Reflections on 1 Kings 11

1 Kings 11 (Contemporary English Version)

1. The LORD did not want the Israelites to worship foreign gods, so he had warned them not to marry anyone who was not from Israel. Solomon loved his wife, the daughter of the king of Egypt. But he also loved some women from Moab, Ammon, and Edom, and others from Sidon and the land of the Hittites.
   
2. (SEE 11:1)
   
3. Seven hundred of his wives were daughters of kings, but he also married three hundred other women. As Solomon got older, some of his wives led him to worship their gods. He wasn't like his father David, who had worshiped only the LORD God.
   
4. (SEE 11:3)
   
5. Solomon also worshiped Astarte the goddess of Sidon, and Milcom the disgusting god of Ammon.
   
6. Solomon's father had obeyed the LORD with all his heart, but Solomon disobeyed and did what the LORD hated.
   
7. Solomon built shrines on a hill east of Jerusalem to worship Chemosh the disgusting god of Moab, and Molech the disgusting god of Ammon.
   
8. In fact, he built a shrine for each of his foreign wives, so all of them could burn incense and offer sacrifices to their own gods.
   
9. The LORD God of Israel had appeared to Solomon two times and warned him not to worship foreign gods. But Solomon disobeyed and did it anyway. This made the LORD very angry,
   
10. (SEE 11:9)
    
11. and he said to Solomon: You did what you wanted and not what I told you to do. Now I'm going to take your kingdom from you and give it to one of your officials.
    
12. But because David was your father, you will remain king as long as you live. I will wait until your son becomes king, then I will take the kingdom from him.
    
13. When I do, I will still let him rule one tribe, because I have not forgotten that David was my servant and Jerusalem is my city.
    
14. Hadad was from the royal family of Edom, and here is how the LORD made him Solomon's enemy:
    
15. Some time earlier, when David conquered the nation of Edom, Joab his army commander went there to bury those who had died in battle. Joab and his soldiers stayed in Edom six months, and during that time they killed every man and boy who lived there.
    
16. (SEE 11:15)
    
17. Hadad was a boy at the time, but he escaped to Midian with some of his father's officials. At Paran some other men joined them, and they went to the king of Egypt. The king liked Hadad and gave him food, some land, and a house, and even let him marry the sister of Queen Tahpenes.
    
18. (SEE 11:17)
    
19. (SEE 11:17)
    
20. Hadad and his wife had a son named Genubath, and the queen let the boy grow up in the palace with her own children.
    
21. When Hadad heard that David and Joab were dead, he said to the king, "Your Majesty, please let me go back to my own country."
    
22. "Why?" asked the king. "Do you want something I haven't given you?" "No, I just want to go home."
    
23. Here is how God made Rezon son of Eliada an enemy of Solomon: Rezon had run away from his master, King Hadadezer of Zobah.
    
24. He formed his own small army and became its leader after David had defeated Hadadezer's troops. Then Rezon and his army went to Damascus, where he became the ruler of Syria and an enemy of Israel. Both Hadad and Rezon were enemies of Israel while Solomon was king, and they caused him a lot of trouble.
    
25. (SEE 11:24)
    
26. Jeroboam was from the town of Zeredah in Ephraim. His father Nebat had died, but his mother Zeruah was still alive. Jeroboam was one of Solomon's officials, but even he rebelled against Solomon.
    
27. Here is how it happened: While Solomon's workers were filling in the land on the east side of Jerusalem and repairing the city walls,
    
28. Solomon noticed that Jeroboam was a hard worker. So he put Jeroboam in charge of the work force from Manasseh and Ephraim.
    
29. One day when Jeroboam was leaving Jerusalem, he met Ahijah, a prophet from Shiloh. No one else was anywhere around. Suddenly, Ahijah took off his new coat and ripped it into twelve pieces.
    
