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Good Thursday to you my dear “Walking with Jesus” friends.
In the USA, today could be a historic day as the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is scheduled to be voted on in the US Senate. As you may know, in the American judicial system, this is the highest court in the land, and appointment to this court is a LIFETIME appointment! Amy Coney Barrett is 48 years old, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whom she will replace if elected, was 87 when she died last month. As you can see, it is possible Justice Barrett could influence the very fabric of American society for a very long time. You perhaps also know these two women could not be further apart in their strongly held personal beliefs about many things but especially the sanctity of human life and abortion. By the end of today, the future could potentially be quite different for many causes in America.
One of the great challenges which face leadership of all types… leadership in the family, or business or health care or education or politics, is the reality that people change over time! Leaders often experience personal life changes or changes in their values or they change their positions on major issues over the length of their leadership tenure. The past few days we’ve been looking at king Solomon of Israel, and while he began his leadership very well, with his heart deeply committed to honoring God in his leadership, he ended 40 years later a very changed man.
1 Kings chapter 11 gives us God’s very sad assessment of Solomon’s failed leadership. God summed up Solomon’s failure this way: “King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women…They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, ‘You must not intermarry with them because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.’ Nevertheless Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and 300 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...” I wonder what you see here my friends?
King Solomon, like all kings of Israel, would have had many advisors, among them the High Priest and other spiritual leaders, who would regularly have taught Solomon the principles, statutes and commands of God’s Word, given to Moses and other leaders who had preceded him. This particular warning of God was made very clear during Joshua’s time of leadership, as he led the Hebrews from their wanderings in the desert, after their escape from Egyptian slavery, into the Promised Land. Over Joshua’s time as their leader, they conquered and settled the promised land which both they and we have known as Israel. As Moses passed the mantle of leadership to Joshua this matter of the people, and especially the leadership of Israel, remaining pure from intermarrying with people of other nations who worshipped other gods, was a priority warning, repeated generation after generation. (Deut. 29:16-18; Joshua 23:12,13)
King Solomon knew the importance of this. In fact if you read the Bible book of Proverbs which he authored, you’ll note he begins the first 7 chapters warning his sons about the power of female influence in drawing men away from their wives and their God. Solomon wrote with passion: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (Prov. 4:23) And yet Solomon didn’t guard his own heart!
King Solomon’s heart, which when he began his leadership was singularly focused on knowing and honoring God, was drawn away to other gods by his insatiable love for women. Do you notice two important distinctions in 1 Kings 11? Many of the 700 wives were princesses of other nations. We can assume those marriages were often political initially, but Solomon grew to love these wives deeply and watch this my friends… we all follow our hearts!
You can imagine the heart battle Solomon lived with for many years. He worshipped Almighty, Holy, Jehovah God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Samuel and his father David, with passion and faithfulness. I’m sure he went very often up to the great Temple for worship. He was likely prominent in the annual festivals which celebrated their uniqueness as a people of God, especially Passover. But I imagine many of those foreign wives did not participate in those Hebrew God honoring festivals. They did not know or want to honor Solomon’s God. They had gods of their own, and Solomon not only permitted them to bring their idols into Jerusalem, do you see what it says in 1 Kings 11:7,8… “On the hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built high places [of worship] for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab,and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.”
Oh that breaks my heart. Do you know what the hill east of Jerusalem is, my friends? The Mount of Olives! Yes the hill over which Jesus rode on the donkey on Palm Sunday. The Garden of Gethsemane is on that hill! Now think about this a moment… how do you suppose God felt as He watched Solomon drift spiritually away from the passion with which he began his kingship to where he ended up 40 years later? Can you imagine as Jesus watched Solomon from heaven, He was able to look forward in time to the days HE would be walking those Jerusalem streets, and HE would be sitting with His disciples in that Garden of Gethsemane!
My friends, especially if you are in any leadership role, watch this very carefully. God is patient, God is merciful, God continues to draw His people to Himself by the power of His Holy Spirit, but God will NOT hold us hostage, He will not forcibly prevent us from walking away as Solomon did! But God will hold us accountable and so please look at what God’s judgment was on king Solomon in the rest of 1 Kings chapter 11. Do you see God raised up adversaries against king Solomon? Three different men are mentioned. There may have been many others. Finally one fateful day, God sent a prophet… not to Solomon, for he was unrepentant. The prophet Ahijah was sent to Jeroboam, one of Solomon’s officials who had turned against Solomon. Take careful note of the message God sent to Jeroboam in 1 Kings 11:29-40.
A brief civil war ensued after Solomon’s death, breaking the kingdom of Israel into two kingdoms… Judah in the south, which was the city of Jerusalem and surrounding territory of the tribes of Benjamin and Judah. And the other 10 tribe territories to the north, who retained the name Israel. Please note it was God Himself who tore the Kingdom of Israel into two parts. God did it in judgment of king Solomon’s disregard for God! His mockery of God’s holiness, God’s commands and especially Solomon’s defilement of the leadership role God had entrusted to Solomon as king of Israel. Oh those of you my friends who have any role of leadership, please remember leadership is a sacred privilege, a high and holy calling, and God will hold you accountable for how you handle the leadership privilege entrusted to you!
May I invite you to hold your Bible open to 1 Kings 11 and 2 Chronicles 7? Go back and forth between those two powerful chapters. Look closely at the contrast! What do you think happened to Solomon my friends? Do you see it all around us in our day? The hearts of good, God honoring men and women, are being drawn away by the love of our world. John the disciple and closest friend of Jesus said it this way: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world the love of God the Father is not in them. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boastings of what he does – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the person who does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2:15-17)
Oh friends, take your journal, open your Bible to 1 Kings 11 & 2 Chronicles 7 and ask God to help you see what He sees deep in your heart.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Click to read today’s chapter: 2 Chronicles 7; 1 Kings 11. (At the top you can choose a different translation.)
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Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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