I Kings 3:5-9
(All Scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated)
I want to make a correction from what I wrote in the last Gem. We looked at Deuteronomy 17:18 and 19, part of the passage where God told the Israelites what their king must do:
“And it shall be when he sits on the throne of his
kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of
this law in a book. And it shall be with him , and
he shall read it all the days of his life, that he
may learn to fear the LORD his God and be careful
to observe all the words of this law and these
statutes....”
And I said concerning these instructions, “There is no record that Solomon ever followed this directive (nor did any other king of the united or split kingdoms of Israel).” But there was one king who followed God’s directive – David! At least most of his private and kingly life he did! For he was, as God said in I Samuel 13:14, “…a man after [the LORD’s]…own heart…”! (see also Acts 13:22).
But back to Solomon, and what he asked God for in his divine visitation dream recorded in I Kings 3:7 through 9:
“Now, O LORD my God, You have made your servant
king instead of my father David, but I am a little
child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And
Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom
You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to
be numbered or counted. Therefore give Your ser-
vant an understanding heart to judge Your people,
that I may discern between good and evil. For who
is able to judge this great people of Yours?”
“…that I may discern between good and evil…” includes heeding the prescriptions God laid out for Israel’s future kings in Deuteronomy 17:16 through 19! We have covered four; and while there are two more for our consideration, the next one is so demanding, we may have to go to a fourth Gem to complete this study!
Deuteronomy 17:17 – “Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away….”
- The LORD had warned them more than once concerning this very thing! From the first six verses of Deuteronomy 7, here are some highlights of God’s warning:
When the Lord your God brings you into the land [of
Canaan] which you go to possess...and delivers over
...seven nations greater and mightier than you...you
shall...utterly destroy them....Nor shall you make
marriages with them....For they will turn your sons
away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the
anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and
destroy you suddenly. But...you shall destroy their
altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut
down their wooden images, and burn their carved im-
ages with fire. For you are a holy people to the
Lord your God...a special treasure above all the
peoples on the face of the earth.
God knew the dynamics of social interaction, love and passion, for He created these dynamics! And He knew the sinful heart of man could be pulled away from loving and serving Him by involvement with those who didn’t follow Him!
- But more than any other Jewish king, Solomon broke the LORD’s command not to “…multiply wives for himself….” ! For we are told I Kings 11:1 through 4:
...King Solomon loved many foreign women...of the
Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hit-
tites — from the nations of whom the LORD had said
to the children of Israel, “You shall not intermar-
ry with them, nor they with you. For surely they
will turn away your hearts after their gods.” Sol-
omon clung to these in love. And he had seven hun-
dred wives, princesses, and three hundred concu-
bines; and his wives turned away his heart...after
other gods....
✡ Eerdmans, The New Bible Dictionary describes
concubines as “A secondary wife acquired by
purchase or as a war captive.....Concubines
were protected under Jewish law though they
were distinquished from wives and were more
easily divorced.” (see Exodus 21:7-11; Deu-
teronomy 21:10-14).
✡ Primary or secondary wives – Solomon had one
thousand of them! I have enough of a challenge
keeping one wife happy. How could Solomon keep
a thousand happy!
✡ We do know that the king made political allian-
ces by marrying foreign princesses, such as the
daughter of Pharoah, king of Egypt (see I Kings
7:8).
- I Kings 11:4 – “…when Solomon was old [probably only in his 50’s]…his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not loyal to the LORD his God….” What other gods?
✡ I Kings 11:15 – “...Ashtoreth the goddess of the
Sidonians....” By Solomon’s time, Ashtoreth (or
Ashtaroth) was the main goddess of the Mediter-
ranean coastal region, and also worshiped across
the territory of Canaan and the Syro-Arabian na-
tions. She was the wife of Baal, chief of the
gods, and the god of war. Ashtoreth was associ-
ated with fertility, sex, love, and war. Accord-
ing to The Old Testament Speaks, by Samuel J.
Shultz (Harper and Rowe Publishers; New York;
1970) p. 92:
Since the gods of the Canaanites had no
moral character, it is not surprising
that the morality of the people was ex-
tremely low. The brutality and immoral-
ity in the stories about these gods is
far worse than anything found in the
Near East....the Canaanites of Joshua’s
day [and later into Solomon’s time]
practiced child sacrifice, sacred pros-
titution, and snake worship in their...
religion. Naturally, their civilization
degenerated under this demoralizing in-
fluence.
