During this past Sunday's sermon, Pastor Sam shared a very scary analogy concerning God's assessment of division in worship.
It is the analogy of a man who, being away from home, bought his wife flowers as an indicator of how much he missed her while away. However, the reality is that the man intentionally left home in order to spend time with a mistress. The flowers were a fraudulent offering, because the man's heart was not exclusively devoted to his wife.
In Scripture, we see that King Solomon was a prime example of a man with a divided heart. This division was evident spiritually and physically. Solomon divided his attention between a thousand women whom he kept as wives and concubines. These women, in turn, caused Solomon to divide his attention between the worship of God and the worship of idols.
King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done. (First Kings 11:1-6)
“As Solomon grew old... Solomon did evil”. There seems to have been, over a period of years, a process in which Solomon drifted away from his devotion to God. Solomon never had a moment where he made a declaration of rejection of God. Rather, he added to his life another set of “gods” in violation of God's command to love Him exclusively. And God identified Solomon as one who did evil in His eyes.
Our God is a jealous God. And, just as He gave His best for us out of love, He expects that we will reciprocate. If we give anything less, our worship of Him becomes as fraudulent an offering as that of the man who buys gifts for his wife while continuing an affair.
How ironic that Solomon, whom God gifted with a wealth of wisdom, suffered from such a poverty of soul. And how sad that Solomon's error spans the ages, as Christians compromise their faith by worshiping God on Sunday morning and someone else on Sunday afternoon. If you are in that category, the Lord urges you to repent now.
We are called to full devotion;
No other lover but You, dear Lord,
No other thing will take Your place.
Capture each heart, strength, mind, emotion!
Saturate us in Your matchless grace.
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