1 Kings 11:1–9

The contrast between the opening words of chapters 10 and 11 of the first book of Kings is very solemn. 1 Kings 10 tells us of the visit of the Queen of Sheba... She recognised the hand of God in it all and put it down to His love for His people Israel. "But" — terrible words — 1 Kings 11 tells us of Solomon's host of unholy women, drawn from Moab, Ammon, Edom... This man had prayed with such humility to the LORD at the dedication of the Temple. He became a worshipper of Ashtaroth, Milcom and other detestable foreign gods... Jerusalem was the centre of spiritual light in 1 Kings 10. In chapter 11 it is a hotbed of the worst idolatry!

Solomon also disobeyed Deuteronomy 17:17 by making many marriages with foreign women (v. 1). But Deuteronomy was not the only law he broke, though it did specifically forbid a king to make such marriages. God warned all the children of Israel against intermarrying with these godless nations (Ex. 34:12-16).

The list begins with the Moabites, who had led Israel into the idolatry of Baal-Peor after gaining control of them through the lust of the flesh (Num. 25:1-5). All these nations on the borders of Canaan — Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians — hated God and His people. The Hittites, named last, should have been destroyed, and never were. Solomon was openly disobeying God. God had said to His people: "You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you." There was a double prohibition. We are in danger of going to the world or of letting it come in to us. The second danger may be even greater than the first... Little by little the world works its way into our homes and into our lives. Often, by the time we open our eyes to the danger, it is already too late.

What! The wisest king — the wisest king — brought to utter ruin in the very area where it least suited him! So it is with the sons of Adam. You will always find that you fail most in the very point where you most pride yourself. The moment your eye is off the Lord, you break down in the area where it seemed least likely.

Wisdom did not keep Solomon, nor will it keep any one of us, but cleaving to the Lord will.

Perhaps he told himself that some of these alliances served the good of the state. But God tells us clearly that "Solomon clung to these in love." Solomon's problem was a matter of the heart! He disobeyed and his heart was turned away.

He never had such a serious fall as David. He never committed so great a sin as his father. But look closely at how this famous man lived, and you will see a slow drift back to the world... His reign began with peace, glory and the knowledge of God, and it ends among idols and foreign women. What a difference between the beginning and the end! And how did this decline begin? Note this: it did not happen all at once. It happened little by little.

But some young person says, "I feel sure my influence will help my partner to be a Christian." Is that so? Does it work that way? What happened to Solomon? Did he win over his Egyptian wife?... He went from bad to worse. His wives influenced him rather than his influencing them.

As far as Solomon was concerned, these commandments might as well never have been written. Exactly what had been forbidden, that he did! It is hardly possible that he was ignorant of what God had said. It is far more likely that he had arguments in his mind, and reasons he thought were excellent. They were quite enough, in fact, to allow him to treat the ancient word given through Moses as a dead letter. Had not the times changed?... The fact remains: he met the plain directions of God's word with flat denial and disobedience. By that he started a snowball of destruction rolling. It did not stop until it had become an avalanche of judgment that swept Israel away.

There was a double prohibition. We are in danger of going to the world, or of letting it come in to us. Perhaps the second possibility is even more dangerous than the first. Conscience towards God may hold a Christian back from openly going out to the world. But the world can seduce him far more easily by coming to him. Little by little it works its way into our homes and into our lives. Often, when we open our eyes to the danger, it is already too late. "Surely they will turn away your heart after their gods," the Lord had said. Marriage with the world will necessarily lead us to the religion of the world.

Perhaps he reasoned that there were reasons of state behind some of these alliances. But God tells us clearly that Solomon "clung to these in love." Solomon's problem was a matter of the heart! He disobeyed, and his heart was turned away.

His heart was first turned away from the Lord, so that when he became old he gave way to the seduction of idols. Our hearts are not vacuums. If we displace the Lord from our hearts, they will soon embrace some false substitute. These wives had many substitutes that they could persuade Solomon were attractive.

