Daily Devotions
The Difference Between Knowing & Doing What Is Right
Reading for April 16th: 1 Kings 10-11
Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, "You shall not enter into marriage with them..."
1 Kings 11:1-2
When you're reading your Bible do you ever want to throw up your hands and shout: WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?
This is one of those chapters. What was Solomon thinking? Wasn't he supposed to be so wise and so discerning? Wasn't he the one who wrote most of the book of Proverbs? Didn't he warn about how the immoral woman would take the life of the simple man?
What was Solomon thinking?
The answer is Solomon was not thinking when he married all of these women. He wasn't thinking because we know that he knew better. God had clearly said what would happen and Solomon ignored what God had said. The fear of the LORD (Solomon said) is the beginning of wisdom, and Solomon simply wasn't listening to God when he did what he did.
Important lesson here: there's a difference between KNOWING what is right and DOING what is right. There are occasions when we do things ignorantly and innocently make honest mistakes. But isn't it true that we often do sinful and destructive things to ourselves and to others when we KNOW that the things we're doing are destructive and sinful?
Father, give us wisdom to apply the things we know to our own lives.
