Putting Faith in People Over GodSample

Step #1: Deception

King Solomon’s wisdom couldn’t save him from the destruction caused by his disobedience to God.

King Solomon’s fall didn’t happen overnight. In the beginning of his reign, Solomon was fully surrendered to God. In fact, during his first year as king, Solomon had a dream in which God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you” (1 Kings 3:5). Solomon replied, “So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong” (1 Kings 3:9). In other words, Solomon asked God for wisdom so he could lead the people well. Throughout the next few days, we’re going to dive into the subtle cycle and three steps that changed Solomon from a wise and God-fearing king into a cynical, miserable, and idolatrous monarch who is unrecognizable from his former self.

“But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” – James 1:14-15

Throughout the years of his reign, Solomon turned away from his full commitment to God and compromised his values to please others. We often fall into deception when we believe we can please God and man at the same time, or when we try to keep one foot in the world and one foot with God, while walking the straight and narrow path. That’s impossible. The world sways you one way while God says, “Follow Me,” in another direction. That’s why a decision must be made in your life: to follow man’s way or Jesus’ Way.

Long before Solomon, God set the standard by saying, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exod. 20:3). This is because you and I were created to worship God. When we choose not to be fully devoted to God, our interests become divided. Soon after that, instead of looking up to the One who made us, we start looking around for answers.

Solomon fell into the deception that he could secure life’s satisfaction from what was directly in front of him. First Kings 11:1–10 says:

"King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, 'You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.' Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done. On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods. The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command."

The previous passage marks Solomon’s entrance into Step 1—the deceptive cycle of the world. From what we see in this passage, Solomon’s desire to please his wives outgrew his desire to please God. The Bible never says that Solomon was not devoted to God. It says that he was not devoted to God fully. So, you see where the deception is. The world wants to deceive us into believing we can have one foot in God’s Kingdom and one foot in the world. But before we know it our interests are divided. Our values are compromised. And we begin to serve Creation rather than the Creator.