"But Solomon loved many strange women ... the LORD said, ... 'Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods' Solomon clave unto these in love ... and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father." I Kings 11:1-4
After a study on the life of Joab piqued my interest, I have been working my way through the Old Testament over the past few months. I've spent the last few months in I & II Samuel, now onto I Kings. It's been amazing to me how sin affects our behaviors. I often found myself muttering out loud at the stupid things that King David did, but in all that, his heart was almost always right before God. When it wasn't, he took rebuke from those around him and made things right. God Himself said that David was a man after God's own heart.
Solomon, on the other hand, did not have the heart that his father, David, had. Sure, in the beginning it might have been close, but as he got older, it wasn't. Things started out well for him. God gave him incredible wisdom, incredible wealth, and because he was a man of peace (unlike his father), God allowed Solomon to build the temple in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, he disobeyed God's commandments against marrying foreign women.
God doesn't tell us stuff just for the sake of saying it, He always has a reason! He told Solomon not to take foreign wives because they would turn his heart from God. Solomon did it anyway ... 700 times! Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines (mistresses) who worshiped other gods. Slowly but surely, they whittled away at his love for God and turned his heart. He built altars and temples to his wives' gods all over his land. Before he knew it, his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God.
How easy is it for the same thing to happen to us? God actually physically talked to Solomon and he had his heart turned from God! What do we have in our lives that will turn our hearts from the Lord? In this day and age that we live in, there is so much that is vying for our devotion - tv, music, movies, facebook, friends.
I want to be like David, with a pure heart. I don't want things to pull me away from God!
"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139:23-24
"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength and my redeemer." Psalm 19:14
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