For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
In his old age Solomon allowed his heathen wives to turn his heart from perfect loyalty to God, so that he did evil by going after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. He bowed to and joined in their cruel and degrading worship, building altars, shrines and groves for their idols opposite Jerusalem and forsaking God's temple for them. His fall was gradual, prepared by forbidden political alliances and polygamous marriages, love of luxury and power, close conformity to idolaters, and turning from dependence on God to reliance on himself. From one of the greatest and wisest kings he became an oppressive despot and slave to passion, dishonoring himself, Israel and God, and losing God's blessing and cooperation. His history stands as a warning that neither wisdom, honor, sacred privilege nor prosperity can keep anyone faithful apart from continued trust in God, and that even a small departure from integrity is dangerous without constant watchfulness.
Names Time and Places
The verse describes Solomon when he was old, when his wives turned his heart after other gods so that his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God as the heart of David his father had been. He did not carry out the will of God but allowed his wives to lead him into idolatry, doing evil in the sight of the Lord by going after the gods of the Zidonians and the Ammonites. This apostasy was disloyalty that lost his connection with heaven, and God broke His covenant with him as chastisement.
The gods he went after were Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians or Sidonians and Milcom or Molech the abomination and idol of the Ammonites. They were the gods of the nations from which his wives came, and his worship of them was part of his turning away from wholehearted service to the Lord and his participation in heathen worship. His union with idolatrous women helped lead him into this apostasy, standing in a course of action God had forbidden after God had sent him testimony against it.
In his early life he was Jedidiah, Beloved of the Lord, specially honored by God with remarkable tokens of divine favor. For many years he walked uprightly in heavenly wisdom, ruling God's people with impartiality and mercy, gaining worldwide fame for wisdom and uprightness and often giving wise counsel to others. The same king displayed wisdom and kindly sympathy in restoring a helpless babe to its unfortunate mother, was inspired to write the wisdom found in Proverbs including that there is a way which seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death, and at the dedication of the temple charged the people, Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God. At first he heeded David's counsels and brought glory to the God of Israel, exalted to sacred trust.
He built altars, shrines, groves and places of worship for his wives' gods, including idols of wood and stone. His marriages and political alliances with heathen nations drew him into idolatry, and the influence of his heathen wives led him in his later years to forsake God's temple and prepare places for their idols in the groves he had prepared for them. He built opposite Jerusalem and near the temple, mingling pagan practices with his religious principles and betraying the sacred trust given to Israel instead of drawing his wives to truth. His departure from obedience through alliances and marriage with idolaters, contrary to the law, separated him from God and led him away from wisdom and righteousness.
The idol shrines he built opposite Jerusalem stood for generations as a public witness to his fall, even after he repented. Josiah later demolished the shrines and images, but ruins remained into the time of Christ. They were known in Israel as the Mount of Offense by the true-hearted, erected as groves and idol shrines for his wives that outlived his reign, and were seen by Christ, looked upon by Shiloh when He came. The ruined buildings and idols remained as evidence that though once honored by God and entrusted with the temple he had separated from God.
Road into Apostasy
Solomon sought political power and self-aggrandizement through alliances with heathen idolatrous nations, taking hundreds of women from Egypt, Phoenicia, Edom, Moab, Ammon and many other places, though polygamy and mingling in marriage with those nations stood directly opposed to the law of Jehovah. Those marriages and political alliances drew him into idolatry, as uniting in marriage with worshipers of false gods at last led him to give himself up to their worship and to build shrines, groves and places for his wives' worship, mingling pagan practices with religious principle and betraying the sacred trust given to Israel. Association with idolaters corrupted his faith, and one wrong step led to another until he dishonored himself, dishonored Israel, and dishonored God. Learning, high standing, and being beloved of God and entrusted with building the temple could not preserve him when he did not remain confident in God.
