Royalty and Ruin: The Lord Warns the King Against Backsliding

     Now once more, as at Gibeon early in Solomon’s reign, God gave him evidence of divine acceptance. In a night vision the Lord appeared to him with the message: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. ... For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.” Verses 12-16.

    If Israel had remained true to God, this glorious building would have stood forever, a perpetual sign of God’s special favor. “The sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants—everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, ... even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer. ... For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Isaiah 56:6, 7.

    The Lord made the path of duty very plain before the king: “If you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’” 2 Chronicles 7:17, 18.

    If Solomon had continued to serve the Lord, his entire reign would have exerted a powerful influence over the surrounding nations. Foreseeing the terrible temptations that come with prosperity and worldly honor, God warned Solomon against apostasy. The beautiful temple that had just been dedicated, He declared, would become “a proverb and a byword among all peoples” if the Israelites “forsook the Lord God of their fathers” and persisted in idol worship. Verses 20, 22.