Solomon’s spiritual shipwreck

Solomon started great, loving God and seeking His help to rule righteously:

1 Kings 3:3–10 (ESV)

3Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places.

4And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

5At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.”

6And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day.

7And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in.

8And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude.

9Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”

10It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this.

Later, transferring his love to many women, Solomon’s heart was drawn away from God, so much so that he turned to idolatry:

1 Kings 11:1–13 (ESV)

1Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,

2from 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.

3He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.

4For 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.

5For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

6So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done.

7Then 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.

8And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.

9And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice

10and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the LORD commanded.

11Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant.

12Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

13However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.”