Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Then the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,and had commanded him concerning this matter, that he should not follow other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord commanded. ”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, November 3, 2018
by Rev. Stefanie Fauth, Clergy Stuff
The word “abomination” feels very harsh to me.
If something is an abomination, I automatically think that whomever is committing the abomination will be condemned to the deepest, darkest pit of despair.
I think a lot of us hear that message in modern Christianity. Certain ways of life are an abomination - and if you don’t repent, God can’t love you.
But in this story, we hear of Solomon committing some pretty awful acts against God.
Solomon ignores God’s directive NOT to marry women who worship other idols because it will mess with Solomon’s loyalty. His relationships with the women who worship other gods causes him to worship these other gods - these “abominations” to the point of building places of worship for multiple gods.
God was ANGRY.
But did Solomon go to the hellfire?
It doesn’t say in these texts.
God has punishments in mind - but even they are mitigated.
Could it be that even when we make bad choices by worshiping abominations or doing evil things that God could still love us?
Don’t get me wrong - we should try really hard to not do what is evil…but know that your mistakes probably won’t change how much you are loved by your God!
Narrative Lectionary Daily Reading:
1 Kings 11:1-13
King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the Israelites, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you; for they will surely incline your heart to follow their gods”; Solomon clung to these in love. Among his wives were seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon followed Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not completely follow the Lord, as his father David had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrificed to their gods.
Then the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,and had commanded him concerning this matter, that he should not follow other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant.Yet for the sake of your father David I will not do it in your lifetime; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. I will not, however, tear away the entire kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”
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