Was Solomon saved?

Here we search in vain for any hint of God's interposing to vindicate His servant. From the narrative before us, we could not even gather whether David was for or against the Philistines. If he were brought to trial, the outward evidence would be of treason to Israel. And God will not link His holy name with gross lapses of faith and manifest departure from the path of uprightness. So far as the Old Testament is concerned, a cloud rests upon the last days of Lot, and also upon those of king Solomon. God is not at pains to declare that either of these was His own. It must be left to prayerful examination for us to gather the comforting thought from Scripture, far removed from the immediate narrative, that the one was a "righteous" man, and the other "beloved of the Lord his God." There is instruction in this of the gravest importance. God is not ashamed to be called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob but He is ashamed to be called the God of Lot.

The Lord's anger burned against this illustrious king who turned against God in spite of the Lord appearing to him twice, commanding him specifically 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. It is little wonder that Agur, whose words appear in a book written by Solomon, writes, "Give me neither poverty nor riches" (Prov.30:8). He realized he could not trust himself with such riches.

The Lord spoke directly to Solomon, "Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant" (v.11). Yet the Lord would not do this while Solomon was living because the Lord respected Solomon's father David. But Solomon's son would suffer the humiliation of a broken kingdom (v.12), though God would leave one tribe to that son, also for the sake of David, not for Solomon's sake. Judah was that tribe, though Benjamin, very small and weak, was included with Judah. Also, this concession was for Jerusalem's sake, for God's choice of that city remained in spite of the failure and disobedience of all Israel.

Nehemiah reacted by cursing them, striking some of them and pulling out their hair. If one did that today he would likely be faced with a two million dollar lawsuit! He also made them swear by God that they would not give their daughters as wives to the sons of foreigners nor take their daughters as wives for the sons of Israelites (v. 25). It is questionable that making such an oath would make any difference in their subsequent actions, but Nehemiah was concerned that Israel should keep the law. He reminded them that Solomon king of Israel had done just as they were doing, in fact marrying many wives of foreign nationality. They may have used this as an excuse, as though it was fully permissible for them to follow Solomon's example, but Nehemiah allowed no such excuse, insisting that pagan women caused Solomon to sin. If they claimed to be believers, he says Solomon was a believer, beloved by God, and that fact made it the more shocking that he should sin as he did. He and they should be ashamed of such sin, which Nehemiah calls "this great evil" (v. 27).

Solomon also disobeyed Deuteronomy 17:17 in making many marriages with foreign women, from the Moabites, Alnmonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites (v.1). But not only was Deuteronomy disobeyed, which specially forbad a king to make such marriages. All the children of Israel were warned against intermarrying with these ungodly nations (Ex.34:12-16). Did Solomon think that his superior wisdom would keep him from being badly affected by evil associations? Actually,: his wisdom ought to have warned him to keep far from the temptation, but this is a lesson for us that it requires more than wisdom to preserve us from evil. It requires the grace of God learned only in communion with Him.

Solomon had 700 wives who: were princesses and 300 concubines. What could he expect but that his wives would turn away his heart from the Lord? In contrast to this the Thessalonians "turned to God from idols" (1 Thess.1:9). Solomon turned from God to idols!

Verse 3 says "his wives turned away his heart," and verse 4, "when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods." His heart was first turned away from the Lord, so that when he became old he succumbed 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, and these wives had many substitutes that they could persuade Solomon were attractive. Sadly, history is full of cases of intellectual men who have made shipwreck. Why? No doubt because they trusted their own wisdom rather than simply trusting God.

Thus the solemn verdict is given in verse 6, "Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David." When David sinned against the Lord he was deeply repentant when the Lord reproved him, but though Solomon was reproved by God there is no indication that he repented.

He went as far as to build high places for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites. Very likely he took the attitude of liberal minded people of today, thinking it right to be tolerant of every religion and even to patronize evil religions because of the preference of his wives. But how shameful a contradiction to Solomon's faith in building the temple was his unbelief in building these high places! In building the temple he emphasized the supreme authority of the living God, but in building the high places he was guilty of challenging God's authority! Thus in this his wisdom failed him tragically.

And Solomon? Not a word of repentance! No tears like those his father wept. No confession as it came from David's lips. Only one thing is stated. Only one act is mentioned of apostatized Solomon. He sought to kill Jeroboam. After a reign of 40 years, Solomon passed away not quite 60 years old.

