1 Kings 3 part 3
Last week we finished up with Solomon cleaning up his kingdom by removing the rebels and tonight as begin in chapter 3 we will start looking at the begging of his reign as King.
1 Kings 3:1 Now
Solomon made a treaty with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and married Pharaoh's
daughter; then he brought her to the City of David until he had finished
building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall all around
Jerusalem. 2 Meanwhile the
people sacrificed at the high places, because there was no house built for the
name of the LORD until those days. 3
And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David, except
that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.
The first thing we must
deal with is the marriage between Solomon and this Egyptian princess. Now we
already know that one of Solomon’s big down falls was the foreign women that he
married. Notice Nehemiah talks about this.
Nehemiah 13:23 In
those days I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and
Now the reason Nehemiah
said he sinned was because he was marrying women from nation that was
specifically forbidden by God.
Deuteronomy 7:1"When
the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has
cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the
Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the
Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, 2 "and when the LORD your God
delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy
them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. 3 "Nor shall you make
marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take
their daughter for your son. 4
"For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods;
so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.
(See also Ex. 34:10ff)
These specific nations of
Deuteronomy 21:10 "
When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God delivers
them into your hand, and you take them captive,
11 "and you see among the captives a beautiful woman,
and desire her and would take her for your wife, 12 "then you shall bring her
home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails. 13 "She shall put off the
clothes of her captivity, remain in your house, and mourn her father and her
mother a full month; after that you may go in to her and be her husband, and
she shall be your wife.
Now this is general
statement concerning war time and the enemies of
According to several
commentaries I looked at they suggested that another way a Jew could marry a
foreigner was if she renounced her Gods and became a proselyte. Several of
these writer suggested that this Egyptian princess had done this very thing
which they would answer that yes it was lawful for him to marry her. Now they
make this assumption based on the Bible not specifically condemning his
marriage to her and the fact that he married early on when he was still walking
in God’s commandments. They also suggest that you don’t read of any Egyptian
idols that were put into place. They also note the distinction made in the
following verse.
1 Kings 11:1 But
King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh:
women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites –
Here we see the Pharaoh’s
daughter singled out and we also see that there was something special about
this particular women in the fact that Solomon build her a house in 1 Kings
7:8. Because so much attention is paid to this women it believed that this was
the women that that Solomon writes about in the Song of Solomon and it believe
that she is the one described in Psalm 45.
Psalm 45:10-11 Listen,
O daughter, Consider and incline your ear; Forget your own people also, and
your father's house; 11 So
the King will greatly desire your beauty; Because He is your Lord,
worship Him.
Here is where they
believe it describes how this Egyptian princess changed her Egyptians ways and
became a proselyte. Now I will say that this is plausible but their isn’t
really any hard evidence that she became a proselyte. It is just as plausible
that this women kept her Gods and was just one of the many foreign women that
lead to Solomon downfall. The reason I say this is because of what,
1 Kings 11:2 from
the nations of whom the LORD had said to the children of
Now we need to keep in
mind that even though Solomon was doing is his best to walk the statues of the
Lord in the beginning doesn’t mean he didn’t unlawfully marry this women as we
saw David make many mistakes in life even when it was said of him that he was
following after God. Besides all this we need to remember that God’s Law also
stated specifically that a King was not to multiply wives for himself lest they
turn his heart in Deut 17:17. We can
put 2 and 2 together and see that this daughter of Pharaoh was not his first
wife. Please note the following verse.
1 Kings 14:21 And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in
We know that Solomon
ruled for 40 years and since his son was 41 this means that he was married to
this women Naamah and had a son by her before his reign as king which puts her
before the Pharaohs daughter.
Now that I have said all this
my personal thought on this matter is that Solomon married her unlawfully as
being a foreigner and for marrying multiple wives.
God tolerated many things
in the OT times that were not in accordance with his law showing His true mercy
upon his people.
2 Meanwhile the people sacrificed at
the high places, because there was no house built for the name of the LORD
until those days. 3 And
Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David, except
that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.
