We will start this study with the passage in Deuteronomy we read last time. But we’ll add three more verses.
Read Deuteronomy 17:14-20
14 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, ‘Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,’ 15 be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite. 16 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.’ 17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.
18 When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. 19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees 20 and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.
How many Kings had there been in Israel so far?
Three: Saul, David and Solomon.
Would it be fanciful to imagine verse 18 being part of the coronation ceremony? Or would it already have been entrusted to a scribe – rather than the king himself? Or had it (and the following verses) been discretely overlooked?
Look again at verses 14-17: what did we read in our last study? (1 kings 10:16-29)
King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. (verse 23) and Solomon accumulated chariots and horses (verse 26) and Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt (verse 28).
Also look at 1 Kings 11:3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines.
The following verses are of major importance so we will take our time over them.
Read 1 Kings 11:1
1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter – Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites.
What can you tell me about this group of nations?
Well, the answer is in the next verse:
Read 1 Kings 11:2
2 They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, ‘You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.’ Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.
The ‘heart’ is the source of twin powerful emotions – love and physical desire – which can overrule our brains, persuading us that black is white.
Many of us know, or know of, families damaged by just this problem.
But not just families. Especially where Christians are involved the repercussions can lead to many unwanted and unexpected consequences within the church family too.
In Solomon's case it was to affect his whole empire.
Why specifically should a king not marry people from these nations?
Because ‘they will surely turn your hearts after their gods’.
Did a wise king like Solomon really realise what he was doing? – perhaps he chose not to think about it until it was too late.
Read 1 Kings 11:3-4
3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.
We can detect a difference between the faith of David, and that of his son. No-one can deny the obvious love that David had for the Lord, although just like us, he sinned but repented and was forgiven.
In 1 Kings 3:3 we are told that Solomon ‘loved the Lord . . . . except’
Solomon probably started well but his faith never seemed to have the same personal love for the Lord and he was eventually led astray.
Read 1 Kings 11:5-8
5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.
7 On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.
Well, with hindsight we could say we saw it coming.
But so often, imperceptibly, we too can gradually be drawn away from our first love until our worship has become a mere ritual and our relationship with the Lord has become cold and hard.
Often he will draw us back, maybe using others to gently ask questions, all the time not wanting any to perish.
But Solomon was a special case: he had been given great wisdom, and very specific face-to-face warnings – so we can only assume he knew exactly what he was doing. But more special than that, even before he was born, we are specifically told that the Lord promised he would always love him (2 Samuel 7:12-15 and then 2 Samuel 12:24-25)
Read 1 Kings 11:9-10
9 The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command.
Look again at the last part of verse 9. The person writing this couldn’t have made his indignation more clear. Other kings would be warned by prophets, but the warnings given to Solomon were from the Lord, and were direct and personal. And Solomon ignored them.
Read 1 Kings 11:11-13
11 So the Lord said to Solomon, ‘Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. 12 Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.’
We are about to witness the biggest immediate break-up of an empire in history. Yes we will see personal rivalries and political intrigues, but primarily it will be the Lord’s doing and nothing will be able to stop it.
Note the detail: I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Normally the crown would pass to a son to maintain the family line, but here the Lord specifically states that one of Solomon’s officials will become ruler of most of the country. His son will get one tribe to rule, in Jerusalem, but only for the sake of King David’s memory.
At this point it is worth looking at the vast extent of Solomon’s empire.
(I have not been able to find who to ask for copyright permission for these two maps. If as owner you wish them to be removed, let me know and that will be done immediately.)
Now again read verse 13 :
13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.’
Following the death of Solomon, the map was rapidly redrawn:
The northern tribes became the nation of Israel. The remaining tribe – Judah with Jerusalem, was ruled by Solomon’s son Rehoboam. Nations that had been subservient to Solomon became independent again.
In the next study we will read of the people and events that lead to the break up of this amazing empire, but it is important that as we do so we remain conscious that at the same time it was entirely the Lord’s doing.
