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Chapter 11: Solomon's Moral Failures Displease Yahweh
1 Kings 11:1-8 ~ Solomon's foreign wives
See the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 11:23-12:1. Solomon was influenced by his pagan wives and the pagan spirit of tolerance for the gods of neighboring peoples. Israel was unique among the nations of the ancient world in her worship of the One God. The number of Solomon's wives and concubines may be typological since they add up to the number 1,000, a number that signifies great abundance (see Song of Songs 3:8 which gives the count of 60 wives, 80 concubines, and countless virgins).
Solomon's many wives and concubines reflect his importance in the ancient Near East and the extent to which other kingdoms sent gifts of royal sisters, daughters, and beautiful women. Documents of other great kingdoms record an amazing number of women in the royal harems. Solomon's son's loss of status in the region is reflected in the number of women in his harem: eighteen wives and sixty concubines (2 Chr 11:21).
Solomon not only married pagan woman but built shrines for their pagan gods including the Canaanite gods and goddess Astarte, Milcom/Molech, and Chemosh. He became devoted (meaning he offered sacrifices) to Astarte, also called in the Bible Asherah. Astarte/Asherah was worshipped by the Canaanites and the Phoenicians of Sidon and the city of Tyre where there seems to have been a major center for her veneration. The other two pagan gods for whom Solomon built shrines were gods from the east side of the Jordan River, Chemosh the Moabite god and Milcom/Molech the Ammonite god. Both deities were the chief gods of the descendants of Abraham's nephew Lot from his incestuous relationship with his daughters (Gen 19:30-38).
- Astarte/Asherah: chief goddess of the Canaanites and Phoenicians. The goddess was presented as the wife of the chief deity El but later was identified as the goddess consort of El's son, Baal. Her cult became prominent in Israel during the reign of King Ahab and his wife Queen Jezebel of Sidon (1Kng 18:19).
- Chemosh god of the Moabites: Moab is called "the people of Chemosh" (Num 21:29; Jer 48:46). The judge Jephthah said that Chemosh had given Moab its land (Judg 11:24). His "high place" will later be destroyed by Davidic King Josiah who reigned from c. 640-609 BC (2 Kng 23:13). Evidence of this deity has been found in a Moabite stela called the "Mesha stela" after the Moabite king who ordered its inscription, giving credit to Chemosh for the Moabite victory over Israel in the 8th century BC.
- Milcom god of the Ammonites: The cult of Milcom/Milkom/Molech is not mentioned outside the Bible. The practice of child sacrifice to this god by burning a child alive is called an abomination to Yahweh and is condemned (Lev 18:21; 20:2-5; 1 Kng 11:7; 2 Kng 23:10; Jer 32:35; called Moloch in Amos 5:26; Acts 7:43). Like Solomon's shrine to Chemosh, King Josiah, a descendant of Solomon, demolished it (2 Kng 23:13).
The root of Solomon's downfall was his marriages to many pagan women who "led his heart astray" from Yahweh, the very danger of which Israel was warned by Moses in Deuteronomy 7:1-4.
Chastisement of Solomon for breaking the covenant laws
1 Kings 11:9-13 ~ Yahweh's anger and divine judgment
Israel's kings were not like the kings of other nations. The king of Israel was God's anointed servant and was answerable to Yahweh for his actions. He served at Yahweh's pleasure and was bound by the Law of the commandments and the limiting "Laws of a King" in Deuteronomy 17:14-20.
Questions: Read the "Laws of a King" of Israel in Deuteronomy 17:14-20 and compare those laws with Solomon's list of failures in 1 Kings 10:14-26. #1: In addition to taking pagan wives, serving their pagan gods, and turning over the land of Israel in the Galilee to a foreign power, what other laws did Solomon break from the list of the "Laws of a King" that he was supposed to read every day of his life? #2: What was his chief failure listed in the Laws for Kings?
Answer: #1:
| LIMITED POWER OF A KING Deuteronomy 17:14-20 | SOLOMON'S FAILURE AS A KING 1 Kings 5:6; 10:14-29 |
| He must not acquire many horses (Dt 17:16a) | Solomon had 12 thousand horses (1 Kng 5:6, 10:25-28) |
| He must not send to Egypt to increase the power of his army (Dt 17:16b) | Solomon imported a chariot from Egypt and built up a force of chariots and cavalry (1 Kng 10:26-29) |
| He must not have many wives (Dt 17:17a) | Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kng 11:3) |
| He must not acquire vast quantities of wealth (Dt 17:17b) | The weight of gold received annually by Solomon amounted to 666 talents of gold (1 Kng 10:14) |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright © 2000 www.AgapeBibleStudy.com | |
#2: Solomon's chief failure was that he became so proud and powerful in material wealth and influence that he forgot to fear offending God (verse 19 of the Laws for Kings).
Question: What is God's judgment for Solomon's covenant failures?
Answer: His dynasty will lose the Kingdom of Israel and will only retain one other tribe besides his own tribe of Judah. This will not happen during Solomon's lifetime only because of God's love for his father, David.
