BE WIDE AWAKE AND ALERT
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: “Wees nugter en waaksaam”
On occasion, someone sends an email in which she reacts fervidly that she disagree from me and, among other things, the person also mentions that she has been "on the road" for 20 years.
I would like to share with you that it does not matter how long I am on the road but how I live while on the "road" and especially whether I stay unto the end on the right "road".
I also reckon that as soon as I boast about how long I am on the road and how well I know the Bible and what I have already accomplished for our Lord, etc., my own self is in charge of my life and not the Holy Spirit.
I want to show you a few things in someone's life to demonstrate what I mean.
This person was surely one of the most respected people to ever live and, according to all the evidence at our disposal, surely the most wise and richest man that ever lived.
I speak of Solomon, of course.
Of Solomon, it is said that he loved our Lord:
1Ki 3:3 Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father, ..
Do you know; God was so pleased with Solomon's life that God appeared to him one night and said that Solomon could ask what he desired:
1Ki 3:5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, "Ask what I shall give you."
Loving God and loving his fellow man and as a true child of God, Salomon answers:
1KING 3:7-9
7 And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in.
8 And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude.
9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?"
This love for God and his fellow man plus the fact that he moved himself to the background, impressed God.
I believe it makes a big impression on our Lord if I can humbly, without any side purpose, move ‘my own self’ to the background.
1Ki 3:10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this.
Solomon puts himself in the background with unselfish honesty and watch how our Lord responds:
1KING 3:11-13
11 And God said to him, "Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right,
12 behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.
13 I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days.
Then our Lord tells Solomon a very, very important thing:
1Ki 3:14 And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days."
Now take note what the Word states about Solomon's wisdom:
1Ki 4:34 And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.
Our Lord has said:
1Ki 3:13 I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honour, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days.
Now see what the Word testifies about Solomon's wealth.
I give just three examples.
1Ki 10:21 All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon.
1Ki 10:23 Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.
1Ki 10:24 And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind.
1Ki 10:27 And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, ..
With all the honour and wealth, it seems to me, Solomon took his eyes off our Lord.
You see –
We must constantly be on guard and pray.
Jesus says:
MAT 26:41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
We must watch and pray because we know:1PE 5:8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
When Solomon took his eyes off our Lord and began to focus more on all his riches and his many wives, which you can read about in the Word of God, it was all the way down to the very bottom.
1KING 11:1-4
1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,
2 from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, "You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods." Solomon clung to these in love.
4 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.
Now it's downhill and literally "from bad to worse."
1Ki 11:5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
1Ki 11:6 So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done.
All the faster and faster…
1Ki 11:7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem.
1Ki 11:8 And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.
Then we read this sad ending of the smartest and richest man who ever lived:
1KING 11:9-11
9 And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice
10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the LORD commanded.
11 Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, "Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you,(this is also the commandments regarding wives) I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant.
Do you see how dangerous it is when you take your eyes off our Lord?
The smartest man who ever lived, to whom our Lord twice appeared, kneels with his wives before idols.
Then – and how absolutely tragic – the man whom our Lord made the smartest and richest man who ever lived, dies an idolater.
The most intelligent man on earth and he bowed down to an image he made himself and at the least says through his actions to the image: "My lord and my god."
Fortunately, there is a wonderful way for us to stay focused on our Lord and we have the Holy Spirit to help us.
MAT 26:41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
HEB 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
HEB 12:2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Greetings,
Sakkie