A Mixture of Confusion
Was Solomon so bored in his world that he needed to mix it with the pagan world?
Solomon asked for wisdom to lead the Lord’s people but did He come to the end of His wisdom of these people and went seeking the wisdom of all the world by marrying pagan wives?
Our Biblical Ground work: 1 Kings 11
Solomon was surrounded by paganism as a way of testing the Israelites. He obviously was intrigued by it because he collected women like he would collect rocks. He also collected horses, land, wood and every little thing he could get his hands on. He was a collector, especially of knowledge by wisdom. See the book of Proverbs for evidence of his collection of wisdom.
In his collection were many pagan wives, for whom he built high places and alters. These women would worship their “man made” gods and the Lord would not punish them on this earth. This, and a lot of other life’s issues intrigued him, so he added them all to his personal growth list.
This pursuit caused Solomon to be drawn away from the One True God, who provided him everything he had. As a result, the Lord rose up Hadad the Edomite, Rezon the son of Eliadah, and one of his own, Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who would also lead his followers into paganism, but for a different reason than Solomon.
Our Biblical Lesson to Live Life to: Taking the pathway to Jesus leads to wisdom and any other pathways, mixed in with it, will only confuse you.
Solomon got himself into trouble because he his purpose and vision from God as the king of Israel with woman he was intrigued with. What he did not consider is that mixing their pathways to man made gods with Israel’s pathway to Elohim created confusion in Israel. This confusion created strife and the subsequent separation of the Jews from God.
Ecclesiastes is a look into Solomon’s personal journal, after the Lord spoke to him, revealing how powerful the Lord is compared to the man made gods of his pagan wives. They exerted their power over him due to his intrigue. When he gave his power to deep intrigue of paganism, his pagan wives took advantage and required him to build worship places for them on the promised land of God.
These pagan wives went on a mission to turn Solomon’s heart away for God and they were successful. Instead of gaining more knowledge about the God of Israel, he set his heart on gaining more knowledge about life and the pagan gods his wives worshipped. Mankind’s purpose of life had to be understood and Solomon was just the wise man to do it (Ecclesiastes 1:13). He pursued this to the detriment of the Israelite people.
Join me in The Bible Gals Monday at 2pm EST to discuss the Biblical Power Tools for how to remain focused on your purpose in life.
I have exciting news for you as well. I am running a FREE Biblical Goal Bootcamp in The Bible Gals from February 22-26th. You can learn how to set biblical goals even if you don’t know your vision from God yet. You can sign up here
