The Rise and Fall of King Solomon

Alright, everyone. It's been a long time since I last posted a blog, and this time, I've found a good topic to discuss. Hopefully this will enlighten us in understanding biblical occurrences and help us realize the things we should avoid so God would not show His indignation to us (I say indignation since biblically it was used as anger or wrath, while it seems like negative to biblical teachings).

In this topic, we will answer a few questions about Solomon and his unrighteous conduct that led to his downfall or failure to follow God and his Standards. The questions are as follows -

• How did King Solomon fail his Wisdom to maintain his Kingdom?
• What were the reasons of his fall?
• Why would he fail God rather than his wives?

One of the known figure in the Bible was King Solomon, who was regarded as wise and riches king. Though, as his reign was prosperous and peaceful at first, his life also serves as a warning on the dangers of disobedience and the influence of immoral choices. To sum up the lessons we learn from his reigns, here are some of the details that we could observe how he fail his kingdom, lets go and dive in -

The Rise of Solomon

As we all know, God had chosen Solomon (the son of King David and Bathsheba) to build the temple in Jerusalem. Yep, that Solomon who build it with so much detail (see 1 Kings 6) and how it was completely dedicated as a house to the Lord at about 10 century BCE. Solomon started his noble reign with the sincere desire of leading the people to morally upright manner or should we say righteousness. We do know Solomon famously asked the Lord for wisdom to judge the people of Israel and God appeared to him in a vision where the Lord granted his request since it is in fact necessary to guide or lead the people closer to God and their covenant. So yeah, you know the Story. In addition to wealth and glory, God gave him unrivaled wisdom for his judgement or discernment (1 Kings 3:5-14). This is were King Solomon appears to be a King with such knowledge and wisdom were very much helpful in keeping the covenanted people of the Lord to the right path. And of course, since he was the son of King David, people do honor and respected him and that he could keep peace and power he needed in his days.

The Impact of Foreign Wives
Even with all his wisdom, Solomon's heart was ultimately swayed. One of the major factors to his downfall was his marriages to foreign women. God did not forbid him to marry women whom he loves or adore, but God warn him and even the Israelites to avoid intermarriage to a nation who worship different being or deity, which God, as the scriptures said who's a jealous God. The Bible also informs us that Solomon had 700 wives with 300 concubines, some of whom were from countries the Lord had warned the people of Israel against intermarrying as I had stated and yet King Solomon fail to follow (1 Kings 11:1-3).

These marriages were not only individual decisions but also political in nature. But they also carried with them spiritual implications. Solomon's wives distracted his heart after other gods, and he set about constructing high places for their idols at direct disobedience to God's commands (1 Kings 11:4-8).

The Consequences of Disobedience

While King Solomon's disobedience had leads him to face consequences. The Lord was angry with him since his heart had turned away from Him. As a consequence, God stated that his kingdom would be removed from Solomon's line, but not in his lifetime, out of respect to David, his father (1 Kings 11:9-13). His marriage to some outside covenanted women where in fact forbidden but the worse part was his involvement in allowing his wives worship a different God were he allows them to make a place to worship their false God (1 Kings 11:7-8). he even follow some, unlike his father David (1 Kings 11:5-6).

So the consequence did follow, The kingdom were splits took place soon after Solomon's death, and the result? The northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah were divided. This division caused the weakening of the country that resulted in more idolatry and ultimate captivity, where we could do some blog article about this maybe next time.

Lessons we could relate these days.

King Solomon's narrative is a perfect reminder of the importance of heeding God's words commandments. Below were some lessons that we can learn from his experience:

• Guard Your Heart: Solomon's heart was led astray by the influences that he allows in his life. We also should need to be careful about the worldly influences we allows or permit in our lives and make sure that they are keeping with the values and beliefs as a followers of Christ.
• The Importance of Obedience: Yes, even the wisest among us may also fall if we choose to disobey God's commandments. Obedience as the Law in heaven, also yields blessings and protection, while on the other hands, disobedience can yield spiritual and temporal loss or devastation that we may came up to realize soon after the consequences are given.
• The Power of Covenant: Our covenant have the power to deeply affect our spiritual growth or health. It's important that we surround ourselves with others who encourage and support us in keeping the covenant and the Lord first.
• Repentance and Transformation: Solomon's life ended in a split or division of Kingdom, but ours can be different. If we don't apply the Process of Repentance, the total split, division and even separation might be our eternal salvation, which we couldn't allow it to happen in our lives if possible as we can. By repenting and returning to God, we can receive forgiveness and a way towards renewal of our souls.

In summary, life is a lesson about disobedience's risks and the need to remain faithful to our covenants with God. Learning from Solomon's failure and the division of kingdoms, we can try to live pleasing lives to the Lord and filled with blessings. We should use our wisdom to choose wisely, if it's for good or just simply divides our spiritual growth.

Thank you for your time, and have a nice day.

Jerry N. Bustillo

Some links in this Blog you might also like -

• Jacob 2: Wives or One Wife? - A response to Rand Waddingham