Sunday, September 7, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: 1 Kings 11-15
Key Verse
1 Kings 13:12 — “And their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah.”
Devotional Thought
The morning light of a September Sunday falls on a story of a heart divided. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, the builder of the temple, the son of David, came to old age with his heart turned away from the LORD. The text is painfully plain: “his wives turned away his heart” (11:3). Seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines, marriages made for diplomacy and desire, became the slow leak in a vessel that had once been full of God. He built high places for Chemosh and Molech on the hill before Jerusalem, the very hill where he had once lifted prayers to the living God. The wisest man in the world became a fool in his old age, and God told him plainly: the kingdom would be torn from his son’s hand.
What follows is a long unraveling. Hadad the Edomite and Rezon of Damascus, adversaries stirred up by God, harassed Israel’s borders. Jeroboam, an industrious young man Solomon had promoted, was told by the prophet Ahijah that ten tribes would be his. Ahijah tore a new garment into twelve pieces in a field, and the kingdom was torn with it. Solomon died, and his son Rehoboam went to Shechem to be crowned. The people asked for relief from Solomon’s heavy yoke. Rehoboam consulted the old men, who counseled gentleness, then forsook their counsel and answered with the arrogance of youth: “My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.” Israel cried, “To your tents, O Israel!” and the kingdom split in two.
Jeroboam, now king of the north, feared that his people would return to Rehoboam if they kept going up to worship in Jerusalem. So he made two golden calves, set one in Bethel and one in Dan, and told the people, “Behold thy gods, O Israel.” He made priests of the lowest of the people and invented a feast in a month “which he had devised of his own heart.” Then a man of God came out of Judah and cried against the altar at Bethel, and Jeroboam’s hand dried up when he stretched it out to seize the prophet.
This is the season of new beginnings — school terms, church programs, fresh routines. The story warns us that beginnings are not enough. A temple built, a prayer answered, a wise reign begun — none of it secures the end. Hearts drift when they are not kept. And the drift is rarely sudden; it is a thousand small accommodations, a thousand affections given to lesser things. Solomon did not wake up one morning and decide to worship Molech. He loved, and loved, and loved, until his love for God was crowded out. The same slow erosion can happen in any of us. The remedy is not a single grand resolve but daily returning, daily keeping the heart with all diligence.
Reflection
- Solomon’s heart was turned gradually, over years, through loves he never intended to become gods. What lesser love in your life is quietly competing for the place only God should have?
- Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the old men for the flattery of his peers, and it cost him a kingdom. Whose counsel are you actually listening to these days — and is it counsel that will still be good in twenty years?
Prayer
Lord God of Israel, you are the same yesterday, today, and forever, and our hearts are prone to wander from you. We confess that we have loved lesser things and let them take the throne that belongs to you alone. Do not let us end in the folly of Solomon, wise in youth and foolish in age. Keep us tender toward your Word and humble enough to receive good counsel. Guard the beginnings you have given us this season — new terms, new routines, new mercies — and bring us safely to the end. Turn our hearts back to you, and let us walk in your ways all our days, for your name’s sake. Amen.