Today’s passage: 1 Kings 11:1-8
Helpful thoughts:
- Kings married multiple wives often in the ancient near east in order to ratify treaties.
- God forbade this practice in Deuteronomy 17:17. The reason? So the king’s heart would not turn away from the Lord.
- God also told Israel to marry within their nation (and faith), for the same reason.
- David was not without sin. However, he was also not without repentance. (Psalm 51)
- Repentance is a change in heart and mind which leads to a change in actions.
- Solomon did repent (See Ecclesiastes). But, the consequences of our sin goes farther than we can control.
- The Temple was not the only place of worship that Solomon built in his lifetime.
- A customary form of worship for Chemosh was child sacrifice, giving human children as a burnt offering.
Questions to consider:
- What did the people of Israel see their king doing in all of these other temples and high places? What would the knowledge of King Solomon, who had built and dedicated the Temple to the Lord, worshiping all of these false gods with all of these different wives do for the purity of heart for the nation of Israel?
- Thinking politically as a king with several allies in the region, what might have convinced Solomon, in his own mind, that what he was doing was appropriate and dignified? In what ways had Israel received a king that helped them to be just like all the other nations? (1 Samuel 8:19-20)
- What does becoming like all the other nations result in? What had God called Israel to be among the rest of the world? What has Christ called us to be? (Matthew 5:13-16)