^{1 Kings 11:9-10}

⁹ And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice, ¹⁰ And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept (samar – h8104) not that which the Lord commanded. ¹¹ Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept (samar – h8104) my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant.

Solomon had so much, and I don’t mean wealth, which he did have. He had favour and blessing from God, which is much more valuable than any temporary thing we can have. But he gradually drifted away from God and did exactly what God told him not to do, and the consequences were great.

In this excerpt above, God tells Solomon that he did not keep God’s convenant and statues, which he commanded him to do. I want to zoom in on the word “keep” that God used and meditate on what it means to keep God’s commands, i.e., his word.

‘Keep’ from this passage is the Hebrew word, Samar.

Samar means to keep, watch, guard, protect, retain, treasure up, take heed, take care, beware, and pay heed.

When you see all these words, you get a better understanding of what keeping God’s word means.

This tells me that we must think of his word as something precious to us. Something that we treat with care and attention. Something that we keep in our hearts and minds constantly. Something that we treasure and retain, i.e. remember. It is to be watched and guarded, i.e. in our hearts.

When you look at passages from the Bible where this word is used, it gives a deeper idea of the meaning.

And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep H8104 it. (Genesis 2:15).

So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep H8104 the way of the tree of life. (Genesis 3:24).

And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep H8104 thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. (Genesis 28:15)

And ye shall observe H8104 the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe H8104 this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever. (Exodus 12:17)

Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep H8104 my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: (Exodus 19:5)

Therefore:

We are to Samar his word.

We are to keep his word.

We are to know that it is something precious.

We are pay attention to it.

We are to listen to it.

We are to be mindful of what it’s saying.

We are to practise it.

We are to obey it.

Solomon allowed his wives to make him stray from God, and so he eventually disobeyed God’s commands. We, too, can easily allow many things in this world to cause us to stray, but the word of God can keep us on track. However, we need to make that choice to keep his word constantly. We need to be in his word often; we need to pray often, and we need to love the people of God around us with the love of God.

So, meditate on it

and

samar the word of God.