1 Kings 11:4 – 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.
Song of Songs is some of the “greatest hits” of Solomon and Abbi’s love poetry towards one another in a healthy, real marital relationship. If this were a Disney movie, it would end “And they lived happily ever after” but that isn’t reality.
1 Kings 11 talks about Solomon’s wives, concubines, and that he turned away from the Lord saying in verse 4, “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.”
How do we get from Song of Songs to 1 Kings 11 even though the Bible touts Solomon’s wisdom? In fact, 1 Kings 4:30 says “Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all of the wisdom of Egypt”. Though he was birthed out of sexual sin, adultery, and murder, he seemed to have everything going for him – the wisest man after Jesus, the money of Bill Gates, smarter than Einstein, the power of a US president, the spiritual influence of the Pope, and, unfortunately, the harem of Hugh Hefner.
There are seven things we can pull from the story of Solomon that brought him from one of the Bible’s seemingly greatest love stories to writing about the meaningless nature of life in Ecclesiastes 1.
- Polygamy is misery. We saw a lot of this in our study in the book of Genesis last year, including Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar (Gen. 16:2) and Cain’s son Lamech (Gen. 4:19) and now here with Solomon, and none of it ends up in happy, healthy relationship.
- You can murder your marriage. You can pour health and life into your marriage just like you can your physical body, or you can bring death upon it through your words and actions.
- Adultery of the heart counts as much as adultery of the hands (Matthew 5:28). Most, if not all, physical adultery starts as emotional adultery. If you don’t stay emotionally close to your spouse, it’s easy to wander emotionally and, soon enough, physically.
- The longer you wait to repent, the more damage is done. In Matthew 5:23-24, Jesus tells us to leave the altar mid-offering if your brother has something against you so you can immediately be reconciled. Ephesians 4:26 says not to “let the sun go down on your anger”.
- Blessing and cursing continue for generations. Generational curses within families can certainly be broken, but it’s oftentimes easier and more prevalent for children to follow in their family’s footsteps, for good or evil. Tragically, although his father David was guilty of adultery and polygamy, Solomon brought the same pains and problems into his own family.
- If you walk away from God, you are capable of the worst evils, even the murder of children. In the Old Testament, Molech, Baal, and Ashtoreth were all gods and goddesses related to sex and/or child sacrifice as worship. Solomon went from building the Temple in which God was present to also building shrines for demonic false gods and bringing widespread adultery and apostasy to the nation he ruled.
- Old demons now just have new names. Now, they’re called Pride, Tolerance, Open Marriage, Porn, Spectrum, Planned Parenthood, Friends with Benefits, Tinder, and so on.
Solomon’s story shows us that we must be intentional in our relationship with our God and our spouse to remain in a healthy, happy, holy marriage from the first day until the very last day.
How have you let negative or demonic influence into your marriage or home? How can you forgive, turn your heart back towards your spouse, or not allow the Enemy to enter your home or marriage in the future?