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Prosperity and Pride Bring Disaster
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prosperity. Money that should have been held in sacred trust for the
worthy poor and to extend the principles of holy living throughout
the world was selfishly absorbed in ambitious projects.
To glorify himself before the world, Solomon sold his honor
and integrity. He imposed heavy taxes to supplement the enormous
income acquired through trade. Pride, ambition, and indulgence
bore fruit in cruelty and unjust demands. From the wisest and
most merciful of rulers, he degenerated into a tyrant. The God-
fearing guardian of the people became oppressive and despotic. He
levied tax after tax to support the luxurious court. The respect and
admiration that the people had cherished for their king changed into
hatred and disgust.
Attractive Women Prove a Snare
More and more the king came to regard luxury, pleasing himself,
and the favor of the world as marks of greatness. He brought hun-
dreds of beautiful women from Egypt, Phoenicia, Edom, Moab, and
other places. Their religion was idol worship, and they had learned
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its cruel and degrading rites. Swept away with their beauty, the king
neglected his duties.
His wives gradually got him to unite with them in their worship
of false gods. “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.”
1 Kings 11:4, 5
.
Opposite Mount Moriah, Solomon erected impressive buildings
as shrines for idol worship. To please his wives, he placed huge idols
in the groves. There before the altars of heathen deities, worshipers
practiced the most degrading rites of heathenism. See
verse 7
.
Solomon’s separation from God was his ruin. He lost the mastery
of himself. His moral compass was gone. His fine sensibilities
became blunted, his conscience seared. In his early reign he had
displayed so much wisdom and sympathy in restoring a helpless
baby to its unfortunate mother see
1 Kings 3:16-28
. Later he fell so
low as to set up an idol to whom people offered living children as
sacrifices! In his later years he departed so far from purity that he no