He regarded luxury, self-indulgence and the favor of the world as greatness, and pride, self-sufficiency, self-exaltation and desire for wealth and power led him to neglect his duties to God and to his kingdom. The silver of Tarshish and the gold of Ophir were procured at the cost of integrity and betrayal of sacred trust, while excessive wages with resulting luxury, oppression of the poor, grasping influences, covetousness, corruption and loss of self-sacrifice spread through the kingdom as principal causes of his terrible apostasy. Yielding to the temptations connected with his prosperity and honored position, he forgot God and the conditions of success and conformed more and more closely to the customs of the surrounding nations. His pursuit of wealth and power led him across the boundary God had set between Israel and other nations, and pagan influence corrupted his character.
Close association with idolaters and conformity to worldly customs and heathen standards of right corrupted his faith and corrupted his life, weakened love for God, confused true worship with false, broke down the barriers and protections God had erected for the safety of His people, and helped replace the worship God had instituted with idolatry. Intermarriage with idolaters, with children taught heathen rites, helped remove abhorrence of idolatry and led to national apostasy. Lustful passion, appetite and attachment to women became the snare that overcame the principles and wisdom God had given him, drawing him away from God the source of his strength, separating him from God, and leaving him wavering between right and wrong. His wives drew him into idolatry, blunted his conscience and clouded his clear understanding, so that though he had begun with God-given wisdom and power he surrendered principle and lost firmness of character, showing that even a king beloved by God and renowned among nations could fall through indulged passion. Even a small departure from integrity is dangerous, and no one is safe from temptation without strength from God.
He turned from dependence on God to reliance on himself, misused the talents God had given him, and perverted his God-given wisdom, showing that wisdom separated from God does not remain true wisdom. His remarkable wisdom, powers and abilities then made him a more effective agent of evil when he became vulnerable to temptation. His fall was gradual, with one false step preparing the way for a second and a third, each taken more easily than the last, until almost before he was aware he had wandered far from God and lost sight of the necessity of implicit obedience to the plain precepts of Holy Writ. His earlier sacrificing in a place not made sacred by the presence of the Lord but dedicated to the worship of idols mingled the sacred and the profane, removed from the minds of the people the repulsion they should have felt toward idolatrous practices, and educated him to suppose the Lord was not particular about the worship of His people, leading little by little to altars on which to sacrifice to the gods of his heathen wives.
He departed from God by going to other nations to secure facilities and workmen for building the temple when he could have built it with the facilities the Lord had provided, forming an idolatrous connection with the world that greatly displeased God and brought the sorrows that fall when God's people depart from Him. He was given wisdom, riches and honor on condition that he walk in the ways of the Lord and keep His statutes and judgments, and God desires to encircle His people with His protecting arm, bless them above all others and preserve them in all purity while they remain closely connected with Him. He stood in a course of action God had forbidden, going after Ashtoreth and Milcom in refusal of the testimonies God sent him against it.
Nature of the Fall
Solomon turned from the worship of Jehovah and from wholehearted service to bow before and follow the idols of other nations. When he was old his wives turned his heart after other gods, so that his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God as the heart of David his father had been, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord by going after Ashtoreth of the Zidonians and Milcom of the Ammonites. He did not carry out the will of God but allowed his wives to lead him into idolatry, yielding to the strong influence of wives whose religion was idol worship with cruel and degrading rites until they prevailed on him to unite with them in their worship. In forsaking God's temple and building places and shrines for his wives' worship he gave himself up to the worship of false gods.
He mingled pagan error with truth and pagan practices with his religious principles, betraying the sacred trust given to him and to Israel. Instead of drawing his pagan wives to truth he let pagan religion corrupt his own, building altars for Ashtoreth the Sidonian goddess and Milcom the Ammonite idol and mingling idolatry with Israel's faith. That close association with idolaters and intermarriage with heathen nations weakened love for God, confused true worship with false worship, and helped replace the worship God had instituted with idolatry. His history thus shows that cherishing false teachings and tampering with truth or mixing it with error obscures truth, weakens faith, and leads those who know God's word away from right principles.
