“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
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There is a Way which Seems Right to a Man, but Its End is the Way of Death
“There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12)
King Solomon wrote that verse, and he knew what he was talking about. When he became king, he set out to know everything, and when he was through, he wrote Ecclesiastes. This is what Solomon finally discovered:
I said to myself, “Behold, I have magnified and increased wisdom more than all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.” And I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I realized that this also is striving after wind. Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.
I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So, enjoy yourself.” And behold, it too was futility. I said of laughter, “It is madness,” and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?” I explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine while my mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of folly, until I could see what good there is for the sons of men to do under heaven the few years of their lives. I enlarged my works: I built houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself; I made gardens and parks for myself and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees; I made ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves and I had homeborn slaves. Also, I possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. Also, I collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I provided for myself male and female singers and the pleasures of men — many concubines.
Then I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also stood by me. All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor. Thus, I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1: 16 – 2: 11)
Despite the unparalleled wisdom that Yahweh gave him, Solomon blew it:
Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which Yahweh 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. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to Yahweh his Elohim, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and did not follow Yahweh fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
Now Yahweh was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from Yahweh, the Elohim of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what Yahweh had commanded. So Yaheh said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant. Nevertheless, I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.” (1 Kings 11: 1-13)
Yahweh did exactly what He told Solomon He would do. When Solomon died, his son Rehoboam became King of Israel. To pay for his many varied ventures, Solomon had levied heavy taxes on the Children of Israel. They struggled to get by while Solomon lived in the lap of luxury.
The Children of Israel sent Jeroboam to meet with Rehoboam, to tell him that Solomon’s tax burden was too heavy, and to ask him to lighten their load. After consulting with his buddies, Rehoboam steadfastly refused. He said,
“My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” (1 Kings 12: 14)
That did it. Jeroboam reported back to the Children of Israel. When they heard the king’s reply, they rebelled against Rehoboam and won their independence. From that point forward, Israel was a divided nation. It remains a divided nation to this day. It is so divided that the Children of Judah today hardly recognize that the other Children of Israel even exist. I have discussed this problem with people in Israel, and they look at me like they have no idea what I am talking about.
Initially, Israel controlled the land in the north (Israel) and Judah controlled the land in the south (Judea). Where sin was concerned, the Northern Kingdom (Israel) made Solomon look like a piker. They went headlong toward disaster, and the Southern Kingdom (Judah) wasn’t far behind.
As a result, in the 700s BC, the Assyrians conquered Israel and took the people captive. To this day, they remain the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, because they assimilated in the nations where they went and lost sight of their identities as Israelites.
In the early-600s BC, Babylon conquered Judah and took the people captive to Babylon. The Persian King Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon, and after 70 years in captivity, he allowed the Jewish people in Babylon to return to the Promised Land. They are in the Promised Land today having regained their nationhood in 1948 AD. It is called the “State of Israel”, but it includes only Jewish people (Judah).
The other Children of Israel (Israel) are still “lost”. They are living in exile in countries around the world. Many of them are waking up to their identities as Children of Israel, and they are longing to return home and unite with their brothers (Judah).
Israel and Judah will be reunited, because Yahweh said so. He never makes a promise that He doesn’t keep. For details about Yahweh’s promise, see Ezekiel 36 and Ezekiel 37.
So, as I said, King Solomon got this right:
“There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12)
But Yahweh knows how to fix things. To undo the damage that Solomon and those who came after him did, Yahweh has done some amazing things already, but they pale by comparison with the things Yahweh is about to do. Get ready. It’s coming.
On May 14, 1948, Israel became a nation in a single day, thus fulfilling one of Yahweh’s promises:
“Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons. Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?” says Yahweh. “Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?” says your Elohim. (Isaiah 66: 8-9)
As I said, Yahweh is about to do things that are even more amazing than the rebirth of the nation Israel in a day, because He said He would. We have 2 choices. Either we will get onboard with Yahweh and His plans, or we will reject Yahweh and suffer the consequences. It’s just that simple.
For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” and again, “Yahweh will judge His people.” It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living Elohim. (Hebrews 10: 30-31)
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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
