Bible Questions
  • Home
  • Topics
    • Popular
    • Steps to Salvation
    • Seeking a Church?
    • A - E >
      • A
      • B
      • C
      • D
      • E
    • F - J >
      • F
      • G
      • H
      • I
      • J
    • K - O >
      • K
      • L
      • M
      • N
      • O
    • P - T >
      • P
      • R
      • S
      • T
    • U - Z >
      • U
      • V
      • W
      • Z
  • Lessons
    • Baptism
    • Bible Basics
    • How to Study >
      • Interpreting the Bible
      • Effective Bible Study
    • Bible Surveys >
      • Beginner Bible Survey
      • Advanced BIble Survey >
        • Old Testament Survey
        • Major and Minor Prophets
        • New Testament Survey
      • Old Testament Characters
    • Book Surveys >
      • Ecclesiastes
      • Sermon on the Mount
      • Acts of the Apostles
      • Romans
      • 1 & 2 Thessalonians
      • 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus
      • James
      • 1 & 2 Peter
      • 1, 2, 3 John
      • Jude
    • Christian Living >
      • Adding to Your Faith
      • Christian Evidences
      • Parables of Jesus
      • Personal Evangelism
      • Practical Christianity
      • Prayer
      • Self-Assessment
      • Supernatural Power
    • The Church >
      • Leadership
      • Work of the Church
  • Podcasts
  • Ask Question
  • About Us
  • Study Aids
  • Blog
  • Sermons
  • Baptism Debate 2011
  • Privacy Policy
<...Go back

Trusting the Lord with All Our Heart


Introduction.  The posted speed on the yellow warning sign “curve ahead” is usually 10 mph slower than necessary. Over time, some begin to ignore that warning and speed through the curve. In a similar way some ignore the warnings of doctors about losing weight, quitting smoking, lowering cholesterol, or reducing blood pressure. They reason that not all are harmed by such behavior. Much sage and sound advice is ignored because we know that “life under the sun” operates with “time and chance” as much as sound wisdom. Some will ignore all sound wisdom and still live to be 100.
  • “I returned and saw under the sun that —  The race is not to the swift, Nor the battle to the strong, Nor bread to the wise, Nor riches to men of understanding, Nor favor to men of skill; But time and chance happen to them all.” (Eccl. 9:11)
But the warnings in Scripture are not like this. There is no “time and chance” in Scripture. When God speaks, what He says is absolute truth and if we choose to ignore it, we set ourselves up for terrible failures. A clear example of this is Solomon. Solomon had advantages that none today have. God had told him: “I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you.” (1Kgs. 3:12). When we add to this that God spoke to him in a dream, had the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and had witnessed God take residence in the temple with great glory, Solomon was uniquely set for success! If there was anyone who could lean on his own understanding without any ill effects, it would have been Solomon.
 
Yet because Solomon did not “trust in the Lord with all his heart” regarding his wives, the terrible consequences God had warned would happen came upon him. Infinite wisdom, Divine inspiration, and witnessing divine acts of power were not enough. Because Solomon chose to “lean upon his own understanding,” he fell, just as God had warned that all other kings would fall.
 
God foretold of Israel’s kings and gave strict instructions that any king “shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away.” (Dt. 17:17). Solomon was one of these kings, yet for some reason, chose to ignore this warning, marrying 700 wives and taking 300 concubines.
 
What was he thinking? God’s warning was not hard to understand. God knew the heart of any king would be corrupted by his wives, so out of love and concern He gave this warning. Yet Solomon, with all his great wisdom and blessings ignored it. Did he think his wisdom could keep him from this fate? Did he believe that his faith and devotion to God could not be corrupted? Did he think as one of God’s “chosen people” that he couldn’t fall out of God’s grace (as some today claim)? The answer of why is not given in Scripture, but one of those reasons was clearly at play. God loved Solomon and seeing this danger gave him an additional warning.
  • “Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, ... 5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, .... 6 if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them;” (1Kgs. 9:4-7).
Yet even this additional warning was not enough. A godly and devout servant of God must carefully reflect on the nature of God’s warnings. Solomon knew this and spoke of it in Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. He knew no one should turn to the right or the left and was so cautious in all other matters. Yet still, he leaned “on his own understanding here. Did he think: It won’t happen to me. I am too wise, too devout, too faithful. I can do what no other king could do:
  • “But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites — 2 from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.” (1Kgs. 11:1-2)
What was he thinking? Why with all his wisdom and devotion would he cling in love to those God had warned against? The terrible outcome was exactly as God had warned and foretold. Not even all Solomon’s wisdom and early devotion could overcome what God had seen as a danger and a risk in the hearts of all men.
  • “it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David.” (1Kgs. 11:4-5)
 
This is a tragic story! If Solomon with all his wisdom, inspiration, devotion, faith and conviction could not avoid the fate that God warned would surely happen, neither can we. James asked the Christians to whom he was writing, and who were also ignoring Scripture in a similar way a very important question we would all be greatly blessed if we consider and answer it in the right way:
 
“Do you think that the Scripture speaks in vain (to no purpose).” (Jas. 4:5). This is the line we cross whenever we “lean upon our own understanding.” If we ever read a warning in the Scriptures and we think that it will not happen to us, doesn’t apply to us, or we are strong enough or wise enough to avert whatever God says will happen, we are thinking that Scripture speaks in vain.  We are acting and maybe even thinking that this one Scripture speaks for no purpose, is vain and empty of power when it comes to our own personal life.
 
There are multitudes of commands and warnings in the Scriptures. Just as it only took one to cause Solomon to stumble into idolatry, it can only take one with us. For example, “Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals,” or “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” (1Cor. 15:33; 2 Cor 6:14) speak to all of us. Yet, some think they can set such Scriptures aside because, at least to them, they speak to no useful purpose that we can see or understand. As Solomon before us, some think they can do what God says no one can do. Some might proclaim, I am doing it and have done it! But we won’t know until the day of judgment what we could have been if we had not done it. Perhaps, we think, through the grace and mercy of God, we can avoid the fate of Solomon. But we court disaster, after we know and choose to willfully do it anyway in direct violation of God’s will:
  • “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil.” (Pr. 3:5-7).
No one is going to mock God and say to Him on the day of judgment, I ignored some of your warnings and still made it:
  • “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” (Gal. 6:7-8)
Conclusion. Whenever we are confronted with a Scripture that appears to be a warning for others, but not one we need to take seriously, we come perilously close to proclaiming that this Scripture speaks to no purpose. If we follow the same steps as Solomon, regardless of the warning, our fate will be the same. Samuel and Joshua are far better examples than Solomon. “So Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.” Joshua was told: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” At the end of his life, Joshua was still firm: “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (1Sam. 3:19; Josh. 1:8-9, 24:15).
 Bible Questions is a work of the Holly Street church of Christ in Denver, CO. 
Copyright (c) 2023 Holly Street church of Christ. All material within the website may be freely distributed for non-commercial uses by including a reference to the website.