“When Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father” (1 Kings 11:4).
We see that in his old age Solomon’s heart became divided by serving other gods, and he “did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done” (1 Kings 11:6). Hence “his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father” (1 Kings 11:4). How important it is then to have an undivided heart in our love and service of God and not allow our heart to become divided among other things! We should not allow other things to take the place of God in our heart. Therefore “the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel” (1 Kings 11:9).
There are many things that we can put into our heart that should not be there and that divide the love of our heart so that it is not undivided as it should be. The pleasures of the world are idols that divide our heart. They are our false gods that make us worldly instead of pure followers of the Lord, and only of the Lord.
Solomon thought that he had good reasons for his actions, for he made political alliances by marrying the daughters of various kings, such as the daughter of Pharaoh (1 Kings 11:1). Since his foreign wives were not Israelites, he built temples for them where they could offer sacrifice to their gods, and he joined them in their sacrifices. But this did not please God.
We too can think that we have good reasons for putting other pleasures into our heart, but this also does not please God, who wants to see in us a heart that is integral and undivided in our love and service of him. We do not need as many things as we think, unnecessary things that are only for pleasure. All this only divides the heart.
We have to beware of the culture that we live in and guard ourselves against it and not uncritically imitate its ways and fashions. We should rather discern the styles of our culture and reject what is not in accord with gospel living. The great sin of the Israelites was to mingle with the nations and imitate their ways. “They did not destroy the peoples, as the Lord commanded them, but they mingled with the nations and learned to do as they did. They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood. Thus they became unclean by their acts” (Ps. 106:34-
39). Let us not do the same!
Although we do not worship idols in the same way that they did, there are nonetheless many idols in our culture that are served and that divide the heart. The cult of pleasure is the great idol that is served today, and it divides the heart so that it is not wholly true to the Lord.
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