1 Kings 11, Daniel 3, Acts 5:12-26, 1 John 1:5-10, Psalm 96: This post may be way too revealing so if you struggle with people being honest please just pass on by this one. 🙂 I have always struggled with the books of Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes. The honest truth is I really struggle with Solomon. Today’s reading is a major part of why I struggle so mightily with this man who was the “wisest” man. I believe he was certainly wise in that he knew the right things to do. God revealed to him how to lead his people well, and his accomplishments bear that out. However 1 Kings 11 tell us where Solomon got off track.
1 Kings 11:1Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2from 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. 3He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.
Though Solomon knew the right things to do and the things not to do, in the end Solomon did exactly what he wanted to do which is what leads to the writing of books like Ecclesiastes. Everything is meaningless when we do it our own way. There is no way to find true joy, peace or even true hope when we leave the paths of righteousness or in layman’s terms walking right with God. When we do what we want it may make merry for the moment, but it yeilds a lifetime of hopelessness. In the end of Ecclesiastes Solomon seems to come back to the truth of following God alone being the true key to wisdom and preventing the feelings of hopelessness. (vanity)
The Song of Solomon is another of those books that befuddle me. I always want to ask which of the 1000 women he wrote this about. I am sure some scholar somewhere could tell me, but if she was so all encompassing why did he run off and get involved with the other 999 women. I know the historical value of relationships formed due to political alliances, but true love the kind exhibited by those in Solomon’s Song should be between only one man and one woman as God instructed. The essence of the book I relish in and believe. The sadness of how far Solomon got from God’s plan wrecks me.
My last honest October revealing of the real me. My heart falls each time I read of the failures of great men of God both in the Bible and in our world. I know I too am so human and fall often myself so I am thankful my failures aren’t out for public display, but my heart still hurts for those who leave His paths to follow their own desires. May we all know as Solomon’s father knew that God forgives, restores, renews and even after all of our failures loves us anyway. Grateful for the Love of God that nothing can separate us from.