David applied these principles when his friends and others who had been driven from their homes joined him in the desert. He took responsibility to provide for their needs, and formed an “insurance company” to protect the workers of Nabal. He quickly learned the importance of collecting the premium before the insurance goes into force, for when he asked for provisions for his men after the harvesting was over, Nabal refused to pay him. Fortunately, Abigail was a wise woman, and she averted a slaughter. Nabal's subsequent death made Abigail a rich widow, and David was smart enough to marry her, although he already had a wife.
It was David's attraction to women that was his downfall, although he "was a man after God's own heart." His army was in the field, and he was no longer going out with them, but, perhaps, he should have been with some of his sons, instead of being alone on the rooftop. Then he would have avoided seeing Bathsheba, and he would have had a much better relationship with his sons. His sin with her, and its effect on his relationship with his sons, doomed his kingdom.Solomon seemed to have it all together. David had left him a healthy kingdom, and God provided him with wisdom and wealth. It would appear, from the Psalms, that Solomon had been well-trained for his job, possibly by his father. David told him (I Kings2:4) "Be strong, show yourself a man, and observe what the Lord your God requires." He said that Solomon would prosper in what he did, and where he went, if he walked in God"s ways, and obeyed what was written in the Law of Moses.
David reiterated God"s promise to him: "If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel."Solomon followed God to a point, but was not obedient to God's commands to neither multiply horses not wives. Having seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines does seem like overkill! Ecclesiastes indicates that Solomon had a no-holds7#045; barred kind of attitude toward experience - he tried everything! He revealed the emptiness of any activity that does not honor God, and said so.
Solomon married pagan women in order to strengthen his political ties, and in order to placate these foreign women, he build temples to their gods. That was a compromise that doomed the kingdom to failure, starting a slide that continued for several hundred years, ending in the destruction of Jerusalem in 586BC.