1 Kings 11:10

Once more, and for the last time, Solomon heard the voice of his God. When He appeared to him in Gibeon, He said, "Ask what I shall give you." He was pleased with the young king's reply (1 Kings 3). In Jerusalem He spoke to him with encouragement and warning (1 Kings 9). Now He could only pass sentence on a servant who had been so unfaithful. The kingdom of Israel was now to be broken up. As a witness for God it had become worthless.

God had given warnings and clear instructions in the Law. He had also appeared to Solomon Himself 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... 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.

At first this neglect of the word seemed to do no harm. He grew rich, as though God were only keeping His promise. But it soon led to a more serious departure, both in itself and in what came of it... and at last to open disobedience of the clearest and most basic commands. The slippery path of sin is always walked with quicker and quicker steps. The first sin weakens in the soul the authority and power of the one thing that can keep us from still greater sins — the word of God.

One good clue lies in a proverb of his, where he tells us, "Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool" (Prov. 28:26). God had given His people clear instructions that their kings were not to take many wives. Solomon... took 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines besides these! Perhaps he told himself that some of these marriages served the interests of the state. But God tells us plainly that "Solomon clung to these in love." Solomon's problem was a matter of the heart! He disobeyed, and his heart was turned away.

There is a little comfort for us here — almost the only comfort in all we are told of king Solomon — and it is this: God disciplined him. He did not merely let the fruit of his evil, the results of his folly, show up in his family. He disciplined Solomon himself, in his own lifetime. This is His way with His own people. In some cases it is almost the only hope you have that a person is a child of God: God does not let the evil pass, but deals with it now, in this world. Those God passes over in spite of evil are clearly waiting to be condemned with the world. But those who are guilty and are dealt with now are the objects of God's fatherly care.

When David sinned against the Lord, he repented deeply as soon as the Lord reproved him. God reproved Solomon too, but nothing suggests that he ever repented.

When Solomon turned from God, he left his first love. He gave the idols of the nations the place in his heart that belonged to God. There is always the danger, even in old age, that something will push out of our hearts the love we owe to God. That is why it is written, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:21).