And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
Solomon took seven hundred royal wives who were princesses and three hundred concubines, foreign women from idolatrous nations who worshiped false gods. His marriages were political and commercial alliances with heathen nations, driven by ambition for grandeur, power, wealth and self-sufficiency, contrary to God's law. His wives turned his heart from God and from the worship of the true God, a gradual apostasy in which yielding to prosperity and lust made each further step into self-indulgence and idolatry easier. Instead of leading his wives to the true faith he forsook God's temple and built altars and idol shrines for their worship, bringing heathen rites into Israel and beginning its downfall. His fall shows that even one greatly favored by God must watch and depend on God to the end, and that God's people are blessed while they remain distinct and separate from the world rather than binding themselves to unbelievers for gain.
Wives and Alliances
Solomon took seven hundred wives who were princesses of royal rank, together with three hundred concubines, hundreds of beautiful women brought to him from many lands. His marriages were political and commercial alliances with heathen nations, often contracted to seal an alliance. They were driven by ambition for royal grandeur and political power, for self-aggrandizement and wealth, and by pride and self-sufficiency.
His wives were foreigners, idolatrous worshipers of false gods, drawn from nations including Phoenicia, Egypt, Edom, Moab and Ammon. They bowed at idolatrous shrines whose rites were licentious, cruel and degrading. His polygamy in taking them was directly opposed to the law of Jehovah and contrary to God's arrangement, following the sinful practice of other kings.
His hope that such alliances would lead other nations to know the true God did not justify setting aside God's commands. His departure from the right way also included the idolatrous connection of going to other nations to secure workmen and facilities for building the temple, when it could have been built with the facilities the Lord had provided. That worldly connection greatly displeased God.
Turning of the Heart
His wives turned his heart away from God and from the worship of the true God, so that he was no longer devoted to God alone. His apostasy did not come at once but gradually, step by step, as yielding to the temptations of prosperity, high position and political alliance made further disobedience easier. One false step prepared the way for a second and a third, each taken more easily than the last, until association with idolaters weakened his faith, conformity to worldly customs and the heathen standard of right caused him to lose sight of God's law and the need for implicit obedience, and he gave himself to false worship. His uncontrolled love of women became a snare, for surrender to lustful passion, appetite and self-indulgence cost him firmness of character, enslaved him to passion, sacrificed his integrity, separated him from God the source of his strength, and led him into corruption and idolatry. Even a small departure from integrity is unsafe.
He had begun his reign humbled before God, openly acknowledging that he was but a little child in the management of responsibilities he had never carried before. But prosperity and honored position led him to forget God and the conditions of his success, to stop relying on God and to rely on himself and his own wisdom. Human praise dishonored God, injudicious friends helped ensnare him and expose his weakness, and because he exalted himself and relied on his own wisdom he refused counsel and the testimonies God sent him. As he yielded he lost the wisdom, firmness of character, self-control and just, compassionate character of his early reign, and wavered between right and wrong. His friendships with God's enemies weakened his religious principles, blunted his sensibilities, seared his conscience, made him hardhearted and unsympathetic with loss of sympathy for people and love for God, and made his rule tyrannical.
Rather than leading his wives to the true faith, his ambition for royal grandeur and his infatuation led him to neglect his duties to God and his kingdom, to forsake God's temple, and to build altars, groves and prepared places of worship for their idols until idolatry corrupted his religion and he became an apostate given to idolatry and false worship. In his later years he forsook the temple of God to erect groves to their idols. The idol shrines he built for his wives remained on the Mount of Offense until Christ's time, when their ruins could still be seen and were so named by the true-hearted in Israel. When he turned from God the Source of his strength, the extraordinary wisdom and abilities God had given him by earnest prayer and dependence did not draw him nearer to God but made him a more effective agent of Satan and instrument of evil.
