I Kings 10 - 11

The Queen of Sheba comes for a visit

Solomon, being a young man, then appears to have gone on a spending binge, taxing and spending in a way that would make a modern-day politician envious. Verses 14-29 he collected wealth from merchants and traders, made hundreds of gold shields, a great throne inlaid with ivory and fine gold on a platform six steps high with lions on the ends of each step. Here is what it might have looked like:

His goblets were made of gold (none of that cheap silver for Solomon).

He built a fleet of merchant ships and year after year, “everyone who came brought gift-articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules” (verse 25). In verse 26 is says, “Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses.”

There is one item I would suggest that he have over his throne. In large letters, the passage from Deut. 17:16-17, “The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you. ‘You are not to go back that way again.’ He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.” As we will see, the wise King Solomon found it difficult to follow the wisdom he possessed. Just like Solomon, we know better than we do.

I Kings 11:1-4, “King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women.” These women turned his heart “after their gods. . . his wives led him astray” (verse 3) “As he grew old, his wives turned his heart from after other gods, and his heart was not FULLY devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.”

In verse 11 we find Solomon building “a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.” This act by Solomon was probably motivated by politics as well as a desire to please his wives.

The result of his apostasy is seen in verse 11, “I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates.” But God would not do this until after Solomon dies and he would keep one tribe, Judah will be retained, “for the sake of David my servant” (verse 13). Solomon was standing on the shoulders of David. The momentum and goodwill that David earned has been squandered by Solomon.

Do you remember the Edomites? They were the descendants of Esau, brother of Jacob. They had that conflict over the birthright, with Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of stew. Well, the Edomites were longtime enemies of Jacob’s descendants, Israel, and they started to give Solomon some trouble. Later in Israel’s history we find King Herod, who was an Edomite, also.

In I Kings 11:14 we find a couple of Edomites being used by God to punish Israel. “Then the Lord raised up against Solomon an adversary, Hadad the Edomite, from the royal line of Edom.” Saul fought the Edomites and David subdued them. In one battle Hadad was taken to Egypt by some of his father’s officials. The Pharaoh was pleased with his “house guest” and even gave Hadad the sister of his wife as his bride. Whether he was happy with this gift or whether he was hoping for a flashy red chariot convertible, is not known. But, when you are a guest and the Pharaoh gives you a gift, you smile, say thank you and pretend you are thrilled with it. But you probably can’t regift a bride as you would a painting you don’t like.

When Hadad heard that David and Joab had both died, he asked for permission to return to his homeland. It doesn’t say whether he took his wife. But what we see here is God working behind the scenes to use this man as a tool to punish his people, Israel.

Verse 23, we see another man being raised up against Solomon, Rezon, who also gathered a group of men around him and his people settled near Damascus. You can see that God is moving the chess pieces on the board, without either of these men knowing that they are being used by God to do his will. This reminds me of the Book of Esther.

Not only were there enemies coming together from outside of Israel, but there were also enemies rising up from within. Verse 26, Also, Jeroboam, son of Nebat rebelled against the king. Jeroboam was one of Solomon’s officials.” In fact, he was in charge of the labor force, so he must have known a lot of people. It always hurts when trusted insiders turn on a leader.

While leaving Jerusalem Jeroboam met with a prophet by the name of Ahijah. Ahijah had a way of making his message in a memorable and dramatic manner.  Verse 30, he grabbed hold of his new cloak and tore it into twelve pieces and handed ten pieces of it to Jeroboam. Scripture says it was new, but maybe his wife bought it for him, and he never liked the color, style or fit, so destroying it was no loss to him. Later that day, his wife may have asked, “Honey, where’s the lovely cloak I bought for you?” “Ah, God told me to tear it into pieces to send Jeroboam a message.”

What was the message behind this cloak tearing? Verse 31, “See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes.” What was the reason for doing this? Verse 33, “I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molech the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in my ways not done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my statues and laws as David, Solomon’s father, did.”

Who were these foreign gods?

Ashtoreth, also known as Astarte, was the goddess of war, sex and fertility, the chief female deity usually mentioned in connection with Baal. She was worshipped in Syria, Phoenicia, and Canaan. She might be the queen of heaven mentioned in Jer. 7:18

Chemosh may have been related to or even identical with the Ammonite god Moloch. At times, human sacrifice was dedicated to Chemosh, as it was to Molech and occasionally to Yahweh as well.

On desperate times a human sacrifice was considered necessary to secure the favor of Chemosh. Joram, a king of Moab is described as sacrificing his son (2 Kings 3:27) in order to gain the upper hand when he was in a dire military situation.

Molech was the God of the Phoenicians. In addition to sexual rituals, Moloch worship included child sacrifice.

Despite occasional efforts by godly kings, it wasn’t until King Josiah, 400 years later, that the pagan sanctuary was permanently destroyed. And worship of Moloch wasn’t abolished until the Babylonian captivity. Babylonian religion was pantheistic but did not include human sacrifice.

Child sacrifices to these pagan gods were done in the Hinnom Valley (2 Chron. 28:3; 33:6; Jer. 32:35). Jer. 31:40 calls this valley, “the valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes.” Jeremiah referred to it as the Valley of Slaughter (Jer. 7:32; 19:6).

From the Old to the New Testament the Hinnom Valley came to stand even more as a figure of final punishment in unquenchable fire. When Jesus spoke of eternal punishment, He used the term gehenna as the name of this place (Matt. 5:22, 29-30). Gehenna is the Greek transliteration of the name for the Hinnom Valley. The New Testament teaches this as a place that one will be “cast into” (Matt. 5:29-30). There both body and soul will be destroyed (Matt. 10:28).

In modern times the Hinnom Valley holds the ruins of ancient tombs. In New Testament times this was a place of fire, ashes, uncleanness, and (at times) dead bodies. It sat outside the gate known as “the dung gate” (Neh. 3:13-14).

When the Jews returned to their land, they rededicated themselves to God, and the Valley of Hinnom was turned into a place for burning garbage and the bodies of executed criminals.

Back to the text of 1 Kings. But this transition of leadership, from Solomon to Jeroboam, will not take place until after Solomon dies (verse 34). And one tribe, the tribe of Judah, will be ruled over by Solomon’s son. God then promises to be with Jeroboam if he does what God commands him (verse 38), just as he did with David and Solomon. But Jeroboam doesn’t do what God commanded and so God withdraws his blessings from him, also. These kings don’t learn from the mistakes of others.

In verse 40, it says that Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt until Solomon died, which he did, after reigning for 40 years (verse 42) and he was succeeded by his son, Rehoboam (verse 43).

How would you assess the reign of Solomon? When a new leader takes office, we are optimistic and hopeful for a better future. The president might start off with the goodwill of the people, and enjoy some successes, but all too often, their last years in office are oftentimes a disappointment.

But we shouldn’t be too harsh in our assessment of Solomon. Sure, he was a wise man who didn’t always live by the wisdom he possessed. But don’t we all do the same thing, to some extent? Don’t we all know what we should do to remain healthy (avoid tobacco, use alcohol moderately, if at all, exercise, get enough sleep, eat a balanced diet, avoid unnecessary stress). But how many of us do it? Knowing what to do is easier than doing it. We know better than we do.