Here find out one more
time that Solomon wasn’t exactly keeping God’s Word all the way because he was
offering sacrifices and burning incense at the high places which was prohibited
by the law. Their was a specific place this was to be done,
Leviticus 17:8"Also
you shall say to them: 'Whatever man of the house of Israel, or of the
strangers who dwell among you, who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice, 9 'and does not bring it to the
door of the tabernacle of meeting, to offer it to the LORD, that man shall be
cut off from among his people.
Now there excuse was they
didn’t have the temple yet but they still had the tabernacle. As we continue in
our study in the coming weeks we will see that these high places become a real
problem because the people continue to use these places for worship to false
Gods.
1 Kings 3:4 Now the
king went to
Here where you can see
the sincerity of Solomon’s heart. First of all he offers up this huge offering
before the lord. Then the Lord speaks to him that night asking him what shall I
give you? Now at this point in Solomon’s life you can see that he was a very
humble person and truly cared for the people. He was obviously young and
inexperienced at this time this why he says I am but a little child. Now no one
knows for sure how old he was at this time but I have seen guesses from 12 – 20
years old. No matter what his age may have been he asked for a excellent gift
the gift of wisdom. Now notice God’s response.
1 Kings 3:10 The
speech pleased the LORD, that Solomon had asked this thing. 11 Then God said to him:
"Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for
yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your
enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, 12 "behold, I have done according
to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that
there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise
after you. 13 "And I
have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor, so that there
shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. 14 "So if you walk in My
ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked,
then I will lengthen your days." 15
Then Solomon awoke; and indeed it had been a dream. And he came to
God was very pleased with
Solomon’s request and because he didn’t ask for other things for himself God
decides to bless with these other material things as well and I also want you
to notice that God speaks about this gift of wisdom already being in place. The
only thing that God did not do for Solomon was lengthen his days. Now he would have
if Solomon had kept God’s Word but he didn’t and Solomon only lived to be some
around 60 years old.
Another thing I find of
interest here is now that he has been given his wisdom this time he offer his
sacrifice at the correct place instead upon the high places. This shows to me
that he now understands that he was sacrificing in the wrong the place.
1 Kings 3:16 Now two
women who were harlots came to the king, and stood before him. 17 And one woman said, "O my
lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house; and I gave birth while she was
in the house. 18
"Then it happened, the third day after I had given birth, that this woman
also gave birth. And we were together; no one was with us in the
house, except the two of us in the house.
19 "And this woman's son died in the night, because she
lay on him. 20 "So she
arose in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your
maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my
bosom. 21 "And when I
rose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead. But when I had
examined him in the morning, indeed, he was not my son whom I had
borne." 22 Then the
other woman said, "No! But the living one is my son, and the dead
one is your son." And the first woman said, "No! But the dead
one is your son, and the living one is my son." Thus they
spoke before the king.
Right off the bat Solomon
had a very difficult case to judge. How he decided this case would make impact
on his people on whether or not he was capable of making such judgment calls.
Think about how difficult this would be to decide between two women who were
both claiming this baby to be theirs. Of course today we would have the
advantage of doing a DNA test but they didn’t have that luxury back then. So,
lets see what Solomon does.
1 Kings 3:23 And the
king said, "The one says, 'This is my son, who lives, and your son is
the dead one'; and the other says, 'No! But your son is the dead
one, and my son is the living one.' " 24 Then the king said, "Bring
me a sword." So they brought a sword before the king. 25 And the king said, "Divide
the living child in two, and give half to one, and half to the
other." 26 Then the
woman whose son was living spoke to the king, for she yearned with
compassion for her son; and she said, "O my lord, give her the living
child, and by no means kill him!" But the other said, "Let him be
neither mine nor yours, but divide him." 27 So the king answered and said,
"Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him; she is
his mother." 28 And
all
This truly shows just how
much wisdom the young man Solomon had. He knew that the real mother wouldn’t
allow her child to be cut half and that she would give it up before allowing it
to be killed. Because of this great wisdom that Solomon displayed that day all
the children of