How could Solomon worship other gods?

[1life]

With his gift of wisdom,,,how could he of all people start worshipping other gods?
1 Kings 11
I just read that yesterday and was stunned! :shocked

[saved by Grace]

if i was in Solomon's shoes, i could also fall victim as well as many other men out there.he had 700 wives and 300 concubines.having that many women that worship false gods and continually trying to enchant you could be very powerful indeed.very very dangerous.if he had married one God fearing woman he would have been much better off. King David had a Bathsheba's husband murdered so he could marry Bathsheba.women can be the Achilles heal to men.the love and lust of a woman can be very powerful stuff.despite that God was merciful to them although his punishment was severe.all i can say is thank God for Jesus and the cross!!

[Glory in print]

With his gift of wisdom,,,how could he of all people start worshipping other gods?
1 Kings 11
I just read that yesterday and was stunned! :shocked
I think Solomons many wives and concubines turned his heart away from God, and got him to worship other Gods...When you have 1,000 woman to please you have to compromise things sadly he compromised the most important thing (God).

[BigBunny]

i don't get how Solomon could stray from the Lord either 1life :doh guy just loved women too much i guess :scratch

[kgreen20]

Here's another question to chew on. Did Solomon repent in the end? I'm thinking he must have, since he wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes, which in turn ended up in the Bible. God would not have allowed a book written by a man still living in rebellion to end up in His holy Word, I know. So surely Solomon must have renounced idol worship at some point, and turned back to God.

[Miss Molly]

I was fascinated by the same question; maybe the simple answer is given in the previous chapter and the first verses of 1 Kings 11.

In chapter 10 we are told of all the wonderful things Solomon contributed to Jewish life and how he was regarded by other earthly kings. In verse 23 of chapter 10 it says: So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom. God gave him that wisdom but it was an earthly wisdom and not a spiritual one. Chapter 11 begins with the word but suggesting that in spite of the regard the world had for him and his wisdom, he was no better spiritually than anyone else.

That does not mean that God did not love Solomon but it may be a teaching on where the Jews are today. They too know the law but they missed the spiritual message God was trying to give them and so they missed the Messiah. They are “wise” in their eyes but they are ignorant of the spiritual meaning of all their wisdom.

Does that make sense? :scratch

[Obadiah]

Good golly, Miss Molly!

(Sorry, I just couldn't resist.)

I completely disagree with your assessment. The wisdom God granted to Solomon was holy, not "earthly." Your attempt to derive this from the use of the word earth in 1 Kings is totally without warrant. The text simply indicates that Solomon was wealthier and wiser than all the other kings on the planet, not that his wisdom (and wealth?) was "earthly." In all of Solomon's proverbs, can you find a single instance where the "wisdom" he speaks of is earthly and not spiritual?

Chapter 11 begins with the word but suggesting that in spite of the regard the world had for him and his wisdom, he was no better spiritually than anyone else.
The text implies no such thing. The mild contrastive that begins 11:1 (along with several thousand other verses in the OT) simply implies a contrast between the very positive description that concludes chapter 10 with Solomon's terrible choices related in chapter 11. I'm truly astounded by how much you read into Scripture when you read Scripture.

Solomon started out well but later went bad. Perhaps he lost sight of the reality that his wisdom and wealth were gifts from God and not things he had acquired and achieved on his own. A sad story, but there's no need to find little mystical implications to attempt to explain it.

[Miss Molly]

Obadiah I always do such a crummy job of explaining my thoughts! Let me try to redeem myself…

I know Solomon’s wisdom is of God. Your last remarks about Solomon starting out as good and then forgetting where his gifts came from is what I was trying to say – in a round about way. He began to rely on his own (fleshly/wordly/earthly) strengths rather than his God and His spiritual guidance.

I like to rake through each word and glean what I can from it. To me, there is a lesson there and the poster’s original question of how one with so much wisdom can do such a dumb thing was one we all wrestle with everyday. We have the scriptures, we know the truth and we STILL mess up. Why is that? We take our eyes off God and make ourselves our moral compass. I think that’s what Solomon did, just like we all do.

Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. (Prov 3:7)

[Obadiah]

Molly:

Not a problem. Sometimes for me, too, it's clearer in my mind than I get it down on paper (or cyberpaper).

Perhaps an important lesson we can learn from Solomon's fall is that there is a difference between trusting in God and trusting in God's gifts. The gifts God gives us are holy and true, yet if we focus on the gift rather than on the Giver, we can still veer off track.

[kgreen20]

Meanwhile, the question is: did Solomon learn that lesson? Did a repentant Solomon, in his old age, write the Book of Ecclesiastes? I want to believe that he did.