This verse begins, “Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father…” Solomon was a man after God’s heart, like his father. However, verse 1 informed us that Solomon took Pharaoh’s daughter into the city of David. Verse 3 goes on, “but (there’s a ‘but’) he made offerings at the high places.” Later we learn that the numerous wives and lovers had turned his head away from God at the end. It was a gradual process.
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote an allegory on the process by which evil, if allowed sway in one’s life will eventually take over. You know the story. It’s called the “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Dilday write, “It illustrates the insidious encroachment of sin in a person’s life. The magic potion that turned the respected Dr. Jekyll into the wicked Mr. Hyde provided the noble physician a convenient way to enjoy sinful pleasure without losing his reputation. When he had his fill of wickedness, he needed only one sip of the antidote to become Dr. Jekyll again, all without a hint of scandal. One day, however, Dr. Jekyll awakened to discover that in his sleep, without the help of the potion, he had become Mr. Hyde. It frightened him. He went into his laboratory to take the antidote, but nothing happened. He drank it all. Nothing happened. Try as he would, no formula he concocted would restore his identity as the genial, gracious gentle man he had been. The evil he had voluntarily unleashed in his life had become dominant, supreme, uncontrollable.”
Sin is extremely powerful. If you give it an inch it will take a mile. If you let the sin camel get his nose in your tent, he will eventually dominate the entire tent. As Tennyson said of evil influences, “You have made us lords and now you cannot put us down.”
We should pray with the Psalmist “Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.” (Psalm 119:133)
Chuck
“Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.” Philippians 2:2