Whatever the aim was, it broke the clear and direct word of the Lord, given in the Book of Deuteronomy, where God had foreseen these dangers... What! The wisest king — the wisest king — proving his total ruin in the very thing where it least suited him! So it is with the sons of Adam. You will always find that in the very point where you most pride yourself, you most fail. In whatever seems least possible, the moment your eye is off the Lord, in that very thing you will break down.

It began, possibly, with Solomon's weak desire to please his idolatrous wives... It was a weak desire on Solomon's part. But it was sinful and foolish, because obedience and faithfulness to the Lord were at stake. As a wise man he perhaps looked with contempt on his wives' folly, but he did not forbid it. And, beginning with turning a blind eye to it, he ended as a willing supporter. A dreadful end it was to a small beginning.

Did Solomon think his superior wisdom would keep bad company from harming him? In fact, his wisdom ought to have warned him to stay far from the temptation. There is a lesson here for us: it takes more than wisdom to keep us from evil. It takes the grace of God, learned only in communion with Him.

We find Solomon importing horses for war from Egypt, and multiplying wives. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and "his wives turned away his heart" (1 Kings 10:28 – 11:3). He did this despite the prohibition in Deuteronomy 17:16, which forbade the king to multiply horses and wives for himself. Wisdom did not keep Solomon, and it will not keep any one of us, but clinging to the Lord will.

In his younger days and in middle life he may have had the strength of mind to resist the pull. But "when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods" (1 Kings 11:4). Sowing to the flesh in earlier days, he reaped corruption when he was old.

His heart was first turned away from the Lord, so that when he became old he gave in to the seduction of idols. Our hearts are not vacuums. If we displace the Lord from our hearts, they will soon embrace some false substitute. These wives had many substitutes, and they could persuade Solomon that they were attractive.

This great thing is said of David, that he followed the Lord with all his heart. There was power in the Lord to engage the hearts of His people completely. This became the standard for judging later unfaithful kings: "his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father."

When David sinned against the Lord and the Lord reproved him, David repented deeply. God reproved Solomon too, but there is no sign that he repented.

He failed to keep his own heart. The Lord lost the place He had once had. So Solomon sinned terribly, after all he had known and enjoyed of the things of God. Idols were set up in the very sight of the holy temple of the Lord. God was dishonoured by the very man who, of all others, had received the most from Him. What a warning to everyone who is a subject of His grace!

In the latter part of his life Solomon did not fully follow the Lord. His wives turned away his heart after other gods. He built high places for them, where they burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. Marriage between believers and unbelievers today will have similar disastrous results. The believer seldom pulls the unbeliever upward. The normal pattern is the reverse: the unbeliever drags the believer down, with terrible results for that person, for the family, and even wider.

She was the goddess of the Phoenicians and Sidonians. Israel worshipped her after the death of Joshua, and Solomon did too. Ashtoreth was the chief female goddess and Baal the chief male god, and the two are often named together. Josiah destroyed the objects used in her worship, which Solomon had brought in.

This is the Fire-god, "the abomination of Ammon." Late in Solomon's life, the foreign women he had married turned his heart after other gods. He then built a high place for Molech on the hill east of Jerusalem. The Israelites sacrificed their children to this idol.

We may well wonder how a man like Solomon could ever be led to "build high places for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites." But the path is easy to see. He first disobeyed the Word of his Lord by going to those nations for wives. After that he fell easily into the deeper error of taking up their worship.

Marriage with the world will always lead us to the religion of the world. This is a serious word, and every godly soul today should weigh it. If we avoid such a union, our religion takes on a heavenly character. If we cultivate it, our religion takes on an earthly one.

These things did not arise suddenly in the life of this man of faith. At least their consequences did not develop all at once. For "when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods." Time was needed for this sowing to the flesh to bear its fruit. Who would have believed it? The Solomon of the temple once knelt and spread out his hands toward God in front of all the people — and he became an idolater.

