4 “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, 5 I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’
So far, the Lord has shown what faithfulness will mean for the king and for his people. For the people, it will mean a stable government and a peaceful future. For the king himself, it will mean a line of succession from his own family. But the “If…” of verse 4 is conditional for Solomon and his descendants. There is also a warning if they turn away from God.
6 “But if you or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples. 8 This temple will become a heap of rubble. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff and say, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’ 9 People will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the LORD their God, who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, worshiping and serving them—that is why the LORD brought all this disaster on them.’” (NIV)
Notice God’s primary concern in verse 6: “If you… go off to serve other gods and worship them.” Idolatry is no small sin. When we think we’re doing something harmless because it’s not hurting anyone—something harmless like reading a horoscope, or fooling around with the occult—we would actually be turning from the true God to a false one. And we can be tempted to do worse. We can be led to think that our opinions are more valid than God’s opinions. We can be led to call God’s word into question, and to start talking about God’s word as an allegory, or a moral judgment that is only significant because it’s historical but irrelevant to anything happening in our lives today. This is all a form of idolatry.
We might think that people have done worse. After all, around 40 AD, the Emperor Caligula began calling himself a god, Neos Helios “the New Sun.” He had temples built to himself in Rome, and forced his senators to openly worship him as divine. But when we put our own opinions above God’s Word, that’s putting ourselves above God, which is every bit as sinful and insane as what Caligula did. God never says “Be better than Caligula.” God says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Jesus, Matthew 5:48).
God’s warning to Solomon was that if his leadership caused Israel to fall into idolatry, then this beautiful temple they had built would be brought down into ruins. This secure nation would be smashed. This blessed people would be cursed.
Our own consciences should be making us sweat by now. We know what would happen to Israel. But we also know that we have a Savior who has taken away the guilt of our sins. He was not only the God of the Jews, but he is also the God of the Gentiles. As Paul said, “Yes, of Gentiles, too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised by that same faith” (Romans 3:29-30). God is our shelter from danger and temptation, and his is also our refuge against the attacks and accusations of the devil. We run to him for forgiveness, and he blesses us.
“I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.’ Surely he will save you…” (Psalm 91:2-3)
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. His wife, Kathryn, attended Chapel from 1987-1990 while studying Secondary Education (Theater and Math) at UW-Madison. Kathryn’s father, John Meyer, was also the first man to serve as a Vicar at Chapel.
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