Too Close to Egypt

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Egypt …concerning which the LORD had said to the sons of Israel, "You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods." Solomon held fast to these in love.
(1 Kings 11:1,2)

Most of us know of the tragic result of Solomon’s flirtation with, lust for and marriage to hundreds of women. His sensual desires pulled him away from following the wisdom which he had grown up with and which God had put into his heart. Instead of learning from his father’s mistakes, he expanded on the sensual weakness that had so severely damaged David’s life and family.

If we are church-goers then we probably have several Bibles. We have wisdom all around us. But, in the United States, there is essentially no difference in lifestyle between most of those who claim Jesus as Lord and those who are not believers. How can this be? Do we often look into the mirror of Scripture but seldom see that we need to change something? Or, do we rarely look into Scripture and see ourselves? Alternatively, perhaps we see the need to change but do not go far enough.

"Only ye shall not go very far away."-Exodus 8:28

This is a crafty word from the lip of the arch-tyrant Pharaoh. If the poor bondaged Israelites must needs go out of Egypt, then he bargains with them that it shall not be very far away; not too far for them to escape the terror of his arms, and the observation of his spies. After the same fashion, the world loves not the non-conformity of nonconformity, or the dissidence of dissent, it would have us be more charitable and not carry matters with too severe a hand. Death to the world, and burial with Christ, are experiences which carnal minds treat with ridicule, and hence the ordinance which sets them forth is almost universally neglected, and even contemned.

Worldly wisdom recommends the path of compromise, and talks of "moderation." According to this carnal policy, purity is admitted to be very desirable, but we are warned against being too precise; truth is of course to be followed, but error is not to be severely denounced. "Yes," says the world, "be spiritually minded by all means, but …What's the good of crying down a thing when it is so fashionable, and everybody does it?" … If we would follow the Lord wholly, we must go right away into the wilderness of separation, and leave the Egypt of the carnal world behind us. We must leave its maxims, its pleasures, and its religion too, and go far away to the place where the Lord calls His sanctified ones. When the town is on fire, our house cannot be too far from the flames. When the plague is abroad, a man cannot be too far from its haunts. The further from a viper the better, and the further from worldly conformity the better. To all true believers let the trumpet-call be sounded, "Come ye out from among them, be ye separate." – C.H. Spurgeon

Some think we went too far in home schooling, kicking the TV out of the house, moving toward Christian community and so on. But, now I feel that I have not gone far enough from the world or close enough to the Lord Jesus in love. Have we gone far enough away from the world and near enough to Christ? Are the flames of destruction licking at our life or family? Is Jesus’ Name honored and His power revealed in my life and in your life or are we living too close to Egypt?

Now the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, (1 Kings 11:9)

Project:
Let us read and apply Romans 12.
Let’s daily look into the mirror of His Word and commit, by His grace, to making the needed changes He reveals.