He fell so low as to consent to the erection of an idol to whom children were offered as living sacrifices. The same king who had displayed wisdom and kindly sympathy in restoring a helpless babe to its unfortunate mother came to countenance the licentious, revolting rites connected with the worship of Chemosh and Ashtoreth. Though in youth endowed with discretion and understanding and inspired to write that there is a way which seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death, and though at the dedication of the temple he had charged the people to let the heart be perfect with the Lord, he himself became an offender, in heart and life denying his own words. He mistook license for liberty and tried to unite light with darkness, Christ with Belial, purity with impurity, and good with evil.
His turning from God was accompanied by loss of self-mastery and a change from a conscientious, just, magnanimous ruler into a proud, oppressive despot, with the justice and magnanimity of his early reign changed to despotism and tyranny. From being one of the greatest kings that ever wielded a scepter, renowned throughout the world for wisdom, he became a profligate, the tool and slave of others. His once noble and manly character became enervated and effeminate, his faith in the living God was shaken and supplanted by atheistic doubts and unbelief, his happiness was marred, his principles weakened, and his life degraded. He was troubled night and day by gloomy and soul-harassing thoughts, showing how little can be done for men who lose their sense of dependence upon God.
A character once pure and elevated became marred and degraded, and a mind once given to God and inspired to write the wisdom found in Proverbs became weak in moral power through evil associations and constant indulgence. His pursuit of political power and self-aggrandizement and his association with idolaters corrupted his faith and broke down the protections and barriers God had erected for the safety of His people. In this he dishonored himself, dishonored Israel, and dishonored God.
Consequences for Israel
Solomon's going after Ashtoreth and Milcom was disloyalty that broke his connection with heaven and was greatly displeasing to God, and in chastisement God broke His covenant with him. By turning aside to work contrary to God's designs he forfeited God's cooperation, blessing and signature upon his work, for blessing rests only on following the light given and looking steadfastly to God as Teacher and Example. Leaders who act contrary to God's designs as he did cannot expect God to cooperate with their work.
His apostasy set Israel a misleading example that God could not vindicate. His alliances and marriages with heathen nations, his close association with idolaters, and the teaching of children in heathen rites weakened love for God, confused true worship with false, and removed abhorrence of idolatry. In this way he helped replace the worship God had instituted with heathen practices, leading to national apostasy and eventual subjection to the nations whose ways the people had adopted. His fall began with unfaithfulness and the breaking down of God's protective boundaries, each wrong step making the next easier, and the king's example influenced the nation and had lasting effects on his son Rehoboam.
After he turned from dependence on God to reliance on himself he became vulnerable to temptation, and the remarkable wisdom, powers and abilities God had given him then made him a more effective agent of evil. Though he was beloved of God, had received remarkable manifestations of divine power, and had been entrusted with building God's temple, he forsook that temple to worship idols in the groves he had prepared. His example shows that learning, high standing, sacred privileges and knowledge cannot preserve a person who does not remain confident in God.
His history shows the sorrows that fall on God's people if they depart from Him. God ever desires to encircle His people with His protecting arm, to bless them above all other people, and to preserve them in all purity while they remain closely connected with Him. Solomon was favored of God and was given not only wisdom but riches and honor on condition that he would walk in the ways of the Lord, keeping His statutes and His judgments. He departed from God by going to other nations to secure facilities for building the temple when he could have built it with the facilities the Lord had provided, and that departure led him to go after Ashtoreth and Milcom.
Had he heeded the instruction given him, God would have worked through him to reveal His power and majesty to the world. His life instead shows how little God can do for men who lose their sense of dependence upon Him.
