Year 1, Day 352: 1 Kings 11

Closing the Book

Today we get to close the book on Solomon.  The first 8 verses of this passage is clear about several things.  First, it was his many foreign wives who turned his heart away from God.  Second, his heart was not fully the Lord’s.  Third, he valued the desires of his wives more than God’s desires.

The Value of a Spouse

Let’s start with the first point.  Over the past week I’ve made reference time and time again with Solomon’s foreign wives.  We’ve heard that God didn’t want His people marrying foreign women.  But let me be clear about this.  This commandment wasn’t a racial prejudice.  God isn’t saying that the only spouses good enough for a Hebrew person is another person with Hebrew genetics.  We know this isn’t true based on the patriarchs and early Hebrew people.  Joseph married an Egyptian.  Moses married a non-Hebrew.  Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all married non-Hebrew women, although we can say that their wives did come from their own people.  Boaz, a grandparent of David, married a Moabite.  Clearly God is not prejudiced against non-Hebrews.

What is going on here has everything to do with turning the hearts of the Hebrews away from God.  Right there is the key to the whole issue.  God doesn’t want His people turning to other gods – much less away from Him!  In all the examples listed above where a Hebrew righteously married a non-Hebrew, the non-Hebrew spouse did not hinder the faith of the Hebrew.  In fact, in a number of cases the spouse actually helped bring the spouse closer to God!

I can’t make enough of this point.  When I was young, my parents impressed upon me the importance of marrying a believer in Christ.  I didn’t have the maturity to understand the significance of this point, and as such I dated some girls who had great faith and other girls who had little faith.  I feel incredibly fortunate to have married a woman of faith who can support me when I am weak rather than pull me away from God.  Of all the attributes I looked for in a wife, none of them has turned out as important as the faith of my spouse.  Yes, I think she’s beautiful.  Yes, I value her ability to think for herself and her thirst for knowledge.  Yes, she has a great personality.  But above all those characteristics it is awesome to have a faithful spouse who can point me to God and God’s ways when I am down.  This is such an important point and a point worth bringing out as we close the book on Solomon.

Our Heart, Not Our Sin

The next point that this passage is clear about was that his heart was not fully committed to the Lord as was his father David.  Note that this is said more than once, even!  We should be careful to note that this is not a commentary on sinfulness.  David had sin; Solomon had sin.  So we should not think that just because we sin we are not the Lord’s.

Rather, what this means is that Solomon is not focused on repentance when He sinned.  David sinned, but he was contrite.  Solomon sinned and did not turn to God.  Therein lies the difference.  As Christians we should always evaluate ourselves not on our perfection, but our willingness to be contrite and humble with respect to our sinfulness.

Pleasing Others

The third point of these first 8 verses really comes out of the second point.  Solomon builds the worship places that his many wives want.  In that, Solomon proves that he is more interested in pleasing the desires of his wives than the desires of God.  This is a dangerous pattern of behavior.  When we seek to please the desires of others instead of pleasing God, we are in trouble.

Solomon’s Adversaries

So the Lord raised up a host of adversaries against Solomon.  Note how many of these adversaries had ties to David’s sin.  No doubt Solomon learned his love of women from David, so it is fitting that God raised up adversaries from David’s other sinful acts to come against Solomon.  What can we learn here?  We can learn that God does not hold the sins of the father against the faithful son.  But to the son who learns the sinfulness of the father, he can expect generational trouble to come his way.

Yet, God remembers His promise to David.  God does not strip away the whole kingdom.  God continues to remind the people that if they simply are faithful to His ways then He will be with them.  In spite of Solomon’s turning away from the Lord, God still puts the offer of faithfulness onto the table. 

So it is with all of us.  Regardless of the sinfulness (or faithfulness) of our family we can find God’s promise.  Regardless of the sinfulness (or faithfulness) of our community we can find the promise of God if we come to Him and His ways.  Regardless of the sinfulness (or faithfulness) of our nation we can find God’s promise if we come to Him and His ways.

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