#DailyDevotion Watch The Company You Keep As A Christian
August 28th
Read 1 Kng 11:1–26
1Ki 11:1-2 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, (2) 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. ..:4 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…11-13 Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. (12) Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. (13) However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.”
If you didn’t have a good grip on who you really are and how you really act you would have to be asking yourself, “What’s wrong with these people!?” The Lord actually spoke to David and he was a murderer and an adulterer. The Lord actually spoke to Solomon twice and bestows upon him blessing after blessing and he departs from the ways of the Lord.
While the Lord our God is merciful, kind and forgiving, He is also just and He keeps His promises. He had promised Solomon if he were faithful then the Lord would bless him and his children after him but if he departed from the Lord’s ways then what he was given it would be taken away. So the Lord let’s Solomon know that He is going to keep His just and righteous word.
Solomon’s downfall was his wives. Instead of converting them to the faith of Israel, they converted him to their pagan idols. Like Adam before him, he thought more of his wives than the Lord. We should take note of this also. If we are not married, we should only seek a spouse who is the same faith as us and is faithful to that faith. Paul has written, 2Co 6:14-15 “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? (15) What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?” And again, 1Co 7:39 “A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.” Paul is certainly following the principle given by the Lord on Sinai which Solomon ignored.
Now the Lord is faithful and he is faithful to David. Even though David’s house has departed from His ways, the Lord preserves a remnant to rule over. It is through this remnant that the Lord would preserve the line through which He Himself would be born into the world. He would become Kind David’s greater Son whose throne would last forever. His kingdom would be the one where righteousness reigns. Jesus is the Lord who becomes born of David’s line according to the flesh and He has given us this promise, if we but trust in Him, we will reign with Him in His kingdom.
Lord Jesus Christ, help us turn away from anything or anyone that tries to pull us away from our faith in you and keep us faithful unto life everlasting in your eternal kingdom. Amen.