God speaks to Solomon, and tells him that His eyes and His heart will always be with the temple. He warns Solomon that if he or his children turn from God and serve idols, God will cut off Israel from her land and the temple will become a heap of ruins.
There's a brief account of the workers and labor used to build the temple, his palace, his wife's house, etc, and then some talk about ships & sailors Solomon used to import materials like gold.
The queen of Sheba hears about Solomon and doubts what she's told, so she pays Solomon a visit with plans to test his wisdom. When she sees the gradeur of the temple and his palace and kingdom, she is taken aback, and blesses the Lord of Israel. She lavishes gifts on Solomon, and he gives her whatever she desires.
Solomon is really wealthy. Really, really, really wealthy. The weight of gold coming to Solomon every year is 666 talents. Does that mean something? Is it a coincidence? We're just gunna skip that and move on.
He has an ivory throne overlaid with gold, six steps leading up to it, with a pair of lions sitting on either side of each step. He drinks out of gold cups. Nothing is silver, because silver was too cheap in Israel for him to bother with it. Every three years, ships come from Tarshish bringing gold, ivory, silver, apes, and peacocks. (yes, that's right....Apes....). Add on to that lots and lots of gifts lavished on him because he is so beloved and wise. Yep. Solomon is a big deal.
But..... Like his dearly departed father, Solomon is a ladies' man. Much more of one than David, actually... He married all kinds of women outside of the faith. Moabites, Edomites, Ammonites.... all kinds of "ites". He has 700 wives, and 300 concubines. And they turned his heart away from God, and brought idol worship back to Israel. Ashteroth, of course, Milcom, Chemosh.....and the worst of them all (in my opinion).....Molech. Let me take a moment here on Molech. I want to kick Molech in the FACE. Molech was a false god to which people offered their babies as sacrifices. He had a big fire pit on the inside, and there were several compartments in which they put various things. One of the compartments was for a human baby. Molech was so hot from the fire that the baby would burn alive, to it's death. The people would play really loud music to drown out the baby's screaming, in an effort to keep the baby's relatives from changing their minds.
As I've been reading the Old Testament, I have been having issues with seeing life as they saw it back then. A close friend & great spiritual mentor of mine reminded me that sanctity of life is a Judeo-Christian concept which simply didn't exist back then. Still.....things like Molech are just tough for me to swallow. Henceforth, I lost alot of respect for Solomon when I read that he got Israel involved with Molech. That really disappointed me.
God became very angry with Solomon, and tells him that He will tear the kingdom from him, but for David's sake, will not tear it from Solomon, but from Solomon's son.
So God raises up enemies against Solomon. Hadad the Edomite, who has an alliance with the Egyptian Pharoah, and Rezon, who reigned over Syria, and Jeroboam, one of Solomon's servants. A prophet named Ahijah comes to Jeroboam and tells him that God is going to take the kingdom from Solomon, (though He will leave him one tribe, so as to always "keep a lamp" in Israel), and that God is going to give ten tribes into Jeroboam's hand. This being the case, Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam, and so Jeroboam fled to Egypt, where he stayed until Solomon's death.
Now Solomon's son Rehoboam (not to be confused with Jeroboam....) is about to be anointed king after Solomon's death. The people cry out that Solomon put them under heavy labor, and quite frankly, they want a break. Rehoboam sends them away for three days so he can mull things over. The old men counsel him to speak good, soothing words to the people. The inexperienced men counsel him to be harsh to them. In a move that proves he didn't inherit his father's wisdom, he speaks responds harshly to the people. He was only able to reign over Judah. He sent out a boss over the forced labor, and Israel stoned the guy to death. Israel clearly is not taking his crap. Jeroboam shows up on the scene, and all Israel anoints Jeroboam as their king, while Judah still follows Rehoboam. Thus, the prophecy was fufilled.
Jeroboam makes some golden calves, and has Israel start worshipping them and sacrificing to them, and even institutes some new holidays. A man of God comes and rebukes Jeroboam for this wickedness. Jeroboam reaches out to seize him, and his arm shrivels up. The altars are torn down and Jeroboam admits defeat. He asks the man of God to pray for his arm to be restored, and so it is. Then he asks the guy to come home with him and eat, and the guy is like, "Totally not gunna happen.....God commanded me not to. Heck, I can't even go back the same way I came....." and he leaves.
An old prophet in Bethel hears about it, comes to see the man of God, and tells him to come back with him and eat. But the young guy refuses. The old prophet says, "Hey, I'm also a prophet. It's ok...." , so they go off together. God punishes the young prophet by having him killed by a lion after he leaves. The old prophet takes his body back to his home city and has him buried, and asks that when he dies, his bones be buried in the same grave.
Jeroboam didn't learn his lesson, unfortunately, and continues on with the idol worship. His son Abijah (not to be confused with Ahijah, the prophet....good gracious, they made things difficult for us with the names, did they not?) Jeroboam sends his wife (disguised) to Ahijah the prophet to find out what will happen to their son. Naturally, Ahijah immediately knows who she is. He tells her that because of Jeroboam's sin, every male member of the family will perish and that their bodies will lay in the street to be eaten by dogs or in fields to be eatern by birds, except for the young son, who found favor in God's eyes. He will be allowed to die (which he will promptly do as she crosses the threshhold of her house) and be put in a dignified grave. Everyone else goes to the dogs. And God will give Israel up and scatter them because of Jeroboam and all this idol nonsense. So there!
So she goes home, and the young son dies as she steps in. It's said that the rest of the details on Jeroboam are written in "the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of *Israel*." (is this code for 1 or 2 Chronicles? I guess we'll find out soon....I will abbreviate it TBoCKI)
Unfortunately, Judah also turns away from God. Evidently male prostitution was becoming a big problem with them, in addition to "all the abominations" of the people which God drove out from before Israel. Judah got pillaged pretty bad. War was between Jeroboam and Rehoboam constantly. And there's more about Rehoboam in "the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of *Judah*...." (which will now be abbreviated TBoCKJ)
After Rehoboam, Abijam reigns over Judah for 3 years. He did not follow the Lord. Nonetheless, God has him "carry the lamp" so to speak, for the sake of David. And there's more about Abjiam in TBoCKJ.
Next, Asa reigned over Judah, for 41 years. Asa DID follow the Lord. The Israeli king Baasha battled against Asa. Asa took the precious metal out of the temple and sent it to Syria, asking them to break covenant with Israel and ally with Judah. King Ben-hadad of Syria approved, and gave them the military oomph they needed to keep Israel at bay for awhile. Asa winds up with diseased feet and dies. More about Asa in TBoCKJ.
Now in the 2nd year of Asa reigning over Judah, Nadab comes to reign over Israel. He did not follow the Lord. A guy named Baasha conspires against Nadab, and gets Nadab killed and obliterates the entire house of Jeroboam, and Baasha takes the throne. More about Nadab in TBoCKI.
Baasha reigns over Israel for 24 years, and did not follow the Lord.
So we'll finish up 1 Kings in the next post.... And in doing so, I'll be excited to introduce a very important and beloved Biblical figure..... Elijah the prophet :-)
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