This happened though he was greatly favored by God, three times called the beloved of God, favored with wisdom, riches and honor on condition that he walk in the ways of the Lord and keep His statutes and judgments, and entrusted with the great work of building the temple. Though the wisest of kings, he became enslaved to passion and sacrificed his integrity to the enticement of women. Like all who strive, waver and fall into error, his struggle and fall are faithfully recorded to teach avoidance of evil and imitation of righteousness only, not as excuse for sin, and to encourage desponding hearts that through God's grace fresh vigor can be gained to rise, conquer and press on to more than human excellence.
Corruption of Israel
Solomon's example introduced polygamy into Palestine, made intermarriage with idolaters common in Israel, and caused polygamy to be countenanced, contaminating multitudes with heathen principles and practices and leading many of the children of Israel to violate the law of God. His taking many idolatrous wives united his interests with satanic agencies working to confuse true and false worship. Through this close contact and association with idolaters, Israel's love for God was greatly lessened and their keen sense of His high, holy character was deadened. Refusing obedience, they transferred their allegiance to the enemy of righteousness and rapidly lost their abhorrence of idol worship.
That association brought heathen customs and worship into Israel. The pure religious service instituted by God was replaced by idolatry of the darkest hue, including human sacrifices offered to idols and licentious heathen rites. Idolatrous mothers brought up their children to observe heathen rites, so that even children were raised in those practices. This rejection of the ways of God for the ways of men began the downfall of Israel, which continued in steady spiritual decline until the Jewish people became a prey to the very nations whose practices they had chosen to follow.
His union with idolatrous women also had fearful consequences for his son, for the evil influence surrounding Rehoboam from infancy, including the influence of his Ammonitess mother and neglected early training, led to apostasy. His apostasy belonged to a wider corruption in which selfishness, covetousness and greed spread through his kingdom, bringing luxury, extravagance, corruption and oppression of the poor, while the spirit of self-sacrifice in God's service was nearly lost. That luxury, extravagance, oppression and loss of self-sacrifice helped lead him away from faithfulness to God, weakening a once firm and upright character through self-indulgence and polygamy until he worshiped false gods.
Warning for Today
Solomon's fall shows that watchfulness and strength and confidence in God are needed to the very end of life, for even one greatly favored by God cannot safely rely on human strength or influence. Though God thrice called him the beloved of God and entrusted him with building the temple, his uncontrolled love of women became a snare that cost him firmness of character, separated him from God the source of his strength, and led him to waver between right and wrong. His heathen marriages bound him to idolatrous nations, and in his later years he forsook God's temple to worship idols in groves prepared for his wives. Therefore no confidence can be put in any man, however learned or elevated, unless he holds the beginning of his confidence firm unto the end.
His alliances with unbelievers brought abundant wealth, the silver of Tarshish and the gold of Ophir, but they were gained at the cost of integrity and betrayal of sacred trust. His prosperity became his ruin, for association with idolaters corrupted his faith and helped turn his heart from God. Yielding to the same worldly influences remains the danger today.
God's people are blessed while they remain a distinct, peculiar people separate from the world and its spirit, closely connected with Him and depending on Him in faith rather than binding themselves to worldly wisdom to secure help, gifts or gain. Solomon was favored with wisdom, riches and honor on condition of walking in the Lord's ways and keeping His statutes and judgments, and while he kept separate from the world he was blessed. He departed from the right way by idolatrous connection with the world in marrying idolatrous women and by going to other nations for workmen and facilities to build the temple when it could have been built with facilities the Lord had provided, which greatly displeased God. Departing from God brings a share in the sorrows of Solomon, for the Lord ever desires to encircle His people by His protecting arm, blessing them above all others and preserving them in purity.
