THE CAUSE OF SOLOMON'S RUIN.
By John Nevins Andrews
TEXT.—“Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” 1 Cor. x, 12. This solemn admonition is drawn from the example of Israel in the wilderness. They were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They passed under the cloud and between the high walls of the divided sea. When they had emerged from this most solemn baptism “the sea returned to his strength,” and lay behind them an everlasting barrier to their return to that idolatrous land from which they had been delivered. They sang a song of triumph emblematical of that song which the victors shall sing on the sea of glass. But unlike the situation of that company of immortal saints, there lay before them the “terrible wilderness,” filled with dangers that to most of them proved fatal. Deut. i, 19; Jer. ii, 6. There was nothing in the wilderness, which in God's strength, they could not vanquish. But they utterly failed in the conflict with the difficulties which they encountered. Soon after they had crossed the Red Sea they found themselves in the desert. The earth beneath their feet was burning sand. Over their heads was the fierce heat of the scorching sun. When weary from their journey they found themselves without food and without drink. They could perhaps have manifested some patience with hunger, but when suffering from burning thirst they gave way at once to murmuring against God. They did not say, God has delivered us out of Egypt, he has opened before us the Red Sea, the pillar of cloud is leading us by day, and the pillar of fire stands over us by night, and it is our duty to trust God and wait his helping hand. They did not consider that God, having done so much for them, was willing to give them a chance to manifest what was in their hearts before he interfered to provide for their wants. And so instead of opening their mouths in thanksgiving for past mercies, in humble confession of their own unworthiness, and in fervent supplication for the continuance of his lovingkindness, they opened them in words of murmuring against God. For a time it seemed as though there was no limit to God's mercies and forbearance toward them. He sent them bread from Heaven; not merely twice or thrice, but a continual supply day by day. He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out. They all did eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ. At the foot of Sinai they witnessed the awful majesty of the Almighty as he descended in fire upon it; a scene that can only be paralleled when the Son of God shall descend in the glory of his Father, and with the sound of the same trump of God. Ex. xix; Heb. xii, 25, 26; Matt. xvi, 27. Never were people so exalted. Never were mortal men so hedged in on every hand with signal and unnumbered mercies. The hand of God always appeared for them; yet that hand before revealing itself waited to see what the people would do and say. The people murmured again and again. Yet God interfered in their behalf. Even when the sight of God's glory upon the top of the mount was like devouring fire, the people made them a golden calf, and worshipped this as the God who had brought them out of Egypt. And yet God did not give them up to destruction. It seemed almost as though he was so interested to save them that he would do it in spite of themselves. But there was a limit to the forbearance of God. To them it probably seemed as though that limit could never be reached. They dared to rebel and vex his holy Spirit. Isa. lxiii, 10. And that forgiveness and tender mercy which seemed without limit was finally exceeded by the rebellion and obduracy of this stiff-necked people. When the spies brought back an evil report of the good land, then all the people lifted up their voices and wept. And notwithstanding all the signal displays of God's power, and the almost unlimited manifestations of his mercies toward them, they determined to go no further with the pillar of cloud and of fire, but under a leader of their own choosing, to return into Egypt. Num. xiv; Neh. ix, 17. Then the hand of God which had been so often extended in blessing this hard-hearted people was lifted up in solemn oath that they should perish in the wilderness. And this people, exalted to Heaven by the richest display of God's lovingkindness, miserably perished between Egypt and Canaan, a signal example for all coming time that God cannot be trifled with, and that when men presume upon his mercy and think themselves sure of the continuance of his favor, though they take no heed to walk with fear and trembling before him, they do thereby make their own ruin inevitable and swift. Some 500 years after the sad overthrow in the wilderness, a monarch ascended the throne of Israel who was in many respects the most wonderful man that ever lived. When the Almighty bade him choose what gift should be granted him, he asked for wisdom. And God was so greatly delighted with the choice he made that he not only granted his request, but with it granted also every conceivable earthly blessing. 