1 Kings 11-14
How Did That Happen?

The life of Solomon closes in a sad way. "Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods" (1 Kings 11:1-8).

When one considers his earlier devotion, this change is most unexpected. This man who had asked for wisdom to lead Israel, built the temple and governed in such a remarkable way that a queen from Africa traveled thousands of miles to see him, closed his rule with a wimper—a pale shadow of what he had once been spiritually. How did that happen?

We can all name Christians who once seemed so strong but for whatever reason (or reasons), drift away from the LORD. What do we ask ourselves and others? How did that happen? The answer is they allowed other things to move between them and the Lord. We often think of idolatry as the worshipping of a religious thing, but the truth is idolatry is the pursuing of anything that takes us away from God. For Solomon, it was the pursuit of women. Many Christians have left the LORD because of a poor choice in a spouse. Compromises are made here and there—small at first—but over time, those small ones begin to add up, creating one big compromise. Children, also, weaken some. Parents succumb to the temptation to be a friend to their child rather than a parent, and as their child moves away from the LORD, so do they, protecting their children from criticism at all cost. Work also takes many away from the LORD, and the need for employment turns to the want of advancement, money and power.

The point is most of us would not claim the spirituality of Solomon in his younger years, so we must not think ourselves above the foolishness in his later years. It is easy to read of Solomon or see a fellow Christian who falls and say, "What a shame. I never expected that. But, that will never happen to me." Any of us, if we allow anything to come between the LORD and us, can fall by the wayside, regardless of how strong we think ourselves to be at the moment. Remember the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:12, "Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall."