Not Fully Devoted

The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command. (1 Kings 11:9-10, NIV 1984).

My Musings – What had started out so promising, did not end well. “His heart had turned away from the Lord.” As is always the case, things might have turned out differently if he had followed the Lord’s command. “The Lord had told the Israelites, ‘You must not intermarry with [foreign women], because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” (1 Kings 11:2, NIV 1984).

And that is exactly what happened. “King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.” (1 Kings 11:1-4, NIV 1984).

And, once again, sin has its consequences. “So, the Lord said to Solomon, ‘Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him but will give him one tribe [Judah] for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.'” (1 Kings 11:11-13, NIV 1984).

The tribe of Judah, the Davidic line, keeper of the Davidic covenant and recipient of Jacob’s prophetic blessing to Judah his son. “The scepter will not depart [torn] from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he [Jesus the Messiah] comes to whom it belongs, and the obedience of the nations is his.” (Genesis 49:10, NIV 1984). Not only for the sake of David. But to keep the promise alive. “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:32-33, NIV 1984).

My Advice – “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” (Matthew 6:24, NIV 1984). And God will not settle for divided devotion. As evidenced by the tragic end of Solomon.

“Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. Then he rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king. [But] only the tribe of Judah [the Southern kingdom] remained loyal to the house of David.” (1 Kings 11:42-43, 12:20, NIV 1984). Just as the Lord said. Solomon divided his devotion, so God divided his kingdom. The remaining tribes “made [Jeroboam] king over all Israel [the Northern kingdom].” (1 Kings 12:20, NIV 1984).

Do not divide your devotion. Rather, “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30, NIV 1984).