Solomon's Heart Attack

Read 1 Kings 11
 
1 Kings 11:1-6 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh’s daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from among the Hittites. 2 The Lord had clearly instructed the people of Israel, “You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods.” Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway. 3 He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord. 4 In Solomon’s old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the Lord his God, as his father, David, had been. 5 Solomon worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 In this way, Solomon did what was evil in the Lord’s sight; he refused to follow the Lord completely, as his father, David, had done.
 
YOU might say, “Solomon had a heart attack.” His heart seemed to completely stop beating for the LORD God.
   What contrast from 1 Kings 4 declaring the happiness and peace in Israel! You read there of Israel’s glory under a wise ruler. Now we read one of the Bible’s most tragic paragraphs. Solomon’s wisdom left him when it came to women. He heard God’s warnings and deliberately disobeyed. He worshiped idols and religions that killed babies and used temple prostitutes. These horrible cults cut and killed. They annulled the Creator to glorify nature. What manner of lust was in Solomon’s heart that he preferred women to the glorious LORD of hosts? Did he forget his warning to Israel: 1 Kings 8:61 And may you be completely faithful to the Lord our God. May you always obey his decrees and commands, just as you are doing today.” Did he not believe God’s warning: 1 Kings 9:6-7 “But if you or your descendants abandon me and disobey the commands and decrees I have given you, and if you serve and worship other gods, 7 then I will uproot Israel from this land that I have given them. I will reject this Temple that I have made holy to honor my name. I will make Israel an object of mockery and ridicule among the nations. Apparently his wise heart stopped.
   Perhaps Solomon was as many of us; he thought he could have life both ways – his way and God’s way. Is this not sin? “I want.” “God wants.” “Let’s compromise. Surely God won’t mind giving me some of what I want, even if he says it’s wrong.”
   Too many Christians and too many churches today act the same as Solomon. They’ve replaced “God correct” with “politically correct” or “socially correct” and wonder why so many live the wrong way. Despite the Holy Bible’s truth and devoted teachers throughout the ages, there are too many churches who act the worldly fool.
   And a lesson worth repeating is that the sin seldom stops with the sinner. God did as he promised. He removed his blessing from Solomon’s family to come. With a very clear illustration of a divided nation, God plainly spoke rebellion and division into Israel’s future. The nation came to suffer generations of separation, warfare, idolatry and exile. Now the peace is ending and the time of the Prophets is about to begin. Israel will be in deep opposition to God because Solomon neglected God’s warning.
   This is a sad way to leave Solomon. But we can still know God powerfully used this man, his gifts and his reign to demonstrate God’s power on earth. As we look to the many people God used to fulfill his covenant of salvation for us, we praise His Name. We thank God he forgives and forgets our sins as we are faithful to repent and confess. Be diligent to love God as you remain in his commands. John 15:10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
 
Proverbs 6:23-26 For their command is a lamp and their instruction a light; their corrective discipline is the way to life. 24 It will keep you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of a promiscuous woman. 25 Don’t lust for her beauty. Don’t let her coy glances seduce you. 26 For a prostitute will bring you to poverty, but sleeping with another man’s wife will cost you your life.