Chapter 3—Pride of Prosperity
While Solomon exalted the law of heaven, God was with him, and
wisdom was given him to rule over Israel with impartiality and mercy.
At first, as wealth and worldly honor came to him, he remained humble,
and great was the extent of his influence. “Solomon reigned over all
kingdoms from the river [Euphrates] unto the land of the Philistines,
and unto the border of Egypt.” “He ... had peace on all sides round
about him. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his
vine and under his fig tree, ... all the days of Solomon.”
1 Kings 4:21,
24, 25
.
But after a morning of great promise his life was darkened by
apostasy. History records the melancholy fact that he who had been
called Jedidiah,—“Beloved of the Lord” (
2 Samuel 12:25
, margin),—
he who had been honored by God with tokens of divine favor so
remarkable that his wisdom and uprightness gained for him world-
wide fame, he who had led others to ascribe honor to the God of Israel,
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turned from the worship of Jehovah to bow before the idols of the
heathen.
Hundreds of years before Solomon came to the throne, the Lord,
foreseeing the perils that would beset those who might be chosen as
rulers of Israel, gave Moses instruction for their guidance. Directions
were given that he who should sit on the throne of Israel should “write
him a copy” of the statutes of Jehovah “in a book out of that which is
before the priests the Levites.” “It shall be with him,” the Lord said,
“and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn
to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these
statutes, to do them: that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren,
and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand,
or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom,
he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.”
Deuteronomy 17:18-20
.
In connection with this instruction the Lord particularly cautioned
the one who might be anointed king not to “multiply wives to himself,
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