Warnings and Applications
Solomon's fall through indulged lustful passion for foreign women into worship of their gods warns that no one is safe from temptation without strength from God, and that even a king beloved by God and renowned among nations could be overcome, separated from God the source of strength, and left wavering between right and wrong. His surrender of principle and loss of firmness of character after beginning with God-given wisdom and power shows that even a small departure from integrity is dangerous, and teaches the need for watchfulness to remain faithful to the end. His going after Ashtoreth and Milcom was the fruit of polygamous political alliances with Phoenicia, Egypt, Edom, Moab, and Ammon, nations that bowed at idolatrous shrines with licentious and cruel rites greatly dishonoring to God, by which he mingled error with truth, betrayed sacred trusts, corrupted his religion, and countenanced and sustained idolatry. His erecting groves and idol shrines for his wives that outlived his reign, whose ruins were still seen in the days of Christ, called the Mount of Offense by the true-hearted in Israel and looked upon by Shiloh when He came, stands on record for all the religious world as a warning to those who know the word of the living God not to cherish the errors of the world, which Satan presents in attractive style to deceive and destroy simplicity of faith and mar the precious landmarks of truth. Cherishing false teachings and mingling idolatrous error with the worship of God obscures truth, weakens faith, and leads those who know God's word away from right principles, for truth must not be tampered with or mixed with error even when errors and false doctrines are presented attractively.
His misusing the talents God had given him and turning from God warns that prosperity can lead people to trust in money and position, become self-exalting, and let their faith and religious life decline. God blessed him while he remained separate from the world, and God's people are blessed while they remain a distinct and peculiar people. He greatly displeased God by forming idolatrous connections through marriage to foreign women and by going to other nations for workmen to build the temple, departing from the right way after God promised to bless him if he would follow right ways. Linking up with unbelievers and making God's institutions undenominational to gain favor instead of remaining forever a peculiar people and standing as representatives of His special message of truth in the last days repeats Solomon's departure from the Lord in order to gain something, and means failing to hold the beginning of confidence steadfast unto the end. They depart from Him when they bind themselves to follow the wisdom of worldly men to secure gifts and conform somewhat to their standard, for between God and mammon there can be no union; yet when they walk with God depending on Him in faith He opens the hearts of wealthy men who never professed religion to give of their means freely without restrictions or control, for all the gold and silver and the cattle upon a thousand hills are the Lord's.
His turning aside to work contrary to God's designs, forfeiting God's cooperation, warns leaders that the Lord blesses and puts His signature only upon work done in accordance with the light He gives by those who look steadfastly to Him as Teacher and Example and do the work He assigns. Leaders who act contrary to God's designs cannot expect God to cooperate with their work. Applied to those entrusted with moving the publishing work from Battle Creek to Washington, D.C., God would continue with them only as they did not turn aside as Solomon did. His sin as a man favored of God and entrusted with great responsibility, overcome by temptation into idolatry in worshiping foreign gods including Ashtoreth and Milcom, is preserved as part of the faithful, unvarnished record of the sins of great men, told as literal truth and not glossed over or suppressed, as justice and divine wisdom require. That record proves the authenticity of Scripture and is given for the benefit and warning of all who read it so later generations can avoid the evil he committed, showing that disobedience brings sure punishment and death and that God's retributive justice never fails. It is intended as lesson and encouragement, showing that those who strive and fall into error can through God's grace and pardoning mercy gain fresh vigor, rise above evil nature, recover ground, conquer, and be blessed.
His apostasy, in which pride, self-sufficiency, self-exaltation, and desire for political power and self-aggrandizement led him to form alliances with heathen nations, procure the silver of Tarshish and the gold of Ophir at the cost of integrity and betrayal of sacred trust, corrupt his faith by association with idolaters and his life by conformity to worldly customs, lose sight of God's law by looking to standards of right followed by heathen nations, break down the barriers God erected for the safety of His people by uniting in marriage with worshipers of false gods and at last giving himself up to their worship, mar and degrade a character once pure and elevated, weaken in moral power a mind once given to God and inspired to write the wisdom found in Proverbs through evil associations and constant indulgence, and dishonor himself, Israel, and God, portrays the result of separation from God where one false step prepares the way for a second and a third, each taken more easily than the last. That history gives warning to honor Christ by studying and obeying His teachings, to refuse conformity to the world's standard of right, to keep the standard given in Holy Writ, to beware departing from simplicity of faith, and to guard constantly against every worldly influence that weakens moral power.
