The Slavery of Solomon

Scripture: …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. 1 Kings 11:2

Observation: Solomon, as wise as he was, allowed his love of the forbidden to override his love of God. Romans 6:16 reminds me that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness.. Solomon became a slave to his desires. He thought the 700 wives and 300 concubines belonged to him, but in the end, he ended up belonging to them as their slave, for they wrested the love of God right out of Solomon’s heart.

Application: What is out there that can wrest my heart from God? What am I owning that might end up owning me? I am amazed at how easy it seems to be for us to take small steps into sin, only to find out we are miles deep faster than we could have imagined. The past two weeks of preaching on the tactics of Satan have opened my eyes to his efforts to gain footholds in my life through my sin. He certainly had 1,000 footholds in Solomon’s life. I must be on the alert. I am listening to God about hooks and snares that could trip me up.

Prayer: God, I love you more. Please help me submit to you anything that will turn away my heart from you.

Sifting Through the Voices

Scripture: But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ…And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 2 Corinthians 11:3,14

Observation: Paul is warning the Corinthians to be on the alert to people who claim to speak truth, who claim to be apostles, who are really being used by Satan to lead them astray from simple devotion to Christ.

Application: Satan is alive and well, and he does not always appear in horror-movie guise. Sometimes he comes as an angel of light. Sometimes he comes in good garb and through well-intentioned people. The challenge of leadership is not to distinguish good from bad, but good from best, since Satan will get us to do good, so that we never get to what is God’s best.

So, God is saying two things to me. First, I need to keep a sincere and pure devotion to Christ foremost in my life. Do the things I practice and teach focus me and others on Christ? Or can I ever so subtly, shift the focus to church, or religion, or other things? Second, I need to be aware that people are going to come to me with visions for our church that may not be from God. These people may be well-meaning, sincere believers, but Satan would use them to deter us as a church from where God is calling us to be. I need to be careful. I need to make sure I have a sincere and pure devotion to Christ myself, so that when these people approach, I can sift through their words to see if it is from the Lord or not.

Prayer: God, give me your wisdom. Be my filter through which I can pass all sorts of ideas and strategies. I can lead with confidence and conviction if I am leading out of your word and direction. Help me devotion to Christ to be sincere and pure so I can discern your voice from the noise of the evil one.