Heart Gone Astray

1 Kings 11

Introduction
Our heart is one of the most important parts of the human body. It pumps
life-giving blood all over the circulation system and delivers fresh oxygen to
every part of the body, and draws toxic wastes away from the system to be
flushed out of the body.
We know we are alive because we feel our heart beat. A body that has no
more pulse has no more life.
It is not only in the physical sense is the heart important. Because when the
Bible talks about the heart, it does not just talk about a part of the body. It
talks about whats inside the person. It talks about whats at the very core of
who you are as a person.
Courage. The word heart is translated into cor in Latin, or cur in
French. It is from the French word for heart that we get the word courage.
When we do something that requires bravery, you need a heart that is strong
and that is fully engaged.
As we say in Tagalog, buo ang loob. We can roughly translate it as being
whole-hearted.
Take to heart. When we remember something very important, something
very relevant to life, we say we need to take it to heart. We do not just
remember it in our minds, we remember with our very hearts.
In Tagalog, isinasapuso.
The heart is also the seat of the emotions. It is with the heart that we feel
compassion for others. Or passion for the arts. Or love for our families. When
we have intimate discussions, we say we have a heart-to-heart talk.
The opposite of these qualities also deal with the heart. So when we are no
longer courageous, we lose heart. When we are not serious about

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remembering something, we do not put it to heart. When we are not

passionate about anything, our hearts are not in it.
Unfortunately, as we have read in the passage, it is also with the heart that
we fall from Gods grace. It is with the heart that we are led astray.
There are three important lessons we can learn from this very important
passage:
1. Our heart can lead us astray from our worship of God
2. God is gracious and merciful even in his judgment
3. We need strong faith to finish well

Heart God Astray

Chapter 11 of 1 Kings begin with the surprising statement:
Now, King Solomon loved many foreign women.
Verse 3 actually gave the number of wives and concubines Solomon had: 700
wives and 300 concubines. He probably has the world record in the most
number of wives in all of history.
Now it was customary in their time for a king to have many wives. It is partly
a tool for diplomacy. If a king wants to secure the loyalty of lesser kings in
your kingdom, he marries their daughters. Thats why it was specified in
verse 3 that the 700 wives were princesses. These were marriages meant to
secure the peace and welfare of the kingdom.
That move in itself is problematic because it implies that peace in the
kingdom comes from these alliances. It takes away reliance on God for the
security and welfare of the kingdom.
But more than that, the passage tells us that some of these marriages were
direct disobedience of Gods commands. Some of these women were from
nations that God gave specific warnings about:
Verse 2: You shall not enter into marriage with them for surely they will turn
away your heart after their gods.

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And in spite of this specific warning, the Bible tells us, Solomon clung to
these in love.
Because of his love for these women, he caved in to their demands that they
worship their own gods, rather than give their allegiance to the God of Israel.
Verse 7: Solomon built a high place for Chemosh for Molech and
sacrificed to their gods.
The issue is not how many wives Solomon had. The issue was who did he
marry. Solomon could have had just one wife. But if that wife was from a
nation that God forbade him to marry, he had no business giving his heart to
that woman.
This is about obedience. This is about faithfulness. And Solomon failed the
test.
Verse 6: So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not
wholly follow the LORD
Lesson for Us
There are things in life where our hearts are attracted to. Men are attracted
to other women. Women attracted to men. Some are attracted to the same
sex. Others are attracted to money, and the things that money can buy. Or
the pleasures that money can buy. Some people are attracted to positions of
power, and the influence they have over other people, or the sense of pride
they have in their positions.
Whatever things that our hearts are lured into, every time our love these
things become greater than our love of God, we enter dangerous territory.
Much more so when our hearts are drawn into the love for what God has
forbidden. Like loving someone other than your spouse. Or loving something
that is not yours. Or loving anything to the point of bowing down before it in
worship.
Our hearts were meant to have supreme love for only one. We are meant to
love the Lord our God with all our hearts, and souls, and minds and strength.

