The story
of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon is famous. It has been fictionalized and made into
something it was not.
However, it
illustrates the fame of Solomon’s wisdom.
The Queen of Sheba was probably from the Arabian Peninsula. She likely came from modern-day Yemen, which
is approximately 1400 miles from Jerusalem. Traveling with a large train of camels as 1 Kings
10 tells us she did, the trip would have taken at least 70 days each way. This is a long time for a monarch to be away
from her kingdom. However, having heard
of Solomon’s wisdom, the Queen of Sheba made the trip in order to test Solomon
with hard questions.
It is
instructive to hear what she had to say.
Here is what she said:
“Everything I heard in my country
about your achievements and wisdom is true! I didn’t believe what was said until I arrived
here and saw it with my own eyes. In
fact, I had not heard the half of it! Your
wisdom and prosperity are far beyond what I was told. How happy your people must be! What a privilege for your officials to stand
here day after day, listening to your wisdom! Praise the LORD your God, who delights in you
and has placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the LORD’s eternal love for Israel,
he has made you king so you can rule with justice and righteousness.” (1Kings 10:6-9) [i]
In spite of
all his great wisdom and knowledge, Solomon’s life ended on a very sad note.
This is
what the Lord said to Solomon:
“Since you have not kept my
covenant and have disobeyed my decrees, I will surely tear the kingdom away
from you and give it to one of your servants. But for the sake of your father, David, I will
not do this while you are still alive. I
will take the kingdom away from your son. And even so, I will not take away the entire
kingdom; I will let him be king of one tribe, for the sake of my servant David
and for the sake of Jerusalem, my chosen city.” (1 Kings 11:11-13)
Because of
what Solomon had done, the Lord took the kingdom away from him. It was only because of David that his name
was not wiped off the face of the earth.
1 Kings 11:6 tells us that Solomon did what was evil in the Lord’s
sight. Solomon did not just behave badly,
he did evil. It is one thing to say he
exercised poor judgment, but it is entirely different to say he did evil.
We can
learn much from Solomon’s bad example.
We can learn the mistake to avoid and the way to avoid that mistake.
1 Kings
11:1 says, “Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh’s daughter, he married women
from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from among the Hittites.”
In 1 Kings
3:1, we saw that King Solomon started his reign by marrying the daughter of
Pharaoh. This would have been a marriage
sealing a treaty. 1 Kings 11:3 tells us
Solomon had 700 wives of royal birth. Since
these wives were of royal birth, we can assume they were treaty marriages. However, these were not just treaty marriages
to Solomon, Solomon loved these women. This
is the fact that 1 Kings 11:1 is stressing. Verse 2 repeats the fact that
Solomon loved these women.
There are
two points that come into play here.
The first
point is political expediency. Because
of his great wisdom and understanding, Solomon was able to build political
alliances and power through marriage.
Therefore, we understand he had a strong desire or need to build his
kingdom. This desire was a motivation
for his many marriages.
The second
point is physical desire. Wisdom did not
turn off Solomon’s physical appetites.
However, it did make him better able to acquire what he wanted. It is obvious from his great number of wives,
money and horses that he was very good at acquiring.
The New
Testament speaks of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the
boastful pride of life. 1 John 2:16
lists these as all that the world offers.
Solomon took the world up on all it offered, and his wisdom helped
him. Solomon had more of what the world
offers than any person before him, nor has any person matched him since that
time.
1 Kings
11:2 says, “The LORD had clearly instructed the people of Israel, ‘You must not
marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods.’ Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway.”
This verse
states the clarity with which the Lord had given His instruction. In addition the Lord gave these instructions
more than once. Deuteronomy 17:16-17 is
a case in point when it says:
The king must not build up a large
stable of horses for himself or send his people to Egypt to buy horses, for the
LORD has told you, ‘You must never return to Egypt.’ The king must not take many wives for himself,
because they will turn his heart away from the LORD. And he must not accumulate large amounts of
wealth in silver and gold for himself.
Solomon did
all three of the things prohibited here.
He acquired horses, wives and money.
Not only that, but the first thing he did was to go back to Egypt, make
a treaty and marry Pharaoh’s daughter.
He might just as well have spit on a copy of Deuteronomy 17.
