Reading… and Thinking

The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents, not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the land…

Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from Kue…They imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty..

King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter –Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.

– 1 Kings 10:14-15 & 28-29; 11:1-4 (NIV)

It is as though Solomon went out of his way to violate the law of the king in its entirety: “The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, ‘You are not to go back that way again.’ He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.” (Deuteronomy 17:16-17)

From his own record in Ecclesiastes, he set out to make a test of pleasure; he withheld from himself nothing that his eyes desired. His income was enormous, but still he had to tax the people heavily to finance his grandiose building projects.

What became of the humble young man who was so concerned to rule well over the people of the Lord his God? The spiritually minded man who dedicated the temple a few chapters earlier?

The lesson from these verses is that, no matter how good a start we have, we can go terribly wrong. What went wrong for Solomon was, in part, what Jesus cautioned about when he said, “How hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:23-24) But Solomon’s biggest problem was what Paul was talking about when he wrote, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would.” (Galatians 5:16-17)

Solomon started out trying to walk by the Spirit, but before long he was gratifying the desires of the flesh. The lust of the flesh (the women), the lust of the eyes (the gold), and the pride of life (the horses and the rest of his huge military apparatus) had him, completely. His wealth made it possible to satisfy his every whim. And he ended up an idolater.

It is vitally important to make a good start in spiritual things. But it’s just as vital to stay with the Spirit, and not sell yourself to the flesh. If the wisest man on earth couldn’t avoid going astray, then we ought to take the warning: we can’t flirt with the flesh and come away unharmed!