temptations

Just as there are wonderful benefits to following God, there are consequences for disobedience. The story of King Solomon tells me that.

This morning I read this, from 1 Kings 11:1-5: “King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 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 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. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites.”

Solomon’s gluttonous appetite for women led him to disregard God’s will. As a result, God determined to end David’s dynasty after Solomon; no son of Solomon would sit on the throne.

God also raised up adversaries against Solomon. Hadad and Jeroboam, both with ties to and support from Egypt, attracted a following and contested with Solomon for leadership (isn’t it ironic that one of Solomon’s earliest mistakes was making a treaty with Egypt?)

Even wise Solomon, with his intimate relationship with God, was not immune to the temptations of this world. And even beloved Solomon, who please God with his desire to rule wisely, was not exempt from God’s requirements.

It’s a needed reminder to me that nothing that attracts me in this life is worth taking a single step away from God. The benefits of being faithful to God are so wonderful I can’t even understand them. As C.S. Lewis famously said, when I cling to my worldly pleasures I’m like a little boy who insists on making mud pies in the slum because I can’t fathom the wonders of a holiday by the sea.