1 Kings iii. It would seem that the providence of God designed to manifest the fact, and to place it beyond all possible dispute, that nothing permanently good can be made out of poor human nature by the utmost grant of earthly prosperity. At all events, we have in the reign of Solomon a period of time in which the people of God were exalted to the utmost height of earthly grandeur and triumph. We can judge from it whether anything of lasting value can be developed in men only as they are schooled in adversity and affliction. Solomon came to the throne without the years of adversity and anguish which had prepared his father David for his high exaltation. The enemies of Israel were all subdued before them. There was peace on every hand. The time had come for the temple of God to be built. Solomon was called of God by name to do this work. His father David had promised immense means for this most costly undertaking. Besides this, such was Solomon's riches, in consequence of God's blessing, that he had the most ample resources for the great work he had to perform. When the temple was finished God honored the work of his hand by visibly taking possession of it as his dwelling place, and by sending fire from Heaven to consume the offerings there made. Solomon also built, for the honor of his kingdom, other houses of wonderful magnificence, and of almost unlimited expense. Of his riches we learn that he made “silver and gold at Jerusalem as plenteous as stones.” 2 Chron. i, 15; 1 Kings x, 27. He was wiser than all men. He spoke 3000 proverbs. His songs were 1005. He spoke of trees from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that springs out of the wall. He had knowledge of all beasts, and fowls, and creeping things, and fishes, and was able to discourse respecting them. God gave him “wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart even as the sand that is on the sea shore.” His fame was in all nations round about. 1 Kings iv. And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom that God had put in his heart. 2 Chron. ix, 23. The visit of the Queen of Sheba is particularly described; and we are told that when she had communed with Solomon she was so astonished at the greatness of his wisdom, and the majesty of his power, that there was no more spirit in her. She said that it18was indeed a true report which she had heard in her own land, but that the one-half of the greatness of his wisdom had not been told her. But what a sad transition the Bible presents in the case of his latter history. That sun which poured such a flood of golden rays upon mankind was hidden in disastrous eclipse. We cannot say that it did not thus set. Alas for human dignity and greatness. The wisest of men cannot bear unlimited prosperity. That man who had the most enlarged views of God's greatness, of the vanity of false gods, of the folly of vice, and of the excellence of piety and true virtue, did by and by become a miserable idolater and apostate from God. 1 Kings xi. The book of Ecclesiastes is thought by many to have been written by Solomon on the occasion of his repentance from his grievous backsliding. There is some internal evidence favoring this idea. Let us hope that it is true; for it gives us the only ground for cherishing the thought that he did repent and return to God. Can we ascertain the cause of Solomon's ruin? If so it is a lesson of infinite consequence for us to learn. Were I to state it in my own words I should say that he forgot the example of Israel in the wilderness. And he was very inexcusable in this forgetfulness, for it formed not only a part of the history of his ancestors with which he must have been very familiar, but it was also the burden of many of the Psalms of his father David. At all events, he did not draw from that sacred record the lesson which St. Paul has so impressively set forth from it: “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” But we are indebted to Solomon for a statement of the very thing which proved his ruin. And we shall find it substantially the same as that just given. Eccl. ii, 3. “I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, TILL I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.” Here is the key to the ruin of the wisest of men. And from it we may learn that Satan, who is said to be wiser than Daniel (Eze. xxviii, 3–17), was also wiser than Solomon. He was able to present a temptation capable of beguiling the wisest of men. He reminded Solomon of the greatness of his wisdom. God had promised him that which should exceed the wisdom of every other man, and had fulfilled his promise. This unlimited gift of wisdom he reminded Solomon was evidently his. Now with such mental strength, such discernment, such judgment, such prudence, such discrimination, such wisdom, he, the possessor, might test every kind of human folly, going in it just far enough to taste what sweet there was in it, and to discover the breakers upon which all others dashed, but himself stopping short of the fatal rock. That Solomon actually reasoned in this manner, see Eccl. i, 16, 17. “I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and HAVE GOTTEN MORE WISDOM THAN ALL THEY THAT HAVE BEEN BEFORE ME IN JERUSALEM; yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge. And I gave my heart to know wisdom, AND TO KNOW MADNESS AND FOLLY.” Like Eve he was not contented with the knowledge of good alone; he must know good and evil both. Gen. iii. He found this to be vanity and vexation of spirit. And that wisdom thus obtained is filled with grief; and knowledge thus increased brings with it great increase of anguish and sorrow. Eccl. i, 