1 Kings 11:5–7

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.