✡ I Kings 11:15 – “...Milcom the abomination of the
Ammonites.” An Ammonite form of Baal, Milcom was
the northwest Semitic god of storm and fertility.
Little is known about Milcom except (as described
above) he was “...the abomination of the Ammon-
ites.”
✡ I Kings 11:7 – “...Chemosh the abomination of
Moab....” In the days of the prophet Elisha,
the alliance of Israel, Judah, and Edom attack-
ed the Moabites. Mesha, Moab’s king, retreated
to the Moabite walled city of Kir Haraseth.
Mesha tried to break through with seven hundred
warriors to kill the king of Edom, but failed.
Then the king of Moab took his oldest son,
who would become the next king after him.
On the wall around the city, the king of
Moab offered his son as a burnt offering.
This upset the Israelites very much. So the
Israelites left the king of Moab and went
back to their own land. (II Kings 3:27 –
Easy-to-Read Version).
✡ I Kings 11:17 – “...Molech the abomination of the
people of Ammon.” Although worship of Molech was
promoted by Solomon, we find more information a-
bout this god from the giving of the law in...
➔ Leviticus 18:21 (Contemporary English
Version) – “Don't sacrifice your child-
ren on the altar fires to the god Mo-
lech. I am the LORD your God, and that
would disgrace Me.”
➔ Leviticus 20:2 and 3 (Bible in Basic Eng-
lish) – “If any man of the children of
Israel, or any other man living in Israel,
gives his offspring to Molech, he is cer-
tainly to be put to death: he is to be
stoned by the people of the land; and My
face will be turned against that man, and
he will be cut off from his people; because
he has given his offspring to Molech, mak-
ing My holy place unclean, and making My
holy name common.”
This is not a complete list of the gods Solomon worshiped. For it says in I Kings 11:8, “And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.”
So Solomon, who started out so close to the LORD, ended up in major idolatry! For idolatry is the most grievous of sins into which one can fall!
- And he didn’t affect just himself. All Israel followed his lead!
✡ They worshiped foreign gods!
✡ They disobeyed the LORD!
✡ They sinned and brought down His judgement upon
themselves and the whole nation – which included
Israel splitting into two kingdoms, Israel to the
north and Judah to the south, under the reign of
Solomon’s son Rehoboam.
And the king’s sin affected the nation for at least
three hundred years, until King Josiah destroyed the
high places where Israelites worshiped! (read II Kings
chapter 23). Even after that, the Israelites still
practiced idolatry!
- God addressed idolatry in Deuteronomy 6:4 and 5: “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.”
✡ It is called the Shema, the summation of the
Jewish law!
✞ In Mark 12:29 though 31 (see also Matthew 22:37;
Luke 10:27) Jesus quoted the Shema, and added
Leviticus 19:18:
“The first of all the commandments is:
‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the
LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD
your God with all your heart, with all
your soul, with all your mind, and with
all your strength.’ This is the first.
And the second, like it, is this: ‘You
shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
There is no other commandment greater
than these.”
✞ If, as Jesus said in Matthew 22:38 (New Interna-
tional Version), referring to the first of the
two, “This is the first and greatest commandment
...,” then breaking this first and greatest com-
mandment is the greatest of sins!
✞ Jesus added another ‘twist’ to all this in John
14:15: “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
or “If you love Me, you will obey Me.” (Worldwide
English version). So, if you love God, you are
to obey “...the LORD your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind, and with
all your strength...”!
- Anything less than putting God first in your heart and life is idolatry!
✞ And, if the LORD is vacated from the throne of
your life, the primary thing that will occupy
that throne is your own self!
✡ Solomon replaced God with himself, his own will
and way in place of the LORD’s! He was breaking
“...the first and greatest commandment...”! By
so doing, he committed “...the first and great-
est...” SIN!
But there is one more failure in his kingly record according to Deuteronomy 17:14 through 19, and we will examine that in our next Gem, finishing this four-part study called Discerning Between Good and Evil.