Perhaps no one on earth was ever as blessed as Solomon was. The Lord had visited him twice and Solomon’s genuine heart’s desire was to serve the Lord in faithfulness with a heart as his father David’s heart. The Lord was so greatly pleased at this request that He gave Solomon everything that he asked for and didn’t ask for. Solomon did not ask for the life of his enemies, long life for himself, riches, or fame…but God gave them to him anyways. Yet sin so subtly creeps into our hearts and distracts us from God’s intention for our lives. Many times it comes when we no longer adhere to His Word as we did before. The Bible says in our reading for today that Solomon loved many foreign women—however God’s Word said that the Israelites were not to marry foreign women so that their hearts would not be turned away from the Lord.
Why would Solomon marry one thousand women, many of them foreign? Were there not enough women in Israel? Were 900 not enough? Likely the reason was political: if Solomon married these women, then some sort of alliance would be formed with the countries from which they came, thus ensuring peace. The strategy of this is alluring, but deadly for Solomon for a few different reasons. First, sin often puts on a pretty face! If sin were ugly, then no one would ever go near it! The temptation is the mask that sin wears to seduce you into its grasp. Falling into any kind of sin is not forced…it is a seduction to covet something that you have become convinced you either want or need that God won’t provide for you. It is nothing more than a trap that leads farther and farther away from Him. Second, God was to be their peace and their protector, not political alliances with peoples who did not share the same values as God’s people. We cannot be people who put our future, financial freedom, family, health or personal lives in the trust of humanity. At the end of the day humanity is powerless to help us. If you were to count the verses in the Bible and pick the verse that is in the exact center, you would find Psalm 118:8 which says, “It is better to put confidence in the Lord than to trust in man.” It is no accident that this is at the center—it is the ultimate theme of the Bible: trust God for your provision, life, salvation, and future—not any one or thing else. Third, such alliances were made also because Solomon was grasping for things that God had not given to him. Since when did God ever promise anything outside of the boarders of Israel to Solomon or any other Israelite king? This was the same fatal mistake that Adam and Eve made in the Garden. They became convinced that God was withholding everything that was good from them—so they took it for themselves in rebellion to God. What are the things that we hold too dear to let go? What are the things that we covet with the conviction that God is withholding it from us? What are the things that we tend to grasp for that God has never put in the scope of our life’s calling? We cannot be a people to allow such things to seduce us away from following the Lord with all of our heart, soul, and strength.
Pastor Kyle Bauer
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