Four times God will tell Solomon He will show mercy to him for the sake of David his father in 11:12, 13, 32 and 34. Yahweh and the inspired writer will mention David's name sixteen times in the text from 11:4-39 to contrast Solomon's failure in his relationship with Yahweh with David's fidelity to Yahweh.
1 Kings 11:14-40 ~ God Lifts His Hand of Protection: Solomon's Enemies
Solomon's foreign enemies: 1 Kings 11:14-25
Yahweh plans three judgments for Solomon: two foreign enemies and a domestic enemy. Because of Solomon's covenant failures and the failures of the covenant people as a whole, God will lift His hand of protection for Israel from foreign aggression. The House of David will lose the kingdom of a united Israel, but God will not reject His covenant with David. David's throne will remain secure but it will, however, be diminished as the kingdom of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.
Solomon's domestic enemies: the revolt of Jeroboam ~ 1 Kings 11:26-40
Question: What was Jeroboam's tribal affiliation?
Answer: He was a descendant of Joseph son of Jacob-Israel and was a member of the half tribe of Joseph's son Ephraim, the son who was recognized as Joseph and Israel's chief heir.
Question: The tearing of the cloak by the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh is a prophetic ot in the presence of Jeroboam. An ot is an act that symbolizes a future event. What is the action and what is the symbolic meaning of the act? Notice that the "newness" of the garment is stresses twice in verses 29 and 30.
Answer: Jeroboam is wearing a new coat. The prophet tears the new cloak into 12 pieces, symbolizing the division of the United Kingdom into a new kingdom. The new cloak represents a new regime and a new kingdom of Israel that will be founded by Jeroboam. The twelve pieces represent the 12 tribes of Israel. The prophet offers 10 pieces to Jeroboam, representing 10 tribes that will compose his Northern Kingdom of Israel.
The identify of Jeroboam as a servant of Solomon and the tearing of the cloak and its symbolic meaning fulfills the prophecy in verse 11: Yahweh therefore said to Solomon, "Since you have behaved like this and have not kept my covenant or the laws which I laid down for you, I shall tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants.
The Death of King Solomon
1 Kings 11:41-43 ~ The end of the reign of King Solomon and his death
The "Annals of Solomon" is probably the record of Solomon's reign written by Nathan the prophet and possibly completed by his son or successor (2 Chr 9:29). The book is lost to history. Rehoboam was Solomon's son by an Ammonite princess named Naamah (1 Kng 14:21).
He began his reign as a wise man, but he ended his life as a fool.
And what became of the promise of the everlasting king of the Davidic covenant? Most Jewish scholars see Solomon as the promised Davidic king of the everlasting kingdom. However, St. Augustine wrote that Solomon was not the Messiah promised by God: "God promised that something everlasting would spring from David's seed. Then Solomon was born, and he became a man of such profound wisdom that everyone supposed God's promise concerning David's offspring had been fulfilled in him. But no, Solomon fell and so made room for people to stretch their hope toward Christ. God can neither be deceived nor deceive us, so we can be certain that he did not ground his promise in Solomon, for he knew Solomon would fall. The divine purpose was that after Solomon's fall you would look to God and earnestly press him for what he had promised"(Augustine, Exposition 2 of Psalm 88:6-7).
CHALLENGE: “Why should we reject the gods and goddesses that are worshipped by many cultures? Why should the Christian God be the only one?”
DEFENSE: Divine revelation makes clear there is a single God who created the world.
God is infinite and uncreated, but there are also finite, created spirits known as angels (CCC 328-29). They are God’s servants and messengers (the word “angel”—Hebrew, mal’akh, Greek, angelos—means “messenger”). Some serve God but others have fallen and oppose him (CCC 391–93).
The Christian faith thus envisions a heavenly hierarchy with the infinite, uncreated God at the top and created, finite spirits under him—some of whom have become evil. The good angels may be venerated as such, but they are merely servants of God and so are not to be given the worship owed to God (Col. 2:18; Rev. 19:10, 22:8–9).
By contrast, many in the Greco-Roman world acknowledged the existence of a single, supreme God but did not worship him. Instead, they worshipped lesser, created beings, such as Zeus (Jupiter) and Apollo. They also acknowledged the existence of inferior spirits, which could be good or evil and which were not worshipped (Ramsay MacMullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire, 12–13).
In Greek, the term “god” (theos) applied to both the great God and the created ones, while the term “demon” (daimonion) applied to the inferior, potentially evil spirits.
Christians agreed there is a great God and that there are lesser spirits who could be called demons. The main issue was how to treat the middle category of finite “gods.”
Divine revelation made it clear only the true God is to be worshipped (Exod. 20:2–6; Deut. 5:6 10), and there are no other beings equal to him (Isa. 43:10, 44:6, 8). Therefore, Christians reasoned, the term “god” (theos) should not be applied to the pagan deities. To the extent they even exist, they would be inferior spirits or “demons” (daimoniōn; cf. 1 Cor. 10:20, MacMullen, 17–19).
The Christian critique of pagan deities thus is not that there aren’t finite, created spirits, but that they are fundamentally different from and inferior to God and not worthy of worship.
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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