The phrase “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” fits
well with Solomon. He led the
Israelites into a period of peace and prosperity. He constructed the temple—one of the marvels of the Ancient
Near East. He was also said to be
the wisest man ever and many of the Psalms and Proverbs come at the hands of
his pen.
Yet
he fell hard. His sin began with
lust as he took numerous wives and concubines. It continued with following the pagan gods of his mistresses
and rejecting God Himself. This
despite the fact that, the Lord “had
appeared to him twice.”
The
reading begins by noting: “When
Solomon was old his wives had turned his heart to strange gods, and
his heart was not entirely with the LORD,
his God, as the heart of his father David
had been.” David
too, had sinned grievously. He
lusted, committed adultery, lied and murdered. Yet David, unlike Solomon, repented for his sin.
The
fact is, everyone falls through sin.
David’s heart was with the Lord because he repented. Solomon’s was not and we can observe
the snowball effect of unchecked sin destroyed his life.
For
us, it is not as much about sinning, but making sure to get up after a sin and
seek God’s mercy.
No comments:
Post a Comment