Only, the people sacrificed on the high places; for there was no house built to the name of Jehovah, until those days.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Solomon loved Jehovah, walking in the statutes of David his father; only, he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
One verse holds praise and warning together: God says Solomon loved Him, and in the same breath records what he did at the high places. That small word "only" marks the flaw that later ruins his reign and shapes Judah's worship for generations.
The testimony God gives here is genuine, not faint praise. Writers stress that Solomon truly belonged to the Lord, and that his fault sat alongside a real desire to worship:
Yet Solomon was a believer. He loved the Lord and sought to walk in the ways of David, except for his worship in high places. He seems to have thought that, since he wanted to worship the Lord, he should do it in the most prominent places. Gibeon had a great high place, so he went there to offer 1000 burnt offerings (v.4). People today often think the same way: that the most beautiful church is where they ought to worship. In Solomon's case, the Lord bore with this though. He did not approve it, for God did appreciate the desire of Solomon's heart to be a worshiper.
The verse turns on one small word — small on the page, small in Solomon's life, and that is the danger:
We read he "loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father, ONLY he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places." It was good that he loved the Lord, good that he followed the excellent example of his father. But this "ONLY," was a fatal flaw, a weak place in his armour, something that led to disastrous consequences.
High places were raised sites for sacrifice. With no temple built yet, they looked like a reasonable choice. The real problem lay somewhere else:
At the start of Solomon's reign the people sacrificed in high places because the temple was not yet built. This was failure… The tabernacle was there at Gibeon, so it looked like the right place to go, and it was there that God appeared to Solomon in the night. Yet it was still "the great high place." The reason for this implied disapproval is no doubt that the ark was not there. The ark was the symbol of God's presence, and where it stood was the true place of worship.
There was a cost to Israel's shared life too:
In any case, this practice scattered worship in Israel. And so Israel lost the unity of worship, because the altar — among other things — expressed that unity, just as the Lord's Table does for Christians today.
Solomon kept David's statutes, yet he did not reach David's faith:
He loved the Lord. God gave him the task of doing all that was needed to display His glory. But his heart did not rise to the faith that counts on the secret of God's love when that glory is not on display. That faith sees God's love through all the things He still bears with. That faith was David's own strength… Better to be small and despised at the ark than to hold the glory of the kingdom and worship on the high places.
Why did God let this pass for a time? One writer answers, then warns against misusing the answer:
So, even though it may have been a failure, the Lord met it with tender mercy and compassion toward His people. He did so until His own power had set up the visible signs of His worship. After that, going off to the high places at once brought down the Lord's judgment… So the wicked heart turns the mercy of God — His patience in a day of difficulty and trial — into an excuse for sin, when no excuse is possible.
What God bore with in one king hardened into a national habit — and it caught Solomon himself:
Solomon does not follow his father's walk. He turns aside from it and sacrifices to the Lord on the high places. It was a dangerous practice, and it bore appalling fruit when the king let his heart be carried away by foreign women (1 Kings 11:7). From that day on, Judah never banished the sacrifices on the high places, this tradition of Solomon's reign.
- Loved — God's own verdict on Solomon is warm and real. Scripture sets the fault beside that real love, not in place of it.
- Only — one small word marks the weak place in the armour. Good beginnings fall not to open rebellion but to the small thing left unrepaired.
- Altar, not ark — Solomon worshipped where everyone could see. David worshipped at the ark, where only faith could look. That is the gap between them.
- Borne, not blessed — God's patience while no temple stood was mercy for a hard moment, never permission. Treating that patience as approval is how a heart excuses sin.
- Inherited — what one king tolerated, a nation kept. The high places outlived Solomon, drew his own heart away in the end, and Judah never got rid of them.
And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place a thousand burnt-offerings did Solomon offer up upon that altar.
Solomon began his reign as a worshipper at Gibeon, the great high place, with a thousand burnt offerings on one altar. That raises two questions: why there, and why not Jerusalem, where the ark, the chest that marked God's presence, already stood?
Gibeon was not a random hilltop. The tent of meeting Moses built stood there, and its bronze altar with it. So "the great high place" meant the hill they stood on.
After Saul destroyed Nob, the tabernacle went to Gibeon. It stayed there until Solomon built the house of the LORD. The ark had been brought from Kiriath-jearim, not far from Gibeon, to the tent David had pitched for it in Jerusalem. But the tabernacle stayed at Gibeon, and so did the bronze altar that Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made. The high place at Gibeon means the elevation upon which the tabernacle and the altar stood. God had chosen one central place for worship, the temple, and it was not yet standing. Until it was, worshipping the LORD at the Gibeon high place was not sinful.
Solomon's father was drawn elsewhere. One writer sets the public altar beside the hidden ark, and shows what each one asked of the worshipper.
The ark was what attracted. That is all the more striking, because the ark was not the public link with God that the great altar was. The great altar stood in the court. The great altar was before every eye. The great altar was the place where the offerings were made. By comparison the ark was a little thing, and no one saw it. It stood on purpose behind the veils. It was a matter of faith alone, as far as that could be for an Israelite. The Israelite of faith was sure that the LORD's glory was bound up there most of all. That was what drew king David. Not so much king Solomon.
God did not refuse those offerings. One writer weighs how much the bronze altar could give a worshipper, and how much it could not.
"And so Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before the LORD which was at the tent of meeting, and he offered a thousand burnt offerings upon it." He went up to that altar just as David had brought the ark up to the place he had prepared for it. There all the congregation met God. It was the place of approach to God — not the place where God revealed Himself, but the place where man approached as near as he could to God. Still, God accepts it, for it was good, though it was not the best — not the more excellent way.
Spreading worship over many places cost Israel something the one altar had stood for.
Solomon "sacrificed and made offerings at the high places," and not only at Gibeon, "for that was the great high place," where the bronze altar was still found, with the tabernacle and all its furniture. This practice served to scatter worship in Israel. And so Israel lost the unity of worship. Among other things, the altar expressed that unity, just as the Lord's Table does today for Christians.
One writer sees the same instinct at work today.
He wanted to worship the Lord, and he clearly thought he should do it in the most prominent places. So he went to Gibeon, which had a great high place, and offered 1000 burnt offerings there. People today often think the same way: the most beautiful church is where they ought to worship.
The striking thing is what God did next. He came to the man at the imperfect altar, and the commentators trace that to the affection behind the offerings.
Solomon went to Gibeon, but he loved the Lord, and the Lord always takes account of our affection for Him. There it was that He appeared to him in a dream. In a dream you cannot disguise the true state of your heart. Neither reason nor will holds back what is inside. In a dream the soul lies open before the Lord.
Another writer ties God's visit that night to what Solomon offered on the altar.
He began with this act of worship, and it was that same night that God appeared to Solomon. The Lord drew graciously near to him as the result of the sacrifices on the bronze altar. The burnt offering pictures the perfect devotion and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it is this that brings us near.
- Place. Gibeon held the tabernacle and the bronze altar. Before the temple stood, sacrificing there was not sin.
- Pull. The altar was public; only faith sought the hidden ark. David went to the ark, Solomon to the altar.
- Price. Worship spread over many high places lost the unity that one altar expressed.
- Portion. A thousand offerings brought Solomon as near as man could approach — God owned it as good, though not the best.
- Presence. God still came to the lesser place, because the burnt offering pointed to Christ and He takes account of the love behind it.