Jump Start # 1031
1 Kings 3:1 “Then Solomon formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem.”
Solomon was smart. God granted him a wisdom like no one else. However, Solomon does some dumb things, especially when he doesn’t put his trust in the Lord. On paper, and by logic, what Solomon does makes sense. Logic doesn’t trump God’s word. The city of Jerusalem was vulnerable. Walls to protect the city were not completed. Egypt was becoming a major threat. To avoid a conflict, Solomon married Pharaoh’s daughter. He brought her to Jerusalem. That move would keep Egypt away.
It seems that Solomon continued to do things like this. His father, David, held peace by having a mighty army. Solomon kept peace by these marriage alliances. In Nehemiah we find, “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin regarding these things? Yet among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless the foreign women caused even him to sin” (Neh 13:26). Even him.
Great ideas are not so great if they go against what God says. The Law was specific about marriage outside the nation. Solomon didn’t obey the Law. He may have felt that the safety of the nation was at stake and this gave him the right and excuse to ignore the Law. These foreign wives eventually took Solomon’s heart away from God. Idols littered the land. The nation was polluted with paganism, influenced through the throne. What seemed like a good idea, wasn’t.
We face smaller decisions like Solomon all the time. Psychology experts tell us what is best in raising our children. Often that advice is not a mirror of what God says. Sometimes it is just the opposite of what God says. What sounds good isn’t if it ignores God.
Church growth experts try to redefine and reshape worship. It’s necessary we are told to attract today’s people. Many of these suggestions fly in the face of what the Bible teaches. Their stats, experience and insights sounds good on paper. Like Solomon found, they often lead to a real mess.
The evolutionary community will give what sounds like solid reasons to accept the theory of naturalism, apart from God. Fossils, age of the earth, layers of rock, expanding universe—all of this on paper seems like the right stuff. It looks like the evidence is in their corner. It’s enough to convince many people, even believers. Then they face the intersection of faith in what the Bible says, and what they have been told by the experts. Too often, the voice of the experts win. Where did matter come from? What got everything started? How did life come from non-life? Where did laws of nature and forces of energy that keeps everything going come from? What’s the purpose? Why is there evidence of design? Solomon faced what we face. We face what Solomon faced. What sounds good verses what God says.
Walking by faith, means simply that. We want to figure everything out and have an answer for all things. Sometimes we must just trust God. Some things are hard to understand. Some things are beyond us. Some things baffle us. Why does a young mother get cancer and die? Why does someone with amazing talent not get the job? Why does it keep snowing in Indiana this year? Why does Satan keep knocking on our door? There are some things that you just can’t put on paper. There are some things that beats our thinking and logic. We must trust God. Solomon learned the hard way. We don’t have to because we have the Bible.
Walking by faith is hard. It’s believing God knows and will do what is best. It means going through dark nights and shadows of death. It means holding on to God’s hand when you don’t have answers and you’re not sure what is the next step. A heart that is saturated with the word of God does best. A heart that has learned to trust God will come out on the other side. A heart that understands that it may not understand, will survive.
Trust God. That is the key. He has never been wrong. He has never broken a promise. He has never abandoned you. He has your best interest. He knows what is best for you.
Solomon turned his thinking away from God’s word to his own plans, logic and ideas. He failed. Don’t follow his way, instead, follow God’s way.
Roger