We were working on a project together, and I was thinking it was time we were finished. “Well, that’s near enough”, I said as I put my gear down. My brother-in-law looked at it, and said, “Near enough is not good enough, Gwenyth, you’ll have to spend a bit more time on it!” Those words have stuck with me for over forty years, and whenever I am tempted to think “Near enough”, they come back to haunt me.

King Solomon was one who chose what was good, but it was not the best. He felt his need for wisdom to rule his people well, and that was good, but when it came to himself he made his own decisions based on worldly wisdom. He thought that by marrying these foreign princesses he would gain peace with their fathers’ nations, instead of trusting God to keep peace for him. What he didn’t reckon on in this reasoning, was that he was disobeying God’s commands to NOT marry anyone who did not follow Him. He was positive it wasn’t all that important and that it didn’t really matter….after all, look what he was gaining!

His wives brought their idols and foreign ideas with them, and as he gave each woman her own department, these idols were set up and worshipped by them. It wasn’t long before Solomon’s own walk with God had faltered, and then failed altogether. He had disobeyed God and failed in his duty. Although God blessed him physically and he became the wisest and wealthiest king that has ever been, yet his own spiritual life was dry and dusty, and he declared, “I’ve tried everything there is to try and it’s all vain and useless!”

He would have been far better off to have asked God not only for wisdom, but for an obedient heart to always follow His ways. How often in these things we say it’s “near enough” to just go to church each week and then to do our own thing the rest of the week forgetting about God’s ways. Let’s always remember that “near enough” is NOT good enough, especially in the matter of spiritual values!