1 KINGS 7‬:‭1‬ ‭‬‬

Some believe that Solomon’s interests weren’t aligned with God’s. As we see later on, his love for his wife, born from a political marriage to a foreign idol worshipper, allowed for easy access to idolatry. Yet, this doesn’t mean that everything he did was misaligned. Take the difference in building the temple against his own house of parliament, it should be noted that the temple was smaller in size and built first. It should also be noted that the plans for the temple were built by David and not Solomon. In other words, Solomon didn’t have to spend the time designing it. He didn’t have to gather the consecrated materials as David had already done that. There are plenty of reasons why idolatry flourished under Solomon. We need to be careful to not add insult to injury when looking through his reign. He was wise in his ruling priorities. But his personal life would often get the better of him. Let us not be quick to assume the worst because we have hindsight. Not everything in the history of a bad man was nefarious or ill advised and Solomon was a celebrated and generally good ruler in Israel’s history, however imperfect.