovest? God wants the best in your life not left overs. That thing that you love! That is why you must be careful about attachments (mammon). Whatever God sees your heart is attached to too much, He will ask for it in sacrifice. He is a jealous God. Let nothing be too big that you cannot lose. Let there be no sacred cows in your life that you cannot give out. Cars, houses, time, money, possession, etc. Whatever you cannot give to God is the god of your life.
The rich young ruler could not sacrifice to God because he had great possession. Don’t posses what you cannot dispose. It will be a god, an idol to you, a snare unto you as it was with Solomon in the latter part of his life. He had 1000 women and they turned his heart away from the Lord. One woman is even enough to do this let alone 1000!
You have prayed too many empty prayers and that is why nothing has happened. Will you back up your prayer with sacrifice? Oh, did I discern you thinking of what you have that you can sacrifice? Plenty! Your talent and gift: use it for Him. Spend your most valuable time for Him – that’s a sacrifice! Go out and distribute tracts if you are ashamed to preach in the bus or other public places for his glory. Give a handsome of your resources to the course of the gospel (not your tithe and offering). Give a special gift, a very special one to God that which costs you something. Back up your prayers with sacrifice.
‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground. and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Jn. 12:24
Except that seed in your hand dies, it will not bring forth fruits. Let that seed die. Put it in the ground by yourself. That is sacrifice. Plant seed not bread. Seed has much more value than bread, but you cannot eat it, it must be planted. It belongs to the ground not your mouth! Don’t eat it. Solomon knew this. He lavished God with the best he could afford and he went to sleep. Suddenly, God appeared to him and gave him a black cheque. If you will do the same, God will do the same. He is no respecter of persons.
But in all these, you must be a Jew, a spiritual Jew, before God can accept any of your sacrifices, i.e. you must have lost your life and give it over to Jesus. You, in turn, take up His own life so that the life you now live is no longer your life but the life of Jesus. It’s only then, that you will be able to make acceptable sacrifices unto God. That is the secret of Solomon! Try it.