1 Kings 11:9

"His wives turned away his heart" — the word is repeated in verse 4. It is a terrible thing when what belongs to the world lodges in the heart and takes control of it. It turns the affections away from their only object toward vile, shameful, guilty objects... It took time for this sowing to the flesh to bear its fruit. Who would have believed that the Solomon of the temple would become an idolater? He once knelt and spread out his hands toward God in the sight of the people.

At first this neglect of the word appeared to have no bad effect. He grew rich, as though it were only the fulfilment of God's promise. But it soon led to a departure more serious in its nature and its consequences... It ended in open disobedience of the clearest and most essential requirements of God's word. The path of sin is slippery, and it is always walked with quickening steps. The reason is that the first sin tends to weaken in the soul the authority and power of the one thing that can keep us from committing still greater sins. That one thing is the word of God, along with the sense of His presence, which gives the word all its practical power over us.

The Lord's anger burned against this famous king. He turned against God, even though the Lord had appeared to him twice and had given him a clear command not to follow other gods. It seems unthinkable that a believer would sink to such a level as Solomon did, but wealth and ease can be a terrible snare even to one who is born of God.

The greater the privilege and the higher the honour, the deeper the shame... It is written for our wisdom, for our learning, for our warning, that we should beware of slipping in the very thing which God singles out in us. ... Solomon rested in the fruits God had given him. He enjoyed what came from God, but turned aside from the living source.

We find Solomon importing war horses from Egypt and multiplying wives. He had seven hundred wives who were princesses and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. This went against the prohibition in Deuteronomy 17:16: "Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses... And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away." Wisdom did not keep Solomon, and it will not keep any one of us. But clinging to the Lord will.

Grace known by us in Christ does not deliver us from this holy government of God. Instead, it gives us a higher place of favour than faith had ever known before. So we have greater responsibility, and we come more directly under the action of such divine principles... David used the sword to carry out his own sinful will, and the sword never left his house. Solomon mixed with foreigners, and his heart was led astray. Enemies then rose up from the very places he had drawn on to please himself.

As far as man is concerned, this is the end of the kingdom. But what a prospect for the future! ... The kingdom of the Divine Solomon will reappear like the sun shining in its strength. It will never again depend on the fallible obedience of man. It will rest on the unfailing responsibility of the King whom God will anoint on Zion, the mountain of His holiness.