O my soul,

Can you solve the enigma of Solomon?

And what is that, I hear you ask? Simply this. How did a man whose wisdom surpassed that of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt, who was wiser than all other men, how did this man so completely and comprehensively lose his way?

It’s a sobering question for anyone who perhaps sees themselves as growing in wisdom or desiring to do so, but it is a vital question nonetheless.

Solomon famously asked for this wisdom.

At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”

It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.”

― 1 Kings 3:5-12

And so he did.

But that wasn’t all. The Lord blessed him materially and super-abundantly, although perhaps this part wasn’t quite the blessing that some might have thought it to be.

“I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honour, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”

― 1 Kings 3:13-14

Note well the vital condition that was attached to this blessing, because this is our first insight into the enigma.

Actually there was a clue that all was not well even at the beginning of his reign.

Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places.

― 1 Kings 3:3

These high places were the downfall of other right and true kings. And as we have considered previously they were the worldliness of the day.

So even at the outset and before receiving the material blessing, Solomon was compromised.

But his wisdom continued to grow.

And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. 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. He also spoke 3000 proverbs, and his songs were 1005. 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. 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.

― 1 Kings 4:29-34

So how did it all go so horribly wrong? For tragically it did.

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. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 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. 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. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.

― 1 Kings 11:4-8

We are told at the head of this very paragraph what had happened here.

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 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. He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.

― 1 Kings 11:1-3

What a euphemism! Solomon loved many foreign women. He lusted after them, he acquired them, and he satiated his lust with them, endlessly. And his wives turned away his heart after their gods. 700 wives and 300 concubines. What a depraved and licentious wretch he was! And what a betrayal not only of God’s commandment but also his creational ordinance in the singular.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

― Genesis 2:24

But this is surely the culmination rather than the turning point. We already saw that he started out sacrificing and making offerings at the high places to the pagan gods. How did this so deteriorate? How did the rot set in? And what led him along the path that ended at this point of total depravity?

It was surely his pride that made him think he could go exploring boundaries, and in sheer foolishness he thought it wouldn’t affect him. Pride and foolishness.

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

― Ecclesiastes 1:1-4

Vanity means vapour. Ephemeral and so meaningless.

And so he embarked on a mission to find meaning in what he perceived as the pointlessness of existence. But where was God in all this? He hadn’t even paused to consider.

Completely dissatisfied with his gift of wisdom from the Lord which he now despised, he made a terrible mistake.

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.”

I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine⸺my heart still guiding me with wisdom⸺and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

― Ecclesiastes 2:1a, 3

My heart still guiding me with wisdom?! No it was not!

I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man. So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil.

― Ecclesiastes 2:8-10

In his prideful and hedonistic pursuit he thought he had retained his wisdom. He had not. He had corrupted and debased himself.

For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them.

― Proverbs 1:32

He was not simple but he was complacent. And indeed it did destroy him. How ironic to be the illustration for his own proverb.

Every prudent man acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly.

― Proverbs 13:16

Had he not done precisely that?

The discerning sets his face toward wisdom, but the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.

― Proverbs 17:24

The ends of the earth are where we find pride. Didn’t he think he was really something? And the tragedy of it all is that he could have been.

Through the book of Ecclesiastes we see him doubling down on this, persisting in this folly which would destroy him.

Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

― Proverbs 26:11-12

What had he missed along the way?

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

― Micah 6:8

It was pride that had caused him to lose his way.

Now, you certainly don’t have the wisdom of Solomon, but do you have his pride?

O my soul, be most vigilant against pride infiltrating into your own life, and be sure to walk humbly with your God! 🙏