17, 18. He gave himself to wine, yet acquainted himself with wisdom. He did not mean to give up the pursuit of wisdom, not even the practice of it, but he meant to test the effects of wine; not to become a drunkard, but to see what it would do to him. He believed that he had power at any time to break it off. For others he had given excellent precepts not even to look on wine. Prov. xxiii, 31. He could look on it and taste it, so he thought, and yet not endanger himself to become a drunkard. He deliberately laid “hold on folly,” not to permanently retain it, but only “TILL I might see what was that good for the sons of men.” And what a “TILL” that proved to be! He could drive nearer the precipice than any other man! Alas! he tried it, and driver, carriage, and team went over together. He tested every species of folly. He tasted every kind of sinful pleasure. He put his foot on every forbidden spot. He forgot the existence of Satan, or else deemed himself wise enough to cope with this formidable foe. Never was man more deceived. When he put down his foot where God had never given him the right to do it, he put it into Satan's snare. Solomon was a fool the moment he gave himself to folly. He was no match for the wisdom of the Arch-deceiver. He was taken captive by the Devil at his will. Solomon's error was just this: That he, the wisest of men, could do with safety that which other men must not touch at all. What a fatal mistake! If he had greater wisdom it was incumbent on him to keep further from folly than any other man. God, in the day of Judgment, will decide men's cases by this very principle. Solomon forgot the case of Moses. He should have learned the lesson from that, that God has no favorites. The nearer God has come to man by his presence, the greater the sin if they speak or act wrong in his sight. So it proved with Moses. Num. xx. How often men reverse this, and think that God will wink at sin in those who are dear to him. Never was there an idea further from the truth. In the presence of the burning bush Moses must remove his shoes from his feet. Other men, and elsewhere, might retain them. But how full of reverence, of self-abasement, and of godly fear, must those be who come nigh to the Judge of quick and dead. Let us observe several steps in Solomon's departure from God. The law forbade the king to “multiply horses to himself,” or to “cause the people to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply horses.” Deut. xvii, 16. But this law was for those who had not Solomon's strength and wisdom. Surely it was not for him. So the very thing which the law of God forbade he entered largely into. 1 Kings iv, 26; x, 26, 29. This very transgression, however, probably opened the way for another still greater. The law forbade marriages with the heathen nations. But there was no danger to Solomon in the transgression of this precept. Other men lacking his strength should take heed. With him there was no danger. So he married the daughter of Pharaoh. Deut. vii, 3; 1 Kings iii, 1. He was forbidden greatly to multiply silver and gold. But he did it even to the sore oppression of the people. Compare Deut. xvii, 17; 1 Kings x, 27; 2 Chron. i, 15; 1 Kings xii, 4; 2 Chron. x, 4. The law pertained to others, not to himself. His wisdom needed no such prohibition; and he regarded it not. The law forbade the king to multiply wives to himself lest they turn away his heart from God. Deut. xvii, 17. But he was in no danger surely. This was an excellent precept for others, but wholly unnecessary in his case. So he took to himself 1000 wives, and most of them, if not all, were idolatresses. 1 Kings xi, 1–4. The Lord commanded the destruction of the altars of all false gods. Num. xxxiii, 51, 52; Deut. vii, 5. But Solomon, to gratify his wives, could safely build altars to the obscene Ashteroth, the abominable Melcom, and Chemosh, and the cruel Molech. 1 Kings xi, 4–8. In fact he was so mighty in his own strength, and so liberal in his views of worship, that at last he hesitated not to break the first commandment of the decalogue, and doubtless the second also. And now behold the wisest of men manifesting the most debasing folly! Solomon, the king of Israel, once the beloved of the Lord, now a base idolater. A second blind Samson grinding in the prison-house of the Philistines. Solomon laid “hold on folly,” he tells us, “TILL he might see what was that good for the sons of men.” And did he not see, with bitter regret too, that “that good for the sons of men” is found not in tasting folly moderately, but in shunning it altogether. What words of excellent instruction are these: “Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly as far as light excelleth darkness.” Eccl. ii, 13. Who believes that could this man have recalled his life he would again have walked in the paths of folly? He had changed his mind relative to finding good in the ways of folly, and now saw that a little folly destroys the excellence of a virtuous life as a single dead fly ruins the most precious ointment. Eccl. x, 1. The lesson from Solomon's life is exceedingly impressive. Let every one “that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” “That good for the sons of men” is found only in wisdom, and never in folly. “And unto man he said, Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” Job xxviii, 28.