March 31- Not So Wise

Deuteronomy 16:1-17:20
Luke 9:7-27
Psalm 72:1-20
Proverbs 12:8-9

Deut. 17- ¹⁴ When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, "Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us," ¹⁵ be sure to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite. ¹⁶ The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, "You are not to go back that way again." ¹⁷ He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. ¹⁸ When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. ¹⁹ It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees ²⁰ and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.

After reading these words, we start to think about Solomon and his wisdom. Why didn't the wise king read these words? Was he unaware of what God said concerning wealth, power, and ungodly influences? The fact is, Solomon did know these verses. For whatever reason, he just didn't follow them. That's a lot like us as we read scripture and choose to ignore certain sections of scripture. But, God calls us to a higher standard. We must be willing to engage God from the standpoint of the eternal word. As we turn to his scriptures, we will find a life worth living and a plan worth following. Otherwise, someone some day may look at our lives and question our wisdom.