His Heart Was Not True

To The LORD

His God

For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon followed Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not completely follow the LORD, as his father David had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrificed to their gods.

Then the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this matter, that he should not follow other gods; but he did not observe what the LORD commanded. Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of your father David I will not do it in your lifetime; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. I will not, however, tear away the entire kingdom; 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.”

1 Kings 11:4-13

A woman’s interest in theology should be the first thing to catch a man’s eye. Her theology suddenly matters when a man is facing a crisis and she is the only one around to offer encouragement. Solomon should have known this. He was, after all, the wisest man who ever lived. But Solomon followed his own desires rather than God’s command and married women whose allegiance was not to God. The result was disastrous. He turned his heart to other gods, and God became angry with him. The kingdom was divided.

Faulty beliefs about God lead to faulty decisions about people.

Our Daily Bread – August 26, 2009