“I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you.” (1 Kings 11:11)
Expanded Passage: 1 Kings 11:9-13
Mac and Dick McDonald had a dream. Back in 1950s San Bernardino, California, they opened a fast-food restaurant serving burgers, fries, and shakes, with a side order of honesty and hard work. Then a salesman named Ray Kroc promised to take their dream to a much bigger level if they’d partner with him. Sure enough, McDonald’s restaurants mushroomed into a national and then multinational chain. But the brothers eventually lost corporate control to Kroc and ended with precious little except the ownership of their original McDonald’s restaurant.
The history of David’s dynasty traces a similar arc. David first became king over his home tribe of Judah (2 Sam. 2). He expanded his dominion to the nation of Israel as a whole (2 Sam. 3–5) and his son Solomon built the franchise into an international empire. Solomon’s heir, though, lost control of the organization and wound up retaining not much more than his grandfather’s original realm, the tribal territory of Judah.
Sometimes success goes to our heads and God has to humble us. That’s what happened to Solomon and his son. But that divine discipline gives us a chance to get back to the basics and prove faithful with what remains. Whatever you may have lost, be loyal to God with what’s left. That’s the lesson the McDonald brothers would serve up.
Focus not on past regrets or future ambitions but on today’s duties.
Jerome Van Kuiken is a professor of Christian thought at Oklahoma Wesleyan University and the author of The Judas We Never Knew (Seedbed, 2023).
© 2024 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
