THE QUEEN OF SHEBA VISITS SOLOMON
Solomon’s wisdom, wealth and fame became world renown. The Queen of Sheba had to come and see first hand, this great man of wisdom and wealth. She arrived in Israel with a huge entourage of servants and camels with many gifts for King Solomon. Her caravan brought more spices into Israel then ever before or since. She also gave Solomon 9,000 pounds of gold. What she had heard in her country afar off, was not even the half of what she discovered in person. She presented the King with endless questions and problems; to which Solomon had the perfect answers and explanations. Solomon amazed her. What she saw with her own two eyes was so beyond what she had been told. After exhausting all of her questions and spending endless hours with the King, she went back to her own land; enlightened by the experience. She acknowledged the LORD God of Israel and how He had blessed Solomon with wealth of wisdom and wealth of prosperity.
1 Kings 10:8-11 ESV Happy are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! (9) Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the LORD loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness." (10) Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones. Never again came such an abundance of spices as these that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. (11) Moreover, the fleet of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a very great amount of almug wood and precious stones.
SOLOMON’S FOREIGN WIVES TURN HIM AWAY FROM THE LORD
Solomon loved many foreign women and took wives from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from among the Hittites; he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. These pagan women asked Solomon to build shrines to their gods so that they could still worship in their paganism.
1 Kings 11:1-2 ESV Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, (2) from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, "You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods." Solomon clung to these in love.
Little compromises to please his wives led to Solomon’s faithfulness in the LORD to erode. In time, Solomon had actually begun to worship these gods with his pagan wives. He built an alter to the Moabite god Chemosh a pagan god that requires the sacrifice of children to be made upon its altar and then thrown in the fire.
1 Kings 11:4-8 ESV For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. (5) For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. (6) So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done. (7) Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. (8) And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.
The LORD had instructed Israel through Moses and Joshua, that the pagan people of Canaan were to be utterly destroyed and under no circumstances were any of the Israelites to ever marry among the heathen. The LORD knew that if Israel would intermarry among the pagan, that it would lead to paganism spreading in the land and Israel would become a polluted nation, like all of the rest of the world. Solomon broke this command from the LORD. The LORD was very angry with Solomon. The Kingdom of Israel would be ripped away from Solomon; not in his lifetime, but from his son who would follow. It would be taken away and given to a servant. For the sake of David’s faithfulness, the LORD would keep one tribe as a heritage to David, but the rest of Israel would be ruled by a servant.
1 Kings 11:9-13 ESV And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice (10) and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the LORD commanded. (11) Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, "Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. (12) Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. (13) However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen."
Solomon ruled over all of Israel for forty years and then died. He was buried in the City of David. His son Rehoboam ruled after him.
1 Kings 11:42-43 ESV And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. (43) And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.
Heavenly Father, we need you in our lives continuously. If left to ourselves, we too will fall as Solomon did. Lead us into your righteousness and favor, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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