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Spiritual Risk
Abstract
Risk is one of the most inevitable factors for all people and depending on the type of risk, the
impacts are always detrimental. A risk is simply a situation that involves an individual being
exposed to danger, loss, or harm. In simple terms, it is the possibility of something bad
happening and often involves uncertainty about the implications or effects of the occurrence.
There are various types of risks that people are exposed to daily. However, this discussion looks
in-depth into the issue of spiritual risk, which is one of the rarest phenomena. The discussion also
examines the issue of spiritual risk through the lens of King Solomon, a biblical King in the book
of 1st Kings. The discussion will identify some of the spiritual risks that King Solomon was faced
with and the impact that they had on his personal life, leadership as well as kingdom. The
discussion aims to merge the theories of spiritual and risk components while evaluating the
effectiveness of King Solomon as it pertains to risk management. The discussion considers the
issue of spiritual risk in its historical and practical component giving one an opportunity to
consider risk at a more personal level.
Introduction
According to the Hebrew Bible as well as the Old Testament, King Solomon was the third king
of Israel, having succeeded his father, King David. He was the second child of King David and
Bathsheba, Uriah’s widow. According to the scriptures, Solomon was born as a peace offering
between David and God, after David had an adulterous relationship with Bathsheba. David had
ordered the killing of Uriah during a battle making it easy for him to marry Bathsheba. However,
the first child they conceived died seven days after birth and David saw this as a punishment
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from God for his adultery. Upon the death of King David, Solomon was anointed as King to take
over in leading Israel. According to biblical research and scholarly literature, God fulfilled His
blessing by providing Solomon with great wisdom to administer justice and rule Israel. Leaders
from various parts of the world such as the Queen of Sheba visited him to see if she could live up
to the reputation of King Solomon (Bodner and Strawn, 2020).
He not only accumulated wealth for Israel through his wisdom but also ensured that the nation
was safe. He built a temple for the Lord and continued to expand and flourish. However, King
Solomon was a victim of spiritual risk that affected his reign and eventually led to his downfall.
He chose to follow his ways and wisdom rather than the divine calling from God which
accelerated his downfall. He became disobedient to God and this became a major weakness for
him and his kingdom. Despite the wisdom he had, his actions went significantly against the will
of God (Bodner and Strawn, 2020). therefore, this research will prove that King Solomon failed
to manage his risks, and rather than managing the risks he encountered or created, he ended up
avoiding them. This was not only the beginning of his downfall but it accelerated the fall which
affected the whole nation of Israel. The definition of spiritual risk is correlated with his story to
better understand its impacts. The discussion also provides recommendations and risk practices
that can be implemented by organizations and businesses to come up with an effective risk
management plan.
Spiritual Risk Definition
As previously noted, risk is simply defined as an uncertainty that has its consequences. Risks
tend to have a potential gain if there is merit in these consequences but produce losses and carry
costs if they are negative. These uncertainties combined with the consequences prompt an
individual to come up with decisions or put some effort into evaluating them and making
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decisions on what to do. Therefore, spiritual risks can be defined as these specific uncertainties
that relate to membership into the body of Christ and calling with a consequence. They are
simply the obstacles and challenges that people face in their efforts to keep up with the word of
God or have the needed fellowship with the Holy Spirit. In most cases, faith remains the only
thing that people are certain of. For instance, the bible records in the Book of Hebrews 11 that
faith is simply the assurance of the things that we hope for as well as the conviction of the things
that we are yet to see (New International Version Bible, 2011). It simply means that faith is the
only thing that people can rely on and they are certain of which means that when it comes to
membership and calling, people can have that certainty. The scriptural book of Ephesians also
urges people to walk in a manner that is worthy of this calling which means that people have a
sense of certainty in membership and calling in the sense of community and self. Just as it is with
risk, the consequence of this is either heaven for those who follow their membership to the body
of Christ and calling effectively and hell for those who fail to do so.
Christians tend to focus on the idea that God controls everything and has their future guaranteed.
This means that they always put their trust and confidence in Him building their expectations
around their belief in God. Christians take risks armed with these beliefs such as launching
businesses as they have the confidence that with Him everything will go well provided it is
aligned with the will of God (Menking, 2017). However, whenever Christians go against the will
of God, it becomes a major spiritual risk that they take that lead to their downfall. The Bible
urges Christians to always trust God and never lean on their understanding. This means that
whenever Christians walk away from this, it becomes one negative consequence of such risks
which contributes to their downfall. On the other hand, fear is considered to be one positive and
negative motivator of Christians taking spiritual risks (Benz, 2016). Commonly, most of them
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tend to ignore or avoid the risks as a way of escaping the pain that comes with it rather than
working on approaching it head-on. Christians tend to run away from the fact that risks can
either elevate them if aligned with the will of God or break them if it is away from God’s will.
