1 Kings 11:1 “But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites:”

1 Kings 11:2 “Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.”

1 Kings 11:3 “And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.”

1 Kings 11:4 “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.”

Hello readers, I hope you are having a good weekend. We’ve had more rain in the last 24 hours, and are having yet another mild, cloudy, wet summer.

In a recent blog I discussed marriage, and particularly some important things to consider about marriage.

I qualified myself as worthy of your attention in a strange way, not through being married… but because I am not.

Given that I have not experienced God’s provision in this area of my life, I can identify with you in the struggles of identifying such in my life.

… and also the waiting in between, with seemingly nothing on the horizon apart from the occasional mirage! It seems as what started as impossible God has just made even more impossible for me, and if that’s how you feel, congratulations on being here… enjoy your stay!

But I’m sure if God puts this good thing on your heart, it is just a matter of time until he provides for what he has promised.

I would encourage you to claim God’s promises in his word for yourself “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”

There is nothing wrong with desiring a godly spouse, in fact it is a blessing of God to receive such, so by all means, claim this promise for yourself “Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord.”

… sounds like something we should all be interested in!

Just like salvation… God’s promises need but be taken. You’re not a hero for not doing it. Oh no I don’t need you God, oh no I don’t want too much from God. Oh that would be asking too much! Well, go on, limit God.

Just remember in 2 Kings 13 when Joash king of Israel came to see Elisha about the pesky Syrians, and Elisha told him to smite the arrows on the ground and he >only< did it three times… and Elisha was angry with him because he didn’t smite them more times! Why not more times? Smack those arrows on the ground… wham wham wham wham I waant deliverance from these Syrians… but oh no Elisha, I don’t want to ask too much!

In the previous blog we understood that marriage is a matter of the heart, and because the heart is involved, things can get complicated quickly. What started as a well meaning innocent pursuit can turn into a catastrophe of Biblical proportions if you don’t get a bridle on this horse.

… Because love can be a runaway train “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it” and so if it is awakened for the wrong person, that run away train can go straight off a cliff… with no respawn.

That doesn’t mean it’s bad… because a love for God and a love for your spouse should be like that. We need a bit more marriages which aren’t going to the dogs, a bit more love that is actually love!

Today is by no means an exhaustive discussion of the matter, because there are many aspects of the marriage to consider… and obviously in relation to marriage I am primarily focusing on getting to the right one rather than life in marriage itself… because that’s where I am at also.

For today, I’ve quoted some fateful verses from the Bible as they relate to king Solomon… and where the whole thing changed in his life… Love and marriage.

I’ve known these verses about Solomon for just about as long as I can remember, but recently I believe God has added additional depth to these verses for me.

In the last few years, God has shown marriage to me in a new light, I believe in a more Biblical light, and my understanding and desire for marriage has radically changed. I’ve realized that what I want is a godly marriage.

I know we all say that as Christians because we are supposed to… and yet most do not truly mean it, and that is evidenced in who Christians end up with often. If you truly want to be with another saved Christian, you won’t settle for less.

Solomon, for all his wisdom, went straight through the stop signs in who he married. And it just goes to show how this area of life is so incredibly dangerous. You see some of the most upstanding people in the Bible make an error or a multitude of such when it comes to love, marriage and sexual relationships.

That’s how powerful love and lust is. It can just take over the wheel and you’re just a passenger in a burning life.

You know what the wrong spouse will do dear Christian? They will turn your heart away from God. And so really the first step in going about finding the right one, is looking at the cost of the wrong one.

Don’t let that detract you from the blessedness of the right one, but let the warning of the wrong one temper your search for God’s best for your life.

These strange women turned Solomon’s heart. And if they could do it to him, they can definitely do it to any one of us.

And so here is my thought from this story. Maybe it’s not profound, or maybe it is in it’s simplicity… but just think about it anyway! …What I’ve learnt from the Bible is that the right marriage will help your walk with God… and the wrong marriage will ruin your walk with God.

Like discussed in a previous article, marriage can be a big positive or a big negative. It’s rarely neutral. The sum of two Christians together can add up to greater than the sum of the individual parts… or the sum of an unequal yoke can reduce the total value to zero.

But think about how sobering the example of Solomon s failure is in the context of what marriage could be and is meant to be. Because where marriage in Christianity is a gift of God to help us grow in the Lord!… yet it achieved the exact opposite in his life – it turned him away from God.

Where a godly spouse can make you… here ungodly spouses broke him. And you read a book like Ecclesiastes, while you’d think with all those wives he was having fun… and yet he was having the most unfulfilled life ever. A marriage that turns you away from God is vastly unfulfilled compared to it’s potential in Christ.

Sometimes we envy stuff that really is not enviable. Sometimes we look with envy at what other people have and really should be thanking God we don’t have it!

But the Bible says “covet earnestly the best gifts”. And while a strange woman will be a curse to your life, the virtuous woman is the best gift from heaven a godly man could receive. So covet earnestly the best gift! The Bible says “a prudent wife is from the Lord”… I can’t make one… she comes as a gift from above.

Yes, tread with caution! But also tread in faith and anticipation of God’s best for your life. Far out I sound a bit like a prosperity preacher. But seriously, God truly does want the best for every one of his children, and I can’t personally think of a greater blessing in this life than a wife that loves the Lord.

If a godly wife will help you grow as a Christian, and be who God made you to be, and help you obey God’s calling on your life… then he surely will provide that. After all, we are created to be complete in Christ, and in this life, also completed in marriage.

I used the term the “right one”. And wondered… how would I know “the one”? Maybe you’re lost at that point to.

Well I think I know how to figure that out. … Make sure to get involved with a person that helps, not hinders or harms your walk with God. If you want to know who the right one is? THAT is the right one! The right one is someone who is good for your Christian walk.

700 women were not the right one for Solomon, because they turned him away from God… but you can turn the pages and find how blessed the right one was a little later in the Song of songs… which was Solomon’s. Thank God that God did let Solomon experience the Song of songs in his life…

Because if you are battling for now, and in the fiery trials of questioning God’s memory, God’s love, and God’s care for your life… that’s fine, it won’t be forever… but know that God gave him not just a song… but THE Song and he didn’t do a thing to deserve it, and in fact did everything to ruin it too… so I’m sure with that considered, in our case he is well and truly able to remember our little life too!

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