PRESCRIPTION FOR SUCCESS
King Solomon presided over the nation of Israel at its glorious best. ‘King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. All the kings of the earth sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. Year after year, everyone who came brought gift- articles of silver and gold, and robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules’ (2Chronicles 9:22-24). Solomon’s prescription for success is found in the book of Proverbs and is surprisingly uni-dimensional.
‘He who pursues righteousness and love, finds life, prosperity and honor.—–There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord. The horse is made ready for battle, but the victory rests with the Lord.’ (Proverbs 21:21,30, 31)
Solomon was convinced that God created this universe and all the laws that govern it. It follows then that He has a plan for this world and all the movements of this world. However, man has been given a free will with which he can choose to either align or oppose God and His plans. The former will bring success, the latter failure.
Pursuing righteousness and love refers to pursuing God and His ways. God is the epitome of righteousness and love and neither of these can truly exist without God. ‘Love’ in contrast to the commonly understood definition, is much more than feelings or sacrificial actions, it goes to the very heart of who God is and what defines Him.
The natural inclination of man is to oppose God and rebel against Him. And so man attempts his very best to conceive wisdom that can do away with God, arguments that try to nullify the relevance of God and plans that stand in opposition to God. Man is born with a sinful nature and to acknowledge God is to go against his natural inclinations. He would need to stoop low, humble himself and recognize his unworthiness to even begin to see that God could be a possibility. However, once he does that, God becomes real, Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross a precious gift and salvation a possibility. Salvation itself needs to be seen as an aligning of the temporal man with the eternal nature of God and this alignment that takes man to eternity also brings success to man while on this earth.
The horse is made ready for battle. Man has been given a leadership role in this world. There is no truly autocratic ruler. Every leadership role comes with a need to be accountable to someone. Even the President of a country is accountable to his people, and a monarch to his family and subjects. While man has been given leadership in this world, he needs to be accountable to God and depend on God. His job is to make the horse ready for battle. He is not given the luxury of sitting back and being a mere spectator, but needs to work hard and get things done. People around him, the job he has, his family, the society he lives in and the world around him- all depend on man’s initiative and effort. But he also needs to depend on God and be led by God toward victory.
Solomon’s prescription for success is one that does not come naturally to man but certainly can be emulated.