And yet — such is the fruitfulness and instruction of the testimonies of God — there are others, in Scripture, of other generations, who have still more solemn lessons and warnings for us. It is humbling to be laid aside as no longer fit for use; but it is sad to be left merely to recover ourselves, and it is terrible to remain to defile ourselves. And illustrations of all this moral variety we get in the testimonies of God. Jacob, in his closing days in Egypt, is not as a vessel laid aside, but he is there recovering himself. I know there are some truly precious things connected with him during those seventeen years that he spent in that land, and we could not spare the lesson which the Spirit reads to us out of the life of Jacob in Egypt. But still, the moral of it is this — a saint, who had been under holy discipline, recovering himself, and yielding fruit meet for recovery. And when we think of it a little, that is but a poor thing. But Solomon is a still worse case. He lives to defile himself; sad and terrible to tell it. This was neither Isaac nor Jacob — it was not a saint simply laid aside, nor a saint left to recover himself. Isaac was, in the great moral sense, blameless to the end, and Jacob's last days were his best days; but of Solomon we read, "It came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods," and this has made the writing over his name, the tablet to his memory, equivocal, and hard to be deciphered to this day.

Beyond all others, David was the sweet Psalmist of Israel, though not a few worthy companions find a place in the divine collection of holy lyrics. Solomon stands in like pre-eminence for the utterance of the sententious wisdom of which the book of Proverbs is the chief expression, with Ecclesiastes when the sense of his own failure under unique circumstances of creature advantage gave a sad and penitent character to his experience in the power of the inspiring Spirit. It is the more striking when compared with the Song of Songs, which shows us the Jewish spouse restored to the love of the once-despised Messiah, and His adorable excellency and grace, after her long folly, manifold vicissitudes, and sore tribulation.

The introduction lays the thesis clearly before us; and this by a man not inspired only but suited personally to impress the homily beyond all that ever lived. Hence the importance of its emanating from king Solomon, and of the reader knowing on the highest authority that the words were his, and none other's. Impossible to convey this more simply and affectingly than by the way the Holy Spirit has chosen to effect it. Such a communication, strange at first sight, solemn increasingly on reflection, tells from God its own tale; which man has been always slow to learn, ready to believe that his life consists in the abundance of the things he possesses. It is not guilt, as in Ps. 32, Ps. 51, which is here discussed, but the unhappiness of man whose heart rises not above the creature. The amplest means, the highest capacity, the most exalted rank the most active mind, the most cultivated taste, yea, and wisdom above all men, only give intensity to the dissatisfaction and the misery; and Solomon was the man both to experience it in his departure from God and to give us the profit of it, when grace gave him to review and communicate it all for everlasting admonition. It is the fruit of the fall and of sin: what else could it be? "Vanity of vanities," and not here and there only but "the whole is vanity" or evanescence, including most of all man without God; not the faith that looks above the sun to the resources of grace and in the fear that keeps His commandments. Our own idiom, "taking pains," answers in its measure to the toil of man "under the sun," profitless for happiness (ver. 3). "The shadow" earnestly desired by the hireling, how unsubstantial! Job. 7. On the other hand, "he that does the will of God abides for ever; and this is the more apparent when "the world passes away and the lust thereof." "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride (or vain glory) of life is not of the Father, but is of the world." So clear and trenchant a revelation as this, however, awaited another day, when the Son of God was come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true. Real repentance is but pessimism in unbelieving eyes.

Thank God, ere Solomon ended his career his eyes were opened and he was led to write this striking book in which he puts on record the results of the experiment. He was not inspired in doing what he did, but he was certainly inspired to put on record the result of the experiment. Listen to what he says: — I have investigated on a grand scale — on a scale that others can never touch — others might have one per cent of it — I have had the whole hundred per cent, and the verdict is, there is not a bit of profit in it. There is "no profit under the sun."

"And I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever." Of course this did not refer to Solomon personally, but only as a type of Christ. for Solomon's kingdom was torn in two almost immediately after his death, and to this day there has been no recovery from the resulting ruin. But our verse speaks of the future kingdom of the Lord Jesus, which will stand forever.

"I will be His Father and He shall be My son." This is quoted in Hebrews 1:5 as referring to the Lord Jesus, which is of course the most important matter. In a secondary way it was true of Solomon, but not in the vital, eternal way that it is true of Christ. "If he commits iniquity, I will chastise him with the rod of men, and with the blows of the sons of men." This cannot refer to the Lord Jesus as it does to Solomon, who did commit iniquity in having many wives and even worshiping their idols (2 Kings 11:8). He suffered for this under the governing hand of God (1 Kings 11:11-14).