Whose Monument Are You Building?

Consider these two contrasting stories..


Story1:
1 Samuel 15 (New International Version)

1 Samuel 15
The LORD Rejects Saul as King
1 Samuel said to Saul, "I am the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the LORD. 2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy [a] everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.' "
4 So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telaim—two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men from Judah. 5 Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine. 6 Then he said to the Kenites, "Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt." So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.

7 Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, to the east of Egypt. 8 He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. 9 But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves [b] and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.

10 Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel: 11 "I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions." Samuel was troubled, and he cried out to the LORD all that night.

12 Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, "Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal."
(source:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%2015;&version=31;)

Story2:
1 Kings 5 (New International Version)

1 Kings 5
Preparations for Building the Temple
1 When Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king to succeed his father David, he sent his envoys to Solomon, because he had always been on friendly terms with David. 2 Solomon sent back this message to Hiram:
3 "You know that because of the wars waged against my father David from all sides, he could not build a temple for the Name of the LORD his God until the LORD put his enemies under his feet. 4 But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or disaster. 5 I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the LORD my God, as the LORD told my father David, when he said, 'Your son whom I will put on the throne in your place will build the temple for my Name.'

1 Kings 6
Solomon Builds the Temple
1 In the four hundred and eightieth [a] year after the Israelites had come out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the LORD.
(source:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=11&chapter=5&version=31&context=chapter)

Both are stories of the two kings of Israel. Both are chosen by God to carry on His will.One though decided to 'twist' God's word and followed only about half of it. The other one followed it with great detail and care. It's amazes me to note that Saul was given a very specific instruction but failed to comply. Solomon on the other hand was given only a goal but accomplished it very well.What made the difference?

I believe the answer lies on the character behind these two personalities. If I were Saul, as a newly appointed king i would be thinking like , "wow im the king. The people must respect me and look up to me. I should be nice, i should make myself known to other nations, i will build alliances...". In the end I ended up having objectives not aligned with God and disobeying his words. Im too consumed for being the 'me'. I even build a monument for myself.

In constrast I could choose to be like Solomon. Given the choice of having wealth,honor, and long life he decided to be focused on the objective--to lead a nation towards God. Unlike Saul, Solomon was not busy building and image for himself. Instead he decided to go after building a nation for God. To this end he built a house where God can live with his people, ever bringing God's presence into the Israelite community.

Now going back to the present time. Of course we are not kings, but we are given the same choices. We can decide to trustingly follow God's word or decide to follow only what we think is right. We can decide to build a monument/image of ourselves, or we can decide to build God's temple. WE can choose to lead people to like use and look up on us, or we can choose to lead them towards God. We can choose what to build.

The encouraging thing is that it is not an either or choice. Saul choose to build his own image first and ended up losing it all, but Solomon's choice of building up God's nation won him God's favor and He gave him other things as well. Not that hard of a choice, right?