golden nuggets

reading in 1 kings today about the latter days of king solomon. couple things popped out to me and just needed to pass them on, blog. here goes....\

1 kings 11:2... The Lord had clearly instructed the people of israel, "you must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods." this directive was revisited here after the previous verse relates how solomon loved many foreign women, and from whence they came. later on it says that God had specifically warned him about worshiping other (false) gods...of course we know this is the first commandment and the great bone of contention since adam & eve chose to honor the word of the serpent over the word of their creator. the words of 11:2 remind me of the 2 corinthians scripture admonishing disciples of Christ not to become unequally yoked with those who do not walk in that same path of discipleship. What a parallel, and proof to this reader that God goes to great lengths in his Word to explain himself. having become a disciple of Christ after marrige and living "unequally yoked" for the last 30 years with one who does not walk that path along with me, I can attest to this as a sure and profound truth that should not be ignored.

the chapter in 1 kings goes on to tell how solomon, having caved into the influence of his idolatrous wives by building many altars and shrines to their conglomeration of gods, among which are listed the false gods, chemosh and molech..."for all of his foreign wives to use for burning incense and sacrificing to their gods". mo-yech. what catches my attention is the location of these altars...on the mount of olives (11:7).  wow.  Gethsemane.  into the same earth that was soaked with the blood of countless pagan, née demonic, sacrifices....our, and it's, savior-redeemer's sacrificial prayer-saturated sweat turned to blood and fell. those few drops of blood, untainted from the sin of adam, trumped the gallons that were spilled to honor & appease countless hoards of demons. take that devil.  trumped again.  God's Word is so filled with little nuggets of gold such as these...and i never tire of discovering even the smallest.