Thoughts on Solomon

Solomon, the wisest and wealthiest man to live, drifted from God. His egregious behavior included building altars and temples for idols. Because of Solomon’s disobedience, God split Israel, preserving for Solomon’s heirs only a portion of the kingdom on David’s behalf.

Solomon’s story terrified me as a child. How was it possible to be so wise and still choose false gods rather than Almighty God?

What I later learned was that Solomon’s abandonment of God started with something no one around him may have noticed. It certainly was no different from the kings in neighboring nations. His wayward act? He amassed a standing army—horses and chariots and men. The problem was, this build up was against God’s law, recorded in Deuteronomy 17:16.

As follow-up to this initial departure from God’s plan, Solomon accumulated wives, particularly foreign wives, also prohibited in Deuteronomy. But with this disobedience, he fell victim to the very thing the passage warned about—the foreign wives would lead him into idolatry.

Solomon’s slide away from God is a classic example, given to us for our instruction. Certainly the central point is obedience, but David was no paradigm of adherence to God’s law either, yet he experienced God’s forgiveness. Why not Solomon?

The easy answer is, he was not repentant. Like King Saul of an earlier generation, his response to God’s judgment upon him was an effort to escape the sentence, although the last chapter of Ecclesiastes seems to indicate he did come back to God. Still, his father David’s reaction, when he was confronted for his sin, was humble submission.

But what led to Solomon’s stubborn rebellion? I wish I could point to chapter and verse that explains it because then I would know what to guard against. What I suspect is that 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. Why would he need God?

Ironically, God told Solomon He was giving him riches and honor (I Kings 3:13) to go with his wisdom. And still, according to what Solomon himself wrote, he claimed the credit. “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 worshiping these false gods, he had set himself up—in his own heart, at least—as God’s rival.

Now that sounds familiar. “In the day you [Eve] eat from it [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil], your eyes will be opened and you will be like God.” – Satan

This post is an edited version of one that appeared here in March, 2008. No kidding. I really have been blogging that long, and this really is one of my early posts.