from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.
This verse does more than record Solomon's marriages. It quotes the command he broke, repeats God's own reason for it, and then says that Solomon clung to these women in love.
A command he already had
Solomon was not guessing at God's mind. God had given this warning long before he was born. One writer shows how completely he set it aside:
F. B. HoleAs 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.
The prohibition ran both ways
Older translations put the command as two bans: do not go in to them, and do not let them come in to you. The ESV gives the sense as entering into marriage. One writer finds the second danger the greater one:
H. L. RossierThere 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.
He clung to them in love
The verse ends not with politics but with affection. One writer puts Solomon's real failure in that last line:
Eugene P. Vedder Jr.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.
Why a turned heart ends in idols
The heart goes first, and the idols come later. One writer explains why an empty heart never stays empty:
Leslie M. GrantHis 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.
Wisdom was no protection
One writer finds a pattern in Solomon's fall that runs through all of us:
William KellyWhatever 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.
From tolerating to sharing
The slide was slow. One writer traces it from quiet allowance to open support:
The Bible TreasuryIt 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.
Summary
- Command — God had said it plainly and given His reason. Solomon had excuses he thought were good enough, and treated a clear word as out of date.
- Compromise — the ban ran in both directions: don't go to the world, and don't let the world come in to you. The second creeps in, and we see it too late.
- Clinging — the verse's own verdict is love, not politics. Solomon clung to these women, and that made his failure a matter of the heart.
- Capture — a heart is never empty. Displace the Lord from it and something else moves in. That is why marriage with the world ends in the religion of the world.
- Collapse — wisdom did not shield him; he broke down at the very point he was famous for. What started as a weak wish to please ended with a king who backed idols himself.