After reading through 1 Kings 11 and 12 I find that my heart is burdened with sadness. Anytime I read about how people fall away from God after seeing His faithfulness in great and mighty ways I am filled with remorse and grief. These stories of peoples wavering faith reminded me that humanity is destined to a life of unfaithfulness in sin apart from God’s intervention. Our inherent sinfulness as the seed of Adam is consistently luring us away from devotion to and desire for God. I am thankful for the moments like this where I find myself reflecting on am my own inability to make it through life because it exemplifies the truth that I need Jesus Christ.
How can we go from praising God one moment to wallowing in the cesspool of our sinful desires? How do we continue to endure through our consistent failure clinging to God? For all the wisdom that Solomon was blessed with he was not able to escape the lustful desires of his flesh. How does a man have over one thousand wives? I laugh at the number of women Solomon loved but it is truly no laughing matter because these women were catalysts that when enabled by Solomon’s lust lead to his downfall. Was Solomon searching for fulfillment in life through these women? All of the wisdom Solomon had was not able bring true and lasting happiness to his life. We have a need for acceptance and fulfillment in life that can only be fully satisfied by God and whenever we seek out our own solutions we will bring ourselves to ruin.
For if you ever go back and cling to the rest of these nations, these which remain among you, and intermarry with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, know with certainty that the Lord your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you; but they will be a snare and a trap to you, and a whip on you sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you.
As Solomon sought out all of these women to love he was sinning against God because he was taking wives from the original inhabitants of the promised land, which the Israelites were instructed to not marry. When the people of God chose to intermarry with the people inhabiting the promised land they were drawn away from God and towards the gods of these people. We are unable to maintain our own relationship with God so it is completely impossible for any follower of God to presume that they can lift a person out from their sinful state even driven out of love or friendship.
When Solomon turned away from God to the gods of the inhabitants of the land the stage was set for division and downfall in Israel. The people of Judah and the people of Israel split the nation apart and the kings that rule the individual nations wholly sought their own ways apart from God. The time of peace, prosperity, and building that Solomon accomplished within Israel was a direct reflection of his relationship with and blessing from God. How often are we disillusioned by our sinful desires and find ourselves caught in bondage to sin which held such an allure only to turn into an evil taskmaster.
Where do we find hope? How do we continue through life knowing we are so inherently sinful that we can do nothing? First every person needs to decide who Jesus Christ is and what He has done. Without a foundation built upon the cross of Jesus Christ it will be impossible to find hope. After the sojourning with Jesus Christ begins we need to love him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. How do we learn to love God? How do you grow to love a person? When you consistently spend time with a person you can grow to love them as you know them. As you spend time reading through the Scripture you will grow to love God as you learn who he is. It is so simple yet so difficult to grasp the beauty of a personal relationship with God that develops as time is spent learning about Him through the Bible.
