My
wife must not live in the palace of David king of Israel, because the places
the ark of the Lord has entered are holy. (2 Chronicles 8:11)
Even
though Solomon had been warned not to intermarry with the nations, he amassed
700 wives and 300 concubines. When the reigning Egyptian Pharaoh offered his
daughter in marriage to the King of Israel in order to solidify their uneasy
alliance, Solomon brought his new wife to Jerusalem. Knowing her presence in
David’s palace would be displeasing to God, he did not move her in there, but
skated the issue by building her a brand new palace.
Solomon
did what we often do; he compartmentalized his life: I’ll keep my Israeli wives here in this palace, and I’ll keep my
foreign-born wives over here, and never the twain shall meet. God won’t even
notice. God did notice, and Solomon’s dalliances hurt not only him, but the
entire kingdom. As Solomon grew old, his
wives turned his heart after other gods (1 Kings 11:4).
Solomon
thought he could handle it, but he was lying to himself. When we think, This is my home life, this is my work life,
and this is my spiritual life, we’re lying to ourselves too. We may think
we can get away with it, but eventually it catches up with us.
Are
any parts of your life incongruent with the rest? What are you going to do
about that this week?
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