We
have already dwelt at some length on the sad failure of David that resulted in
Bathsheba becoming his wife. We saw that the eldest child of Bathsheba died as
an infant. Solomon was this babe’s younger brother. His name means “Peaceable”,
“and the Lord loved him.” (II Samuel 12:24-25.) And because the Lord loved him,
he had a second name, Jedidiah meaning “beloved of the Lord.”
You
know the story too well for me to have any need to tell you. You know how
bright the prospects were in the beginning. You remember how he asked for
wisdom when God gave him the amazing offer to choose what he would have. Our
Lord Himself could speak of “Solomon and all his glory.” Perhaps there has
never been anyone with so bright an outlook in his early years as Solomon.
And
yet, from the early years of his reign there was that which indicated that all
was not right. It was in the very beginning of his reign that Solomon made
affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought
her into the city of David. (1 Kings 3:1). Solomon had no business taking a
wide from Egypt. She was almost surely an idolatress, and it was not so long
before Solomon realized that this woman was not fit for the “holy hill of
Zion”, and so we read: “And Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of
the city of David unto the house that he had built for her; for he said, My
wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places
are holy, where unto the ark of the Lord hath come.” Solomon must have known
that a woman who was not fit to dwell in the city of David, was no fit woman to
be his wife. In the days of Ezra, the Jews were compelled to put away the
heathen wives they had taken. We see the grace of God shown forth in this day
of grace in 1 Corinthians 7:14, where we find that the believing wife
sanctifies the unbelieving husband; and the believing husband sanctifies the
unbelieving wife. And so our children are holy, even though only one parent be
a believer. But we need to remember that this gives us no warrant for marrying
an unbeliever. “Only in the Lord” is the clear word of God. (1 Corinthians
7:39.)
As
we are speaking of marriage, may I draw your attention to a matter that we
passed over in the early pages of these meditations. I have been struck lately
with the earnest care that Abraham gave to his son’s marriage. How determined
he was the Isaac should not marry any woman from the nations around! Nor was
Isaac to turn back to those lands from whence his father had come. How lightly
Isaac’s sons forgot their grandfather’s earnestness in these matters, and it
was apparently no concern to Isaac that Esau took wives from the nations about,
and that Jacob should return to the land which his father had forbidden him.
This was perhaps a growth in liberty, but not a growth in grace or holiness.
Your
little ones may be too young at present for you to be thinking of marriage, but
you will be amazed how quickly the years fly by, those precious years when you
have you children with you; and before you realize it, this question, one of
the most important of their lives, will be upon you. May God help you, and give
you wisdom and faithfulness to Him in this most difficult matter.
But
we must return to Solomon. It would seem that he did not apply the wisdom that
God had given him, to his own walk. And how often are we better able to tell
someone else how to walk aright, than to follow the right path for ourselves.
Solomon could write: “Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call
understanding thy kinswoman; that they may keep thee from the strange woman.”
(Proverbs 7:4-5.) “But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the
daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and
Hittites; of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of
Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you; for
surely they will turn away your heart after their gods; Solomon clave unto
these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred
concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass, when
Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his
heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his
father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and
after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the
sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father,
then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in
the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the
children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt
incense and sacrificed unto their gods.” (1 Kings 11:1-8).
The
brightness of the early prospect only makes the tragedy of the awful fall seem
darker. We noticed, when considering David’s history that God had specially
commanded the king whom He should choose, not to multiply wives. (Deuteronomy
17:15,17). We saw that the terrible trials and anguish through which David
walked, was caused by failing to obey this clear command. Solomon had this most
solemn lesson before him, as well as this same command of God, but he
deliberately defied God’s command, and walked in open disobedience.
This disobedience cost his son Rehoboam ten, out of the twelve, tribes of Israel. And from that day to this, the bitter fruits of Solomon’s disobedience are still in evidence, as we hear men guess as to where those ten tribes are at the present day. None but God Himself can answer this question, but in spite of Solomon’s sin, and all man’s failure, we know the day is coming when God Himself will find those ten tribes, and bring them back once more to the land they have so long lost. See, for example, Ezekiel 37:15-28 and Jeremiah 16:16. And so, even amidst the sorrows of Solomon’s failure, we find the Grace of God overleaping the sin of man, and bringing in restoration at last. But what a long night of darkness have those ten tribes experienced; and we may do well to remember that it was all brought about through the disobedience of the wisest of men, a man who had, perhaps, the highest hopes of any man who ever lived, as in regards to the things of this earth.