My heart goes out to Solomon. First he is chosen to be king. Sounds good but there seems to be a condition attached,
(1Ch 28:10 KJV) Take heed now; for the LORD hath chosen thee to build an house for the sanctuary: be strong, and do it.David leaves Solomon with this tremendous burden. It is not only a charge to build a temple but an expectation that he build it to David’s plans. Solomon got the temple built. He enriched the kingdom. We have examples of his wisdom. We also have a chronicle of him turning from the Lord and walking in the ways he was warned against.
(1Ch 28:11 KJV) Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat,
I wonder if his failure in later life was because of the shackles put on him at the beginning. The burden of living out someone else’s dream can be crippling. How often has a son withered under the dominant dream of a father? How many great men in history have sons that turn out to be useless? It is hard to know but real leadership does not pick out hard tasks and assign them to others. Leadership molds people and establishes conditions that motivate them to stretch and achieve.
We need more motivators and fewer people willing to assign work to others.
homo unius libri