Wednesday is for One Year

Why Solomon Why? Why would such a wise man turn to idols. 1 Kings 11. We don’t think much about idols today. Many may think that idolatry is really just an Old Testament idea. The sin of worshiping idols is just as relevant today as then though. J. C. Ryle warns that it is a sin we all need to be on guard against.

It is high time to dismiss from our minds those loose ideas about idolatry, which are common in this day. We must not think, as many do, that there are only two sorts of idolatry—the spiritual idolatry of the man who loves his wife, or child, or money more than God; and the open, gross idolatry of the man who bows down to an image of wood, or metal, or stone, because he knows no better. We may rest assured that idolatry is a sin, which occupies a far wider field than this. It is not merely a thing in pagan lands, that we may hear of and pity at missionary meetings; nor yet is it a thing confined to our own hearts, that we may confess before the mercy-seat upon our knees. It is a pestilence that walks in the Church of the Living Christ to a much greater extent than many suppose. It is an evil that, like the man of sin, “that sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4).
It is a sin that we all need to watch and pray against continually. It creeps into our religious worship unnoticed, and is upon us before we are aware. Those are tremendous words which Isaiah spoke to the faithful Jew—not to the worshiper of Baal, remember, to the man who actually came to the temple (Isaiah 66:3): “Whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a man, and whoever offers a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig’s blood, and whoever burns memorial incense, like one who worships an idol.

For Solomon the sin of idolatry was not derived because of frustration with God, or lack of trust in God, or even true trust in the idols he worshiped, but he worshiped the idols because of his love for his wives.  His disobedience to God in the clear and simple commands lead to greater sins.  Without going into polygamy, it is clear that he should not have married his foreign wives because they worshiped other gods.  We can therefore conclude that the root of Solomon’s sin of idolatry was a love of the things of this world.  This is the heart of idolatry.  Loving the created more than the creator!  There may not be wooden statues in our homes, but idolatry is still a sin to battle.