Expert: Spirit Sword - 3/21/2005

Question
If God gave King Solomon the gift of great wisdom then why did he directly go against God's will and worship other gods...even though the Lord warned Solomon that the consequences would be severe

Answer
Hello Zach,

Thank you for your question.
The reason why Solomon eventually turned away is because of
sin.  We are still in a body that is sin tainted and
has not been perfected yet.  If you take a look at King
David's life you will see he was not a perfect man either.
He had an affair with another man's wife and had her
husband murdered.   Many times in the life of the Christian
we too can lose some of the battles with sin.

We read in the book of Romans where the apostle Paul says

Romans 7:23-25 "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."

Living the life of a Christian is a never ending struggle between our new nature and our old nature.  The temptation to fall into sin is always there.   

Now the cause of King Solomon's wickedness came from  
his wives.  

1 King 11:4
"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."

Solomon had seven hundred wives, some of which did not
worship the God of the Bible and influenced even one
of the most wisest men to worship other gods.  

We need to learn from these verses that we *must* be on
guard.  To me it seems impossible how such a wise ruler who knew and understood God could fall in such a terrible manner.  Therefore if even the most wisest man can fall, so can we.
 


Spirit Sword