30. (SEE 11:29)
    
31. Then he said: Jeroboam, take ten pieces of this coat and listen to what the LORD God of Israel says to you. "Jeroboam, I am the LORD God, and I am about to take Solomon's kingdom from him and give you ten tribes to rule.
    
32. But Solomon will still rule one tribe, since he is the son of David my servant, and Jerusalem is my chosen city.
    
33. "Solomon and the Israelites are not like their ancestor David. They will not listen to me, obey me, or do what is right. They have turned from me to worship Astarte the goddess of Sidon, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of Ammon.
    
34. "Solomon is David's son, and David was my chosen leader, who did what I commanded. So I will let Solomon be king until he dies.
    
35. Then I will give you ten tribes to rule,
    
36. but Solomon's son will still rule one tribe. This way, my servant David will always have a descendant ruling in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to be worshiped.
    
37. "You will be king of Israel and will rule every nation you want.
    
38. I'll help you if you obey me. And if you do what I say, as my servant David did, I will always let someone from your family rule in Israel, just as someone from David's family will always rule in Judah. The nation of Israel will be yours.
    
39. "I will punish the descendants of David, but not forever."
    
40. When Solomon learned what the LORD had told Jeroboam, Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam. But he escaped to King Shishak of Egypt and stayed there until Solomon died.
    
41. Everything else Solomon did while he was king is written in the book about him and his wisdom.
    
42. After he had ruled forty years from Jerusalem,
    
43. he died and was buried there in the city of his father David. His son Rehoboam then became king.
    

---

Chapter 10 says that "King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the world in riches and in wisdom." (10:23) Chapter 11, verse 3, says Solomon "had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 concubines." He must have also surpassed all other kings in number of wives as well. God gave Solomon some exceptional gifts in terms of wisdom and knowledge, and God was also the source of his riches and worldwide fame. But it turns out that Solomon valued the gifts and the pleasure they gave more than the giver.

One truth his wisdom did not reveal to him, or his chose to ignore, is that the pleasures of the world are best enjoyed in relationship with the source of those pleasures. But his weakness for women, especially foreign women who worshipped other gods, allowed his head to be turned also to these other gods.  Verse 4 tells us that as he grew older, "his wives seduced him to follow other gods." Jesus pointed out that all of the commandments of the law are summed up in two commandments, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind," and "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:36) The first one, to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, and soul, Jesus said, "is the greatest and most important commandment." Whatever sin we might commit erodes our relationship with either God or our fellow man, but when our hearts are turned away from God we have not only broken the greatest commandment but have broken our link to the true source of the good things of life becoming vulnerable to the source of the evil things of life.

This is what happened to Solomon. His father, David, sinned greatly in taking another man's wife and killing the man, but his heart always remained true to God. Therefore, though God allowed suffering to come on David, He never turned away from him. Solomon's situation was more serious. He turned away from the Lord to other gods as if they were the source of all he had, prompting the Lord to speak to him a third time. This time the message was not good as before.  The Lord said to him, "Since you have done this and did not keep My covenant and My statutes, which I commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant." (11:11) The seeds of this tearing away of the kingdom were already sown even as far back as his father's reign, but had Solomon remained true to God, these seeds would not have flourished. God now removed His protection from Solomon.

Three of Solomon's adversaries, who would play a role in tearing away the kingdom, are named in this chapter. They were Hadad, an Edomite, Rezon, a ruler of Aram, and one of Solomon's own leaders, Jeroboam. The first two became arch enemies during David's reign. Jeroboam, though, was not an enemy but a loyal servant of Solomon until the prophet Ahijah revealed to him that the Lord planned to make him ruler over the northern tribes of Israel. We are told in verse 40 that Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam and he had to flee to Egypt, but we are not given the reason Solomon wanted to kill him. The two most obvious possibilities are that either Jeroboam attempted to assert himself over Solomon or Solomon got word of Ahijah's prophecy about Jeroboam ruling the northern tribes.

After ruling over Israel 40 years, Solomon died. His son Rehoboam became king in his place.