Bible in one year 6/9/ 2022 1 Kings Chapter 11-13 The Downfall of Solomon, the divided kingdom By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce

Bible in one year 6/9/ 2022 1 Kings Chapter 11-13 The Downfall of Solomon, the divided kingdom

By Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce

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1Kings 11 The Downfall of King Solomon : Seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, which led his heart after their gods.

             King Solomon was obliged to allow his foreign wives to worship their own gods, a contagion which ultimately affected the king himself. Solomon loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter –Aoabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 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.” (v.2). He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines. After Solomon grew old, his wives turned his hearts after other gods. And his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord. (vv.4-5). He built a high place for Chemosh, and detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.(vv.7-8).

            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. The Lord said, to Solomon, “ I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. For the sake of David his father, the Lord will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 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.”(v.11-13). One tribe. I.e., Judah, to which Benjamin was indissolubly connected, for Jerusalem straddled the territory of both tribes (11:32; 12:21). Simeon, the tribes S. of Judah, had apparently migrated N. and was counted with the ten northern tribes (1Chron.12:23-25;2 Chron.15:9;34:6).

            The Lord raised up three adversaries against Solomon, first Hadad the Edomite, from the royal line of Edom.(v.14). Second, Rezon son of Eliada, who had  fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah. 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.(vv.23-25).Third, Jeroboam son of Nebat rebelled against the king.(v.26). While the S. part of Solomon’s kingdom was taken by Hadad, Rezon whittled away at it in the N.

 The Prophecy of Ahija to Jeroboam, “ take ten pieces for your self 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. 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…(vv.31-32). Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king. The Sheshonk I, who reigned 945-924 and gave invaded Palestine, exacting heavy tribute from Judah (14:25-26). Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. Then he rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king. (vv.42-43).

 1King 12 The Divided Kingdom between Rehoboam and  Jeroboam

            Rehoboam son of Solomon went to Shechem, it was in the territory of Ephraim, near present day Nablus (Judg.9:1). For all the Israelites had gone there to make him king. (v.1) Whole assembly said to him, “ your father  put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”(v.4). But Rehoboam didn’t consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon, but listened to his young men’s advice. Rehoboam followed the adivice of the young men and said, “ My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier.” So the king did not listen to the people, for this trun of events was from the Lord, to fulfill the word of the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.(vv.14-15).  The Lord was using these events to accomplish His will. Rehoboam, not realizing that the break was final, sent the worst possible representative, Adoniram (4:6;5:14), who had been in charge of the forced labor.  But Israel stoned him to death. Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.(vv.18-19).

            Rehoboam in Jerusalem, mustered the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin to make war against the house of Israel. But the Word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God: say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin and to the rest of the people, “ this is what the Lord says, “ Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.”(vv.22-24). So they obeyed the Word of the Lord.

            Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of  Ephraim and lived there. Jeroboam cleverly placed one golden calf in Bethel, which was on the road to Jerusalem and eleven miles N., and the other calf in the northernmost part of his kingdom, Dan. And this became a sin; the people went even as far as Dan to worship the one there. Jeroboam built shrines on high places Jeroboam also infiltrated the priesthood with non-Levites.(v.31) This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made.(v.32).

 1Kings  Chapter 13  The Man of God came from Judah to Bethel, Jeroboam didn’t change his evil way

            By the  Word of the Lord a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. He cried out against the altar, altar! This is what the Lord says, “ A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who now make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.”(vv.2-3). This remarkable prediction, specifically naming of Josiah, was fulfilled about three hundred years later (2Kings 23:15-20).  The king Jeroboam said to the man of God, “come home with me and have something to eat, and I will give you a gift.”(v.7). But the man of God refused it, for the Lord commanded him, “You must not eat bread or drink water here or return by the way you came”. An old prophet invited the man of God from Judah to eat with him, (vv.18-22) like Balaam, this prophet had true prophetic gifts but was guilty of worldly self-promotion. As a consequence, he lied in order to get the prophet from Judah to stay with him, then announced his doom, thus currying favor with Jeroboam. The man of God from Judah, didn’t realize that the old prophet lied that the Lord told him to eat bread and drink water,  so he ate bread and drank water at his home. As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was thrown down on the road, with both the donkey, and the lion standing beside it. The old prophet brought it back to his own city and mourned for him and bury him, for he lied to him. He said to his sons, “ when I die, bury me in the grace where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. For the message he declared by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Smaria will certainly come true.”(vv.31-32).

  Even after this Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places. This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth.(vv.33-34).

Bibliography,

 Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie study Bible (NIV).Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986