Grace Notes // When We Were Kings Week 2
Slow Leaks
Written by Keli Miller
The air is crisp and shades of orange and yellow are peaking through my once green trees. This can only mean one thing, winter is coming.
As the leaves fall, what was once hidden in summer is now exposed.
The same happens in our spiritual life.
In the lazy days of summer we can keep our bad habits and shortcuts hidden. We see this best in Solomon’s life. At the start of his role as King we see him making a few seemingly small compromises, but by the end of Solomon’s life we see the result of these compromises and (spoiler alert) it’s bleak.
Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places. (1 Kings 3:3)
“Except that”
Two small words that indicate Solomon isn’t completely sold out to the Lord, and also minimize this division in his life.
We do this all the time in our own lives as we grapple with our own heart’s division. We’ll call these areas, “slow leaks” - areas where we filter God through the lens of our world as we see it (or want to see it). We make exceptions and convince ourselves that it was a one time thing and not a big deal. Or, maybe, we even convince ourselves that God’s word isn’t relevant to our current World.
Unfortunately, Solomon serves as a perfect example of a heart divided.
If we read verse three on it’s own, we think, “Oh, so Solomon just had this one issue”, but just a few verses before, we see hints at other issues of the heart.
In verse one, we read that Solomon married an Egyptian woman - Pharaoh's daughter to be exact. This is the same Egypt that God had just freed the Israelites from, and now we see Solomon going against God’s instruction (Deuteronomy 7:3) and making political alliances with them. While we don’t see the consequences of this decision immediately, this is another indication that Solomon doesn’t fully trust God’s ways or instructions.
If we are counting Solomon’s “slow leaks”, we are now at 2.
In chapter 4, we learn that Solomon acquired thousands of horses. Which directly goes against God’s instructions to Israel’s kings in Deuteronomy 17:16-17:
“The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, ‘You are not to go back that way again.’ He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.”
Right now we only know of Solomon’s one wife but by the end of his reign we know that Solomon had up to 700 wives (1 Kings 11:3).
This is how slow leaks work.
Though we like to believe that they exist in isolation, where one is allowed to live, more will soon gather. One decision after another, slowly but surely, changing the course of our lives, as we drift away from God’s instruction.
When we look at Solomon’s life and heart’s division, it is easy to see our own subtle compromises. All of this can feel defeating but there is good news - God’s endless pursuit and mercy.
Immediately following Solomon’s divided heart in 1 Kings 3:3, we see God come so Solomon and ask him what he wants. Solomon would ask for wisdom and God would answer Solomon’s prayer (we’ll dive more into this in next week’s Sunday message). Even though our hearts are divided and can drift away from God’s instruction, God still pursues us, reminding us that He is what we are looking for.
Friends, we have two choices: we can either filter God through the lens of the world, or we can filter the world through God’s lens.
Let’s pull back and ask for God’s vision and lens.
In the Word
1 Kings 3:1-4:28
Deuteronomy 17:14-20
Galatians 5:7-10
Processing
Are you paying attention to the small checks in your spirit or have you grown numb to them?
What do you see sneaking into your life? Are there habits or shortcuts that are causing you to drift?
We are better when we are together. Identify someone in your house church or circle that you can process these questions with, and hold one another accountable, speaking truth and love.