The Danger of Complacency

The danger of complacency.
1 Kings 11-15
“For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods, and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his god, as the heart of David his father had been.”
Tragically, when we look throughout the pages of the Bible, the most vulnerable period of our life is not when we are young or new in our faith,  but when we are older and established in our faith.  Solomon was a man of unparalleled wisdom.  His wisdom was renowned, and, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he contributed a significant portion of the Old Testament.  God communicated the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs through him.  Throughout the book of Proverbs, Solomon warns against the dangers of embracing folly and rejecting God’s word.  Yet, as we come to the end of his life, we find Solomon doing the very thing he warned about. Solomon began to take pride in his accomplishments and his fame.  Solomon's multiple marriages reflected his power, for alliances between nations were affirmed by the marriage of a daughter to the person with whom they were forming a coalition.  The 700 wives testified to his influence in the ancient Near East. Under his leadership, Israel had become a dominant political power in the region. To appease these foreign women, he permitted them to continue to worship their false gods and become complacent in upholding the religious law of Israel, which forbade the worship of idols.  As a result, God disciplined Solomon by predicting the nation's division after his death.  
In this story and the lives of subsequent kings, we find illustrated the necessity of remaining faithful to God in our lives.  When we start to compromise our faith, when age leads to spiritual complacency, the results have to be long-term.  The nation of Israel would not only be divided into two countries (Israel in the north and Judah in the south), but the nation would descend into a declaration of civil war.  Furthermore, the roots and presence of isolationism would continue to wreak havoc upon the country. The subsequent kings of Israel would continue to embrace false worship, and even the righteous kings that would arise in the southern times of Judah (such as King Asa) would never be able to fully eradicate the idolatry that would plague both the northern and southern tribes.
Spiritual compromise and the failure to remain faithful to God always have far-reaching effects in our lives and the lives of people around us.  While we often think of spiritual compromise as the action of those young in their faith, the reality is that it plagues even the most seasoned and faithful follower of God.  We are always only one moment away from beginning the downward slide of spiritual infidelity. The more we think we are beyond the threat of compromise, the greater the danger becomes.  Instead of walking in obedience to God, we become more susceptible to deception and compromise.  This is why we must constantly guard our souls and strive to grow in our faith and obedience.  Like Jeroboam, we can become more concerned about our success than our obedience to God and drift from our faith.  It is not how well we start the journey of our faith, it is how we finish the journey.  Solomon began as a stalwart of faith, but at the end of his life, his spiritual compromise resulted in the spiritual decline of the whole nation.  The challenge for us is to consistently examine our spiritual life to ensure that spiritual drift is not occurring.  This means we look at the small things of our faith: going to church, reading the Bible, relying upon God in prayer, and striving to daily obey God’s Words.  Spiritual compromise begins not with an act of rebellion but with the act of neglect of these spiritual disciplines.  How are you doing today?