Rev. Don Campbell
1 Kings 10-11; 2 Chronicles 9
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, June 21, 2019
“OF ALL SAD WORDS OF TONGUE AND PEN”
A poet wrote, “Of all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these: ‘It might have been.’”
God had appeared to Solomon with a promise: “And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’ But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples” (1 Kings 9:4-7).
And now, the sad, sad words: “Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done” (Ecclesiastes 11:1-6).
Bible history would be dramatically different had Solomon’s heart remained true to God. Sin has consequences, but those consequences are not always—if ever—confined to the sinner. The nation suffered as a consequence of Solomon’s sin. Sin is sin in the sense in that the soul that sins shall die. However, the higher up the social, political, or religious ladder the sinner is, the great the consequences for all who are lower down the ladder.
COMMENTS
1. I have counseled with persons who had been unfaithful to their mates and almost without exception, they have all said, “Well, we didn’t mean for this to happen,” referring to the consequences that resulted from their sin. What does the word of God say? (Galatians 6:7)
2. If God were to send you a “get-out-of-jail-free” card allowing you to commit one sin with impunity, what would it be? Whatever it is, the devil knows, and he has a way of convincing us that we can sin without consequences.
