Articles
Solomon's Choices - 1 Kings 3
Solomon's Choices - 1 Kings 3
When Solomon is offered anything he could ask for, he asks for wisdom to be able to judge God's people. Such a heart for God and His people is impressive. Yet, the chapter begins with him marrying a foreign wife, the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh. This would be the first of many such 'marriages' and would end up being his downfall as they "turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been" (1Kings 11:4).
I am in awe of the fact that God could give Solomon such great wisdom. HOW God does this is simply beyond my comprehension. I am also in awe that God did not take away Solomon's freedom and responsibility of choice and will.
Even with God given wisdom, Solomon's downfall was in NOT paying attention to God's word. God had given specific instructions for the king.
“Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ “He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself" (Deuteronomy 17:16–17).
Solomon will, in spite of his great wisdom, foolishly break each of these commandments. He not only will multiply wives, they will be foreign wives which will eventually turn his heart away from God. Again, God had specifically spoken concerning such marriages:
“Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. “For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you" (Deuteronomy 7:3–4).
Furthermore, God had given specific instruction for the king, instruction that would have kept Solomon from such errors in judgment:
“Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. “It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel" (Deuteronomy 17:18–20).
I don't have the wisdom of Solomon (a sorry fact that I have demonstrated many times over). If Solomon could error be ignoring God's word, how much more danger am I in? If a man with God-given wisdom needed to continually immerse himself God's word, how can I do anything less? While you may decide not to write out your own copy every year, yet we all should read it "all the days of our lives". In doing this you will in the end be wiser than Solomon.
Paul told Timothy that the sacred scriptures "are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2Tim. 3:15). How wise are you? Are you daily reading God's word and carefully observing it? Hugh DeLong
