Deuteronomy 17:17 Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.
1 Kings 9:4-7 Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, 5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ 6 But if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
God hates pride and arrogance. We can only stand before Him because of the sacrifice of Jesus who gave up His life for our sins. God gives the good and perfect gift of salvation. The riches of this world mean nothing in comparison to the gift that He offers to mankind and it is by faith in Christ alone. He can do what we cannot. Jesus fulfilled the promise to David that the King of the Jews would come from his bloodline. The promises of God will not be broken. Only the love of God can cover the multitude of the sins of humanity. He will not tolerate idols in our lives. Carla
1 Kings 11:1-13 But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites—2 from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. 3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. 4 For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David. 7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon. 8 And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
9 So the Lord became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the Lord 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 keep what the Lord had commanded. 11 Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. 12 Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 However I will not tear away the whole 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.”
The word order in the Hebrew text emphasizes the word foreign, with a secondary emphasis on the adjective many. Solomon had committed two egregious sins. Taking foreign wives violated the Lord’s prohibitions against marrying Canaanite women taking many wives violated the standard of monogamy established at the beginning (Genesis 2:24, 25), and resulted in rampant polygamy, something God had also forbidden to Israel’s future kings (Deuteronomy 17:17). Doubtless many of Solomon’s marriages were in accord with the common ancient Middle Eastern convention of sealing alliances by marriages between members of the royal houses contracting the alliances. Solomon’s yielding to the customs of the day would have serious spiritual consequences for himself (verses 3–13) and his people (2 Kings 17:7–20).
If the reference to 60 queens and 80 concubines in Song 6:8 is to Solomon’s wives, it represents a much earlier period in Solomon’s reign. Although it is true that David did not always live up to God’s standards, he was loyal to God and trusted Him implicitly, even when he was rebuked for his sins (2 Samuel 12:13; Psalm 32:1–5; 53:1–5). Because of the influence of his many wives, Solomon compromised his faith by worshiping foreign gods. Ashtoreth was a Canaanite goddess of love and war. Milcom was the national god of the Ammonites.
The use of a high place in association with the worship of foreign gods shows the terrible danger that the high places presented to Israel (3:2–4; 14:23; also Micah 1:3). Chemosh was the national god of Moab. His worship was practiced repeatedly by God’s people (2 Kings 23:13). The veneration of this deity is also attested in the recently discovered Ebla Tablets in a form that suggests his association with the city of Carchemish along the upper bend of the Euphrates River. Molech is associated with human sacrifice and with Baal (Jeremiah 7:31, 32; 19:5, 6; 32:35).
God appeared twice before to Solomon (3:5; 9:2). Solomon’s spiritual odyssey may be seen in the details of his audiences with God. While God graciously postponed the division of Solomon’s kingdom until after his death, internal troubles appeared while he was still alive (verses 14–40).
Jeroboam was the son of Nebat (11:26; 12:20). The tribe is Judah, the principal tribe of the southern kingdom. Simeon had assimilated with Judah by this time (12:17, 20, 21). The NKJV Study Bible
In response to Solomon’s unfaithfulness, God raises three adversaries against him: Hadad from the east (1 Kings 11:14–22), Rezon from the north (verses 23–25), and Jeroboam from one of Israel’s own tribes (verses 26–40). Through these adversaries, God destabilizes the peace that Solomon established both within Israel and at her borders (4:24–25) and leads to the division of the kingdom.
God appeared to Solomon at Gibeon (3:1–15) and after the temple dedication (9:1–9). Yahweh prohibited Solomon from following other gods during His second appearance (9:6).
The Hebrew word used here, berith, for covenant appears throughout 1–2 Kings in reference to covenants between God and humanity. It also can refer to political treaties (1 Kings 5:12; 15:19; 20:34).
For the sake of David your father perhaps is a reference to the Davidic covenant, which promised that God would not remove His steadfast love from David’s reigning son (2 Samuel 7:15). One tribe was later specified as Judah, the tribe of David (1 Kings 12:20). Faithlife Study Bible
2 Kings 23:13 Then the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, which were on the south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the people of Ammon.
The very gifts that allow us to be fully human and fully alive are fragile precisely because they have the capacity to be broken open. These are all gifts that spill courage and hope.
And I take this wisdom from Kate Bowler to heart. “I think so many of us would like to identify as being soft hearted, but we worry that it’s a liability right now. Shouldn’t we toughen ourselves up? Shouldn’t we get battle ready for a world that doesn’t equate tender heartedness with bravery, survival, or meeting reality head on?
But I think tender heartedness is the ability to stay not just broken, but broken open to the world around us. There’s so much pain that just breaks us. That’s the truth. There’s so much fear, too, and there are very good reasons to feel scared and overwhelmed right now. But I believe soft heartedness is one of the only ways that we can move forward. The alternatives are likely too heavy to bear.”
Here’s the deal: There is exquisite beauty in what is fragile, in what can be broken. In love, tenderness, kindness, generosity, gentleness and empathy, there is strength and power and life.
So, yes. I do want to touch the fragile things.
I do not want my heart to be hard.
I do want my heart to be soft. (Well, at least that’s what I say out loud.)
It doesn’t help that we live in a world where soft isn’t popular. And fragile is considered detrimental. It’s no surprise that we choose tough, fighter, inflexible. It is not unexpected that we hear way too many stories about cruelty and bullying and bombast and ways we demean and diminish one another. When I see this, it is easy to close the door of my heart.
We are human. Yes, we are prone to breakage. That’s not a surprise. Every one of us is, or has tussled with grief, heartache, sorrow, woundedness and loss.
But after a while, there’s no payoff to living implacable or callous. And I want to touch the fragile things. I want to touch my heart. My friends, I believe that the light shines precisely because there are broken places.
Remember, Jesus never told us to create the light. He did not even ask us to make a resolution to try harder. He simply invited us to let the light shine. Meaning that the light is already there. To paraphrase Leonard Cohen, There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in. And that’s how the light gets out. Sabbath Moments
“When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.”
(From Howard Thurman’s “The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations”) (Thurman was an African-American theologian, educator, and civil rights leader).
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