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"Wiser Than The Wisest"One of the saddest stories in the Bible is the downfall of King Solomon. You know it well. He began by humbly asking God for wisdom, which God graciously granted in bucket loads. He was wiser than any living human being. People came from far countries to find out if what they heard was true. Israel grew to be the most splendid kingdom on earth under his hand.And what did God ask? Only this—walk in my ways, keep my commandments as your father David did. Nothing unreasonable in that. And for twenty years, Solomon did so. Then, at the midpoint of his reign, he took a giant step down the slippery slope. He took wife number two. Now it was common for kings to do this, and it was militarily expedient. His first wife was a princess of Egypt and Solomon noticed that her dad became sort of an ally—for his daughter’s sake. Will it work with other heads of state? Solomon thought so and began collecting wives from the daughters of every kinglet in the known world. It was a brilliant strategy to guarantee peace for Israel.Of course it violated the clear command of God (Deut 17:16-17). Kings were not to multiply horses, gold, or wives. Since he got away with the wife thing, he went ahead and multiplied horses (40,000 of them), and gold. The wives, though, got to nagging about wanting to worship their own way, so to keep peace in his house he built them little temples to their gods. Then he started worshipping with them. Finally it got so bad that he actually built a high place for Chemosh and Molech—furnaces for the sacrifice of infants—and incurred the wrath of God.How did someone so noble fall so low? Little steps. Small compromises. Minimal accommodations. But once you start, the pace picks up until you are virtually racing away from God.Why did God record this story? So you can be wiser than the wisest man who ever lived.