Brethren who make institutional and medical missionary work undenominational and link up with unbelievers follow that same course of departure by linking with unbelievers to gain something instead of remaining forever a peculiar people true to principle. This is seen in binding sanitariums and treatment rooms into one association, standing in disobedience to what God had forbidden as surely as in taking many foreign wives and concubines whose influence turned away the heart and in refusing the testimonies God sent. His example shows the danger of marrying and associating with idolaters and of joining the ungodly expecting to influence them for good, especially when persons in influence lead others astray. Those who expect to influence those acting against God may instead be overcome, yield faith, sacrifice principle, become bound in chains difficult to break and impossible to escape, become separated from God, and corrupt Israel by example.
His mingling of error with truth and betrayal of sacred trusts warns against tampering with truth and allowing error to enter as though legitimate. Attractive errors by which Satan deceives destroy simplicity of faith and mar the precious landmarks of truth, and keeping close company with those who lead toward evil and mixing error with truth weakens faith and leads to apostasy. His fall warns God's people in every age that mingling with God's enemies, crossing the boundary God set, breaking down the barrier separating His people from the world, and choosing the society of the ungodly and unbelieving can corrupt the soul. When Christians become assimilated to the world in character, words and actions and cease to fear Satan, seeking wealth and power through alliance, yielding to passion and sacrificing principle and integrity, they are led away from hope, happiness and heaven, and great powers then only make a more efficient agent of the adversary.
Followers of Christ are to heed the warning by honoring the Master through studying and obeying His teachings, holding the standard given in Holy Writ, refusing conformity to the world's standard of right and to worldly customs, beware departing from simplicity of faith, and guard constantly against every worldly influence that weakens moral power, for separation from God proceeds step by step with one false step preparing the way for a second and a third, each taken more easily than the last. His history stands on record for the religious world as a violation of what God had forbidden, and its faithful, unglossed narration is required by justice for the benefit and warning of all who read it. It teaches avoidance of evil and imitation of righteousness only, not excuse for sin, even though all strive, waver and fall into error; and seeing where he struggled and fell, and where through God's grace fresh vigor can be gained to rise above evil nature, take heart again, conquer and press on over obstacles to more than human excellence encourages desponding hearts not to despair.
Solomon took seven hundred royal wives who were princesses and three hundred concubines, foreign women from idolatrous nations who worshiped false gods. His marriages were political and commercial alliances with heathen nations, driven by ambition for grandeur, power, wealth and self-sufficiency, contrary to God's law. His wives turned his heart from God and from the worship of the true God, a gradual apostasy in which yielding to prosperity and lust made each further step into self-indulgence and idolatry easier. Instead of leading his wives to the true faith he forsook God's temple and built altars and idol shrines for their worship, bringing heathen rites into Israel and beginning its downfall. His fall shows that even one greatly favored by God must watch and depend on God to the end, and that God's people are blessed while they remain distinct and separate from the world rather than binding themselves to unbelievers for gain.
Wives and Alliances
Solomon took seven hundred wives who were princesses of royal rank, together with three hundred concubines, hundreds of beautiful women brought to him from many lands. His marriages were political and commercial alliances with heathen nations, often contracted to seal an alliance. They were driven by ambition for royal grandeur and political power, for self-aggrandizement and wealth, and by pride and self-sufficiency.
His wives were foreigners, idolatrous worshipers of false gods, drawn from nations including Phoenicia, Egypt, Edom, Moab and Ammon. They bowed at idolatrous shrines whose rites were licentious, cruel and degrading. His polygamy in taking them was directly opposed to the law of Jehovah and contrary to God's arrangement, following the sinful practice of other kings.
His hope that such alliances would lead other nations to know the true God did not justify setting aside God's commands. His departure from the right way also included the idolatrous connection of going to other nations to secure workmen and facilities for building the temple, when it could have been built with the facilities the Lord had provided. That worldly connection greatly displeased God.
