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In I Kings 11: 1-8 we read the dismal failure of Israel's wisest king:--
"But King Solomon loved many strange women beside the daughter of Pharaoh,
women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians and Hittites; of the nations
concerning which the Lord had said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to
them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after
their gods."
Nehemiah, when reproving the people for marrying wives of Ashdod, Ammon and
Moab, could find no more tragic example than that of Solomon:--
"Did not Solomon King of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations was
there no King like him, who was beloved by his God, and God made him King over all
Israel; nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin" (Neh. 13: 26).
It is evident, by both the account in I Kings 11: and Neh. 13:, that Solomon's sin
was not so much that of immorality as of failure to keep intact the covenant separation of
his race and throne. In other words to the believer of all ages it represents the temptation
of the flesh to overstep the bounds of separation drawn by redemption. It is suggestive in
view of Eccles. 7: 28 that I Kings 11: 3 tells us that Solomon had a harem of exactly
1,000:--
"And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his
wives turned away his heart."
Ignoring the warnings of the Proverbs written for his guidance he added wife to wife
in vain endeavour, but among the whole thousand found not one. The one depicted in
Prov. 31: he had turned from, and the result was disaster. Just a little earlier in
Eccles. 7: Solomon had said, "There is not a just man in all the earth, that doeth good,
and sinneth not". His words therefore in verse 28 must not be interpreted as meaning that
one man in a thousand was just and sinless. We meet the expression in Job 9: 3, "He
cannot answer him, one of a thousand"; and in Job 33: 23, "If there be a messenger
with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness: Then
he is gracious unto him". Here the one among a thousand is an "interpreter", one who
seems somewhat like the "days-man" of Job 9: 33, who was "in God's stead", yet
"formed out of the clay" (Job 33: 6), and so could mediate between them. We seek to
avoid spiritualizing, yet, if Koheleth makes a cryptic reference back to Adam in
Eccles. 6: 10, it is not unreasonable to suppose that he makes here a cryptic reference
onward to Christ. Whether he personally thus understood his own words we cannot say,
the application of Solomon's failure and discovery is for ourselves.
One deeply important finding of the Preacher is written with no uncertainty, and this
we would set forth with all possible emphasis:--
"Lo, this only I have found, that GOD HATH MADE MAN UPRIGHT, but they have
sought out many inventions" (7: 29).
One thing emerged clearly before Solomon's mind. God was not chargeable with the
fall of man. In his own case this was clear. God warned him again and again. His fall