For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
One sentence records Solomon's fall. The king who built the temple for the Lord now follows two foreign gods. How did a man of such wisdom get here, did he worship these idols himself, and what does his old age warn us about?
The gods named in the verse
Ashtoreth belonged to the peoples along Israel's northern coast, and her worship long predated Solomon.
Morrish Bible DictionaryShe 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.
The second god, Milcom, is also called Molech. This is what his worship involved.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThis 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.
Where the road started
Writers trace this verse back to a smaller act of disobedience: Solomon's marriages to foreign women.
C. H. MackintoshWe 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.
One writer draws the line from the marriages to the altars as a rule, not an accident.
H. L. RossierMarriage 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.
Years in the making
The text places this in Solomon's old age, and that timing is itself part of the lesson.
H. L. RossierThese 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.
Solomon's own guilt
Some have argued that Solomon only provided for his wives and did not worship the idols himself. Two writers answer that the provision was itself the sin.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinSome 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.
Another writer weighs the same act against what Solomon already knew.
H. L. RossierIt 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!
Why the heart could not stay neutral
The order of the chapter matters. His wives turned his heart away before the text named any idol.
Leslie M. GrantVerse 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.
The limits of wisdom
So what does keep a person, if wisdom does not?
A J PollockWisdom did not keep Solomon, and it will not keep any one of us. Holding fast to the Lord will.
Summary
- Displace — the heart is not a vacuum; when the Lord is moved out of it, a substitute moves in, and here the substitutes were Ashtoreth and Milcom.
- Drift — the displacement came through disobedience in marriage, and marriage with the world leads on to the religion of the world.
- Delay — nothing happened overnight. What he sowed needed time, and the harvest came when Solomon was old.
- Deeper — building shrines "only for his wives" was not neutral ground. By that act Solomon was guilty of idolatry himself.
- Defence — wisdom did not keep Solomon and will not keep us. Only holding fast to the Lord will.