King Solomon Thesis

“7 On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites.8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.” (1 kings 11:7-8). In these two verses it clearly shows how King Solomon, the third king of Israel, tragically fell away from the Lord and started to worship other Gods. When he first became king he asked God for wisdom, and God granted him this petition and made him the wisest man ever. He did many good things in the sight of the Lord, but in 1 Kings 11:4-6 it says, “As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as

Since he had wives from the Ammonite, Edomite, Moabite, Hittite, Phoenician, and Egyptian civilizations, he probably also worshipped their gods. Even though there is not a lot known about the ammonite religion, it was very similar to the Canaanite religion. Therefore it was very likely that they worshipped some of the gods of the Canaanites like Baal, El, or Anat. Milcom was also known as the Ammonite’s main deity. King Solomon also worshipped some of the Edomite deities. In the Edomite tribe some of the gods they worshipped were Baal, El, Ashtoreth and at times Yahweh. The Moabites worshipped the gods Ashtoreth, El, Kemosh, Qaws, and Milkom, so it was to believed that King Solomon’s Moabite wives also worshipped these gods. King Solomon’s Hittite wives probably worshipped the gods Teshub or Hatusa, some type of female gods, and some sun gods which are not known because they did not have any written documents. The Phoenician wives on the other hand had over 15 different gods with names like Adon, Baal, Mot and Yamm. Finally his Egyptian wives probably worshipped a sun-god, Osiris the god of death, and other Egyptian gods. Overall there were probably over 35 different gods in the house of King

First, the laws of the Ten Commandments say to not worship any other god than God himself. In Exodus 20:3-4 it says, “You shall have no other gods before[a] me. 4 You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.” In that time, the Lord was referring to actual false gods, but today, the verse refers to the gods of money, time, food, politics, education, etc. The next application is to obey God when He gives a warning. As seen above, King Solomon did not obey God’s warning, which ultimately caused Israel to fall. Overall, many different applications apply from this small part of King Solomon’s life.

King Solomon had many great victories in his life but his love for women and the worshipping of the other gods caused of his downfall. The gods tempted him and he did not obey the warning that God had given him in his earlier years. He built altars for these gods and worshipped them instead of only the one and true God. The main three gods that he worshipped were Chemosh, Milcom and Ashtoreth. At the end of King Solomon’s life he no longer had a monotheistic but a polytheistic