What Happened To Solomon?

Greetings in the name of Jesus! This is Rob Haymes. This is 15 Minutes With Jesus.

Today’s program is called, What Happened To Solomon? Why did King Solomon, with all his wisdom that God had given him, why did he turn away from God to disobey Him and marry many strange women who ended up turning away his heart to worship their idols. I’ve been thinking about this question for several days, and the other day my wife Darlene spoke to me the answer by the Word of the Lord. She said, Do you know what happened to Solomon? He stopped fearing the Lord. That is truly the answer; that is what happened to him. Let’s turn to 1 Kings 3:1-15, Now Solomon made a treaty with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and married Pharaoh's daughter; then he brought her to the City of David until he had finished building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall all around Jerusalem. Meanwhile the people sacrificed at the high places, because there was no house built for the name of the Lord until those days. And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places. Now the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place: Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, Ask! What shall I give you? And Solomon said: You have shown great mercy to Your servant David my father, because he walked before You in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You; You have continued this great kindness for him, and You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours? The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. Then God said to him: Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. And I have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. So if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days. Then Solomon awoke; and indeed it had been a dream. And he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, offered up burnt offerings, offered peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants. It says in verse 3 that Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father. 

Solomon finished all the work of building the Temple, and they brought in the Ark of the Covenant into the Temple with much celebration, sacrificing many sheep and oxen. 1 Kings 8:10&11,  And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. Verses 22-26, Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven; and he said: Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts. You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father; You have both spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day. Therefore, Lord God of Israel, now keep what You promised Your servant David my father, saying, You shall not fail to have a man sit before Me on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their way, that they walk before Me as you have walked before Me. And now I pray, O God of Israel, let Your word come true, which You have spoken to Your servant David my father. Verses 54-61, And so it was, when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the Lord, that he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. Then he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying: Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us nor forsake us, that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, which He commanded our fathers. And may these words of mine, with which I have made supplication before the Lord, be near the Lord our God day and night, that He may maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, as each day may require, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other. Let your heart therefore be loyal to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments, as at this day. So, after that, King Solomon and all the people of Israel offered many sacrifices and peace offerings, and they had a huge feast that lasted for 2 weeks.

Let’s turn to 1 Kings 9:1-9, And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he wanted to do, that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. And the Lord said to him: I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built to put My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel. But if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss, and say, Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house? Then they will answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore the Lord has brought all this calamity on them. The Lord appeared to Solomon the second time and He told him that He had heard his prayers, but He also solemnly warned him of what He would do if Solomon and his people would forsake the Lord to worship other gods.

1 Kings 11:1–13, But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites— from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. So the Lord became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the Lord had commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However I will not tear away the whole kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen. In verse 3 it says that Solomon’s wives turned away his heart. The Lord warned him about this and it was written in the Law of Moses. Solomon forsook his own wisdom which the Lord had given him and which he wrote in the Book of Proverbs. We don’t have time to read through Proverbs, but in chapter 4, verses 20-23, Solomon wrote, My son, give attention to my Words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the midst of your heart; 

For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Solomon did not heed his own words, and he let go the fear of the Lord. Then he let his heart go after those women, and they turned his heart after their idols. In 1 Chron 28:6, the Lord spoke to King David and said of Solomon, For I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his Father. Moreover I will establish his Kingdom forever if he will be constant; notice, “IF”, if he will be constant to do my commandments and my judgments, as at this day. And in verse 9, David spoke to Solomon, As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever. 

In 2 Tim 3:1-4 the Apostle Paul wrote, But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! This is what happened to Solomon: he loved the pleasures that he had with all those strange women more than he loved God, and he stopped fearing the Lord God, to keep His good way, and went after his pleasure in them, and ended up in idolatry and sin, as they turned away his heart from the Lord to worship their idols. Don’t think that this cannot happen to you. You may be a devoted servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, but God knows what is in your heart. The Apostle Paul said, I die daily. What does that mean? He said, I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Jesus said we must deny ourselves every day, and take up our cross: the place where we are crucified with Him, and follow Him. We must put to death the lusts of our flesh through the Spirit, building ourselves up on our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit; praying in tongues, and in our native language; keeping ourselves in the love of God; loving Him who gave Himself for us on that Cross, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed, and purify us to be His own special people, zealous for good works: the works that He leads us to do by His Holy Spirit, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen!