God had appeared to Solomon at the beginning of his reign (I Kings 1:5-15), and now appeared to him a second time, after Solomon had built the temple and the palace in Jerusalem (9:2-9). We should note, then, that Solomon did not experience “visions” on a regular basis; like us, he may have prayed often, but only had a small number of occasions in which he heard God’s response in a detailed, articulate way.

As we have seen many times before, God had both blessings and warnings to offer. The blessing was this: “If you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David” (9:4-5). And the warning was this: “If you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut Israel off from the land that I have given them; and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight; and Israel will become a proverb and a taunt among all peoples. This house will become a heap of ruins” (9:6-9).

This often seems harsh to people, as if God were terribly self-centered in insisting on our devotion, under penalty of severe displeasure if we fail to offer it. Actually, though, it turns out that we can only enjoy living in the presence of the Lord by living in the presence of the Lord; we can only walk with God by walking with God. If we instead decide to walk our hearts away from God’s presence, we no longer get to experience it.

Some three centuries later, when the remnant of the people of Judah had been deported to Babylon to work as slaves, they would have opportunity to ponder on these words God spoke to Solomon: they had indeed been cut off from the land of Israel, and the temple had become a heap of ruins, for their failure to keep the word of the Lord.

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Teach us, O Lord, to live as your people in the way you intend. We are not good at listening; we are not good at following your will. Protect us from our own arrogance, of thinking the way we want to go will be better than the path you have chosen for us.