The Hiding of Sin

Random Chapter Night!

2 Chronicles 8:11
Now Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David to the house he had built for her, for he said, "My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places to which the ark of the LORD has come are holy."

As I was reading this through, I got caught on this verse. There's a rule in the Old Testament (I think Leviticus has something like this but I can't find it) that you can't marry someone outside of your race.

Nehemiah 13:30
We would not give our daughters as wives to the peoples of the land nor take their daughters for our sons;

This rule has now been interpreted as 'outside of our religion' instead of 'outside of our race. During the Old Testament time, the people of Israel were in a group all together. Every single country had a different god/idol/belief system. The Israelites were told to not marry them because God didn't want His people to be devoted to other gods (and break a commandment).

Solomon's downfall was due partially to this rule. His wives were from all sorts of different tribes, and he just lets them worship their idols however they want. Sometimes he even joins in. But don't worry, he doesn't let his wife (who he married in sin) live where the ark of the covenant was.

That would just be crazy. I mean, why should you put your sin in the holy places? That's the place where God was!

I don't know what was going on in Solomon's head, but if I had to make a guess, he was caught between two things.

1. God will see her and know that I've sinned.

2. My father, David, loved God with all his heart. This was his house, and I can't defile it with my sin.

(proverbial slap on the face) Solomon! God has seen it and knows that its there! He knows that you're sinning!

(take back the proverbial slap on face) Solomon! Your dad sinned too! But it's still really kind of sweet and admirable that you would do that.

Whatever the reason, Solomon was still taking his sin out of the holy places. I had a conversation about this, once, actually. A girl asked me what my church would think if I had sex before I was married. My response was to say that I obviously wouldn't make out in the back pew or anything, so I wasn't sure how they would know...

In His Service,
Joyce