Soloman

(1 Kings 4:29-34 ESV)

 [29 ] And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, [30 ] so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. [31 ] For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. [32 ] He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. [33 ] He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. [34 ] And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.


After reading 1 Kings 4, I am amazed by the wisdom and depth to Solomon....wow that God would give to him wisdom and understanding beyond measure...That people from all nations came to hear the wisdom he spoke...could you imagine having such wisdom...but yet just 6 chapters later we read this:


(1 Kings 11:1-8 ESV)
[11 :1] Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, [2 ] from 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. [3 ] He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. [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. [5 ] For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. [6 ] So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done. [7 ] Then 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. [8 ] And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.

It sadden me to see how Solomon turned from the Lord.  Here is this man who God gave great wisdom to yet he didn't always follow it for himself... So applicable in my own life and the lives of others.  We seek after Lord and His wisdom only to reject it when it doesn't fit into what we want for our lives.  It is a trust & heart issue that we must work out with the Lord.  Oh, that our hearts would turn from being adulterous...and turn to the Lord.  That we would repent of seeking out are own way and turn to seeking Him and Him alone...trusting Him fully....