Grace of God, even in His Justice

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God could not help but compare Solomon to his father David.
Verse 4: His heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God as was the heart
of his father David.
Verse 6: So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not
wholly follow the LORD as David his father had done.
David was not perfect. He had his serious faults. But one thing God loved
David for: David was after Gods own heart. Solomons heart was elsewhere.
So because of Solomons unfaithfulness, he experienced the anger of God.
Verse 9: And the LORD was angry with Solomon.
Verse 11: Therefore the LORD said to Solomon . I will surely tear the
kingdom from you and will give it to your servant.
God even personally raised up enemies to make trouble for Solomon.
Verse 14: And the LORD raised up an adversary Hadad the Edomite.
Verse 23: God also raised up as an adversary Rezon they went to
Damascus
Verse 26: Jeroboam lifted up his hand against the king.
Solomons unfaithfulness had serious consequences. The kingdom that his
father David fought hard to build, for which many lives were shed, much
sacrifice was given the land that God had promised the people of Israel,
God took much of it away from Solomon.
God himself raised up enemies up north (Rezon in Damascus), down south
(Hadad the Edomite in Egypt) and within (Jeroboam)
Indeed, as the book of Job said, The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.
But while sometimes God takes things away from us as a test, in Solomons
case, God clearly took the kingdom away as judgment.
And yet, even in judgment, God was gracious. Even as God pronounced
judgment on the kingdom of Solomon, God made room for mercy.
Verse 12: Yet for the sake of David your father, I will not do it in your days.
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Verse 13: However I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of David,
my servant and of Jerusalem which I have chosen.
God had every right to take Solomons kingdom from him right then and
there. And yet he waited until the death of Solomon before the kingdom was
taken away. And not everything was taken, the tribe of Judah and Benjamin
(often referred to as one tribe as they share a border) was left to be ruled by
Solomons son.
And this, not for Solomons sake. It was for the sake of David.
Lesson for Us
We find here that it is possible for God to grant someone favor, not because
of himself, but because of the faithfulness of his/her parents. When we serve
God faithfully, Gods favor extends even to our children, and even to our
childrens children.
To the young people here, when you experience favor from God, do not think
that it is all because of you. You may be unfaithful, but you can experience
favor because of the faithfulness of your parents. Be warned. But also, take
heart. Be faithful to God, and God will be faithful to you and your children,
and your childrens children.

Strong Faith to Finish Well

Solomon started well in life as king of Israel. The reason why God gave him
so much wealth and wisdom was because God was first in his life. But as he
grew older, something went wrong.
Verse 4: For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after
other gods.
Solomons heart was drawn away from God by his love for his many wives,
and was then drawn to the worship of other gods. Towards the end of his life,
Solomon lost faith.
I am sure Solomon did not plan on turning away from God. With all his
wisdom, I know that he knew what was at stake. But as started taking on
many wives, which did not happen in one day but over many years, Solomon
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was drawn farther and farther away from his first love for the Lord. And by
the time he had 700 wives and concubine, he no longer had the faith to
resist the temptation.
Lesson for Us.
Not one among us plan to turn away from God. But it is possible for us to
start strong in the faith but lose heart in the end. We know of people who are
like this. We know of Christians who was on fire for God at the start, but are
now living in sin. We know of pastors and ministers who have been used by
God in his service, only to fall from grace later.
No one is exempt from temptations. We all experience going astray. But for
as long as our love for God is strong, we will overcome. But woe unto us
when we start losing that fervor. We do not lose it in one day. We lose it a bit
at a time, like small leaks in a container of water. If you do not deal with the
leak, before you know it youve lost your first love.
A plane that gets off-tangent one degree will find itself lost if it does not
make course corrections. The same is true with our hearts before God.
We need to go back to our first love. We need to give our hearts to God. God
desires--and deservesthat we give our hearts wholly to Him.
Prayer

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