II Chronicles 9:31 And Solomon slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead
Second Chronicles 9 recounts for us the growth and empowering of Solomon’s kingdom. David had died and Solomon is now the king of Israel. In chapter 8 it says that “Solomon had built the house of the LORD, and his own house,” and the rest of the chapter talks about all that he built.
Second Chronicles 8:11 then says something interesting, “And Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David unto the house that he had built for her: for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy, whereunto the ark of the LORD hath come.” That forms a bookend of the story of Solomon’s establishment of his kingdom. He built, he married, and then in the following verses, including chapter 9, the Bible talks about Solomon’s great wealth. In fact, the key word of chapter 9 might be “gold,” which was so common that verse 20 tell us that “it was not any thing accounted of in the days of Solomon.” In short, Solomon was a prosperous man. He built much and he gained much.
But, going back to that verse about Pharaoh’s daughter, there are two bookends to this account. One is about Solomon’s wife and one is about Solomon’s son. As to his wife, she was the beginning of a huge harem of women who did not know, love, or follow God Jehovah. So, here is a wife that did not belong to God but did belong to Solomon.
The Bible indicates that Solomon had a twinge of conscience. “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David…” King Solomon said, “because the places are holy, whereunto the ark of the LORD hath come.” So, these places are holy, but my wife is not. These places are dedicated to God, but my wife is not. To be sure, a person is more valuable than a thing, but in this case his wife was not dedicated to God, although Solomon was, and all the gold he was using was largely used to dedicate this magnificent temple.
On the other end of that, II Chronicles 9:31, says, “And Solomon slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead.” Rehoboam was a foolish son and a foolish king. He oversaw the breaking up of this united kingdom of Israel. As Alexander White said long ago, “The secret worm was gnawing all the time in the royal staff upon which Solomon leaned.” In other words, Solomon had great outward prosperity and power, but at home he was not what he should have been. He had a harem, many wives that did not even know God, and the Bible tells us that they turned his heart from God. Then he had this son, Rehoboam, who would have grown up in the harem and known the king Solomon but not intimately known the father Solomon. So, the kingdom was destroyed because of lack of a father although it had a wise king.
What we can learn is that success that does not extend to home will be short-lived. Thank God for any success you have at work or even in ministry if things are going well, but if you do not take heed to serve the people in your house, your wife, your children, your husband, then your family is not going to be the foundation you need it to be for work outside. If you are not right with your dad or mom, you will have a hard time being what you should be outside of the walls of the house in which you live.
So, Solomon was a great man, but he was a lousy father. Solomon was a wise king, but Solomon was a foolish husband. The kingdom died because the family was not what it should have been. Success that does not extend to home will be short-lived indeed.