In his old age Solomon allowed his heathen wives to turn his heart from perfect loyalty to God, so that he did evil by going after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. He bowed to and joined in their cruel and degrading worship, building altars, shrines and groves for their idols opposite Jerusalem and forsaking God's temple for them. His fall was gradual, prepared by forbidden political alliances and polygamous marriages, love of luxury and power, close conformity to idolaters, and turning from dependence on God to reliance on himself. From one of the greatest and wisest kings he became an oppressive despot and slave to passion, dishonoring himself, Israel and God, and losing God's blessing and cooperation. His history stands as a warning that neither wisdom, honor, sacred privilege nor prosperity can keep anyone faithful apart from continued trust in God, and that even a small departure from integrity is dangerous without constant watchfulness.
Names Time and Places
The verse describes Solomon when he was old, when his wives turned his heart after other gods so that his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God as the heart of David his father had been. He did not carry out the will of God but allowed his wives to lead him into idolatry, doing evil in the sight of the Lord by going after the gods of the Zidonians and the Ammonites. This apostasy was disloyalty that lost his connection with heaven, and God broke His covenant with him as chastisement.
The gods he went after were Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians or Sidonians and Milcom or Molech the abomination and idol of the Ammonites. They were the gods of the nations from which his wives came, and his worship of them was part of his turning away from wholehearted service to the Lord and his participation in heathen worship. His union with idolatrous women helped lead him into this apostasy, standing in a course of action God had forbidden after God had sent him testimony against it.
In his early life he was Jedidiah, Beloved of the Lord, specially honored by God with remarkable tokens of divine favor. For many years he walked uprightly in heavenly wisdom, ruling God's people with impartiality and mercy, gaining worldwide fame for wisdom and uprightness and often giving wise counsel to others. The same king displayed wisdom and kindly sympathy in restoring a helpless babe to its unfortunate mother, was inspired to write the wisdom found in Proverbs including that there is a way which seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death, and at the dedication of the temple charged the people, Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God. At first he heeded David's counsels and brought glory to the God of Israel, exalted to sacred trust.
He built altars, shrines, groves and places of worship for his wives' gods, including idols of wood and stone. His marriages and political alliances with heathen nations drew him into idolatry, and the influence of his heathen wives led him in his later years to forsake God's temple and prepare places for their idols in the groves he had prepared for them. He built opposite Jerusalem and near the temple, mingling pagan practices with his religious principles and betraying the sacred trust given to Israel instead of drawing his wives to truth. His departure from obedience through alliances and marriage with idolaters, contrary to the law, separated him from God and led him away from wisdom and righteousness.
The idol shrines he built opposite Jerusalem stood for generations as a public witness to his fall, even after he repented. Josiah later demolished the shrines and images, but ruins remained into the time of Christ. They were known in Israel as the Mount of Offense by the true-hearted, erected as groves and idol shrines for his wives that outlived his reign, and were seen by Christ, looked upon by Shiloh when He came. The ruined buildings and idols remained as evidence that though once honored by God and entrusted with the temple he had separated from God.
Road into Apostasy
Solomon sought political power and self-aggrandizement through alliances with heathen idolatrous nations, taking hundreds of women from Egypt, Phoenicia, Edom, Moab, Ammon and many other places, though polygamy and mingling in marriage with those nations stood directly opposed to the law of Jehovah. Those marriages and political alliances drew him into idolatry, as uniting in marriage with worshipers of false gods at last led him to give himself up to their worship and to build shrines, groves and places for his wives' worship, mingling pagan practices with religious principle and betraying the sacred trust given to Israel. Association with idolaters corrupted his faith, and one wrong step led to another until he dishonored himself, dishonored Israel, and dishonored God. Learning, high standing, and being beloved of God and entrusted with building the temple could not preserve him when he did not remain confident in God.
