We need to take heed to something Daniel said in one of his prayers to the Most High, “we have not made our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might TURN FROM OUR INIQUITIES AND UNDERSTAND YOUR TRUTH” (See Daniel 9:13). Trying to understand spiritual truth, having the Holy Spirit to move and open the mind, while simultaneously maintaining sin in one’s life quite effectively blocks the truth from entering the mind. It is like trying to put gasoline in your car’s gas tank without removing the gas cap first. You are going to have a problem.
Also, many believers refuse to allow God to illuminate their minds through the Hebrew scriptures. Trying to understand the truths of God using only the Greek scriptures is similar to one looking through the keyhole in a door to see all that is in a room. When the entirety of God’s infallible Word is consulted then, and only then, is the door swung wide open and the view unimpeded. “ALL SCRIPTURE IS GIVEN BY INSPIRATION OF GOD AND IS PROFITABLE FOR DOCTRINE!” (See 2 Timothy 3:16). ANYONE who says they don’t get their doctrine from the Old Testament might as well add, “and I know there is gross error in much of what I believe to be true.”
Satan is not just good at the art of deception, that awesome spirit being is a master without equal in spiritually blinding, confusing and deceiving the most sincere believer. Even wise king Solomon wasn’t immune to Satan’s influence, or have you never read I Kings Chapter 11 slowly and carefully? The last recorded act of Solomon in I Kings 11 finds him seeking to kill God’s hand-picked replacement (I Kings 11:4)! How dare some puny, dust-of-the-earth human being interfere with God’s plan even to the point of murdering God’s representative??!! “Whosoever (that would include Solomon) hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer (that would include Solomon) has eternal life abiding in him” (I John 3:15). Jesus said, “No man (that would include Solomon) can serve two masters” (See Matthew 6:24). “For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods…For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord…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….his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel…he kept NOT that which the Lord commanded…And the Lord stirred up an adversary unto Solomon…And God stirred him up another adversary (against Solomon)” (See I Kings 11:4-23).
That’s how the sacred record closes out this biographical sketch of King Solomon. He is not just cast in a poor light. He is cast in the darkest shade possible. King David’s final words to Solomon are instantly called to mind, “And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the god of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts. If thou seek him, he will be found of thee, BUT IF THOU FORSAKE HIM, HE WILL CAST THEE OFF FOREVER!” (See I Chronicles 28:9).
We are playing with literal fire when we attempt to change or re-interpret God’s word. It says what it says and means what it says! Lucifer could have served God well for a billion ages, fulfilling God’s will and doing God’s bidding in all matters great and small, but when he became God’s adversary he was cast away forever. And a human servant of God can be used of God to write a thousand proverbs and more and still be told by his father, “if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever!” To be continued…
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley