1 Kings 11:2, commentary and pictures

God gave Israel a plain barrier command not to go in to the idolatrous nations around them nor let those nations come in to them, because such close mingling would surely turn the heart away to their gods. Solomon broke that safeguard directly by clinging in love to foreign women from the forbidden nations and binding himself to them by marriage and political alliance. He flattered himself that his wisdom and influence would do Israel good and win his wives to the true God, but that hope was vain and his self-confidence proved fatal as step by step he forgot God and gave himself to apostasy. His unions and idol shrines broke down God's protection, confused true and false worship, and led Israel into polygamy, idolatry and cruel heathen rites until pure worship was largely replaced. The same warning stands now that marriage, friendship and business ties with those who do not love God entrap the soul and turn it from faithfulness, so God's people must remain separate and guard integrity by implicit obedience all through life.

God's Protective Prohibition

The command was plain: Israel was not to go in to the surrounding idolatrous nations, nor were those nations to come in to Israel, because such union would surely turn the heart away after their gods. The warning was given because close ties with idolaters would draw affections and worship toward false gods. Blessing was conditioned on obedience, for God promised to favor those who walked in right ways while they kept separate from the world.

The restriction was a barrier set around the people to protect them. It was a safeguard meant to preserve their holy character and purity. By keeping that separation, their love for God would be kept alive and their sense of His high holiness preserved, while breaking down those safeguards through intimate alliance and intermarriage opened the way for corruption of faith.

God desires to encircle His people with His protecting arm, blessing them above all other peoples and preserving them in purity and in all purity while they remain closely connected with Him. While separate and distinct and not joined with the world, they are blessed; the same law holds still. If they depart from Him and join themselves to other nations and follow worldly wisdom to secure advantage and help, they share the sorrows that came upon Solomon when he departed from the right.

Solomon's Disobedient Alliances

Solomon clung in love to foreign women from the forbidden nations in direct violation of the warning not to go in to them nor let them come in, lest they surely turn the heart after their gods. Those women included Pharaoh's daughter and daughters of heathen kings, and he mingled with them in marriage through political and commercial alliance with Phoenicia, Egypt, Edom, Moab, Ammon and other nations that bowed at idolatrous shrines. His polygamy was directly opposed to Jehovah's law, mingled error with truth, betrayed sacred trusts, and corrupted his religion with the insidious evils of paganism. He countenanced and sustained idolatry with licentious and cruel rites greatly dishonoring to God, erecting groves and idol shrines for his wives on what the true-hearted called the Mount of Offense, shrines that outlived his reign as ruins until Shiloh came.

He had walked uprightly for many years, called Jedidiah and specially honored with divine favor, famed worldwide for wisdom and uprightness. With heavenly wisdom he had ruled God's people with impartiality and mercy and had given wise counsel to others. But inclination gained the ascendancy over reason and self-confidence increased, and he lost sight of the Source of his power and glory and sought to carry out the Lord's purpose in his own way.

He reasoned that these alliances would benefit Israel and bring the nations to a knowledge of the true God and draw them into close touch with Israel. He flattered himself that his wisdom and the power of his example would lead his wives from idolatry to the worship of the true God. That hope was vain and did not excuse disobedience. His mistake in regarding himself as strong enough to resist the influence of heathen associates was fatal, and fatal too was the deception that others might be led to revere and obey the sacred precepts of God's law while he himself disregarded them.

His unfaithfulness began through pride, political ambition, self-indulgence, prosperity and honored position, and love of injudicious friends. He exalted his own wisdom, refused counsel, and did not trust God, becoming corrupted after he had once done God's will and exposing his human weakness. Each step made further departure easier, until his once strong and upright character became morally weak. For a time God in compassionate mercy overruled the terrible mistake, when by a wise course Solomon could still have checked at least in large measure the evil forces his imprudence had set in operation.

He also departed from the right by going to other nations to secure facilities and workmen for building the temple when God had already provided what was needed. That idolatrous connection with the world greatly displeased God. God had favored Solomon with wisdom and with riches and honor on condition that he walk in God's ways and keep His statutes and His judgments. While he kept separate from the world he was blessed, but in joining himself to other nations he brought sorrow on himself.

Solomon's Personal Apostasy

His love for women became a snare that drew his heart toward their gods and into idolatry. He failed to control uncontrolled, lustful passion and indulgence of appetite and lustful passions, yielded his principles and departed from principle, sacrificed integrity and purity, became enslaved to temptation and separated from God and the Source of his strength. His indulgence brought down a king who had been beloved by God, showing that even one among the wisest and most powerful can fall through inward corruption and temptation. His uncontrolled passion weakened and undermined the character and wisdom God had given him, warning that integrity and dependence on God's strength must be guarded and maintained throughout life and that even a small departure from strict integrity is dangerous.

The fall was so gradual that almost before he was aware he had wandered far from God, losing sight of the necessity of implicit obedience. Each departure from God's standard made the next easier, as he conformed more and more closely to the customs of the surrounding nations and joined error to religious truth. Yielding to the temptations of prosperity and honored position, he forgot God and the conditions of success and turned from worship of the true God to bow before the idols of the heathen, no longer serving God as the only true and living God. One wrong step led to further steps until he gave himself over to apostasy and idolatry and dishonored God, becoming bound in chains he could not hope to break, with a once strong and upright character become morally weak.

He had obtained wisdom that excited the wonder of the world through earnest prayer and dependence upon God as the Source of his strength. When he turned from that Source and went forward relying upon himself, the wisdom God had given him was removed and undermined, and his character grew wavering and morally weak. His marvelous powers and great abilities then only rendered him a more efficient agent and effective instrument of the adversary of souls for greater harm. That power often works most successfully through polished, courteous, refined instruments least suspected of being under its control.

In contrast with the beginning of his reign when upon being exalted as king he humbled himself before God and acknowledged before all that he was but a little child in management, he was spoiled in his later years by association with idolatrous wives. Companionship with the world and friendship with the Lord's enemies lowers religious principles, and misusing the great wisdom entrusted to him with building the temple he compromised his sacred trust and betrayed sacred trusts. To please his wives he forsook God's temple and prepared places for their idols, building altars and erecting groves and idol shrines for their idols on what the true-hearted in Israel called the Mount of Offense. His polygamy was directly opposed to the law of Jehovah, mingled error with truth, and countenanced and sustained idolatry with licentious and cruel rites greatly dishonoring to God. Those shrines outlived his reign and remained as ruins until Shiloh came and Christ looked upon them.

One of the principal causes of that terrible apostasy is traced in the far-reaching, baleful influences that permeated all branches of the Lord's service and extended throughout the kingdom. High wages demanded and received gave opportunity for luxury and extravagance, with oppression of the poor by the rich and the well-nigh loss of the spirit of self-sacrifice. The grasping pursuit of high wages spread luxury and selfishness through his kingdom, and that corrupting covetousness helped bring about his fall. He was not alone in apostasy.

Corruption of Israel Nation

His unions broke down the safeguards placed around Israel and brought steady spiritual decline to the nation. Intermarriage with idolaters became common practice, and idolatrous customs and rites and commerce entered through those alliances. Minds were confused about true and false worship, and commerce and intimate contact with those who had no love for God greatly lessened Israel's love for Him and deadened its sense of His high, holy character. One compromise led to further disobedience, and association and marriage with idolaters corrupted faith and turned the heart to worship false gods.

Choosing those ways began Israel's downfall, for many abandoned God's law and adopted heathen practices including polygamy, idolatry, human sacrifice, and licentious worship. Refusing obedience, they transferred allegiance to the enemy of righteousness and rapidly lost abhorrence of idol worship, so the pure religious service instituted by God was replaced by idolatry of the darkest hue, and the people were eventually left subject to the nations whose practices they had followed.

His polygamy was directly opposed to the law of Jehovah, mingled error with truth, betrayed sacred trusts, and corrupted religion with the insidious evils of paganism. He countenanced polygamy and sustained idolatry with licentious and cruel rites greatly dishonoring to God, erecting groves and idol shrines for his wives on what the true-hearted called the Mount of Offense. Those shrines outlived his reign and remained as ruins until Shiloh came and Christ looked upon them. Idolatrous mothers brought up children to observe heathen rites.

His example corrupted Israel, and it warned Nehemiah's hearers that intermarriage and association with idolaters could lead the people into idolatry and ruin despite exceptional wisdom. Its lasting family effect appeared in Rehoboam, whose Ammonitess mother shaped his vacillating character, and the evil influences surrounding him from infancy contributed to his eventual apostasy.

Separation and Warning Today

Close bonds with those who worship other gods turn the heart away from loving and serving God, and one wrong step toward them leads to further steps until a person is bound in chains that cannot be broken. Many imagine they can influence the ungodly for good, yet instead they are entrapped and overcome, giving up faith and sacrificing principle until separated from God. Solomon's clinging in love to peoples God had forbidden, despite the warning that such ties would turn the heart after other gods, shows that the one who expects to lead others to what is right may instead be led toward evil. His alliances brought wealth but proved ruinous, and his apostasy was hastened also by covetousness, as the grasping pursuit of high wages spread luxury, extravagance and selfishness through the kingdom so that he was not alone in falling. Believers must therefore guard faith and choose companions carefully, for close associates can draw the heart from God.