Therefore, spiritual risks are simply the kind of risks that prevent people from achieving their
highest level of output aligned with the will of God. They are simply the risks that come with
uncertainties and consequences that contribute to their downfall especially when not managed in
an effective or godly manner.
Spiritual Risks Related to King Solomon’s Reign
King Solomon’s reign was filled with both negative and positive examples of spiritual risks that
had their consequences. For instance, in the book of 1st Kings 3: 16-28, King Solomon solved a
case of two women who came to him with two babies, one dead and one alive. However, both
women claimed that the living child was theirs and he had to make a decision that would help
solve the case (New International Version Bible, 2011). King Solomon had to take a spiritual risk
to decide the real mother of the child. He asked that the living child be split into two and both
mothers given half of the child’s body. The reactions of the mothers helped King Solomon
determine the real mother of the child. This was a risk he took because he never knew the two
women nor did he know what the outcome of his risk would be. However, this earned him
respect throughout the nation and the world. Similarly, King Solomon took a spiritual risk by
building the first temple in Jerusalem which united the Israelites greatly and brought him respect
and admiration from other rulers. This was also pleasing before God and blessings continued to
follow him (Bodner and Strawn, 2020). Other spiritual risks that King Solomon took and those
which would be considered positive include showing great praise and respect for God as
recorded in the book of 1st Kings 8;23 and bringing several petitions before God for the sake of
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his country as recorded in the book of 1st Kings 8:31-54. These were some of the things that he
did that aligned to the will of God making him a highly successful King.
However, King Solomon would later make choices and take risks that would affect his reign and
lead to his eventual downfall. These were choices and decisions that were selfish and those
affected the relationship that he had with God. For instance, he took the risk of marrying seven
hundred wives and three hundred concubines who swayed his heart from the will of God. Most
of these were Canaanite women and those who turned their hearts into the worship of idols. He
ended up building a palace that was lavish for thirteen years compared to the time he had taken
to build the temple. He also built a high place for the god of Moab, Chemosh, on a hill towards
the eastern part of Jerusalem. He also built temples for the gods of ammonites as recorded in the
book of 1st Kings 11. Despite the wisdom that he had, his disobedience to God was his ultimate
downfall (New International Version Bible, 2011). The kingdom of Israel was taken from him
and given to his subordinates marking the end of the unified Israel. Looking at this, King
Solomon was given a kingdom to govern, but because of his poor choices and decisions led to its
downfall. He knew that he swayed from the earlier covenant he had with God of following his
father’s footsteps in worshipping God and getting rid of idol gods from Israel. However, instead
of mitigating these risks and going back to the will of God, he continued to disobey Him and this
ended up having detrimental consequences on him. These are spiritual risks that affected his
relationship with God and eventually affected his professional and personal life in the end
(Friedman, 2019).
Conclusion
King Solomon is a demonstration of how a lack of proper risk management practice could lead to
the eventual downfall of an organization or an entity. According to the risk aversion theory,
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leaders ought to identify specific risks within their areas of leadership that would affect the well-
being and outcome of the organizations or entities they lead. They are then expected to come up
with strategies to minimize these risks and address them head-on rather than avoid them. This
also applies to spiritual risks where people are required to identify specific risks that affect their
relationship with God and come up with ways of dealing with them to continually align with the
good and perfect will of God (Friedman, 2019).
Recommendations
People should put their trust and confidence in the Lord as they prepare to take any risk. They
should also ensure that these risks align with the good and perfect will of the Lord to prevent
their downfall. King David in his words according to the book of 1st Chronicles 28:20
encouraged his son, King Solomon, to trust in the Lord because He was with him in his role as
the new king of Israel. He required Solomon to rely on God’s knowledge and guidance for He
would not forsake him. Therefore, we should always work to put our faith and confidence in the
Lord as we take any risks (Benz, 2016). Also, we should have faith in God to approach these
risks and deal with them rather than avoid them as a way of ensuring that we do not encounter
negative consequences. This way, it will become easy to excel and succeed according to the will
of God.
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References:
Benz, B. C. (2016). The Ethics of the Fall: Restoring the Divine Image through the Pursuit of
Biblical Wisdom.FBiblical theology bulletin,F46(4), 191-199
https://doi.org/10.1177/0146107916664054
Bodner, K., & Strawn, B. A. (2020). Solomon and 666 (Revelation 13.18).FNew Testament
Studies,F66(2), 299-312 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0028688519000523
Friedman, H. H., & Friedman, L. W. (2019). What went wrong? Lessons in leadership from
Solomon, the Bible’s wisest and worst ruler.FFriedman, HH and Friedman, LW (2019).
What Went Wrong, 1-20 https://doi.org/10.22543/0733.121.1237
Menking, S. (2017). King Solomon: Wisdom for modern leaders.FStudies in Language and
Culture,F62.
New International Version Bible (2011). The NIV Bible https://www.thenivbible.com (Original
work published 1978)
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