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The Unraveling

I don’t think anyone wakes up and says, “I’m going to make a total mess of my life today. I plan to purposefully ignore all the wisdom God has given me, sin like crazy, and ruin all that I hold dear.”

I think the unraveling of a life starts slowly. Like what happened to one of my favorite sweaters that snagged easily if I wasn’t careful. For the longest time, I was mindful of its delicate nature to make it last. But one day I got in a hurry and pulled a huge snag in it. Instead of taking time to repair it, I snipped the loose threads and hoped for the best. That decision started an unraveling process that ruined my sweater.

I believe this is where we find King Solomon—forgetting to carefully guard his heart and making choices that ultimately led to the unraveling of his faithfulness to God.

Solomon started out well. He was a king who sought the Lord for wisdom. He built the temple and prayerfully dedicated it to the Lord. He was a greatly accomplished man, with a palace brimming with riches and a heart so overflowing with wisdom that people from all over the world sought him out. But Solomon had an area of sin that became a snagging point for him in his relationship with the Lord – his foreign wives.

This was a big issue because God commanded His people not to intermarry with those outside of the nation of Israel. He had also spoken this directly to Solomon twice. You cannot enter into an intimate love relationship with someone without that person not only affecting your mind and your body but also your soul.

Sadly, despite all the wisdom Solomon had been given, he still gave in to the sinful desires of his heart. This king, who once prayed that the Lord would turn the hearts of the people of Israel toward Himself clung to his forbidden wives and ended up with his own heart being turned toward their false gods.

For all God had provided Solomon, he still experienced deep distrust in God. Solomon’s decision to cling to his wives is evidence of his distrust that God could be the source of his satisfaction. And, it had a lasting impact on the generations that came after him.

Let’s use today’s lesson as a caution. What things in our life are we clinging to that may be in opposition to God’s instruction?