History – 1 Kings 10-13

Human being is limited by time; we cannot go back to any specific era or time to see what happened then, so we need to read the recorded histories in words printed onto the pages of the books to know the past. So as we read the histories in the Bible, with a flip of just one page, sometimes we are actually looking at the happenings through a period of 5 to 10 years, or even more.

So today’s 4 chapters we are reading through, has a time span of over 40 years, ie. from the reign of Solomon until his death, and to the splitting up of the nation of Israel.

Bible Passage: 1 Kings 10 to 13

Within these 4 chapters we are reading today, first we will see that it was filled with glory of the kingdom under Solomon, and how his wisdom had fascinated people from all over the earth. Then, the turn of event came when Solomon turned his back to God and worshipped the strange gods that his wives worshipped. The flow of events is as follows:

The queen of Sheba came to Solomon to find out for herself if what she had heard about Solomon’s great wisdom was true, and she was truly amazed by Solomon’s wisdom and all that he had done for his kingdom.

Solomon had a great collection of precious things, he also had many wives and concubines in his possessions, and it was these foreign wives and concubines that led to his downfall. These wives and concubines, a total of 700 and 300 in number respectively, turned Solomon’s heart towards their idols.

Being a good husband, Solomon listened to these foreign wives to build high places for their idols. This greatly grieved and angered God, and He raised up adversaries to punish Solomon, and God also prophesied that the kingdom of Israel would be torn away from Solomon and 10 tribes be given to Jeroboam. But because of the promise which God had made to David, God allowed Solomon to remain on his throne throughout his life.

After the death of Solomon, his son Rehoboam became king, and it was Rehoboam that the 10 tribes left him due to his unreasonable treatments towards the people. So the 10 tribes made Jeroboam their king over them instead, while Rehoboam remained king in Judah. Jeroboam made 2 golden calves and housed them in shrines, one in Bethel and another in Dan for the people to worship. He did this as he feared that the people might turn back to serve Rehoboam if they continued to return to Jerusalem to worship God.

In chapter 13, a man of God was sent by God to pronounce woe against the altar at Bethel, and also prophesied that Josiah from the lineage of David would destroy the high places. This prophet was specifically commanded by God not to tarry at Bethel to eat and not to take the same route while leaving Bethel, but he failed under the trick of an old prophet and was killed by a lion.

The wisdom of Solomon was truly extraordinary; no one could deny that, whether be it then or now. The words of admiration that came out of the mouth of queen of Sheba gave me the impression that Solomon was like God to her. His God given wisdom exceeded all other kings on earth, that was the great grace of God towards Solomon.

BUT! Who angered God and caused the splitting up of the nation of Israel eventually? If you were to be God, how would you feel? If I were to be God, I would have just rejected Solomon there and then, and let him face his own consequences. But our True God is merciful and faithful, even when we have been faithless and cruel to turn our back on Him.

When God created man, He gave him the ABILITY to choose things. This ability to choose comes from the wisdom that God has put in man. God made man in His image; therefore man has many attributes of God in him. But does man manifest all of God’s attributes? I believe our answer is a definite “No”.

To manifest the attributes of God takes one’s willingness to do so, likewise in Solomon’s case, he asked for divine wisdom to lead the people of God, and God answered his prayers and from the first 2 chapters we have read, we can see Solomon’s wisdom was indeed extraordinary, more than what God had already put in man. But did Solomon exercise this wisdom on ALL things?

The answer is clear. He married Pharaoh’s daughter, which could be a wise political move in the eyes of man, but was it really a wise move in the sight of God? From today’s reading, we have the answer. Solomon seemed to have totally forgotten the presence and providence of God when it came to the matter of marriage! One did not have to have divine wisdom to decide whether or not to marry a foreign wife who did not believe in the True God! For it was clearly commanded by God, 1King 11:2,

from the nations of whom the LORD had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.

And also from Deuteronomy 17: 17,

Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself.

From this act of Solomon, I think it gives us a very good warning about our lives as Christians. God gives us abundant grace; and it now depends on us, whether or not to misuse His grace. Apostle Paul admonishes us, Galatians 5:13,

For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

It is because there is a tendency to misuse the liberty we have in Christ as an opportunity for the flesh, so that was why Paul needed to warn us about it. Just as the warning, “Do not quench the Spirit”, also tells us that we are capable of quenching the Spirit.

So we must take heed to the warnings in the Bible, exercise our self control through the power of the word of God and of the Holy Spirit. God gives us gifts to improve the quality of our spiritual lives, and not only that, He also wants us to benefit others with the grace and gifts that He had freely given to us.

Solomon had obviously misused the wisdom and grace that God had given to him, especially in pleasing his wives and concubines by obeying their wants to worship their own gods. Solomon was overwhelmed and blinded by his fleshly desires that he went on to build high places for the people to worship these false gods, and it sparked off a whole chain of disasters one after another in the nation of Israel.

His obedience to God prospered the nation of Israel, but his disobedience brought punishment to the people of God. Do we know that sometimes our decisions and actions can cause a lot of changes, be it good or bad, to the people around us? Again, the decision is ours, for we have the ability to choose, so we must use the wisdom that God has given us into good and appropriate uses.

The son of Solomon, Rehoboam, did not exercise any wisdom right from the time he succeeded the throne. He would rather listen to his inexperience peers than to listen to the elders who worked with Solomon during his reign. These elders who served Solomon must have learnt many things through the wisdom which God had blessed Solomon with, 1Ki 12:7

And they spoke to him, saying, “If you will be a servant to these people today, and serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.”

Do these words remind you of what our Lord told His disciples? Mat 20:25 – 26

But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them.

Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.

What the elders had spoken were actually words of divine wisdom, as they were in line with the mind of the Heavenly Father, Who came as Jesus to set us an example of what is called “great”. Indeed the greatest virtue of a leader is to know how to serve the people.

The incident of the man of God who was killed by a lion because he had not obeyed the word of the Lord, had left a deep impression in my mind ever since I read it long ago. I wondered why the old prophet must trick the man of God in this way. I have no answer to this, but if you do, please share it with me and our readers. Frankly this incident does remind and warn me to hold fast to the teachings and instructions in the Bible. Many times I am guilty of putting aside the teachings in the Bible to fulfill my weaknesses in the flesh.

As Christians, we must understand that the Word of God is absolute and sure, there is no compromise in any ways. But if we put full trust in the Word, it becomes a soothing balm to our soul and we can also see God in His majesty.

This music video sings about the Word of God that speaks to us. There is one part of the lyrics that touches my heart, it says, “The word of God speak, would You pour down like rain, washing my eyes to see Your majesty…”

I’ll leave the rest for you to enjoy.