1 Kings 3:1-3
"3 Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem. 2 The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the Lord.
3 Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places."
Opinions differ on the alliance that Solomon contracted with Egypt, but it would seem that the sacred historian, in recording the fact here without comment meant to indicate that this was something which would have significance later. In the first place, it seems to show that Solomon placed more trust in political alliances than was wise for the leader of God's people. Not only so, however; it was an alliance with someone outwith the covenant, and this was invariably warned against. It may be that here already we have evidence of what proved to be a fatal weakness in Solomon - the allure of strange wives (11:1) which brought about his downfall, and the writer may be drawing our attention to the first ominous sign of Solomon's declension. It is all the more impressive, if this be so, that in 3 his love for the Lord should be recorded also. The wonderful vision that follows this passage (5-15) is evidence enough that that love was real and profound, but it is solemnly significant that alongside that love we find the record of this unwise union and also, in 3, the reserved comment about high places, for what was involved in the one eventually brought Solomon, and in the other, Israel, to ruin. From which we may learn that a love for the Lord that does not exclude such competition is neither great enough, though real, nor safe enough. We heard recently an impressive sermon on king Amaziah (2 Chronicles 25:1, 2) who 'did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart', when the perils of such divided loyalties were suitably emphasised. Is not this the point of Christ's persistent challenge to Peter,
'Lovest thou Me more than these ?'