He regarded luxury, self-indulgence and the favor of the world as greatness, and pride, self-sufficiency, self-exaltation and desire for wealth and power led him to neglect his duties to God and to his kingdom. The silver of Tarshish and the gold of Ophir were procured at the cost of integrity and betrayal of sacred trust, while excessive wages with resulting luxury, oppression of the poor, grasping influences, covetousness, corruption and loss of self-sacrifice spread through the kingdom as principal causes of his terrible apostasy. Yielding to the temptations connected with his prosperity and honored position, he forgot God and the conditions of success and conformed more and more closely to the customs of the surrounding nations. His pursuit of wealth and power led him across the boundary God had set between Israel and other nations, and pagan influence corrupted his character.
Close association with idolaters and conformity to worldly customs and heathen standards of right corrupted his faith and corrupted his life, weakened love for God, confused true worship with false, broke down the barriers and protections God had erected for the safety of His people, and helped replace the worship God had instituted with idolatry. Intermarriage with idolaters, with children taught heathen rites, helped remove abhorrence of idolatry and led to national apostasy. Lustful passion, appetite and attachment to women became the snare that overcame the principles and wisdom God had given him, drawing him away from God the source of his strength, separating him from God, and leaving him wavering between right and wrong. His wives drew him into idolatry, blunted his conscience and clouded his clear understanding, so that though he had begun with God-given wisdom and power he surrendered principle and lost firmness of character, showing that even a king beloved by God and renowned among nations could fall through indulged passion. Even a small departure from integrity is dangerous, and no one is safe from temptation without strength from God.
He turned from dependence on God to reliance on himself, misused the talents God had given him, and perverted his God-given wisdom, showing that wisdom separated from God does not remain true wisdom. His remarkable wisdom, powers and abilities then made him a more effective agent of evil when he became vulnerable to temptation. His fall was gradual, with one false step preparing the way for a second and a third, each taken more easily than the last, until almost before he was aware he had wandered far from God and lost sight of the necessity of implicit obedience to the plain precepts of Holy Writ. His earlier sacrificing in a place not made sacred by the presence of the Lord but dedicated to the worship of idols mingled the sacred and the profane, removed from the minds of the people the repulsion they should have felt toward idolatrous practices, and educated him to suppose the Lord was not particular about the worship of His people, leading little by little to altars on which to sacrifice to the gods of his heathen wives.
He departed from God by going to other nations to secure facilities and workmen for building the temple when he could have built it with the facilities the Lord had provided, forming an idolatrous connection with the world that greatly displeased God and brought the sorrows that fall when God's people depart from Him. He was given wisdom, riches and honor on condition that he walk in the ways of the Lord and keep His statutes and judgments, and God desires to encircle His people with His protecting arm, bless them above all others and preserve them in all purity while they remain closely connected with Him. He stood in a course of action God had forbidden, going after Ashtoreth and Milcom in refusal of the testimonies God sent him against it.
Nature of the Fall
Solomon turned from the worship of Jehovah and from wholehearted service to bow before and follow the idols of other nations. When he was old his wives turned his heart after other gods, so that his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God as the heart of David his father had been, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord by going after Ashtoreth of the Zidonians and Milcom of the Ammonites. He did not carry out the will of God but allowed his wives to lead him into idolatry, yielding to the strong influence of wives whose religion was idol worship with cruel and degrading rites until they prevailed on him to unite with them in their worship. In forsaking God's temple and building places and shrines for his wives' worship he gave himself up to the worship of false gods.
He mingled pagan error with truth and pagan practices with his religious principles, betraying the sacred trust given to him and to Israel. Instead of drawing his pagan wives to truth he let pagan religion corrupt his own, building altars for Ashtoreth the Sidonian goddess and Milcom the Ammonite idol and mingling idolatry with Israel's faith. That close association with idolaters and intermarriage with heathen nations weakened love for God, confused true worship with false worship, and helped replace the worship God had instituted with idolatry. His history thus shows that cherishing false teachings and tampering with truth or mixing it with error obscures truth, weakens faith, and leads those who know God's word away from right principles.
