The Wise Shouldn’t Do That

As a child, I was terrified by the story of Solomon drifting from God. If it was possible for the wisest man in the world to end up worshipping idols, would I one day do the same?

I’ve come back to that question as an adult, not with the idea that I could lose my salvation, but wondering what might lead me to quench the Spirit of God.

Solomon’s waywardness started as an almost unnoticed act of disobedience. He amassed a standing army—horses and chariots and men—the kind of proliferation forbidden by God (Deuteronomy 17:16).

As follow-up, Solomon accumulated foreign wives God also prohibited, then built temples for their false gods, and eventually joined their idolatrous worship.

I understand that process, but one thing still mystifies me. Why didn’t he repent when God rebuked him? His father repented when the prophet Nathan confronted him with his adultery. But Solomon? He reacted more like recalcitrant Saul than like King David.

I can’t point to chapter and verse that explains it, but here’s what I suspect: Solomon’s heart belonged to what he acquired. His great army became his protection against invasion. His great wealth became his hedge against famine. His foreign wives became negotiating chips for his spreading influence. He had political savvy, glittering wealth, and unstoppable power, not to mention every pleasure then known to man. Why should he turn to God?

Ironically, God told Solomon that besides wisdom, He would give him riches and honor (I Kings 3:13). And still Solomon claimed the credit for those things. “I collected for myself silver and gold … I provided for myself male and female singers … I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also stood by me.” (Ecclesiastes 2:8-9)

No mention of God, of His promise to pour out blessings on Solomon.

Apparently, long before Solomon built the first idol temple to appease his foreign wife, before he himself started worshipping those false gods, he set himself up, in his own heart at least, as God’s rival.

Now that’s a thought that should terrify.