1 Kings 10–13: Fools & Consequences

God, Judgment, Read the Bible in 2023, SinLeave a comment

Read the Bible in 2023 ◊ Week 24: Tuesday

Then she said to the king, “The word is true which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. Nevertheless I did not believe those words, until I came and my eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not declared to me. You exceed, in wisdom and prosperity, the report which I heard. How blessed are your men, how blessed are these your servants who stand before you continually and hear your wisdom. Blessed be Yahweh your God who delighted in you, to set you on the throne of Israel; because Yahweh loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness.”
1 Kings 10:6–9 LSB
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Tuesday’s Bible reading is 1 Kings 10–13. In these chapters Solomon goes from his apex to his nadir, and  as a consequence, after his death the kingdom of Israel becomes divided. Chapter 10 opens with the Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon to hear his wisdom. After hearing his answers to her questions, she acknowledges his great wisdom, and she also acknowledges that God set Solomon on the throne.

“Blessed be Yahweh your God who delighted in you, to set you on the throne of Israel; because Yahweh loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness.”
1 Kings 10:9 LSB
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1 Kings goes on the describe Solomon’s immense wealth and comments:

So King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. And all the earth was seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart. And they brought every man his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses, and mules, a set amount year by year.
1 Kings 10:23–25 LSB
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In chapter 11, Solomon turns away from God, forgetting his own words:

The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge;
Ignorant fools despise wisdom and discipline.
Proverbs 1:7 LSB
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He disobeys God’s clear command, and the king who had been given great wisdom, makes the choices of a fool:

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which Yahweh had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not go along with them, nor shall they go along with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. And he had 700 wives⁠—princesses⁠—and 300 concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.
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Now it happened at the time that Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. And Solomon did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and did not follow Yahweh fully, as David his father had done.
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Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon.
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Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
1 Kings 11:1–8. LSB
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The Lord tells Solomon that because he has not kept God’s covenant or statutes, He will tear the kingdom from Solomon and give it to his servant. For David’s sake, He will not do this while Solomon is alive, but the Lord will do it to his son.

Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas

The last part of chapter 11 lists some of Solomon’s adversaries, including Jeroboam, of the tribe of Ephraim and the son of one of Solomon’s servants. The prophet Abijah tells Jeroboam that God will tear ten tribes of Israel away from Solomon and give them to him and build an enduring house for him if he will follow the Lord.

Solomon dies at the end of chapter 11, and in chapter 12, his son Rehoboam becomes king. As a new king, rather than listening to the counsel of elders who had served his father and lightening the hard service and heavy yoke Solomon had laid on Israel, Rehoboam foolishly listens to the advice of young men he grew up with, and he tells the people he will make their yoke even heavier. Consequently, except for the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, Israel rebels and makes Jeroboam their king.

Jeroboam, in turn, foolishly rebels against God by setting up two golden calves to be the people’s gods to keep them from returning to Judah to worship God at the temple in Jerusalem. He institutes his own feasts and sacrifices, making priests of men who are not of the tribe of Levi. In spite of warning, Jeroboam does not repent, bringing judgment upon his household.

These three men, Solomon, Rehoboam, and Jeroboam, had been given so much—especially Solomon—but they threw kingdoms away in rebellion against God. They did not fear God; they despised wisdom and instruction; they consequently brought God’s judgment upon themselves.

One thing that’s been fascinating to see while going through different books of the Bible simultaneously has been the juxtaposition of Scripture and the way in which the Word of God fits together. The tabernacle, the building of the temple, and the destruction of the temple were all read about within a few days. After starting Proverbs about two weeks ago, today’s reading was about the demise of Solomon’s wisdom and the breaking up of his kingdom. May we heed the wisdom they did not.

The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge;
Ignorant fools despise wisdom and discipline.
Proverbs 1:7 LSB

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Silvesterzug Laterne: Bk muc. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas (Vanity of vanities, all is vanity): Isaak Asknaziy. Public Domain.

I’m using Michael Coley’s Bible reading plan (one page PDF to print) to read through the Bible in 2023. Each day my posts are on different books because he divides Bible readings into seven categories, one for each day of the week: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Gospels. There’s more information on his plan and other ones at Read the Bible in 2023.

Copyright ©2021–2023 Iwana Carpenter

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