Turning of the Heart
His wives turned his heart away from God and from the worship of the true God, so that he was no longer devoted to God alone. His apostasy did not come at once but gradually, step by step, as yielding to the temptations of prosperity, high position and political alliance made further disobedience easier. One false step prepared the way for a second and a third, each taken more easily than the last, until association with idolaters weakened his faith, conformity to worldly customs and the heathen standard of right caused him to lose sight of God's law and the need for implicit obedience, and he gave himself to false worship. His uncontrolled love of women became a snare, for surrender to lustful passion, appetite and self-indulgence cost him firmness of character, enslaved him to passion, sacrificed his integrity, separated him from God the source of his strength, and led him into corruption and idolatry. Even a small departure from integrity is unsafe.
He had begun his reign humbled before God, openly acknowledging that he was but a little child in the management of responsibilities he had never carried before. But prosperity and honored position led him to forget God and the conditions of his success, to stop relying on God and to rely on himself and his own wisdom. Human praise dishonored God, injudicious friends helped ensnare him and expose his weakness, and because he exalted himself and relied on his own wisdom he refused counsel and the testimonies God sent him. As he yielded he lost the wisdom, firmness of character, self-control and just, compassionate character of his early reign, and wavered between right and wrong. His friendships with God's enemies weakened his religious principles, blunted his sensibilities, seared his conscience, made him hardhearted and unsympathetic with loss of sympathy for people and love for God, and made his rule tyrannical.
Rather than leading his wives to the true faith, his ambition for royal grandeur and his infatuation led him to neglect his duties to God and his kingdom, to forsake God's temple, and to build altars, groves and prepared places of worship for their idols until idolatry corrupted his religion and he became an apostate given to idolatry and false worship. In his later years he forsook the temple of God to erect groves to their idols. The idol shrines he built for his wives remained on the Mount of Offense until Christ's time, when their ruins could still be seen and were so named by the true-hearted in Israel. When he turned from God the Source of his strength, the extraordinary wisdom and abilities God had given him by earnest prayer and dependence did not draw him nearer to God but made him a more effective agent of Satan and instrument of evil.
This happened though he was greatly favored by God, three times called the beloved of God, favored with wisdom, riches and honor on condition that he walk in the ways of the Lord and keep His statutes and judgments, and entrusted with the great work of building the temple. Though the wisest of kings, he became enslaved to passion and sacrificed his integrity to the enticement of women. Like all who strive, waver and fall into error, his struggle and fall are faithfully recorded to teach avoidance of evil and imitation of righteousness only, not as excuse for sin, and to encourage desponding hearts that through God's grace fresh vigor can be gained to rise, conquer and press on to more than human excellence.
Corruption of Israel
Solomon's example introduced polygamy into Palestine, made intermarriage with idolaters common in Israel, and caused polygamy to be countenanced, contaminating multitudes with heathen principles and practices and leading many of the children of Israel to violate the law of God. His taking many idolatrous wives united his interests with satanic agencies working to confuse true and false worship. Through this close contact and association with idolaters, Israel's love for God was greatly lessened and their keen sense of His high, holy character was deadened. Refusing obedience, they transferred their allegiance to the enemy of righteousness and rapidly lost their abhorrence of idol worship.
That association brought heathen customs and worship into Israel. The pure religious service instituted by God was replaced by idolatry of the darkest hue, including human sacrifices offered to idols and licentious heathen rites. Idolatrous mothers brought up their children to observe heathen rites, so that even children were raised in those practices. This rejection of the ways of God for the ways of men began the downfall of Israel, which continued in steady spiritual decline until the Jewish people became a prey to the very nations whose practices they had chosen to follow.
His union with idolatrous women also had fearful consequences for his son, for the evil influence surrounding Rehoboam from infancy, including the influence of his Ammonitess mother and neglected early training, led to apostasy. His apostasy belonged to a wider corruption in which selfishness, covetousness and greed spread through his kingdom, bringing luxury, extravagance, corruption and oppression of the poor, while the spirit of self-sacrifice in God's service was nearly lost. That luxury, extravagance, oppression and loss of self-sacrifice helped lead him away from faithfulness to God, weakening a once firm and upright character through self-indulgence and polygamy until he worshiped false gods.
