This morning, I was reading in 1 Kings and something stuck out to me. The kingdom of Israel was taken from Solomon because he worshiped other gods (1 Kings 11:31-33). Interestingly, the Lord contrasts this behavior with Solomon’s father David, who God says upheld his laws and statutes. Now, we all know this isn’t true in the strictest sense; David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed (2 Samuel 11), disobeying commandments #6 and #7 (Exodus 20:13-14). Not only did he fail to uphold the entire law, he failed even on the Big 10.
Yet God called David righteous and promised to preserve his kingdom forever, but He took everything from Solomon that wasn’t already promised to David. What struck me was that God took the kingdom from Solomon based on his disobedience of only one commandment, the first one (Exodus 20:3). Somehow David disobeys two and gets called righteous; Solomon disobeys one and gets his kingdom taken from him. To the person who likes counting their obedience, this seems horribly unjust.
I don’t take this sequence of events to mean that God thinks that adultery and murder aren’t such a big deal after all. In fact, after David’s adultery you see this event often mentioned as the blemish on his legacy (1 Kings 15:5). It was not easily forgotten. However, something we see from David that Solomon never demonstrates is repentance (2 Samuel 12:13, Psalm 51). I think it’s for this reason that God says that David upheld His laws and statutes. Because even when he didn’t, he responded with an authentic desire to obey the Lord from that point on.
I think had Solomon repented as David had, he could have retained the northern kingdom. But it serves as a great reminder to me that forgetting my God, putting any other before him in my heart, is as punishable as murder or adultery. In fact, repentant murder AND adultery was blessed more than unrepentant divine infidelity. That has implications for how I respond to my own “petty idolatries”. When I begin to care more for ministry or world change than I do for my God, I tread on territory more dangerous than adultery and murder.
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This reminds me too of Judah–total screw-up in terms of God’s desires for His people, but repentant. He ends up being the leader of his family and one of the ancestors of Christ, the Lion of Judah. Pretty huge honor bestowed on a pretty sinful guy. Humble repentance is extremely important to God! I love that about Him.