Solomon’s Unrepentance

1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2 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.

3 He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. 4 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. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.

6 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.

7 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. 8 And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods. – 1 Kings 11:1-8

Don’t you have certain movies or stories that you’ve seen or read a million times, but somehow you always think or hope or wish the narrative is going to somehow go a different (better direction) “this” time? Like maybe somehow Mufasa isn’t going to die this time around (I was hopeful there was going to be a small re-write in the live action version). There are many narratives throughout scripture where I wish things played out differently. You don’t have to get very far into the Bible (Genesis 3) before you see the Fall of Man. It’s painful. Over and over and over in the scriptures (we see true narratives) of people blowing it.

Solomon is one of those people. Something stuck out to me this time around in reading about Solomon’s turning away from the LORD: It’s obvious his “turning away” was over a fairly significant period of time; not in just one fell swoop.

“He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.” (1 Kings 11:3)

“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.” (1 Kings 11:7)

You don’t marry 700 unbelieving wives and build high places for false gods overnight. I would think this had to happen over a period of years. It would seem as if God was pretty quiet towards Solomon’s disobedience and unrepentance over that period of time and it wasn’t until it had been going on for quite some time before God spoke to him about it and brought judgement. I’m not quite 100% sure what to make of that, but I do think there are a few lessons that can be drawn from this:

1. God is VERY, VERY patient and slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love (psalm 103:8, 2 Pet. 3:9, 1 Cor. 13:4).

God has a very long fuse (as opposed to us, who have very short fuses). There is no one more patient than he is and his kindness in dealing with us is meant to lead us to repentance. He is not a loose cannon nor does he have knee-jerk reactions.

2. He is always observing: “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9)

God is always observing. Whereas we judge people by their outward appearance, God judges by the heart. He does this over a period of time and even sends tests to see what we will do or how we will respond. He doesn’t always address things immediately.

3. He is not mocked: “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8)

The world is setup in such a way that there is this principle of reaping and sowing. When it comes to reaping anything, it’s usually over an extended period of time. That is true (in principle, not in every case), whether you’re talking about reaping good fruit or bad fruit, righteousness or sin. Solomon sows idolatry and sexual sin over a period of time, with little to no consequence evident for awhile (at least in this text) before God brings justice.

All of us are guilty of these things (even if it’s more of a microcosm in comparison to Solomon here). Sometimes we sow things we know are contrary to Truth and somehow expect that there’s going to be a different outcome in the narrative. It could be sowing something we’ve tried many times before that ultimately leads to destruction in our lives; like somehow the narrative is going to be different this time around. As many times as we’ve tried to “cheat the system,” it has failed. Sin (and the enemy) promise us we can cheat the system.

I love seeing myself in the characters of God’s narrative in the scriptures. There’s a lot of relatability. Whenever I’ve been trapped in periods of unrepentance, I am thankful for God’s new mercies every morning to deliver me up from the pit! As believers, our aim is to keep in step with repentance by joyfully following God. And thankfully, we have the Holy Spirit which enables us. One of the other wonderful pieces of the Gospel is not just our blood bought forgiveness, but also our blood-bought ability to live a life of obedience to Jesus. It’s fun to keep pulling back the infinite layers of the onion when it comes to God’s mercy, power, forgiveness, and everything he has accomplished in Christ Jesus!