Warning for Today
Solomon's fall shows that watchfulness and strength and confidence in God are needed to the very end of life, for even one greatly favored by God cannot safely rely on human strength or influence. Though God thrice called him the beloved of God and entrusted him with building the temple, his uncontrolled love of women became a snare that cost him firmness of character, separated him from God the source of his strength, and led him to waver between right and wrong. His heathen marriages bound him to idolatrous nations, and in his later years he forsook God's temple to worship idols in groves prepared for his wives. Therefore no confidence can be put in any man, however learned or elevated, unless he holds the beginning of his confidence firm unto the end.
His alliances with unbelievers brought abundant wealth, the silver of Tarshish and the gold of Ophir, but they were gained at the cost of integrity and betrayal of sacred trust. His prosperity became his ruin, for association with idolaters corrupted his faith and helped turn his heart from God. Yielding to the same worldly influences remains the danger today.
God's people are blessed while they remain a distinct, peculiar people separate from the world and its spirit, closely connected with Him and depending on Him in faith rather than binding themselves to worldly wisdom to secure help, gifts or gain. Solomon was favored with wisdom, riches and honor on condition of walking in the Lord's ways and keeping His statutes and judgments, and while he kept separate from the world he was blessed. He departed from the right way by idolatrous connection with the world in marrying idolatrous women and by going to other nations for workmen and facilities to build the temple when it could have been built with facilities the Lord had provided, which greatly displeased God. Departing from God brings a share in the sorrows of Solomon, for the Lord ever desires to encircle His people by His protecting arm, blessing them above all others and preserving them in purity.
Brethren who make institutional and medical missionary work undenominational and link up with unbelievers follow that same course of departure by linking with unbelievers to gain something instead of remaining forever a peculiar people true to principle. This is seen in binding sanitariums and treatment rooms into one association, standing in disobedience to what God had forbidden as surely as in taking many foreign wives and concubines whose influence turned away the heart and in refusing the testimonies God sent. His example shows the danger of marrying and associating with idolaters and of joining the ungodly expecting to influence them for good, especially when persons in influence lead others astray. Those who expect to influence those acting against God may instead be overcome, yield faith, sacrifice principle, become bound in chains difficult to break and impossible to escape, become separated from God, and corrupt Israel by example.
His mingling of error with truth and betrayal of sacred trusts warns against tampering with truth and allowing error to enter as though legitimate. Attractive errors by which Satan deceives destroy simplicity of faith and mar the precious landmarks of truth, and keeping close company with those who lead toward evil and mixing error with truth weakens faith and leads to apostasy. His fall warns God's people in every age that mingling with God's enemies, crossing the boundary God set, breaking down the barrier separating His people from the world, and choosing the society of the ungodly and unbelieving can corrupt the soul. When Christians become assimilated to the world in character, words and actions and cease to fear Satan, seeking wealth and power through alliance, yielding to passion and sacrificing principle and integrity, they are led away from hope, happiness and heaven, and great powers then only make a more efficient agent of the adversary.
Followers of Christ are to heed the warning by honoring the Master through studying and obeying His teachings, holding the standard given in Holy Writ, refusing conformity to the world's standard of right and to worldly customs, beware departing from simplicity of faith, and guard constantly against every worldly influence that weakens moral power, for separation from God proceeds step by step with one false step preparing the way for a second and a third, each taken more easily than the last. His history stands on record for the religious world as a violation of what God had forbidden, and its faithful, unglossed narration is required by justice for the benefit and warning of all who read it. It teaches avoidance of evil and imitation of righteousness only, not excuse for sin, even though all strive, waver and fall into error; and seeing where he struggled and fell, and where through God's grace fresh vigor can be gained to rise above evil nature, take heart again, conquer and press on over obstacles to more than human excellence encourages desponding hearts not to despair.