Some have said that Solomon himself was not really guilty of idolatry. But if he built the places of idolatrous worship only for his many wives, he was guilty of the sin of idolatry. The abominations came in after that. Luxury, wealth, self-indulgence, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life led into idolatry. It is the same in the closing days of the present age. People worshipped Ashtoreth, a Phoenician goddess, with impure rites. Milcom (Molech) was the idol-god of the Ammonites.

It was not indifference, bad enough in itself, to build these high places for his wives. It was joining himself to their worship and becoming one with them. He himself is regarded as an idol-worshipper. And yet the Lord had appeared to him twice. God had warned him about idol worship and shown him its terrible consequences for the people — and he had not kept His commandment!

Verse 3 says "his wives turned away his heart," and verse 4, "when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods." His heart was turned away from the Lord first. Then, when he grew old, he gave in to the pull of idols. Our hearts are not empty spaces. If we push the Lord out of our hearts, they will soon take hold of some false substitute. These wives had many substitutes, and they could persuade Solomon that they were attractive.

Wisdom did not keep Solomon, and it will not keep any one of us. Holding fast to the Lord will.

The Solomon of the temple once knelt and spread out his hands toward God in front of all the people. Who would have believed that this man would become an idol-worshipper? Perhaps today some might say he had a large heart and respected other people's freedom of conscience. Some would dress this idolatry up with a lovely humanitarian or social label. But what is human opinion worth? The question is what God thinks of it. God was dishonoured. "Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD." To build these high places for his wives was not mere indifference, hateful as that would be. He joined himself to their worship and became one with them. He "did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done" — that is, he did not follow to the end.

Solomon's faith built the temple; his unbelief built these high places. What a shameful contradiction! In building the temple he emphasised the supreme authority of the living God. But in building the high places, he was guilty of challenging God's authority! So in this his wisdom failed him tragically.

Here is the old lesson again: no position, however favoured, can keep a man faithful and true. Solomon's idolatry in his old age is simply the outcome of earlier failure. He had horses from Egypt, he had Gentile wives; both were forbidden. His wives seduced him into idolatry.

You will always find that you fail most in the very point where you pride yourself most. In the area where it would seem least possible, the moment your eye is off the Lord, that is where you will break down.

Scripture records this for our wisdom, for our learning, for our warning. We should beware of slipping in the very thing God has marked us out for. There is no strength in wisdom or in anything else. Our strength is only in the Lord, and the only way to make it good is by depending on Him. It was not so with Solomon. He rested in the fruits God had given him. He enjoyed what came from God, but turned aside from the living source.

David's trouble also began with polygamy. Yet through all his sin and failure he had always clung to the LORD. In this sense David's heart was perfect with the LORD his God. He did not turn away from the LORD, and David did not go after strange gods. Solomon's guilt was great. The LORD had appeared twice to him; He never appeared to David.

When David sinned against the Lord, he repented deeply after the Lord reproved him. But though God reproved Solomon, there is no sign that he repented.

This is almost the only comfort we have in the history given to us of king Solomon — that God chastised him. He did not merely let the fruit of his evil show up in his family. He chastised the man himself during his own lifetime. This is His way with His own people. Sometimes this is almost the only hope you have that a person is a child of God. God does not let the evil pass. He deals with it now in this world.

Very likely he took the attitude of open-minded people today. He thought it right to be tolerant of every religion, and even to support evil religions because his wives preferred them. But his unbelief in building these high places was a shameful contradiction to his faith in building the temple! In building the temple he emphasized the supreme authority of the living God. In building the high places he was guilty of challenging God's authority! So in this his wisdom failed him tragically.

Verse 3 says, "his wives turned away his heart." Verse 4 says that when Solomon was old, "his wives turned his heart after other gods." His heart was first turned away from the Lord. So when he became old, he gave in to the seduction of idols. Our hearts are not vacuums. If we displace the Lord from our hearts, they will soon embrace some false substitute. These wives had many substitutes, and they could persuade Solomon that each one was attractive.