As for the
issue of taking many wives, the Lord gives a reason for the prohibition. He says, “They will turn his heart away from
the LORD.” This is exactly what happened
to Solomon. It says in 1 Kings 11:4, “They
turned his heart to worship other gods.”
Having great wisdom was no protection from the consequences of sin.
Solomon built
temples, high places and altars for these gods, and he bowed and worshipped
before them. Let’s consider two of these
gods that Solomon bowed and worshipped before, Ashtoreth and Molech.
Ashtoreth
was a female goddess of war and fertility.
She was worshipped as Ishtar, Aphrodite and Venus. Her worship was physical and involved both
male and female shrine prostitutes and was lascivious in the extreme.
Molech was
the protecting father of the Ammonites, and was one of the most, if not the
most, detestable of false gods. The
worship of Molech is most notable for child sacrifices where infants were put
alive into a blazing furnace. Scripture
calls this “causing children to pass through the fire.” (Deuteronomy 12:31, 2 Kings 21:6)
Not only
were these foolish, lifeless idols, the worship of these idols involved evil
practices beyond belief.
How could
the wisest man who ever lived be so foolish?
Simple, he
disregarded the word of the Lord. This
is the mistake to avoid.
Some verses
call it despising the word of the Lord. (2
Samuel 12:9, Isaiah 30:12, Jeremiah 23:17)
Solomon showed complete contempt for Deuteronomy 17 and the clear
instructions written there.
Even though
the Lord clearly warned Solomon, 1 Kings 11:2 says that Solomon insisted on
loving these women. 1 Kings 11:10 says,
“He had warned Solomon specifically about worshiping other gods, but Solomon
did not listen to the LORD’s command.”
This is the
definition of folly. The wisest man who
ever lived is also one of the biggest fools that ever lived. However, before we get too self-righteous, remember
that Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (ESV)[ii] How are we to escape such folly?
It is
simple. God gave instruction for the
king and this is what He said:
“When he sits on the throne as
king, he must copy for himself this body of instruction on a scroll in the
presence of the Levitical priests. He
must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives. That way he will learn to fear the LORD his
God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees. This regular reading will prevent him from
becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens. It will also prevent him from turning away
from these commands in the smallest way. And it will ensure that he and his descendants
will reign for many generations in Israel.
(Deuteronomy 17:18-20)
How often
does the Lord say, “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s
desires?” (Psalm 37:4) How clearly does God warn us, “Do not love
this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do
not have the love of the Father in you”
(1 John 2:15)?
God gave
instructions to the kings of Israel to read God’s word every day. He gave the same sort of directions to Joshua
when He placed Him over Israel as leader.
He said, “Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be
sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all
you do.” (Joshua 1:8)
The Book of
Psalms starts out by telling us that the truly happy person meditates on the
Word of God both day and night.
Clearly,
the way to avoid the mistake that Solomon made is to delight ourselves in God
and in His word.
The fruit
of Solomon’s life was horrible. His life
resulted in a divided kingdom, civil war and ultimately the destruction of the
nation. He introduced practices that
destroyed the nation. This is the fruit
of folly.
When we
disregard God’s word, we are guaranteed such fruit.
What are
some commands that you and I callously disregard?
Do we love
our work more than our wives or families?
Do we love our money more than God?
Do we love our appetites more than our wives or husbands?
This is
between you and God.
God
appeared to Solomon twice and made it clear to Solomon what He required.
You can ask
God to make Himself clear in your life.
Pray with the Psalmist:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious
thoughts.
Point out anything in me that
offends you,
and lead me along the path of
everlasting life.
Psalm 139:23-24
There is
hope. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess
our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse
us from all wickedness.”
Let the
fruit of folly in Solomon’s life serve to remind us of our need for a Savior
and to drive us to seek God daily in His Word.
No one has ever done this on their own.
There is not one person who does right and never sins. This is why God gave His only Son to save
us. We must start by asking Jesus to be
our Savior and give us a new heart that will delight in God and His word. This is what it means to be born again. The heart you and I were born with can never
submit to God. This is why Jesus said,
“You must be born again.”
[i]
Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New
Living Translation. Copyright © 1996,
2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Steam,
Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
[ii]
Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good
News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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