(1 Kings 9:1-9) Now it came about when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord, and the king’s house, and all that Solomon desired to do, 2 that the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3 The Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built by putting My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. 4 As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, 5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’
6 “But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will cast out of My sight. So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8 And this house will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will be astonished and hiss and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ 9 And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them, therefore the Lord has brought all this adversity on them.’”
Solomon did well with this in the beginning, but just like his dad, Solomon's weakness was women. Unlike his dad, Solomon did not confess his sins and keep pursuing God, but instead turned away from God and followed the gods of his wives...
(1 Kings 11:1-8) Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2 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. 3 He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. 4 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. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. 6 Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done. 7 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. 8 Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
the consequences
(1 Kings 11:9-14) 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, 10 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. 11 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. 12 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. 13 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.” 14 Then the Lord raised up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was of the royal line in Edom.
From this we see:- people who are not believers can persuade us to turn our backs on God
Personal experience: back when I was single, I met a guy who said he was a Christian. I only went met with him once in order to get to know him better. While we were talking, I asked him about his walk with God. This conversation only raised many more questions, since he came from a large Catholic family.
NOW - I'm not saying that a Catholic cannot be a Christian. Just like - not every person who goes to a protestant church is a Christian. I've actually had many friends who are Catholic Christians. There are several aspects to consider. Some of these questions include - what are the doctrines of the church? And - has the individual made a personal decision to follow Jesus (only)? If a Catholic Christian meets up with a protestant Christian - there would be a common love and understanding of God and their fellow believers.
Red flags appeared when this young man told me that one of his brothers had married a "Christian" woman (I'm not sure if that meant she was just from a protestant background or if she was a true believer), but his family had shunned the both of them.
When I told the young man that having the support of both families was very important to me, and that I was not ready to face that kind of testing (since marriage is difficult enough) - he pleaded for me to reconsider. He even suggested that we could start our own church!
Huh? I mean, what would THAT even look like? This was not right - to make up our own "religious institution" to appease his family? Either this young man was a believer or not. And I'm sure if we started our own church and called it - WHATEVER - - - if it was not "Catholic" - it would never be good enough!
Another question I had was - if this young man was actually a Christian, why wasn't his family shunning him already? Or was he a closet-Christian? And if so - that was not the bold, confident Christian man I was looking to date and marry! I never did find out if he really was a true believer, because I never saw him again.
Today's takeaway: Solomon chose to marry pagan wives, and chose to drift away from God in order to worship other gods to appease his wives and their families. And because of this, God would cause the kingdom to be split into two.
This began a trend where most of the kings (in both Israel and Judah) did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the people would find themselves suffering the consequences. Every so often, a king would come along and do away with the cult and occult practices so that the nation/s could experience peace.
The Israelites will only experience true peace and have their covenants completely fulfilled when they as a nation accept Jesus as their Messiah and King! Since they rejected Him the first time, they have to wait until the end of the Tribulation when Jesus will come again and set up the Millennial kingdom (see the Bible-read-through-topic of eschatology).
Meanwhile, personal peace is available right now - for anyone who who believes and accepts Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. And this common bond should bring about an amazing unity among all believers...
(Galatians 3:27-29) For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.
(Romans 10:11-13) For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13 for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
(Romans 15:13-21) Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
14 And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another. 15 But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me [f]from God, 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.17 Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God. 18 For I will not presume to speak of anything [g]except what Christ has accomplished through me, [h]resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, 19 in the power of [i]signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have [j]fully preached the gospel of Christ. 20 And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation; 21 but as it is written,
“They who had no news of Him shall see,
And they who have not heard shall understand.”
And they who have not heard shall understand.”
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