Ungodly commitments will erode our commitment to God....

This week, we are looking at the life of a king of the Jewish people named Solomon. Wednesday, we looked on as King Solomon responded to the Lord’s appearance and promises by continuing to live his life in a way that placed His confident trust in and followed the Lord. And as King Solomon continued to live a life that was wholly devoted to the Lord, the Lord continued to bless King Solomon and the Jewish people. The Lord used King Solomon and the Jewish people as the vehicle to reveal Himself to the world and enhance His reputation in the world.

And if King Solomon’s story had ended there, King Solomon’s story would have been the perfect story. However, King Solomon’s story did not end there. Instead, King Solomon’s story took a turn that would impact the Jewish people in a profound and powerful way. We see King Solomon’s story turn in 1 Kings 11:1. Let’s look at it together:

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the sons of Israel, "You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods." Solomon held fast to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

You see, it was not that King Solomon did not know the Lord. After all, the Lord had appeared to King Solomon on two separate occasions. And it is not that King Solomon did not understand what the Lord had commanded the Jewish people concerning marriage that was recorded in the Law, which are the first five books of our Bibles today. After all, King Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived.

The issue was not in the head. Instead, the issue was with the heart. Notice what these verses tell us about King Solomon’s heart. King Solomon loved many foreign women. King Solomon held fast to these foreign women in love. What is significant is that the phrase “held fast” is the same phrase that is used in Genesis 2:24 as to “be joined” and conveys the sense of clinging to another.

King Solomon revealed the timeless reality that our will, or intellect, is held captive by our desires, or our hearts. And it was King Solomon’s heart and desires that led him to violate God’s design for marriage in three specific ways. First, King Solomon disobeyed God’s design for marriage by marrying more than one woman. Second, King Solomon disobeyed God’s design for marriage by marrying women who worshipped other god’s than the one true God. The Lord repeatedly warned the Jewish people not to marry or develop close intimate relationships with those who worshipped false gods instead of the one true god.

And third, King Solomon disobeyed God’s command for kings in marriage by marrying multiple wives from foreign nations. By marrying wives from foreign nations so as to develop alliances and mutual protection, King Solomon was placing his trust in these nations who worshipped false god instead of placing his confident trust in the Lord. As a result, King Solomon violated God’s command by worshipping false gods.

And over the passage of time, as Solomon loved and clung to these foreign women, these wives began to turn his heart away after other gods, and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. Now, it wasn’t that King Solomon abandoned the Lord. Instead, King Solomon added to the worship of the Lord the worship of false gods. The phrase, turned away, in the language that this letter was originally written in, is a word picture of stretching out or inclining towards something.

And what King Solomon was stretching out toward was the worship of the very false gods that led God to use the Jewish people as the instrument to deal with the wrongdoing and injustice that the worship of these false gods produced in the land that God had given to the Jewish people.  Ashtoreth was a goddess of sex and fertility, whose worship involved sexual activity and the worship of the stars. Milcom, or Molech, was a false god whose worship involved human sacrifices, especially of children. Chemosh was also a false god that involved worship of the stars. And it wasn’t that King Solomon worshipped these false gods in private. King Solomon built altars and shrines just outside of the city of Jerusalem that were used for the public worship of these false gods.

Now a natural question that arises here is “what happened? How could Solomon do such a thing? How could a man who had encountered the Lord not once but twice worship other gods than the one true God? How could a man who lived his life in a way that was wholly devoted to the Lord and that trusted the Lord turn so radically from the Lord? How could a man who had been blessed by the Lord do such a thing to the Lord?"

And it is the answer to these questions from the life of King Solomon that provides us a timeless truth that has the potential to powerfully impact how we live our lives today. And that timeless truth is that ungodly commitments will erode our commitment to God. Just as it was for King Solomon; just as it has been for humanity throughout history; entering into ungodly commitments will eventually erode your commitment to God. And here is why this timeless truth is so important. The reason that this timeless truth is so important is because erosion does not happen overnight. Instead erosion destroys by small degrees over time. Erosion is not obvious and does not draw attention to its activity. Instead erosion is a slow and silent destroyer.

Think of it this way: do you think King Solomon woke up one morning and said “I am going to stop being wholly devoted to the Lord today. Today I am going to add to the worship of the one true God the worship of false gods and build public altars where people can also worship false gods.” No, that is not what happened with Solomon. And if you would have told Solomon to do that, Solomon, as the smartest man on the planet would have said you were a fool.

However, as King Solomon loved many foreign women; as King Solomon held fast to these foreign women in love; as King Solomon entered into marriage commitments with these foreign women who worshipped false gods, something began to slowly change within the heart of King Solomon. King Solomon’s heart was influenced by his foreign wives to begin to turn his heart away from the Lord and to stretch out and incline his heart to false gods. Because, as we discovered in the identity series, the timeless reality is that we are influenced by what influences us.

And the influence of his foreign wives on the heart of King Solomon began to subtly, slowly and steadily erode King Solomon’s commitment to God. And the subtle, slow, and steady effects of erosion eventually led King Solomon to the place where he was worshipping and participating in the very activities that led the Lord to give the Jewish people the Promised Land in the first place. We see how the Lord responded to the erosion of King Solomon’s commitment to Him in verse 9:

 Now the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the LORD had commanded. So the LORD said to Solomon, "Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant. "Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. "However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen."

The Lord responded to the erosion of King Solomon’s commitment to Him by fulfilling the promise that He had made earlier in his life. As a result of King Solomon’s ungodly commitments that eroded his commitment to the Lord, the Jewish nation would never be the same. Events were soon to transpire that would rip the nation in two, never to be restored.

Yet, in the midst of the Lord’s right and just response to King Solomon’s selfishness and rebellion, we see the Lord extend grace. You see, in spite of the reality that King Solomon’s ungodly commitments had eroded his commitment to God, God was not done with the descendants of King David. Instead God was going to fulfill His promises to King David in spite of King Solomon's performance, not because of King Solomon’s performance.

You see, while King Solomon started so well, King Solomon failed to finish well because his love and commitment to ungodly women eroded His commitment to God. Next week, we are going to see the ripples of King Solomon’s selfishness and rebellion that led him to fail to finish well impact the Jewish people.

In the meantime, here is a question to consider: Where are you tempted to enter into ungodly commitments? Where are you facing the possibility of failing to finish well as a follower of Jesus because of the ungodly commitments that you are making? What are you going to do to make sure that ungodly commitments do not erode your commitment to God?