Commentary on 1 Kings 9:6–9 (Summary)

In 1 Kings 9:6 the Lord’s words to Solomon move from a call to obedience to a warning against disobedience. The ESV begins this verse with the word if, which is conditional in nature. Obviously, God knew that Solomon, at the end of his life, would place himself under the judgments contained in this warning. Why didn’t the Lord say, But when you turn aside from following me…? That would have given Solomon the opportunity to argue that he had been given no choice, and that his disobedience was not really his fault but was God's responsibility.

Though the Lord had the foreknowledge to know how Solomon would respond to the warning, Solomon did not have that knowledge and was, therefore, without excuse for his disobedience. The Lord singled out a particular sin that he warns against. It is the sin of idolatry; the sin of turning away from the worship of the true God to the worship of false gods made by human hands.

Idolatry was a sin that, sadly, Israel was all too familiar with. Psalm 106:1–48 sets before the reader the consequences of Israel’s failure to drive the Canaanites and other pagan nations out of the land of promise. The consequence of this, according to the psalmist, was that Israel would mix with these pagan people and take their gods for their own worship. The reign of David was a reign that was not characterized by this kind of idolatry, but in that regard, it was not the natural state of affairs in Israel but a time of reformation.

The Lord told Solomon of two consequences that would follow from disobedience to him. The first of these is a consequence that would concern all of Israel. He said, I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them (1 Kings 9:7). We ought to understand how serious this warning was. This was the promise that lay at the heart of both the Abrahamic and Mosaic administrations of the covenant.

God had promised Abraham centuries before that he would give to his descendants the land in which Abraham sojourned. To Moses God promised that he would bring Israel out of captivity in Egypt and settle them in the land promised to Abraham— not then as sojourners, but as those who possessed the land.

The Scripture up to this point has shown the progress of God’s fulfillment of the promise given to the patriarchs and continued with Moses and Joshua. Therefore, for God to threaten to cut off the people from the land was a warning of monumental significance. God’s judgment had been poured out upon the former residents of the land because of the multitude of their sins and particularly because of their idolatrous worship of false gods. This warning appears to threaten the integrity of Israel as the covenant people. Instead of being a symbol of God’s grace to an obedient people, the Lord warned that Israel would become a proverb and a byword to other nations if Solomon did not heed this warning.

The second warning is more specific to the temple Solomon built. The Lord warned that disobedience to his commandments and turning from his worship to the worship of idols would have the consequence that the impressive structure that had just been opened for his worship, he would cast out of his sight. Moreover, it would be destroyed so completely as to become a heap of ruins (1 Kings 9:8).

God told Solomon that the destruction of the temple would be so great that it would cause amazement to foreigners who passed by the site of the temple’s destruction. Specifically, it would bring a question to their minds and the answer to that question. The amazed foreigners would ask why Yahweh had done this to the people of Israel. The answer that they would give to their own question would be that Israel had forsaken the worship of the one true God and turned to the worship of worthless idols (1 Kings 9:9).

The previous question and answer constitute the manner in which the record of God’s appearance to Solomon ends. We are not given any reason to believe that the Lord returned from this severe warning to more positive statements concerning Solomon and Israel. There is no statement recorded that the Lord would have said, But I am persuaded of better things concerning you (see Hebrews 6:9).

Even though we are given further glances of the glory and majesty of Solomon’s kingdom and reign, yet the shadow of this warning hangs over the rest of the record of Solomon as king. This is something that we would do well to keep in mind.

We do well to remember this regarding our understanding of the continuation of the record of Solomon’s reign. The spiritual high point of Solomon’s reign had already been reached and passed. Yet, we do well to remember it for our own spiritual well-being. Apostasy is still a terrible sin, and we live in a world that is constantly tempting us to fall into apostasy. If we ignore Scripture’s warnings, not only here, but in other places, we will be flirting with God’s fearsome judgment.