Even a wise king couldn’t avoid the downfall of compartmentalizing
By Dean Collins
The wisest king of all made the mistake all of us make from time to time. And he made it over and over and over again. Yes, I am referring to Solomon’s 700 royal wives and his 300 concubines. And no, I am not suggesting any of us have made that mistake! But his error is like a failing too many believers demonstrate. Let me explain.
Praying for wisdom, building the temple
We all know the story of Solomon’s beautiful prayer for wisdom in 2 Chronicles 1. We also know about the vast amount of wealth he possessed. The combination of Solomon’s wisdom and wealth, the full blessing of his father, King David, and the blessing of his Heavenly Father together allowed Solomon to build the temple. Much of the first 8 chapters of 2 Chronicles gives us a detailed account of the materials and the process of building this amazing structure.
In chapter 2 Solomon acknowledges that God doesn’t need a house and that no building could contain God. The best he could do was make a beautiful structure that would be a place to offer sacrifices to God (2 Chronicles 2:5-6). The following chapters give us specifications, sources, and amounts of treasures needed; they describe how Solomon accomplished building the temple. God clearly gave Solomon wisdom, a network of human and material resources, and great clarity to accomplish this mission.
Many scholars believe Solomon wrote Psalm 127: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep” (vv. 1-2, ESV).
It seems Solomon was fully aware that this beautiful temple was not, in fact, built with his own hands or even possible to be built by his contractors apart from God’s blessing and involvement. The wise king knew God is the builder, the one who provides, the one who watches over us, and the one who gives our lives meaning.
Yielding to a common problem
Yet when we get to the midpoint of 2 Chronicles 8, we see Solomon’s compartmentalization. Even though it was forbidden by God, Solomon took a wife from Egypt. Knowing that God did not want a military alliance with Egypt, Solomon proceeded to marry into Pharaoh’s family. To try and create some congruence in his life, he built his wife’s house outside of the city of God. And he did this more than once.
Solomon managed to mentally separate and justify a personal life that did not honor God while following God’s instructions to the tee when it came to building the temple. And then Solomon offered numerous sacrifices and celebrated all of God’s commanded feasts.
By the time we get to Ecclesiastes, we see the wise king viewing all as vanity or empty. The truth is, when we attempt to separate the segments of our lives so we can justify some actions, thoughts, and behaviors that do not honor God while simultaneously attempting to honor God with other areas of our lives, we will always end up with a train wreck instead of seeing the “train of his glory.”
Solomon’s disobedience was clearly visible to others. And try as we might, other people see our flaws much more quickly than we see our own blind spots.
Deceiving ourselves
Reading God’s Word is important. Praying daily and often is important. Participating in Christian community is vital. But if we do these things without allowing the Spirit of God to transform our lives daily, we will slowly make Solomon’s mistake of carefully isolating the areas of our lives we do not want God to see. And of course, we deceive ourselves with each step.
Lord, today we pray you would give us the courage to take a spiritual inventory. We ask that you reveal to us the areas of our lives where we are not obeying you and walking in Your Holy Spirit. As you reveal our blind spots, we humbly ask that you forgive us and give us courage to seek the wisdom and guidance of godly people so that we might correct our behavior and once again fully live in your will and for your glory. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Your time with God’s Word
2 Chronicles 2:5-6; 5:1; 6:10-11; 8:11-18 ESV
Photo by Beyzaa Yurtkuran at Pexels.com
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