If this guy couldn’t do it, that should tell you something.
Solomon is usually treated like a success story.
The wisest man who ever lived. Builder of the temple. King at the height of Israel’s power. Probably the richest man who ever lived.
All of that is true.
But if you read it straight through, it doesn’t land that way. He may be the most tragic figure in the Bible, although he’s got a lot of competition.
God gave him what he asked for, wisdom, and then added everything he didn’t ask for. Wealth, power, reach. And He didn’t leave Solomon guessing. He appeared to him and told him directly what to do and what not to do.
The instructions weren’t complicated. Stay loyal. Don’t go after other gods. Don’t marry foreign wives who would pull him that direction.
That was the deal.
He didn’t keep it.
Not all at once. It builds. More alliances. More marriages. More tolerance for things he would have rejected earlier. At some point it isn’t drift anymore, it’s direction.
Seven hundred foreign wives and three hundred concubines. That’s not fudging what God says on some technicality. It’s about as blatant as you can get.
And it didn’t stay private. He followed their gods, built places of worship for them, and made it normal.
The wisest man who ever lived saw God, heard Him, knew better, and still walked straight into it.
That part tends to get glossed over.
Because it gets in the way of something people want to believe. That if things lined up for them, they would do better. More clarity, more money, more control, and they would handle it correctly.
Don’t buy it.
We’ve all seen it when we’re looking at someone else. Give them a little more room, a little more success, a little less pressure, and the lines start moving. What used to be off limits becomes negotiable. Then it becomes normal.
You can check your own track record.
It doesn’t take 700 wives to see it.
So when someone says they would be different if they just had the right setup, don’t buy it. Things lined up for him as much as they ever will for anyone.
Didn’t matter.
The question isn’t whether you’ll hold the line perfectly. That part is already answered.
Provision wasn’t made because we might succeed. It was made because we won’t.
Through Jesus Christ.
If you’re waiting until you feel more capable or more disciplined, you’re waiting on something that doesn’t show up.
It’s never too late.
Until it is.
P.S.
If you’d like to read through the Bible this year, you can join us at His Word Together.
No commentary.
No telling you what to think.
Nothing to buy.
Nothing fancy.
Just steady time in the Word.