A Decline Begins

After David’s reign on the throne, Israel was doing pretty good. Solomon, who replaced David when Solomon was in young adulthood (age estimates range from 12 by rabbis to 20 by other theologians), furthered the influence of Israel on the region of the Middle East. Solomon strengthened Israel’s position in the world by forming strong alliances with the surrounding nations. He did this by marrying the daughters of the leaders of the other nations.

1 Kings 3 starts by telling us Solomon married the Pharaoh of Egypt’s daughter. While the marriage didn’t violate the commandments (the Israelites were prohibited only from marrying Canaanites), the new wife was supposed to give up her foreign gods and submit to the God of Israel. That rarely happened and so Israel became polluted by many false idols. Throughout the history of Israel going forth, this became a problem for the nation that was supposed to worship the One and Only True God.

We have an account of Solomon’s spiritual condition in 1 Kings 3:3:

Now Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places (NASB).

The CJB says,

Shlomo [Solomon] loved ADONAI, living according to the regulations set forth by David his father; nevertheless, he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places.

Sounds righteous at first glance. The key words, however, are “except” (NASB) and “nevertheless” (CJB). On one side the verse sets out Solomon’s love for the Lord (and following David’s practices, although we know David had some pretty funny ideas of what it meant to follow God’s instructions). After the key words, it seems as if Solomon was doing something wrong – sacrificing and making offerings on the high places. I added the emphasis for a reason.

The Hebrew word for “high places” is bamah. This word is used to describe many religious sites. The people of the Middle East fully believed that gods (including God) lived on mountaintops and so altars and places to perform said sacrifices to whatever god was being honored existed on many places of high ground throughout Israel. In addition, many of these sites had hired private priests carrying out the sacrifices. They carried out rituals and ceremonies, which made the people think they were getting right with God.

Do you see anything wrong with this? God had laid out some very specific regulations regarding worshiping Him. First, the only temple that meant anything was the one where the Ark of the Covenant was located (which at this time was in Jerusalem). And second, God gave clear instructions that only Levites (people descended from the tribe of Levi) could be legitimate priests.

I fear our world is becoming like Israel. Solomon and Israel’s decline began at this point – man-made showy actions that supposedly made the observers right with God. Today there is a decline in the spiritual condition throughout the world, as people practice and observe religious activities that fit their own ideas of God, not adhering to either the Old Testament commands or the instructions and examples of the New Testament church. Going through certain motions does not make a person right with God. There are people today who call themselves Christians but if asked, “Why are you a Christian?” have no idea what salvation and redemption means. They are being indoctrinated into practices and habits and nice sounding words that are giving them a false sense of being right with God.

My question? Where do you fall? Do you know what salvation and redemption are all about? Or are you a cultural Christian going to church, espousing the things others have told you, and acting like you think a Christian should act? There is condemnation for those types of people recorded in the Scriptures. There are several places where Jesus says there are people who will have eaten with Him and followed Him around, but when the times comes they will ask for admittance into heaven, and the Master will say, “I do not know where you are from” (Luke 13:23-27 is one example).

Where are you from?