He fell so low as to consent to the erection of an idol to whom children were offered as living sacrifices. The same king who had displayed wisdom and kindly sympathy in restoring a helpless babe to its unfortunate mother came to countenance the licentious, revolting rites connected with the worship of Chemosh and Ashtoreth. Though in youth endowed with discretion and understanding and inspired to write that there is a way which seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death, and though at the dedication of the temple he had charged the people to let the heart be perfect with the Lord, he himself became an offender, in heart and life denying his own words. He mistook license for liberty and tried to unite light with darkness, Christ with Belial, purity with impurity, and good with evil.
His turning from God was accompanied by loss of self-mastery and a change from a conscientious, just, magnanimous ruler into a proud, oppressive despot, with the justice and magnanimity of his early reign changed to despotism and tyranny. From being one of the greatest kings that ever wielded a scepter, renowned throughout the world for wisdom, he became a profligate, the tool and slave of others. His once noble and manly character became enervated and effeminate, his faith in the living God was shaken and supplanted by atheistic doubts and unbelief, his happiness was marred, his principles weakened, and his life degraded. He was troubled night and day by gloomy and soul-harassing thoughts, showing how little can be done for men who lose their sense of dependence upon God.
A character once pure and elevated became marred and degraded, and a mind once given to God and inspired to write the wisdom found in Proverbs became weak in moral power through evil associations and constant indulgence. His pursuit of political power and self-aggrandizement and his association with idolaters corrupted his faith and broke down the protections and barriers God had erected for the safety of His people. In this he dishonored himself, dishonored Israel, and dishonored God.
Consequences for Israel
Solomon's going after Ashtoreth and Milcom was disloyalty that broke his connection with heaven and was greatly displeasing to God, and in chastisement God broke His covenant with him. By turning aside to work contrary to God's designs he forfeited God's cooperation, blessing and signature upon his work, for blessing rests only on following the light given and looking steadfastly to God as Teacher and Example. Leaders who act contrary to God's designs as he did cannot expect God to cooperate with their work.
His apostasy set Israel a misleading example that God could not vindicate. His alliances and marriages with heathen nations, his close association with idolaters, and the teaching of children in heathen rites weakened love for God, confused true worship with false, and removed abhorrence of idolatry. In this way he helped replace the worship God had instituted with heathen practices, leading to national apostasy and eventual subjection to the nations whose ways the people had adopted. His fall began with unfaithfulness and the breaking down of God's protective boundaries, each wrong step making the next easier, and the king's example influenced the nation and had lasting effects on his son Rehoboam.
After he turned from dependence on God to reliance on himself he became vulnerable to temptation, and the remarkable wisdom, powers and abilities God had given him then made him a more effective agent of evil. Though he was beloved of God, had received remarkable manifestations of divine power, and had been entrusted with building God's temple, he forsook that temple to worship idols in the groves he had prepared. His example shows that learning, high standing, sacred privileges and knowledge cannot preserve a person who does not remain confident in God.
His history shows the sorrows that fall on God's people if they depart from Him. God ever desires to encircle His people with His protecting arm, to bless them above all other people, and to preserve them in all purity while they remain closely connected with Him. Solomon was favored of God and was given not only wisdom but riches and honor on condition that he would walk in the ways of the Lord, keeping His statutes and His judgments. He departed from God by going to other nations to secure facilities for building the temple when he could have built it with the facilities the Lord had provided, and that departure led him to go after Ashtoreth and Milcom.
Had he heeded the instruction given him, God would have worked through him to reveal His power and majesty to the world. His life instead shows how little God can do for men who lose their sense of dependence upon Him.
