February 3, 2016
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Turned…Torn…

Please see the links to our EXTRA Bible Study notes at the bottom of the page.

Opening Prayer

Great Shepherd, Your voice I know. You lead me beside still waters, Your love restores my soul. I thank You for Your gentle care.

Read 1 KINGS 11:1-43

For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.

[1] King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter-Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. [2] They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. [3] He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. [4] As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. [5] He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. [6] So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done. [7] On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. [8] He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods. [9] The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. [10] Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD’s command. [11] So the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. [12] Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. [13] Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.” [14] Then the LORD raised up against Solomon an adversary, Hadad the Edomite, from the royal line of Edom. [15] Earlier when David was fighting with Edom, Joab the commander of the army, who had gone up to bury the dead, had struck down all the men in Edom. [16] Joab and all the Israelites stayed there for six months, until they had destroyed all the men in Edom. [17] But Hadad, still only a boy, fled to Egypt with some Edomite officials who had served his father. [18] They set out from Midian and went to Paran. Then taking people from Paran with them, they went to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave Hadad a house and land and provided him with food. [19] Pharaoh was so pleased with Hadad that he gave him a sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes, in marriage. [20] The sister of Tahpenes bore him a son named Genubath, whom Tahpenes brought up in the royal palace. There Genubath lived with Pharaoh’s own children. [21] While he was in Egypt, Hadad heard that David rested with his ancestors and that Joab the commander of the army was also dead. Then Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me go, that I may return to my own country.” [22] “What have you lacked here that you want to go back to your own country?” Pharaoh asked. “Nothing,” Hadad replied, “but do let me go!” [23] And God raised up against Solomon another adversary, Rezon son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah. [24] When David destroyed Zobah’s army, Rezon gathered a band of men around him and became their leader; they went to Damascus, where they settled and took control. [25] Rezon was Israel’s adversary as long as Solomon lived, adding to the trouble caused by Hadad. So Rezon ruled in Aram and was hostile toward Israel. [26] Also, Jeroboam son of Nebat rebelled against the king. He was one of Solomon’s officials, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, and his mother was a widow named Zeruah. [27] Here is the account of how he rebelled against the king: Solomon had built the terraces and had filled in the gap in the wall of the city of David his father. [28] Now Jeroboam was a man of standing, and when Solomon saw how well the young man did his work, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the tribes of Joseph. [29] About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country, [30] and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. [31] Then he said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hand and give you ten tribes. [32] But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe. [33] I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molek the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in obedience to me, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my decrees and laws as David, Solomon’s father, did. [34] “‘But I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon’s hand; I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose and who obeyed my commands and decrees. [35] I will take the kingdom from his son’s hands and give you ten tribes. [36] I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name. [37] However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. [38] If you do whatever I command you and walk in obedience to me and do what is right in my eyes by obeying my decrees and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you. [39] I will humble David’s descendants because of this, but not forever.'” [40] Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king, and stayed there until Solomon’s death. [41] As for the other events of Solomon’s reign-all he did and the wisdom he displayed-are they not written in the book of the annals of Solomon? [42] Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. &#

91;43] Then he rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Prov. 4:23). Unfortunately, Solomon’s heart was divided, with disastrous results.

The previous seven chapters have dramatically presented the magnificence of Solomon’s reign, culminating in the visit of the Queen of Sheba who was left breathless (10:5) over his splendid building projects, his flourishing import-export businesses, so much gold everywhere–silver was just like pebbles (10:21,27) and his horses and chariots. The narrator does not foreground his evaluation in these chapters, but the reader of the long story will notice how every warning to Israel about having a king (Deut. 17:14-17) is being fulfilled.

But now in this chapter the sky clouds over and the narrator’s axe descends. Notice the repeated act of turning away (2,3,4,9). Verse 4 says (literally) that Solomon’s heart “was not complete towards God”; verse 6 says that he did not follow God “completely.” If this chapter were set to music, there would be soft sinister notes when the nationalities are mentioned in verse 1; a turbulent full orchestra would strike up at the numbers of women mentioned in verse 3; and the loudest and most discordant notes would come with the horrible names Ashtoreth, Chemosh and Molek! Although the chapter notes that Solomon was getting old and it was, apparently, his wives not himself who were worshiping and offering sacrifice to their gods, it is clear that he is stubborn in this matter (11: “THIS is how it is with you,” literally); and the rot of these foreign marriages had started years earlier with his marriage (“How shrewd! How strategic!” his advisers might have said) to the Pharaoh’s daughter (1 Kings 3:1).

The narrator of Kings chides Solomon for his jarring disobedience to the Lord, not for his sensuality or amoral living. Cult (religion), conduct and culture cohere. Fragmenting forces were at work before Solomon died, ready to burst out. The death of a strong leader is often followed by a time of huge cultural stress.

Apply

Has God torn anything out of Your hands recently (34ff)? What do you see as God’s purpose in doing this?

Closing prayer

Forgive me, Lord, for my disobediences. Remind me again that obedience is the way to fullness of joy in You.

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