Solomon's Drifting Heart
He was the wisest man who ever lived. And his heart turned away.
He had started so well.
When God appeared to him in a dream and said ask for whatever you want, he asked for wisdom.
God said: Because you asked for wisdom and not long life or riches or the death of your enemies, I give you what you asked.
His wisdom was legendary.
Queens traveled from distant nations to test it.
They left overwhelmed.
He built the temple his father David had dreamed of.
He prayed the dedication prayer.
God appeared to him again and said he had heard his prayer.
He warned him: Walk before me as David your father walked. Do not go after other gods.
That was the condition.
Solomon had seven hundred wives who were princesses.
Three hundred concubines.
And his wives turned his heart.
When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart after other gods.
His heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God.
He went after Ashtoreth. After Milcom.
He built high places for Chemosh on the mountain east of Jerusalem.
He did the same for all his foreign wives who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.
God appeared to him for the third time.
He said: Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes, I will surely tear the kingdom from you.
For the sake of David your father, not in your days.
But in the days of your son.
The wisdom that had drawn the world to his door.
The mind that could judge disputes and speak proverbs and understand nature.
It did not protect him from a slow accumulation of compromise.
One wife. Then another. Then seven hundred.
One altar. Then another.
Each individually perhaps manageable.
Together, they turned a heart.
Not all at once.
Over a lifetime.
Scripture — 1 Kings 11:4
"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."
Reflection
The drift happened in old age. After decades of wisdom. The fall was not in the beginning — it was at the end.
He had been warned twice directly by God. The warning didn't prevent the drift. It made the drift more deliberate.
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