Warnings and Applications
Solomon's fall through indulged lustful passion for foreign women into worship of their gods warns that no one is safe from temptation without strength from God, and that even a king beloved by God and renowned among nations could be overcome, separated from God the source of strength, and left wavering between right and wrong. His surrender of principle and loss of firmness of character after beginning with God-given wisdom and power shows that even a small departure from integrity is dangerous, and teaches the need for watchfulness to remain faithful to the end. His going after Ashtoreth and Milcom was the fruit of polygamous political alliances with Phoenicia, Egypt, Edom, Moab, and Ammon, nations that bowed at idolatrous shrines with licentious and cruel rites greatly dishonoring to God, by which he mingled error with truth, betrayed sacred trusts, corrupted his religion, and countenanced and sustained idolatry. His erecting groves and idol shrines for his wives that outlived his reign, whose ruins were still seen in the days of Christ, called the Mount of Offense by the true-hearted in Israel and looked upon by Shiloh when He came, stands on record for all the religious world as a warning to those who know the word of the living God not to cherish the errors of the world, which Satan presents in attractive style to deceive and destroy simplicity of faith and mar the precious landmarks of truth. Cherishing false teachings and mingling idolatrous error with the worship of God obscures truth, weakens faith, and leads those who know God's word away from right principles, for truth must not be tampered with or mixed with error even when errors and false doctrines are presented attractively.
His misusing the talents God had given him and turning from God warns that prosperity can lead people to trust in money and position, become self-exalting, and let their faith and religious life decline. God blessed him while he remained separate from the world, and God's people are blessed while they remain a distinct and peculiar people. He greatly displeased God by forming idolatrous connections through marriage to foreign women and by going to other nations for workmen to build the temple, departing from the right way after God promised to bless him if he would follow right ways. Linking up with unbelievers and making God's institutions undenominational to gain favor instead of remaining forever a peculiar people and standing as representatives of His special message of truth in the last days repeats Solomon's departure from the Lord in order to gain something, and means failing to hold the beginning of confidence steadfast unto the end. They depart from Him when they bind themselves to follow the wisdom of worldly men to secure gifts and conform somewhat to their standard, for between God and mammon there can be no union; yet when they walk with God depending on Him in faith He opens the hearts of wealthy men who never professed religion to give of their means freely without restrictions or control, for all the gold and silver and the cattle upon a thousand hills are the Lord's.
His turning aside to work contrary to God's designs, forfeiting God's cooperation, warns leaders that the Lord blesses and puts His signature only upon work done in accordance with the light He gives by those who look steadfastly to Him as Teacher and Example and do the work He assigns. Leaders who act contrary to God's designs cannot expect God to cooperate with their work. Applied to those entrusted with moving the publishing work from Battle Creek to Washington, D.C., God would continue with them only as they did not turn aside as Solomon did. His sin as a man favored of God and entrusted with great responsibility, overcome by temptation into idolatry in worshiping foreign gods including Ashtoreth and Milcom, is preserved as part of the faithful, unvarnished record of the sins of great men, told as literal truth and not glossed over or suppressed, as justice and divine wisdom require. That record proves the authenticity of Scripture and is given for the benefit and warning of all who read it so later generations can avoid the evil he committed, showing that disobedience brings sure punishment and death and that God's retributive justice never fails. It is intended as lesson and encouragement, showing that those who strive and fall into error can through God's grace and pardoning mercy gain fresh vigor, rise above evil nature, recover ground, conquer, and be blessed.
His apostasy, in which pride, self-sufficiency, self-exaltation, and desire for political power and self-aggrandizement led him to form alliances with heathen nations, procure the silver of Tarshish and the gold of Ophir at the cost of integrity and betrayal of sacred trust, corrupt his faith by association with idolaters and his life by conformity to worldly customs, lose sight of God's law by looking to standards of right followed by heathen nations, break down the barriers God erected for the safety of His people by uniting in marriage with worshipers of false gods and at last giving himself up to their worship, mar and degrade a character once pure and elevated, weaken in moral power a mind once given to God and inspired to write the wisdom found in Proverbs through evil associations and constant indulgence, and dishonor himself, Israel, and God, portrays the result of separation from God where one false step prepares the way for a second and a third, each taken more easily than the last. That history gives warning to honor Christ by studying and obeying His teachings, to refuse conformity to the world's standard of right, to keep the standard given in Holy Writ, to beware departing from simplicity of faith, and to guard constantly against every worldly influence that weakens moral power.