Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | May 1963

Man has been called by some a worshipping animal, that is, by those who think that man and animals sprang originally from the same stock. No animal has ever been found with a disposition or desire to worship either the Divine Being or an idol of any kind. Animals have no consciousness of God, they know not what sin and righteousness are, and for them there is no hereafter or day of judgement. It is not so with man. He has a consciousness of a Divine Being.

Some men have stooped to most degrading forms of worship, to the worshipping of images of corruptible man, of four-footed beasts, and birds and creeping things, even to the worshipping of stocks and stones. On the other hand, others have lifted their eyes to the sky and worshipped the sun, moon and stars.

Worship and women have from ancient times been linked together in the sensuous and lustful thoughts of men. Priests of various creeds have been from ancient time the chief schemers and votaries of systems of iniquity in which women were and are degraded, not always unwillingly, to gratify men's lusts, and at the same time they were professedly worshipping an imaginary deity to salve their conscience that worship of a god was necessary. Earth still groans under systems of this kind.

The story of Balaam, as related to us in the book of Numbers, reveals how well this soothsayer (one who foretells, but without divine revelation) was instructed in the evils of the worship of Bani. Balak, the king of Moab, sent for him to Pethor by the river Euphrates, saying, "Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people for they are too mighty for me" (Numbers 22.6). Evidently the fame of Balaam was wide-spread in tile black art in which he wrought. As it was a satanic scheme against the well-being of His people Israel, it happened, as we might expect, that God stepped in to confound the powers of darkness. First, He forbade Balaam to go with Balak's messengers. Then Balak sent other messengers with offers of greater rewards, saying, " I will promote thee unto very great honour, and whatsoever thou sayest unto me I will do:

come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people " (verse 17). The hope of gain drove Balaam to madness (2 Peter 2.15, 16), as it has driven many others before and since, and God allowed him to go. Alas, this was not for his good. Often God permits men to do what is not His will that they should do, and they learn by experience, if they learn at all, what they would not learn by precept. God allowed Balaam to go to Balak on one condition, "only the word which I speak unto thee, that shalt thou do (verse 20).

Balaam hasted on his journey to Balak dazzled by the thought of the glittering rewards in prospect. On the way he was halted, but momentarily, when his ass spoke to him with a man's voice - a miracle indeed, which would have stopped a wise and rational man, but Balaam was mad with the fever of unrighteous gain.

Thrice by the seven altars Balak stood as Balaam went to meet the LORD, and God met him and put a word in his mouth and he returned to the burnt offering and spoke to Balak and all his princes. The words of God that Balaam spoke concerning Israel are some of the most beautiful concerning God's people, and thrice Balak and his princes heard what God thought of His own people. But frustrated as Balaam and Balak were, it did not deter Balaam from teaching Balak how he might destroy Israel; this was by worship and women.

Though Balnam could not get God to turn against His people, alas, he taught Balak how to turn away Israel from God. The method was by Balak letting loose the daughters of Moab among the men of Israel, and these daughters, with whom the men of Israel committed fornication, led them into idolatry. It says, "The people did eat, and bowed down to their gods" (Numbers 25.1-15). It was in these circumstances that Phinehas the son of Eleazar the high priest gained the covenant of an everlasting priesthood. Nevertheless, twenty-four thousand of Israel died from the plague in consequence of their idolatry.

Some in the church of God in Pergamum held the teaching of Balaam, which was to commit fornication and to eat of things sacrificed to idols. Also, the woman Jezebel in the church in Thyatira seduced the servants of the Lord to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols (Revelation 2.14, 20). Thus Balaam's sin, one well known in connexion with heathen temples, found its way amongst God's people, sad to say.

Old habits die hard. In the course of looking up what was said by the queen of Sheba to Solomon, I caught sight of the words of 1 Kings 3.8, which says, "And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places." In verse 1 of this chapter we are told, "And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David." What did the city of David stand for? Was it simply the capital city of David's kingdom? No, it was much more than that, it was the city of God. It was the place whereof the sons of Korah sang,

"Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised,

In the city of our God, in His holy mountain.

Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth,

Is mount Zion, on the sides of the north,

The city of the great King" (Psalm 48.1, 2).

It is difficult to say, for Scripture does not reveal so far as I am aware, the state of heart of Pharaoh's daughter, whether she appreciated that Zion was the city of God or whether it was to her simply the city of Solomon, the son of David, her husband. In any case, I think one is not wrong in thinking it was a wrong move on Solomon's part to go to Egypt for a wife; even though she was a princess of a great kingdom.

Why was Solomon, who had been carefully taught by his father David, as the early chapters of Proverbs reveal, particularly Proverbs 4.8-9, who knew the history of his nation, of their bondage to the Egyptians, found in Egypt seeking a wife to make her sharer of his throne, which was the throne of Jehovah, and the first lady in his kingdom?

This early step was followed by others, as we are told,

"Now king Solomon loved many strange (strange means alien or foreign) women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moahites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; ... For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods : and his heart was rot perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites ... Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, in the mount that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon. And so did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods" (1 Kings 11.1-8).

Though he was a man of great wisdom and largeness of heart, no one, whoever he may be, can play with what he knows to be wrong, which is sin, and think he can escape the consequences of what he has allowed himself to do. Women, that is, strange women, and sacrificing and burning incense in high places, were, I judge, the outstanding evils in Solomon's life. He allowed himself many other natural pleasures, as Ecclesiastes 1 shows, but the evils of being wedded to women who had no love for Jehovah his God, and worshipping in high places, even though these high places may have been ostensibly at the beginning places for the worship of the LORD, though there is no indication that they were, was wrong. The words of 1 Kings 3.8 are ominous of what was displeasing to the LORD: "only he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places."

Solomon knew the force and tremendous importance of Deuteronomy 12.8-14 in regard to offering up all sacrifices in the Place of the Name and nowhere else. This comes out in his prayer at the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem. Again and again he speaks therein of God's people in various difficulties praying toward "this place" (1 Kings 8.22-54). He also knew the wrong of multiplying wives (Deuteronomy 17.7), particularly strange wives. His actions in this respect were remembered in Israel long days after, for we find Nehemiah saying to the Remnant in Jerusalem, when he put his hand to the cleansing of the Jews who had married strange women,

"Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, and he was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel nevertheless even him did strange women cause to sin" (Nehemiah 13.26).

Truly old habits die hard, and unless we turn to God in confession they may bring us down in the end.

J. Miller | May 1963
Jottings