June 5 - 1 Kings 11:1-43 | 2 Chronicles 9:29-31 | Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

Good morning everyone,

Today we are going to revisit Solomon, if only for a day. You will remember that Solomon was an incredibly wise man, so much so, that people traveled from lands far, far away to hear his words of wisdom. You’ll also remember that Solomon was ridiculously wealthy, in fact, to the point where he considered silver to be useless, no more valuable than any other rock that would be kicked about in the dirt. Remember too, Solomon loved God, at least when he was young, for King David had taught his son, Solomon, to worship, praise and seek God’s guidance.

As Solomon grew in age he started to disregard some of the directions God had written down for kings to follow,to help them stay dependent on His provision and direction. Deuteronomy 17:16 says, “The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” And yet, in 1 Kings we read Solomon was importing horses and other merchandise from Egypt. Not a “wise” choice. 

Solomon’s biggest downfall, however, will come from disobeying verse 17 which says, “He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray.” Solomon loved many foreign women, we’re told, he had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines. It SO begs the question … “Why?” And as much as I would like to expound on that, I will simply say that the Bible tells us, indeed, “his wives led him astray.” His heart was no longer fully devoted to God, he was in fact worshiping, among others, Molek, the detestable god of the Ammonites. Solomon allowed himself to be unequally yoked and was doing evil in the eyes of the Lord, there would be a heavy consequence of choice to pay for that.  

2 Corinthians 6:14 says, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” You’ll notice it is not a suggestion, “I think it would be better if you don’t …”, but rather a command, “Do not.” Do not! God gives us this command for our own protection and joy. Seriously, when you are entering any type of a relationship boyfriend/girlfriend, partnership, roommates or whatever, your life will be a whole lot easier and rewarding if you are working with someone who is like minded. So, you may wonder, what exactly does it mean to be unequally yoked? Well, I am glad you asked. :-) A yoke is a wooden bar that joins two oxen to each other and together they work to pull a single load. An “unequally yoked” team has one ox being weaker or perhaps shorter than the other, causing the load to go around in circles, them not able to complete the job. Instead of working together, they are at odds with one another which ultimately results in the stronger ox being drug down. 

When we enter into unequally yoked relationships the same thing will happen to us. Slowly but surely we will get worn down until we are compromising every area of our lives. We’ll think we are stronger than that, that we’re different and the enemy will validate those thoughts by whispering things to us like, “Oh you can change them” or “It won’t matter” but, truth is, it will matter. It will matter a lot. You, as a Christian, have been reborn; you are spiritually alive, and at the risk of stating the obvious, unbelievers are not. A person who has not received Jesus Christ as their personal Savior is spiritually dead and they just do not think the same as Christians! In addition to that, they have blinders on and can not see the same way a Christian sees. God tells us in Leviticus, “I am the Lord, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.” That is, to be separate from what is sinful and evil. I am not suggesting that you sever all ties with your non-Christian friends, even Jesus ate with the tax collectors and sinners, right? You must, though, always be on guard, remembering Proverbs 12:26, 13:20, 14:7 and 22:24 just to name a few. The enemy will use your non-Christian friends to subtly woo you to a place or situation a Christian would not want to find themselves. We are called to evangelize to the unsaved, not be intimate with them. There is nothing wrong with building quality friendships with unbelievers – but the primary focus of such a relationship should be to win them to Christ by sharing the Gospel with them and demonstrating God’s saving power in our own lives. Make sense? 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 says, “Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. Do everything in love.” Amen?

Have a very good day and to God be the glory.

God bless you all ….