– by Keith Underhill

I am old which I suppose is why this paragraph caught my eye (Dale Ralph Davis on 1 Kings, p. 113). He is commenting on the fact that Solomon was unfaithful to the Lord when he was old (1 Kings 11:4).

“We must take a moment to be frightened. ‘When Solomon was old…’ How that text ought to goad older believers to pray the last petition of the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:13a). Is there not a warning to churches as well, who have a fixation on youth ministry and a love affair with young marrieds and/or young families? Need we not exercise far more vigilance over our over-sixties crowd, many of whom will doubtless meet the major troubles in their lives in their final years?”

The text does not put the problem down to his affluence and position that allowed him to have so many wives, but to his heart condition. He loved many foreign women. He clung to them in love. His wives turned his heart away after other gods.

Old age brings its peculiar problems with the spiritual dangers being the greatest. If Solomon could depart from the Lord in his older age we must take notice. We tend to focus on the physical problems of old age, but it is the heart problems that are the really dangerous ones.

As departing this world draws nearer there may be the problem of assurance of salvation. The devil is the accuser of the brethren. He reminds us of failures, wasted opportunities, even of situations that were never resolved. He gets us to focus on present problems in order to doubt God’s love, and even if there really is glory to come.

Whatever else you say, please encourage the older ones to persevere to the end through whatever trials they may experience because the Lord has gone to glory to prepare a place for all His people. Don’t assume that because we have been Christians for decades that we are not liable to even severe temptations and that we can simply cope with everything on our own.