Compromised • 1 Kings 11:1-13
By Emily Beth Crews
No-one is incapable of compromise in their faith. In our Christian culture today, we often put individuals up on pedestals who we believe have reached the cornucopia of a life of faith. We have also watched as many have fallen off pedestals only to reveal to us that they were sinful, human beings like us all along. We watch, surprised by the failures of those we respect, and we question how someone seemingly loyal to the Lord could possibly fall. Solomon, a man who received wisdom from the Lord, lived a life of moral compromise, despite warnings from the Lord. It doesn’t seem possible for wisdom and moral compromise to coexist in the same sentence, but if today’s study teaches us anything, it’s this – the heart is deceitfully wicked above all and can quickly lead us down paths of compromise.
Warning Ignored (1 Kings 11:1-3). “Solomon fell in love with many foreign women” – the problem here in verse 1 is revealed in two words: many and foreign. Imagine if the passage told us Solomon remained in love with his one wife! We would be reading a different ending to Solomon’s reign, but instead that is not the case. Unfortunately, it seems Solomon did not listen to the Lord when He warned His people in Deuteronomy 7:3-4, “You must not intermarry with them…for they will turn you away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will erupt against you and he will quickly destroy you” (NET). He ignored the command and warning from the Lord altogether and not only formed “friendly relations” with them but married them. What I find interesting is the next sentence in verse 2, “But Solomon was irresistibly attracted to them.” While I don’t have the word count here to do a deep dive study on the power of lust, I encourage you to study the following verses: 1 John 2:16, Proverbs 6:25, Galatians 5:16, Romans 8:6, James 1:14-15, Matthew 5:28. Solomon knew the standard of God. His fleshly desires were more than he could control, he compromised, and ran swiftly down the path the destruction (Matthew 7:13).
A Divided Heart (1 Kings 11:4-8). The sheer number of wives Solomon accumulated from these foreign countries immediately compromised his wholehearted devotion to the Lord. Can you imagine having 1,000 people speaking into your life, driving your focus, thoughts, actions? I can only maintain a handful of relationships well and those handful of women speak so beautifully into my life – I keep my circle small because friends have great influence. Likewise, Solomon allowed his circle of influence to not only grow to an incredible amount, but with each wife he added came one more voice drawing him away from the Lord. Solomon’s many wives “shifted his allegiance to other gods” (v. 4). An additional step was taken away from the Lord when he began creating altars for the gods of his foreign wives, burning incense, and sacrificing at them (v. 8). He “did evil in the LORD’s sight; he did not remain loyal to the LORD” (v. 6). “God judged Solomon’s deeds as evil because his idolatry violated God’s covenant and rejected His authority” (Lifeway).
Discipline Promised (1 Kings 11:9-13). Solomon’s drift from the Lord happened despite his wisdom. His drift was a “shift of allegiance” that resulted in consequences. As we studied last week, sin always has ramifications. God may be angry with us as He was with Solomon, but “Unlike human anger, God’s wrath displays His righteous indignation. God’s anger always relates to human sin and expresses His desire to move sinners towards repentance” (Lifeway). The Lord was angry with Solomon and because of the sin Solomon “insisted” (v. 11a) on doing, the Lord took away the kingdom from him. Solomon had multiple opportunities to repent, as he urged the Israelites to do in our study last week, but he was bent on his own destruction. His personal sin resulted in generational consequences (v. 13).
It is not enough for us to simply have head knowledge of the Lord and good morals. They do not give us relationship with Jesus Christ. James 1:22 commends us, “But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves” (NET). Ponder this quote by Matthew Henry, “Let us watch and be sober: ours is a dangerous warfare, and in an enemy’s country, while our worst foes are the traitors in our own hearts.”
Emily Beth Crews currently resides in Montana but was born and raised in Mississippi. She is the daughter of regular contributor, Laura Lee Leathers.
