For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.
Solomon was famous for his wisdom, yet he ended his life building shrines for foreign gods. The verse does not say he lost his mind or his throne. It says his heart was no longer whole toward the Lord — and it dates that failure to his old age.
Wisdom was no safeguard
Solomon's mistake was not a failure of intelligence. One writer notes that his wisdom should have kept him far away from the risk in the first place:
Leslie M. GrantDid 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.
If wisdom is not the safeguard, something else must be. Another writer names it, and ties Solomon's fall to a command God had already given him:
A. J. PollockWe 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.
A collapse decades in the making
The phrase "when Solomon was old" is not the start of the story. The marriages came first, and the harvest came later:
F. B. HoleIn 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.
The heart does not stay empty
The heart moved before the idols appeared. One commentator draws out why a heart emptied of God never stays empty:
Leslie M. GrantHis 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.
Measured against his father
The verse judges Solomon by David. That comparison became the yardstick for the kings who followed:
VariousThis 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."
David was no stranger to serious sin, so the difference is not a clean record. It is what each man did after being confronted:
Leslie M. GrantWhen 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.
Privilege made the fall heavier
Solomon had received more from God than anyone else, and idol shrines rose within sight of the Lord's temple:
C. KnappHe 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!
The warning carried forward
One writer applies this to marriage today. He is blunt about which way the influence runs:
Eugene P. Vedder Jr.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.
Summary
- Heart — Solomon's problem was never his intellect. The verse faults his heart, not his mind, and wisdom proved to be no protection.
- Drift — The idolatry showed up in old age. It grew from choices made years earlier: he reaped in age what he sowed in his strength.
- Vacuum — A heart turned away from God does not stay neutral. Displace Him, and something else moves in.
- Contrast — David sinned too, but his heart stayed whole toward God and he repented under reproof. That is the standard Solomon fell short of.
- Guard — The greater the privilege, the greater the dishonour when the heart shifts. Clinging to the Lord keeps a person; wisdom and gifts do not. Close ties with those who serve other gods pull downward, never up.