In I Kings 2:1-4 the Lord reveals how the leavening process works on a national level. Here we find King David instructing his son Solomon on how to conduct his life so as to please the Lord Who, David assures him, will bless him and the nation of Israel if, and only if, the new king and his subjects obey Him. Note that being God’s Chosen People, being freed from slavery by a series of divine miracles and being given a national land mass by divine decree GUARANTEED NEITHER INDIVIDUAL NOR NATIONAL ACCEPTANCE ON THE PART OF THE LORD. Like all men and nations throughout history, obedience to the Word of God is necessary in order to receive that which He has promised–a lesson the Institutional Church has ignored to her peril. One should periodically read Deuteronomy 28 in its entirety in order to fix this eternity- determining truth firmly in one’s heart/mind. Referred to as “that Jewish stuff” by the church, this most important of chapters is summarily rejected by her.

Both Biblical and secular history reveal that nations tend to follow their leaders for good or bad. Those who know the history of Israel know that this tendency caused God’s chosen nation to experience defeat, destruction and enslavement. Those who understand what is happening to the United States know that she is following in the spiritual footsteps of her spiritual ancestors.

In I Kings 2:12 we are told that Solomon’s kingdom was firmly established by the Lord following the death of his father David. Verse 46 relates how he zealously rid the nation of those who had treated the former king wrongly. All was well; the people were happy and at peace. Then Satan dangled a bit of leaven before the new king, prompting him to commit two sins simultaneously–he made a covenant with a heathen king, then married his daughter (3:1). In doing so Solomon, the wisest man of all time, put Israel on a slippery sin slope that would eventually result in her defeat, downfall, enslavement and eventual dispersion throughout the world where her people remain to this day unaware of their national and genealogical origins. Only three of the tribes–the so-called “Jews”–are today recognized as Israelites.

The Lord assures us that sin begets sin; the history of Israel provides living proof that He is right. Having committed two disasterous sins, Solomon soon made another by joining in league with the king of Tyre. Because He knew that the heathen would entice Israel to embrace their gods, God warned Israel in Exodus 34:16 and Deuteronomy 7:3,4 not to make allegiances with them. Solomon’s rejection of the Lord’s command by allowing leaven to enter the Israelite nation is referred to in I Kings 11:1-9 and Nehemiah 13:26 as “Solomon’s folly.” In I Kings 3:2,3 we find Solomon worshiping the Biblical God while sacrificing to the gods of Egypt and Tyre on the “high places.” As verse 2 reveals, the people followed his example. Heathen leaven was rapidly affecting the Israelite loaf. And the people loved to have it so. Using high places in worship is condemned in Deuteronomy 12:2. God’s people were to make sacrifices to Him at the door of the Temple. Solomon added to his sins by traveling to Gibeon where he sacrificed to foreign gods on a “great high place” (9:2-9). Scripture reveals that the worship of heathen gods became commonplace in Israel during Solomon’s reign. The result of this idolatry was inevitable–another lesson yet unlearned by the whole of Catholicism/ Protestantism whose parishioners worship and serve Tammuz the sun god who, according to heathen sun god worshipers, was immaculately conceived, who was born on the night of December 24, who returns each Christmas day to leave presents under a tree brought in from the forest and decorated with gold and silver balls, who was killed early in life on what is called “good Friday,” who was miraculously resurrected on Sunday morning and whose mother–Easter, the goddess of fertility–is venerated each spring using eggs, rabbits and chickens. Sound familiar? L.J.