THE FOOLISHNESS OF SOLOMON

2 Chronicles 7:17-22 (God speaking to Solomon)

¹⁷ And as for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my rules, ¹⁸ then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man to rule Israel.’

¹⁹ “But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, ²⁰ then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. ²¹ And at this house, which was exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ ²² Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore he has brought all this disaster on them.’”  (ESV)

1 Kings 11:1-13

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, ² from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. ³ He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. ⁴ For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. ⁵ For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. ⁶ So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. ⁷ Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. ⁸ And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.

⁹ And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice ¹⁰ and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the Lord commanded. ¹¹ Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. ¹² Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. ¹³ However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.”

I know this is a lot of reading for one post but I had to put this all on here so you could see it for yourself without having to look up the passages.  I find these passages both heartbreaking and terrifying.  They are heartbreaking because Solomon, the wisest man on earth, was not wise enough to overcome temptation.  His love (lust?) for many beautiful foreign women led him to turn away from Jehovah, his God, and follow after the detestable gods his wives worshiped.  He may have been the wisest man on earth but he was not wise enough to detect the evil he had brought into his midst.  His sin cost the people of Israel dearly.  His sin cost the kingdom which his father, David, labored to build.  Eventually the people of Israel were carted off to exile in Babylon and the fabulous temple was completely destroyed.  Heartbreaking!

I am also terrified by these passages.  If the great and wise Solomon was foolish enough to be drawn into sin then I am not safe.  If even he was unable to detect Satan’s temptations then I am not safe!  If Solomon could break covenant with God then I am not safe!  I find this terrifying.

The lesson I am reminded of is that my only hope is in God!  If I let myself slip even a little bit then I will fall away.  If I give even a little room in my life to sin then I am swinging the door wide open to my own failure and destruction.  God is faithful.  God is just.  God will keep his covenant and his promises.  God warned Solomon what he would do if Solomon turned away.  There are severe consequences for sin.  I have been warned!