by Max Dawson<\/p>\n
In my mind, it is one of the most difficult things to reconcile. How did it happen? How could it possibly happen? I am talking about King Solomon. How did the wisest man in the world mess up so badly? How did a man with such a great beginning have such a terrible ending?<\/p>\n
Solomon began as king with the blessing of his father, King David. He was anointed by Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet (I Kings 1:28-37). God’s blessing was on the young king. Furthermore, when petitioning God, he asked for an understanding heart so that he might properly judge God’s people (I Kings 3:5-15). God granted his request — and much more! In verse 12 God said, “I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you.<\/em>” Solomon was declared to be the wisest of all men (I Kings 4:29-34).<\/p>\n But in spite of all God had done for him, something wicked happened to his heart. In spite of his amazing construction of the temple, the wise man went astray. (The achievements of King Solomon were indeed amazing. See I Kings 10 for a sample of his greatness.)<\/p>\n He was truly a man of splendid accomplishments. But, when you open chapter eleven, you see a heart that has turned from the Lord (I Kings 11:1-10). He was clearly and plainly disobedient to God. In I Kings 3:1, Solomon took an Egyptian bride and made a treaty with Pharaoh. And then, it was horses and chariots (I Kings 4:26-28). Beyond that, he married many foreign women (I Kings 11:1-3). His marriages, as well as the horses and chariots, were in direct disobedience to the Lord’s clear commands (Deuteronomy 17:16-17).<\/p>\n By the end of his reign, this amazingly gifted king had neglected the most basic principle of kingdom leadership! Solomon himself wrote in Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.<\/em>” No man can be truly wise who forgets the fear of the Lord.<\/p>\n Because of this failure, Solomon was no longer a godly man. He first allowed his wives to worship their own gods — idolatry was not to be permitted in Israel. He built altars for them and eventually participated in pagan practices with them. His love for his wives was greater than his love and devotion for the Lord. His love for spiritual values was lost.<\/p>\n Solomon was a great kingdom leader. But no longer. The kingdom would be torn in two, and Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, would only rule over Judah and Benjamin. When God declared that Jeroboam would rule over the other ten tribes, Solomon attempted to kill Jeroboam (I Kings 11:40). Once again, Solomon is seen in opposition to the will of God.<\/p>\n As kingdom leaders, let us never forget the first principle of leadership, indeed, the first principle of wisdom. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.<\/em>” Without reverence for God, and a healthy respect for His wrath, we will fail as leaders. Be wise, my friends. Be wise.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Max Dawson In my mind, it is one of the most difficult things to reconcile. How did it happen? How could it possibly happen? I am talking about King Solomon. How did the wisest man in the world mess up so badly? How did a man with such a great beginning have such a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[992,352,304,786],"class_list":["post-53994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-disobedience","tag-fear","tag-idolatry","tag-solomon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":43889,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-was-adonijah-killed-by-solomons-orders\/","url_meta":{"origin":53994,"position":0},"title":"Why was Adonijah killed by Solomon’s orders?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why was Adonijah killed by Solomon's orders? Answer: To understand the dynamics a bit, we need to understand that typically succession of a king went by birth order. \"Sons were born to David in Hebron: His firstborn was Amnon by Ahinoam the Jezreelitess; his second, Chileab, by Abigail the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30294,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-solomon-sinning-before-god-offered-him-wisdom\/","url_meta":{"origin":53994,"position":1},"title":"Was Solomon sinning before God offered him wisdom?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In I Kings 3:3 it says that Solomon showed his love for the Lord\u00a0except\u00a0that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.\u00a0 In Deuteronomy 12:4-5 God says you must not worship the Lord your God in their way, but you are to seek the place the Lord\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91017,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-israel-having-a-king-sinful\/","url_meta":{"origin":53994,"position":2},"title":"Was Israel Having a King Sinful?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Perry Hall A common position is that Israel's wanting a King was sinful (I Samuel 8). Israel even confesses, \"Pray for your servants to Yahweh your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69300,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-was-the-greatest-king\/","url_meta":{"origin":53994,"position":3},"title":"Who was the greatest king?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, brother Jeffrey! About Hezekiah, we read in II\u00a0Kings 18:5-6: Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the LORD and did not cease to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9854,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-meaning-of-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":53994,"position":4},"title":"The Meaning of Life (Bailey)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Daniel Bailey originally published in\u00a0Gospel Power, Volume 13, Number 15, April 9, 2006 What is the meaning of life? That's a tough question. Millions of people all through the centuries have spent their lives pondering and searching to produce an answer to this fundamental question of human existence. Many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/05\/scholar.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35985,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-solomon-miss-out-on-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":53994,"position":5},"title":"Did Solomon miss out on heaven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Jeffrey, Another question that I realize we probably can't really answer. However, since I've been curious about it for some time, I thought I'd ask anyway. In the Old Testament, we read of Solomon letting his wives turn his heart from God. \"For it came to pass, when Solomon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53994\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}