The Ballestero Blog

I’m Very Sorry He Married Her!

“Hey Benjamin. Did you go to King Solomon’s wedding today?” He married the daughter of King Hiram, someone told me.”

“No sir, I didn’t go. I wasn’t invited and I’m very sorry he married her!

“He seems to be getting married two or three times a month now as it is. I can’t keep up with it all. If he continues to marry at this rate, he’ll probably have a 1,000 wives and concubines by the time he’s done. What makes me sad is that each new wife seems to be worse than the last one.”

“Hush,” the Father said! “If the King hears what you are saying about him, he’ll have both of our necks. It’s treason to talk like that. Don’t ever let anyone else hear you say this. You are very sorry he married her?”

“Father, you haven’t seen the idols around Jerusalem that King Solomon has built lately. I wish you could. It’s wrong. These heathen brides have influenced our King for evil. They have led his heart away from the Lord.”

“Son, I can barely walk now as it is and have been sick these many years. I have not seen what you have seen and this news distresses me sore.”

“Father, we are Levities. It is our duty under God to preserve the Law of God and keep his commandments. We love it and it’s our life. It is to be the life and the love of our children and our children’s children too.”

“Benjamin, you are a faithful son and I am blessed of God that you are daily serving Him in the Temple. My heart is saddened that our King is not serving the Lord, as did his Father David. I pray that God protect our people from going astray as well.”

“Me too Father. Some of the other Levites and myself have been quietly talking of the changes we see. We are distressed. We have seen these new idols and we know that God is not happy either. Here is what has happened lately.”

“King Solomon has recently built a high place for Chemosh right here close to the Temple. What was he thinking? The worshipers of Chemosh even offer child sacrifices. Our sons and daughters will be offered. He is flaunting this before our faces. He is daring us to criticize his deeds.

“The King has loved many strange women. He married the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, Hittites and others. It’s just wrong. His desire for more women is never satisfied.

“He doesn’t even ask them to convert. He marries them just like they are. They convert him, and he’s the wisest man I know. He’s not thinking right when it comes to women.

“They all come with their jewelry, their ornaments and their ungodly customs of dress and attire. Their faces are all painted up. Some even have marks made upon their skin unto their gods of impurity.

“He has gone after Ashtoreth as well. You know, the fertility goddess. She is almost always joined with Baal worship. Immoral deeds are committed in public. Our children see this. The young women that refuse to be defiled in it’s worship and want to remain virgins are forced to pass through the fires of Molech and be sacrificed. How can these things be in Israel? How could this happen here?

The Ammonites and the Moabites are cursed of God. Even those that are proselytes cannot enter into the Temple for 10 generations. Yet the King marries them and brings their gods to Jerusalem. What can we do? We are but servants in the House of the Lord. He is the King.

“The women he has married of the Edomites are Esau’s children. They are despisers of the birthright. The family of the man God hated. Yet the King thinks they are beautiful and marries them with only his pleasure in mind.

“The women of the Zidonians he has married, worship Ashtoreth, the Hittite women are almost lawless, and anything goes with them. They only have a handful of things that they even consider wrong. They are a lawless people by nature.

“The other Levites say that they seldom ever see the King come near the Temple any more. But they see him visiting the High Places of these idols with his heathen wives. It’s an abomination unto the Lord.

“The sacrifices at the Temple have been down lately. Some of the people are following after the King’s example and are worshiping in the high places too, rather than at the Temple.

“Even Nathan the Prophet doesn’t come to see him much that I know of. Maybe he thinks himself above the law of God. Maybe he thinks he can do all this and his heart not be turned aside. But, he is wrong, Father. It’s already happened.

“Our beloved King has somehow forsaken every precept and every commandment of the law that he put in our hearts. He told us how to live and now he is not living it himself. Now, he has forsaken the old paths. It’s only a matter of time before our people Israel will follow in his steps. Our people are in a fearful place, Father.”

“My son, Job said that great men are not always wise. I weep today because I cannot change the heart of my King. Only he can make the choice to change. I pray we will be not punished of God and scattered among the heathen. I pray that the Name of the Lord be not lost among us forever.”

“Me too Father.”

“Years ago when I was able to serve in the Temple, one of the other Levites gave me a copy of some of the proverbs the King had written. Let me read you some of them.

 Proverbs 2:16 To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words;
17 Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God.
18 For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead.
19 None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.

 

Proverbs 5:1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.

 

Proverbs 22:14 The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.

“How can he write things like that Father, and the do what he said not to so?”

“I do not know. He also wrote in another book he calls Ecclesiastes, ‘Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”

“My son, if an unknown Israelite had married a gentile, that would be bad enough. It would not have the blessings of God upon it at all. It is being unequally yoked together and God is against that.

“But if this unknown Israelite did marry, he would not have by himself caused all Israel to sin by accepting and praising his deed. To hear that our King is doing this so openly tells me his mind is made up, and no one can change him.”

“I agree, I hear that many lords in the Kingdom are praising his new bride and telling the King that they are happy for him. That he deserves to have happiness in his life and that if she gives that to him, then they are happy for him. they’ve all lost their fear of God.

“May God help us all!

“Now when I say, “God save the King, I say it with more meaning than ever.”

“Son, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God is for Israel, that they may be saved. Kings can rise no higher than their wives allow them to. Yet the King has sinned and will not be blameless before the Lord. May God keep us all safe from such ungodly leadership and influence.

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1Kings 11:5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

1Kings 11:7 Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.

1Kings 11:1 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites;

1Kings 11:3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.

1Kings 11:4 For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.