“The Peril of Practical Expedience” – FBC Morning Light (5/29/2023)

Well, a good Monday morning to you and a happy Memorial Day. I'm sure today you'll probably do some leisure type of activities, maybe having a cookout or some time with family or friends.

I do trust you'll take some time to reflect upon those who have sacrificed their lives so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have as Americans and have the country that we have and, of course, realize it's got its own problems and many of them right now.

But many, many men and women have sacrificed their lives for our nation, and we need to be thankful for that.

And so on this Memorial Day, let's do that. Let's remember them and their sacrifices for our benefit.

I always think of Memorial Day and it reminds me of our Lord and what He's done for us and the sacrifice that He made so that we might be truly free.

The sacrifices of soldiers and so forth, they do grant us, they do help us to have a measure of freedom in this world, but it only goes so far, doesn't it?

Thankful for our Savior today whose sacrifice on the cross has guaranteed freedom from sin and bondage for all eternity.

Well, today in our Bible reading plan, we're reading in 1 Kings 3 -4, Acts 17, and 106

Psalm. And I want to focus on 1 Kings 3 and just that first few verses in that chapter.

You know, one of the first steps in deviating from the path of the will of God that is commonly taken is a step that seems to be practically expedient.

It seems to be a good move. It seems to be the kind of thing that will be helpful to myself or my family for the long run, in the long run.

You might call it political expedience, if you will, practical expedience. Well, what

I'm talking about is what Solomon does in 1 Kings 3, in verse 1.

And there we read this. Solomon made a treaty with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. And how did he do that?

He did so by marrying Pharaoh's daughter. And then he brought her to the city of David until he'd finished building his own house and the house of the

Lord and the wall around Jerusalem. All right, now, interestingly, this translation, made a treaty and married, is really kind of all one step.

There was a treaty solidified by marriage.

And this was a common practice in ancient world, where there were kings of different nations, and in order for these nations to...for

one king to prevent another king from fighting against him, he would make a treaty with him by marrying that king's daughter, while the other king is not going to attack

King A if he's an in -law. No in -law jokes here, okay?

But anyway, so what's the problem here? Well, the problem is, in the book of Deuteronomy, the

Lord told Israel not to go back to Egypt, not to get entangled with Egypt again.

And he also told Israel not to intermarry with the foreign nations outside of Israel, because doing so would lead them spiritually astray.

Well, that's exactly what we find here in the next couple of verses.

So verse 1 says, you know, Solomon made this treaty with Pharaoh, married

Pharaoh's daughter, and of course, she was a pagan. She brought with her her paganism.

But then in verse 2, it says, the people sacrificed at the high places, because there was no house built for the name of the

Lord until those days. And then verse 3 says this, Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father

David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.

So the indication here is that Solomon loved the

Lord, but not wholeheartedly, not with all of his heart. He loved the

Lord, but he also loved political expedience. He loved the Lord, but he compromised in the worship of the

Lord. And I think that's a pretty typical progress, a downward progress, if you will.

It's so subtle, it's very slight, it doesn't seem to be a big deal. In fact, you know, hereafter

Solomon is going to pray for wisdom. Lord says to Solomon, ask me anything you want, and Solomon says, just give me wisdom so I may know how to judge the people.

Man, that was an incredible request. He didn't ask for power, he didn't ask for wealth, just asked for wisdom in order to lead

God's people in the right way. Well, that is absolutely commendable. And that's what makes this opening section in chapter 3 so strange, doesn't it?

It seems like he had such wisdom in asking for wisdom, and yet he lacked wisdom in pursuing this treaty by marriage with Pharaoh, taking

Pharaoh's daughter. And we're going to see in the days ahead that that ends up being a snare to him, and that desire for women becomes a snare to him.

That's going to come out here before too long in the book of Kings. But for now, let's get it in our minds and understand that it is never right to do wrong in order to get a chance to do right.

It's never right to be practically expedient by the sacrifice of what we know to be

God's revealed will, God's revealed word. Let's determine that we're not going to give in to that kind of thinking, where we sacrifice or compromise the clearly revealed word and will of God for the sake of something that seems to be very, very expedient.

Okay? All right, let's pray together. Father, we do thank you today on this Memorial Day for men and women in our nation who have given themselves to serve our country and made the ultimate sacrifice.

And Father, that does remind us of our Savior's sacrifice for us and for our eternal freedom.

And we thank you for this passage of Scripture today and pray that you would challenge us from it not to be practically expedient and spiritually foolish.

We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, listen, have a wonderful Memorial Day. I trust the