February 13, 2023

Passage Read: 2 Chronicles 2-5
Meditation Verse: 3:1

Thought

Solomon was faithful to fulfill the unfinished projects of his father, most important being the construction of the Temple. He started out so well, so faithful and so committed to doing what was good and right. But all the while he was laying the foundation for his fall. While he was serving the Lord and faithfully carrying out all these duties, he was also marrying foreign women who would eventually turn his heart away from the Lord, from single-minded devotion to the Lord. God does not delight in sharing our affections with others, but is jealous and demands undivided devotion, even as a husband or wife. Interesting, though it wasn't God's original design and that original design was eventually recovered, it was for a time acceptable for a man to have multiple wives, but never for a wife to have multiple husbands. God seeks multiple worshipers, whom He calls children, but He has only one Bride, the Church built upon the foundation and grafted into the tree of true Israel.

Application

I need to be careful of the things I enjoy, that none of them are so important that I would violate God's clear teachings in order to maintain or pursue them. If I would break God's commands to have my little pleasures, then I too am laying a foundation for future gross unfaithfulness. Whatever I do to break God's instructions in little ways today will most likely morph into much larger violations in the future. Better to stop them now than be carried away by them later.