I love bacon. I really do. Oh and I love college football. I love my work. I love my wife. I love Jesus. Love is funny like that…we can love a lot of different things, and we do.
Sure we don’t love everything in the same way, and sometimes we love the best things in the wrong way and the wrong things in the way we should love the best things.
Solomon was like that. He loved wisdom. He loved wealth. He loved women. And he was famous. He was a trophy of entrepreneurship. He was a powerful and prestigious man. He was a picture of success, yet we read in 1 Kings 11 that his heart drifted away from God. He clung to godless women and then followed after their gods. Despite world-class achievements, his ungodly affections destroyed his kids and His Kingdom impact.
God knew this would be our natural drift, so a few generations before Solomon He gave Moses what Hebrew families knew as the Shema. You will probably recognize it:
“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! And you shall love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”—Deuteronomy 6:4-5.
Nothing was more important than for fathers to teach their kids to love God.
And Moses made it clear that if Israel was to prosper and if their sons and grandsons were to follow God, and if they were to enjoy God’s promised blessing, they must constantly cultivate these affections in their own hearts. Obviously Solomon did not follow this advice.
I suppose I’ll always have a fondness for bacon and football, but Solomon gives all of us dads something to think about. Here goes.
Dads choose.
Solomon couldn’t say no. He was God’s man to lead Israel, yet held on tight to godless women. He tried to be God’s man and the culture’s hero. Dads, we can’t have it all. We must guard our hearts and attach our affections only to Holy God. We must cultivate an exclusive and passionate relationship with God. If we don’t, our kids will be consumed by the consequences of our carnality.
Dads listen.
The Lord was very clear…”You shall not associate with them (foreign women), neither shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods”—1 Kings 11:2.
Not only did Solomon hang out with these ladies (as he was told not to do), he married 700 of them and added another 300 concubines for kicks! As wise as he was, he failed to listen to God. And by the way, Solomon was no hormone-driven teenage boy here. He was an “old” man who ruled a kingdom. He knew better, but he didn’t listen.
The best thing I can give my kids is a keen interest in the voice of God and a willingness to obey Him.
Dads change.
When my affections are on God, I am more agile. I’m more ready to follow after God. But Solomon’s wives turned his heart away from God, so that there was no course correction. By the time Solomon came to his senses (Ecclesiastes) it was too late for the next generation.
Dads who make a Kingdom impact stay tender to God so that when He speaks, they listen, and they turn at His pleasure. I’ve known too many dads who are unwilling to learn. They are too stubborn to repent of attitudes of the heart that put their kids at risk.
I’ve been one of those dads, and still could be. If Solomon could build an extravagant Temple for God and then turn his heart away, any of us are capable of anything.
So in the end, enjoy bacon but love God and give Him your life. Your kids will thank you.
The Dadhood Series continues throughout the week. Stay tuned.
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