For all the promise Solomon had as he became king of Isreal, he sure started out his reign on the wrong foot. Even though he had a wonderful example set by his father King David, and he was hand-picked by God Himself to succeed him, he lost his footing early on in his reign. His giving way to compromise not only ignored God’s standard for His people (Exodus 34:15-16 where God forbid making treaties with those who lived in the land and taking their daughters as wives for their sons), it also set him up for a pattern toward his ultimate downfall later on by opening the door to foreign wives.
There is no such thing as an insignificant decision, nor is there a safeguard against the ripple effects of chosen compromise. As soon as we begin to think it is safe to let our guard down, that is the moment when we are apt to make choices that undermine all the promise God intends for us. Solomon may have had the kingdom firmly established in his hands (1 Kings 2:46), but he just as resolutely let it go with two choices early in his reign.
It says in 1 Kings 3:1, “Solomon made an alliance with Pharoah king of Egypt and married his daughter.”
While there was no law against marrying a convert to the faith of the Israelites from another country, it was always preferred to marry from within the nation itself, as was exampled early on by Abraham (Genesis 24:1-4). Abraham recognized the importance of establishing like-minded followers of Jehovah as the wives of their sons, so he insisted his own son Isaac marry from within the family line. He knew that maintaining the support of mutual faith and culture for this budding nation was pivotal.
As God grew the nation over the many years of the Old Testament, the Israelites would regularly get into trouble when they married from other nations ( Nehemiah 13:27). This was because the foreign wives would “dilute the faith” as they would share, whether directly or indirectly, their faith amongst the God-fearing Israelites. Their beliefs and their practices of faith would inevitably become intertwined, becoming less than what God intended for His chosen people. He gave strict guidelines to help protect the people from outside influences that would entice them into idolatry. Whether it came from the wives themselves, or their pagan family members from which they came, idolatry was a real threat to the people God called and set apart for Himself.
So in my opinion, when Solomon, as King of the nation, chose a foreigner from Egypt as his wife and made an alliance (Isaiah 30:1-2 speaks of how such is grievous to God) with her father the Pharoah, it made for a precarious beginning. I also hold to this view because of the directions Moses was given in Deuteronomy 17:14-17 concerning the future kings of Israel. (Oh what a wonderful God gives instructions for what is needed for the future !) It says that when the time comes when Israel asks for a king, that king should not acquire great numbers of horses or make the people return to Egypt to get them, for God had told them not to return that way again. Well, if God says no horses from Egypt, how much worse would it be to get wives from there?! Also, having seen the trouble created from Abraham taking his Egyptian maidservant Hagar with him and having a child through her, which only complicated the process of the long-awaited promised heir, it seems staying far away from Egypt was the best advice for all.
Verse 17 goes on to say that the king must not take many wives or his heart will be led astray, nor should he accumulate large quantities of silver and gold. King Solomon does all of the above in the course of time, which I will save for another post.
His story though, his end, is one of the biggest disappointments of all the Old Testament. What promise he had! What had happened to turn all that “promise” into “meaningless” (Ecclesiastes) potential? He began to compromise…… from God’s best for him to maybe just shy of breaking the law. He let go of one standard and settled for another, all because of seeking what was never intended for him.
God calls us out and sets us apart for a reason. He is not protecting us from the “best”, He is creating it for us, within His protection and boundaries.
When we as His children take what is not meant for us, whether because of timing or His plan, we cheat ourselves out of all the promise He has stored up for us (Psalm 31:19 “How abundant are the good things that you have stored up for those who fear you…) .
Lust is having to have something now. And that describes the life of Solomon, as we will see soon enough. As he indulged the desires of his heart, he got more than he bargained for. It also describes many Christians today. Whether it is insisting on that unbelieving or apathetic “Christian” as our romantic choice, or acquiring possessions or lifestyles that cannot be afforded with available time or money, or sex before marriage, or in general doing what we want to do instead of what we should do…..we diminish our own futures by letting go of our promised good from God.
Living a life that God has not intended for us at a particular time, only brings what was thought to be so promising into meaningless fruition. Our being obstinate, ignoring the wisdom of God concerning our circumstance, only serves to bring us more harm than good. How many of us have gotten what we were determined to have to only regret it in the end? We ignore the standards of God and dive headfirst into what we are tired of waiting for. We don’t want to be patient and wait inside the protection and boundaries of God. We extend ourselves too far in commitments (relational, financial, emotional) and then wonder why the house of cards we’ve built seems to be less than what we hoped for.
Comprises from what God has given as His standard only take from us the good He had in store for us all along. I have seen this happen in my life and in so many around me. That first wayward step never seems so foolish or bad, but oh where we end up!! What we would give to have stayed within God’s intended best for us…….