We are in danger of going out to the world, or of letting it come in to us. Perhaps the second danger is even greater than the first. Little by little the world works its way into our homes and into our lives, and often, when we open our eyes to the danger, it is already too late. Marriage with the world will certainly lead us to the religion of the world.

Perhaps today some might say that he had a large heart, respecting the freedom of conscience of others. Some would dress this idolatry up with a lovely humanitarian or social label. But what is human opinion worth? The question is what God thinks of it. God was dishonoured. "Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD." Building these high places for his wives was not mere indifference, hateful as that would be in itself. He joined himself to their worship and became one with them.

Then we move from wives to children. We come to that most inhuman rite in which parents were so blinded by Satan that they devoted their own children as sacrifices to Molech or Moloch, probably also called Malcham or Milcom. It was the guardian god of the Ammonites. Chemosh, the deity of the Moabites, differed little from it. Fürst takes the name Chemosh to mean "fire," as Molech and similar names mean "King." … The greatest science and learning, the highest civilization and luxury, can in no way stop this, if they do not help it along.

God had not only given warnings and clear instructions in the Law. He had also appeared to Solomon in person twice, and had commanded him not to go after other gods. Wife after wife seems to have persuaded him to build a high place for her idol. We can hear them in our minds: "Oh, Solomon, honey, you built such a gorgeous temple for your God. Can't you build just a little high place where we can worship mine?" Before long these high places defiled "the mountain east of Jerusalem," the Mount of Olives. They stayed there 350 years, until the reign of Josiah.

King Josiah defiled "the high places that were before Jerusalem, on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the King of Israel had built" for Ashtoreth, Chemosh and Milcom, the abominations of the Zidonians, the Moabites and the Ammonites. Yet godly Kings such as Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah had left all this untouched! Neglect of the Word of God is the only possible explanation of this.

"His wives turned away his heart" — the word is repeated in verse 4. It is a terrible thing when what belongs to the world lodges in the heart and takes control of it. It turns the affections away from their only object toward vile, shameful, guilty objects... It took time for this sowing to the flesh to bear its fruit. Who would have believed that the Solomon of the temple would become an idolater? He once knelt and spread out his hands toward God in the sight of the people.

At first this neglect of the word appeared to have no bad effect. He grew rich, as though it were only the fulfilment of God's promise. But it soon led to a departure more serious in its nature and its consequences... It ended in open disobedience of the clearest and most essential requirements of God's word. The path of sin is slippery, and it is always walked with quickening steps. The reason is that the first sin tends to weaken in the soul the authority and power of the one thing that can keep us from committing still greater sins. That one thing is the word of God, along with the sense of His presence, which gives the word all its practical power over us.

The Lord's anger burned against this famous king. He turned against God, even though the Lord had appeared to him twice and had given him a clear command not to follow other gods. It seems unthinkable that a believer would sink to such a level as Solomon did, but wealth and ease can be a terrible snare even to one who is born of God.

The greater the privilege and the higher the honour, the deeper the shame... It is written for our wisdom, for our learning, for our warning, that we should beware of slipping in the very thing which God singles out in us. ... Solomon rested in the fruits God had given him. He enjoyed what came from God, but turned aside from the living source.

We find Solomon importing war horses from Egypt and multiplying wives. He had seven hundred wives who were princesses and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. This went against the prohibition in Deuteronomy 17:16: "Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses... And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away." Wisdom did not keep Solomon, and it will not keep any one of us. But clinging to the Lord will.

Grace known by us in Christ does not deliver us from this holy government of God. Instead, it gives us a higher place of favour than faith had ever known before. So we have greater responsibility, and we come more directly under the action of such divine principles... David used the sword to carry out his own sinful will, and the sword never left his house. Solomon mixed with foreigners, and his heart was led astray. Enemies then rose up from the very places he had drawn on to please himself.

As far as man is concerned, this is the end of the kingdom. But what a prospect for the future! ... The kingdom of the Divine Solomon will reappear like the sun shining in its strength. It will never again depend on the fallible obedience of man. It will rest on the unfailing responsibility of the King whom God will anoint on Zion, the mountain of His holiness.