1000 Shades of Gray
For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 1 Kings 11:4 NASB
Turned – Solomon was an addict. That’s pretty much the only explanation that makes any sense here. Solomon was a man with virtually everything a man could want. He starts out powerful, the son the Israel’s greatest king. He has wealth. He has supernatural wisdom, a gift from God. He has fame. Basically he has anything he wants. But what he chooses changes the direction of his life and ultimately destroys him. What he chooses is sex.
The text tells us the Solomon “loved” these women, all one thousand of them. Really? Yes, the Hebrew is ‘ahev, but the scenario makes deeply personal committed relationship impossible. A different woman every night for three years and still there were more? No, this isn’t “love” as God understands it. This is acquisition and addiction. This is not being able to stop.
These women turned Solomon’s heart away from God. The verb is nata. It isn’t the usual verb for “turn.” That would be shuv. This verb really means, “to stretch out, to extend, to spread out.” Included under its umbrella is the nuance “to turn, to incline, to decline, to turn aside.” This is a verb for lack of concentration, for spreading yourself too thin. The text says that these women spread him too thin. He was so busy managing his love life that he lost touch with what really mattered. Notice how this happens. It isn’t the women who directly caused his collapse. The text tells us that “when he was old” he turned. It took time. It took accumulating distraction from wholehearted faithfulness to God. Little by little Solomon made decisions that changed his path, until finally, after years of choices, he ended up far away. The women in his life were not the ones who turned him. They were just the opportunities for misdirection. He chose the road of addiction, one woman at a time.
Solomon’s course of action is an important example. Perhaps that’s why it is in the text. Since it is so condemning of this great man, we would have expected the story to be excised, but it isn’t. It isn’t redacted because it shows us that power, wealth, status and even incredible knowledge is not protection from addiction. Something was still missing in Solomon’s life; something that compelled him to fill it with the accumulation of lovers. There was an emptiness that needed to be filled. Solomon chose women to fill that void. You and I might choose something else. But it all begins with emptiness, the feeling that we need something more to make us whole. That’s the beginning of the addictive cycle, and if we are going to avoid addictive accumulation, we will have to focus on that emptiness and discover what it really is—the absence of wholehearted trust in God. It takes a long time to get to the point of addictive collapse. It takes a long time to recover. But better to change directions than to be spread thin.
Topical Index: turn, nata, love, ‘ahav, ‘ahev, wholehearted, addiction, 1 Kings 11:4
Be careful little eyes what you see, it’s the second glace that ties your hands, as darkness pulls the strings. Be careful little feet where you go for the little feet behind you that are sure to follow.
It’s a slow fade when you give yourself away, it’s a slow fade when black and white have turned to Gray. Thoughts invade, choices made a price will be paid, when you give yourself away. People never crumble in a day.
Song by casting crowns.
This message takes on a whole new meaning when I see the effects in my own choices and how they can damage not just the relationship with all I come in contact with but having walked in places of compromise how much I still struggle to come back to a place of a desire to please Abba with a whole heart.
Skip, Thank you for your wonderful perspective on the word and more importantly the heart of Messiah. I had the honor and privilege of knowing personally one of the great Hebrew minds of this century. Although sometimes controversial Art Katz new the Lord and walked in Him. I see in you his definition of what it means to be “jewish” It is in my mind the root of why YHWH chose to befriend and walk with Abraham, and it is central to the heart of Messiah. That is a love of truth and a love of reality! Shabatt Shalom my new friend!
“‘Has a nation changed its gods—even though they are not gods? Yet My people have exchanged their glory for worthless things. Be appalled at this, O heavens! Be utterly horrified and dumbfounded.’ It is a declaration of Adonai. ‘My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me—the spring of living water—and they dug their own cisterns—cracked cisterns that hold no water.'” [Jer 2:11-13]
Don’t get spread too thin. Don’t get addicted. Don’t turn to other gods. Don’t forsake YHWH. It doesn’t happen all at once. It happens a little at a time…..over time.
Stay focused. Draw near. DRINK DEEPLY.
PRAY WITHOUT CEASING!
“SHABBAT WAS MADE FOR MAN.”
Hello Skip and Others,
I often find comfort in your observation, “It takes a while,” “It takes time.” The positive side to this is perhaps redemption of us by YHVH is a process not an event as many of us were taught to assume. I need to daily take time to choose who am I going to serve.
If one day of absence from doing that suddenly becomes 10 days, then I may be in trouble.
An interesting side-point is the phrase, When he was old.”
If this is to be understood to mean the golden years, the senior years, priorities do shift and relax. Raising the family may be done. Professional life may be reshaped. There may be a tendency to do a deep breath and say middle adulthood is done; now it’s the climactic time. Still, I have to choose each day whom will be served..
Shalom,
David Russell
Babs thank you for the explanation…
Could this be the reason why Yeshua said if we have no sin it will be given or created. The small things destroy our relationship with God while our big things destruct…
Hi Suzanne,
If you happen to read this, I just wanted to mention that I just responded to your post on 8/31/17 (Disconnected.)
I’m assuming you would have no way of knowing unless you happen to go back and reread it, so I wanted to leave this message on today’s comments. :-)))
Thanks David, you remind me that as we age we must keep our trejectory fixed, continual correction is required. I am so very glad for the unrelenting nature of the Spirit of Truth.
Beautiful TW!! Only YHVH can fill that void–that emptiness. Blissful are those who know this.
This TW would I believe be very meaningful to men who are addicted to sex. And of course women. But I believe men may be harder hit in the physical side of this addiction. I would not have thought of Solomon as a sex addict. But it makes perfect sense. And as it was acceptable for some cultures then rationalization or justification could have been the starting point.
I thought this was a beautiful TW in so many ways. Only God can fill that void we all know and feel. I am so thankful.
It seems prudent to qualify my excessive praise of Art Katz. There have been so very many great Hebrew minds in the last centurey he had a fine mind but it was not in it that his greatness was found. Skip reminds me of Art in this. After listening to a talk of his on “the Jew , the Church and the End Times” from 1984 it is his distinctive focus on the nature of Truth and willingness to confront any and all forms of sham, pretense, or guile that set him and Skip in a league of there own. Art fancied himself as a prophet but was all too human. Agin it is the love of truth and reality and an uncompromising comittment to walk in it that motivated him, clearly motivates Skip and any who desire a real and genuine walk with Messiah. For Messiah is the very nature and embodiment of grace , truth and love . As mentioned above it takes time to learn and discern the difrences between what is genuine or otherwise in ourselves and the world about us. Keep your eyes on the prize and thanks Skip for exposing the lies!
Yes, you are right, this was an addiction. But since he was actually married to all of these women, people might have seen it as a legitimate lifestyle compared to how that addiction might play out today with people having numerous affairs. Still, that kind of addiction and others can take us far away from God. We wouldn’t want to spend time praying or reading the Scriptures or being with other believers for they would remind us of our addiction that we truly desire more than God. As far as sexual addiction goes, we’d want to find someone or many people to give us the ultimate sexual pleasure as frequently as possible all the time even if it only lasts less than a minute. We’d need to be set free from the chains of that addiction by an external source because we couldn’t accomplish such a feat by ourselves. There are ways to approach it like group therapy, but what started out as something “normal” at some point gained a spiritual element that can only be dealt with by God. Deliverance starts with genuine repentance which breaks the chains of darkness so you are free to pray and dig into the Word of God, and fellowship with God’s people. People who’ve been through this know what I’m talking about. Once you are set free, you’ve got to be careful not to go back to it. Some days may prove easier than others.