“But king Solomon loved many strange [foreign] women…women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites…For it came to . … pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods” (1 Kings 11:1,4).

Back a few days ago, we saw that Solomon “loved the Lord,” and walked “in the statutes of David his father.” This was good, but when he became wealthy and famous, it seems that he married many foreign women, who came from nations that worshiped idols. They brought these idols with them, and later in Solomon’s life, even he was turned away from the Lord.

Perhaps we can hardly imagine how this could happen, after the Lord had appeared to him twice. The Lord had appeared to him when he first became king (1 Kings 3:5-15), and then again after the temple was built (1 Kings 9:1-9). If you read this passage, you will see that God gave him a warning about what would happen if he were disobedient, and worshiped idols.

Back in 1 Kings 3:3, we read that “Solomon loved the Lord,” but now, in our verse today, we read that he “loved many strange women.” We may think that we would never do something as wrong as this, but we do not know our own hearts. The only safe path is to be obedient to God’s Word, and to follow the Lord.