Having said this, however, there is another important detail we need to
examine in the life of Solomon. After completing the construction of the
house of the Lord in Jerusalem, the Lord God spoke to Solomon and gave
him a very important warning. Listen to the words of the Lord in 2
Chronicles 7:
[19] “But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my
commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other
gods and worship them, [20] then I will pluck you up from my land
that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my
name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a
byword among all peoples. [21] And at this house, which was
exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, ‘Why has
the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’ [22] Then they
will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD, the God of their
fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on
other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore he has
brought all this disaster on them.’” (2 Chronicles 7)
The Lord God told King Solomon that if Israel turned from Him to serve
other gods, He would remove them from their land and cast the house of
worship Solomon had built out of His sight. In other words, God would
destroy the temple that Solomon built if the people did not worship Him
alone. He would even remove the people from their homes by exiling them
in foreign lands if they turned from the one true God. As wonderful as their
temple and nation were, they could lose it all if they did not walk with God
in truth and sincerity. All of Solomon’s work would come to nothing if the
people turned away from God.
As Solomon enjoyed the riches the Lord provided, he came to understand
just how futile and fleeting those riches could be. Solomon describes the
extent of his riches in Ecclesiastes 2:
[4] I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for
myself. [5] I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them
all kinds of fruit trees. [6] I made myself pools from which to water