On the top of his reign, Solomon loved knowledge, wealth, peace, and God’s favor. But beneath the floor, a quiet shift was going down—one which finally led him into open unfaithfulness to the Lord. On this lesson, we’ll hint the alternatives that drew Solomon away from God and take into account how the identical patterns can quietly form our personal lives if we’re not cautious.
Solomon Fails to Stay Devoted – 1 Kings 11:1-13
Early in Solomon’s reign, he married Pharaoh’s daughter (1 Kings 3:1). He started constructing the Temple 4 years after he turned king, and it took him seven years to finish (1 Kings 6:1, 38). Throughout this time, his spouse lived within the Metropolis of David, although not in the identical home because the king, who possible lived in David’s former palace (2 Chronicles 8:11). Then, after he completed constructing the Temple, he started engaged on the palace advanced, which included a home for the king and a separate one for his spouse (1 Kings 7:1-8). This took him 13 extra years to finish. Then, after twenty years of development, when he had been king for 24 years, he and his spouse moved into their royal residences close to the Temple (1 Kings 9:10, 24).
Although Pharaoh’s daughter was Solomon’s first spouse and the one one he explicitly constructed a home for, she was not his just one. Through the years, he fell in love with many ladies — many from overseas idolatrous nations. Finally, Solomon had 700 wives, a lot of them “princesses” who had been from the royal household of one other nation, and 300 concubines. The king could have acquired a lot of his wives for political functions, hoping that by binding himself to the royal homes of surrounding nations, he might safe peace and allegiance with them. Then, as a result of concubines had been typically servants or girls of decrease standing, some could have come from inside his personal family (as his wives’ servants) or from among the many poorer inhabitants of Israel and surrounding nations, who lacked the means to pay a dowry. However as a result of the passage says he “liked many overseas girls,” it’s clear that these marriages weren’t merely political, nor had been all of them strictly for diplomatic functions.
After the Exodus, earlier than the Israelites entered the Promised Land, God warned them that marriages with idolatrous nations would carry them away from Him. On their journey into the brand new land, Israel encountered a number of of the nations that Solomon would later intermarry with. The Edomites (descendants of Esau) refused to allow them to move by means of their land and had been later identified to be an idolatrous nation who worshipped different gods (Numbers 20:14-21; 2 Chronicles 25:14-16). Moab and Ammon (each descendants of Lot) led Israel into idolatry at Baal of Peor when the Israelites had been tenting within the plains of Moab on Israel’s jap border earlier than they crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land (Numbers 22-25 [25:1-3]). God additionally forbade intermarriage with the Canaanites residing within the land, which included each the Hittites and the individuals of Sidon (Deuteronomy 7:1–4; Exodus 34:12–16). By the point Solomon rose as Israel’s king, all of those nations had been overtly idolatrous — Moab worshiped Chemosh, Ammon worshiped Milcom (Molech), Sidon worshiped Ashtoreth, and each the Edomites and Hittites had different unknown overseas gods (Judges 10:6; 1 Kings 11:5; 2 Chronicles 25:14–16).
So, by marrying girls from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and the Hittites, he broke God’s command to all Israelites to not marry overseas girls that might flip them away from Him (Deuteronomy 7:3–4; Exodus 34:15–16). However he additionally violated God’s regulation for kings. Although it was by no means the Lord’s want for Israel to have an earthly king, after they rejected God’s kingship and insisted on having a king like all the opposite nations, God permitted it (1 Samuel 8:5–7, 19–22). However he was not purported to conduct himself in the identical manner because the rulers of different nations, counting on the dimensions of his navy, political alliances, wealth, and wives for energy and safety. Israel’s king “shall not multiply horses for himself, nor trigger the individuals to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has stated to you, ‘You shall not return that manner once more.’ Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his coronary heart flip away; nor shall he significantly multiply silver and gold for himself (Deuteronomy 17:16–17).” God was not forbidding the king from constructing a powerful navy, forming good relationships with neighboring nations, or being rich. However He knew if the king was improperly centered on energy, prosperity, and peace, he would have divided loyalties, develop corrupt, and start to worship different gods.
Over the course of his reign, Solomon violated each one in all these instructions, increase his navy with horses and chariots from Egypt, forming political alliances with different nations by marrying their princesses, and taking the riches God gave him and accumulating them for his personal energy and status (1 Kings 10:14-15, 21, 26-29). Then, the whole lot God warned about got here to move. Solomon was drawn into the worship of Ashtoreth of the Sidonians, Milcom (Molech) of the Ammonites. He additionally constructed excessive locations for Chemosh of Moab, burning incense and sacrificing to their gods.
Not solely did Solomon violate God’s basic instructions for males and kings, however he additionally failed to satisfy the circumstances of the covenant God made together with his father, which David relayed to him earlier than his loss of life (1 Kings 2:1–4). However God additionally reiterated it to Solomon each instances he appeared to him after he took over the dominion. First, God got here to him in a dream in Gibeon and inquired what Solomon needed from Him. The king requested for knowledge, and the Lord granted it together with many different blessings. Then, God urged him to stroll in His methods and maintain His statutes and instructions as his father David did (1 Kings 3:5–14). Then, after Solomon devoted the Temple and prayed that God would hear the prayers supplied in and towards this place, God stated His eyes and coronary heart could be there frequently, and if Solomon would stroll earlier than Him as his father had, in integrity of coronary heart and uprightness, to do based on all that He commanded, his household wouldn’t ever fail to have a person on the throne of Israel. But when he or his descendants turned away from the Lord and did not maintain His instructions, serving and worshipping different gods as a substitute, He would lower them off from the land and forged the Temple from His sight (1 Kings 9:1–9).
Although David wasn’t monogamous and he dedicated adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:2–4), he was by no means untrue to God. David was imperfect and his sin was extreme, however he remained totally dedicated to the Lord (1 Kings 15:5). However Solomon’s coronary heart was divided and he didn’t comply with the Lord totally as His father had executed, and God was indignant with him. He informed Solomon that He would tear the dominion away from him and provides it to his servant. Although for David’s sake, He wouldn’t take it from Solomon throughout his lifetime. The Lord promised to deal with Solomon like his personal son, punishing him when applicable however not taking his mercy away as He’d executed to Saul, from whom He tore the dominion away (2 Samuel 7:14-15). So, God would wait and take the northern kingdom from Solomon’s son as a substitute, leaving him nonetheless one tribe, Judah—in addition to Jerusalem the place He had chosen to position His title.
