1 Kings 11:9-13 “Making God Angry!”
“Now the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him, and had commanded him concerning this thing…” (9-10a) Here we see two reasons for the anger God has toward Solomon. First, God had appeared to him twice to enlighten and strengthen him and this failure of whole hearted devotion to God reflected a lack of appreciation or gratitude on Solomon’s part. Second, his failed devotion led to outright disobedience of God’s command and warning against these unhealthy attachments. Solomon’s actions were no longer governed by God, but by his emotional attachments to foreign women. Like Eve in the garden of Eden, his relationship and conversation with the enemy, resulted in misperception. He not only desired what was wrong, but saw what was wrong as preferential and good. Only an unadulterated devotion and love for God can keep us from being in the horrifying place of being faced with God’s anger. Now the consequence of Solomon’s sin would impact not only his legacy, but an entire nation. May God give us grace to maintain a healthy devotion to our Lord and Savior, Jesus.
