Contemplative Bible Reading

1 Kings 11:4 (New Living Translation)

4 In Solomon’s old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the Lord his God, as his father, David, had been.

This is part of the (hi)story of Solomon. He was a successful King in many ways. He was a failure in a few, major ways. He was the son of David chosen by God to be the King. Solomon was blessed by God with wisdom.

We read here, however, how Solomon failed in his old age. Many of Solomon’s wives turned his heart to worship other gods. Let’s note that marriage and wives and such among the kings of the time was not like marriage in today’s America (in many ways).

Many of these marriages for kings were political treaties. A king would say something like, “I won’t invade your country and kill your people because your people are the descendants of my daughter. That is why I gave my daughter to you as a bride. Be nice to my daughter. Build her a palace. Build her a place of worship where she can worship the gods of my country.”

Oh, that last part. God didn’t like that last part. Solomon tripped on that last part. He had all these political-treaty wives who worshiped all these gods. Well, the thinking goes, since Jehovah, the one, true God, gave me this wife with all her gods, there must be something worthwhile in worshiping these gods. Right? Wrong.

Then we have the departed father and King David. David had many faults. David caused the death of a good man so David could have the man’s wife. David killed, and killed, and killed some more—a stone-cold killer in battle.

Nevertheless, David never turned to worship other gods. Bad things happened to David. In despair, David always turned to Jehovah the God who created all. David, stumbling and bumbling as he did, remained faithful to God.

David is a good example to follow. I stumble and bumble and all that everyday. I can always look to the one true God. Thank you God for forgiving me all my stumbling and bumbling.