… Solomon was seated on the throne of his father David, with his sovereignty firmly established … 1 Kings 2:12
… the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.” 1 Kings 3:5
Solomon answered: “… Give your servant … an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. 1 Kings 3:6-9
The LORD was pleased … 1 Kings 3:10
So God said to him:
I do as you requested. 1 Kings 3:12
In addition, I give you what you have not asked for, such riches and glory that among kings there is not your like. 1 Kings 3:13
Men came to hear Solomon’s wisdom from all nations… 1 Kings 5:14
… [Solomon] had peace on all his borders round about. 1 Kings 5:4
… in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, … the construction of the temple of the LORD was begun. 1 Kings 6:1
The temple was built of stone … 1 Kings 6:7
… overlaid with gold 1 Kings 6:22
The walls … had carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers. 1 Kings 6:29
it took Solomon seven years to build [the Temple]. 1 Kings 6:38
The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place … in the sanctuary, the holy of holies of the temple. I Kings 8:6
… the LORD’S glory … filled the temple of the LORD. 1 Kings 8:10-11
Yet, magnificent as Solomon’s temple was …
… your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, … 1 Corinthians 6:19
If you consistently choose God as you live your life, God will be happier in your temple than God ever was in Solomon’s magnificent temple of stone and gold.
After Solomon finished building the temple of the LORD, … the LORD appeared to him a second time… 1 Kings 9:1-2
The LORD said to [Solomon]: “… I have consecrated this temple which you have built; I confer my name upon it forever, and my eyes and my heart shall be there always. 1 Kings 9:3
But if you and your descendants ever withdraw from me, fail to keep the commandments and statutes which I set before you, and proceed to venerate and worship strange gods, I will cut off Israel from the land I gave them and repudiate the temple I have consecrated to my honor. 1 Kings 9:6-8
Well …
King Solomon loved many foreign women … from nations with which the LORD had forbidden the Israelites to intermarry, “because,” he said, “they will turn your hearts to their gods.” But Solomon fell in love with them. He had seven hundred wives of princely rank and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart. 1 Kings 11:1-3
When Solomon was old his wives had turned his heart to strange gods, and his heart was not entirely with the LORD, his God, as the heart of his father David had been. 1 Kings 11:1-4
Solomon … built a high place to Chemosh, the idol of Moab, and to Molech, the idol of the Ammonites, on the hill opposite Jerusalem. He did the same for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. 1 Kings 11:7-8
So the LORD said to Solomon: “Since this is what you want, and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I enjoined on you, I will deprive you of the kingdom and give it to your servant. I will not do this during your lifetime, however, for the sake of your father David; it is your son whom I will deprive. Nor will I take away the whole kingdom. I will leave your son one tribe for the sake of my servant David and of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.” 1 Kings 11:11-13
The time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. Solomon rested with his ancestors; he was buried in his father’s City of David, and his son Rehoboam succeeded him as king. 1 Kings 11:42-43