“But king Solomon loved many strange women.” Seven hundred wives, three hundred concubines, from every nation God had told Israel not to marry into — “for surely they will turn away your heart.” And they do. In his old age Solomon builds high places for Chemosh and Molech on the hill facing his own temple. God, angry, tells him the kingdom will be torn from his son and handed to a servant. His heart was not perfect with the LORD his God.
A study in 1 Kings 11 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 9 min read
His Wives Turned Away His Heart
“But king Solomon loved many strange women… Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.”
1 Kings 11:1-4
The fall was not a sudden lapse. Each marriage was a treaty, each treaty “seemed to prove a blessing,” and Solomon flattered himself that his wisdom and example would lead his wives from idolatry to the true God. It did not. The influence ran the other way, exactly as God had said it would.
“So gradual was Solomon’s apostasy that before he was aware of it, he had wandered far from God. Almost imperceptibly he began to trust less and less in divine guidance and blessing, and to put confidence in his own strength. Little by little he withheld from God that unswerving obedience which was to make Israel a peculiar people.”
Ellen G. White · Prophets and Kings, p. 55
Solomon Did Evil In The Sight Of The LORD
“And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father.”
1 Kings 11:6
The man who judged between the two mothers now consents to shrines where children are burned to Molech (11:7), on the Mount of Olives, in full view of the temple he built. Wisdom without obedience does not protect a person; it just makes the ruin more articulate.
“Solomon’s course brought its sure penalty. His separation from God through communication with idolaters was his ruin. As he cast off his allegiance to God, he lost the mastery of himself. His moral efficiency was gone. His fine sensibilities became blunted, his conscience seared.”
Ellen G. White · Prophets and Kings, p. 57
I Will Surely Rend The Kingdom From Thee
“And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice, And had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which the LORD commanded. Wherefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant.”
1 Kings 11:9-11
Notice what deepens the offence: “the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice.” Solomon did not fall in ignorance. God gives the sentence but softens it for David’s sake — one tribe kept for Solomon’s son, the tearing delayed until after Solomon’s death. Grace to the line of David is still running, even inside the judgment.
Fear God, And Keep His Commandments
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
Solomon reigns forty years and is buried beside David; his son Rehoboam inherits a kingdom already cracked. But the book of Ecclesiastes, read as Solomon’s own late reckoning, ends with a man who found his way back. Ellen White holds that his repentance was real: chastened by the sentence of judgment, he “turned wearied and thirsting from earth’s broken cisterns” to God again. The wisest words he ever wrote are the last: fear God and keep his commandments. He had it, and lost it, and at the end laid hold of it once more.
“Awakened as from a dream by this sentence of judgment pronounced against him and his house, Solomon with quickened conscience began to see his folly in its true light… he turned wearied and thirsting from earth’s broken cisterns, to drink once more at the fountain of life.”
Ellen G. White · Prophets and Kings, p. 77