Marriage between a believer and an unbeliever is forbidden by God, because such a union places the believer under influences that draw away from God and imperil the soul. The same warning reaches friendships, business partnerships, and the choice of close associates, since Solomon expected his influence to benefit the ungodly but was instead entrapped, yielded his faith, sacrificed principle, and was separated from God. His attachment to foreign wives brought in idolatry whose shrines remained as a lasting mark of his fall, teaching that false or dishonoring beliefs must never be treated as harmless or legitimate. Such errors weaken faith and corrupt its defining truths, and draw the heart from faithfulness to God.

God's people must remain separate from the world and not join with unbelievers to advance even religious work, for Solomon's alliances with unbelievers brought wealth and abundant gold and silver yet exposed him to influences that drew him from God to ruin. He was blessed while he kept separate from the world, but he departed from the right by marrying idolatrous women and by going to other nations for workmen and facilities to build the temple when God had already provided what was needed, and that idolatrous connection with the world greatly displeased God. The same law holds now: God's people are blessed while they remain a distinct people closely connected with God, and they depart from Him when they bind themselves to follow the wisdom of worldly men in order to secure gifts and help. The same departure occurs when sanitariums and institutional work are linked with unbelievers and declared undenominational in order to gain advantage, instead of remaining forever a peculiar people holding the beginning of confidence steadfast to the end and standing as representatives of His special message of truth in the last days.

Ancient Israel was enticed into sin by venturing into the forbidden association God had barred by forbidding mutual going in and coming in, because such union would surely turn the heart after false gods. Modern Christians are led astray in the same manner when they choose the society of the ungodly and unbelieving, exposing themselves to temptation and assimilation to the world in character, words, and actions. In such company Satan conceals himself and draws blindness across the eyes so the harm cannot be seen, familiarity with sin makes it appear less repulsive, fear of his mastery ceases, and love of sin is cherished. Solomon proves the danger, for by earnest prayer and dependence on God he obtained wisdom that excited the wonder of the world, but when he turned from the Source of his strength, went forward relying on himself, and clung in love to the forbidden nations, he fell a prey to temptation and his marvelous powers only made him a more efficient agent of the adversary, who often works most successfully through polished, courteous, refined instruments least suspected of being under his control.

Solomon's course of cleaving in love to foreign women from Phoenicia, Egypt, Edom, Moab, Ammon and other nations that bowed at idolatrous shrines, and to their gods, stands on record as a warning that disregarding God's instruction and following a forbidden course in disobedience leads away from faithfulness. His polygamy was directly opposed to Jehovah's law, mingled error with truth, betrayed sacred trusts, and corrupted his religion with the insidious evils of paganism, as he countenanced and sustained idolatry with licentious and cruel rites, erecting groves and idol shrines for his wives on what the true-hearted called the Mount of Offense. Those shrines outlived his reign and remained as ruins until Shiloh came and Christ looked upon them. If His people depart they will share Solomon's sorrows, and the case warns against cherishing the errors Satan presents in attractive style to deceive and destroy simplicity of faith, lest introduced errors mar the precious landmarks of truth.

The faithful narration of one so favored of God and entrusted with great responsibility, who strove, wavered, fell into error and was overcome by temptation, is required by justice for the benefit of all who read it. It is given as a warning to avoid unbelief and evil and escape wrath and retributive justice, teaching that the wages of sin is death and that strict regard for God's commandments is exacted. It is given also for encouragement, that desponding hearts seeing where Solomon struggled and fell, and where through God's grace he could gain fresh vigor to rise above his evil nature, may take heart again and conquer. Instead of despairing as they would if the faithful had been without foible and more than human, they may renew the conflict themselves and press on to surmount obstacles.

Solomon's love for women from the nations Israel was forbidden to join, including daughters of heathen kings, became a snare when uncontrolled, lustful passion led him to disregard the warning, depart from principle, and turn his heart toward their gods into idolatry. Though he had received wisdom, strength, character and uprightness from God, yielding to passion weakened him, undermined what God had given, and separated him from the Source of his strength until he no longer served God as the only true and living God. His fall warns that integrity, purity, and dependence on God's strength must be maintained throughout life, for even a small departure from strict integrity is dangerous.