Solomon was not like his father David. God looked down at David's heart and saw a man who was seeking after His heart. While Solomon started well, in that at the beginning of his reign he humbled himself before the Lord and asked the Him to bless him with wisdom to rule over Israel, he began to walk in disobedience to the commands of God.
Solomon's sin is easily seen by comparing Deuteronomy 17: 14-20 (God's commandments for the ruling king) and I Kings 11: 1-13. In the passage of Deuteronomy God precisely states 4 principles that His kings should follow: Do not multiply horses (trusting in military power), do not multiply wives (looking to them instead of God), and do not greatly increase you silver and gold (trusting therefore in their material blessing).
Then God spoke of the desired spiritual walk of the King of Israel. He was to write himself a copy of the entire Law (so that he might trust in the Lord and His word, hiding it in his heart). He was to keep God's word with him, read it every day, learn to fear God from it, carefully obeying its commands. By doing these things the king would keep his heart humble, and therefore not turn away from God and the power of His words. (Hmmm. . .sounds like what the Spirit suggests to us as well. But we don't have to write our copy of His word; we just have to pick up one of the many copies laying around our house!)
Solomon knew the commands of God, yet he chose to marry a foreign woman, and then marry 699 more! Solomon chose the sin of having the love of many women over obedience to the God of his fathers. And the result had drastic consequences on Solomon's spiritual walk. They turned his heart away, to follow after their gods. The heart that once sought the Lord in everything so that he could walk in the ways of God now was torn in two, divided between his wives' gods and the One True God. Because of his sin Israel would now become a picture of Solomon's heart--it too would be divided. God's precious land would be divided between the north and the south. The commands of God were given; Solomon turned away from them; he lived a life of overlooking the sin in his heart; he and all of Israel suffered the consequences of his sin. Solomon surely did not have the heart of his father.
But it is so easy to read this account and think to ourselves, "How could he have been so wickedly disobedient to God?" The answer lies in our own divided hearts. We, too, claim to love God, and yet our lives reveal our other "lovers." We are just as guilty of idolatry as Solomon was. But the gods we worship are not called Ashtoreth, Milcom, Chemosh, or Molech. Our gods have the names of Adultery and Other Sexual Sin, Materialism, Cheating and Lying, Money, Prestige, Popularity, Gossiping, Self-sufficiency, Self-absorption, and the list is endless. We like to believe that ours are not nearly as bad as theirs, so we continue to justify our attitudes and behaviors, our words and our thoughts, even though we know that God's commands to us in the Bible are against all of them.
God is looking for men and women who are seeking His heart, through surrender to Him and obedience to His word. He is looking for those whose hearts are not torn between this world and the next world. He still desires for His children to be wholly devoted to Him as David was, not just partially devoted to Him as Solomon was. Our hearts are in need of mending. Our hearts are desperate for spiritual healing. Are you willing to assess your own heart and see the gods that sit on its mantle? Are you willing to surrender them to the Lord in a repentance that turns away from them, never to return to them? Are you willing to follow His commands by the power of the Spirit within you? If you are, and you take action, you are truly saying this:
"Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; UNITE MY HEART to fear Your name." (Psalm 86:11)
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