Day 100. 1 Kings 10-12

At the end of yesterday's reading we are told of a spectacularly successful trading expedition that Solomon sends to the land of Ophir (9:28), a place located, according to our best guess, somewhere on the horn of Africa. These commercial ventures undergird the growing international prestige of the Israelite monarchy. In our reading for today we are told of another successful enterprise, this one to Tarshish, the ancient name for Spain (10:22), conducted by Solomon in co-operation the famous king Hiram of Tyre. Using the wealth amassed through trading and caravan tolls, Solomon introduces horse-drawn chariots, which were then state-of- the-art military technology, to Israel (10:26). These chariots and horses he brings from Egypt, which is still at this period the leading military power in the Near East, and sells them again to other neighboring kingdoms, becoming in effect an arms dealer in the region (10:29). The summit of Solomon's commercial and political career, however, is marked by  a visit of the Queen of Sheba, the ruler of a rich region in south Arabia. Their encounter demonstrates the importance that "wisdom," advice about how to live a successful and satisfying life, had in the ancient world.  We are told that Solomon "answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her" (10:3). And we are told that she was so dazzled by Solomon's wisdom and the splendor of his court that she was left breathless; as our text says, "there was no more spirit in her" (10:5).  But the glittering wealth and sophistication of the court in Jerusalem hides another, more sober reality. Solomon marries many—our text numbers them at a thousand--foreign women in order to cement alliances with neighboring kings. These women whom the king "loved" bring with them their pagan gods and cult practices, so that as Solomon grew older his wives turned his heart after other gods, so that he does "not completely follow the LORD, as his father David had done" (11:6).  The public worship of the LORD continues with customary magnificence, but privately the king is "not true." Therefore because the king has broken his covenant, God is angry.  And although for the sake of David, the LORD promises that it will not happen during Solomon's own lifetime (11:12), he is determined to tear the northern tribes from Solomon's son and give them to another (11:13).  So the final division of the kingdom waits for the reign of Rehoboam. But even during Solomon's lifetime, the LORD raises up enemies abroad to harass and trouble him (11:14-25).  But these marauding bands of foreigners ( 11:24) do constitute the real threat; it is an ambitious and gifted administrator of the king's building projects named Jeroboam who sets the rebellion in motion. The prophet Ahijah sends Jeroboam a message from the LORD offering him the ten tribes of the north and promising that God will build him "an enduring house" like David's  if he will listen to what the LORD commands him and keep his statutes and his commandments (11:38). Realizing the danger he represents, Solomon seeks to have Jeroboam killed, but flees into exile in Egypt and bides his time. He does not have long to wait. The king dies. (We are referred to something called "the Book of the Acts of Solomon" in 11:41, for more information about his long reign, but that book has not survived.) Solomon's son Rehoboam, the child of one of his foreign wives, succeeds him as king. But upon his accession, representatives of the people come to Rehoboam pleading for relief from the burden of forced labor they have borne under his father. The young king, however, ignores the advice of his older counselors to be "a servant to this people today, and serve them, and speak good words to them (12:7), and instead does as his young friends tell him. He "talks tough," promising that whereas his father had disciplined them with whips, he will discipline them with scorpions (12:8). The ten northern tribes,  from what now on we will call Israel, immediately secede and make Jeroboam king (12:20). And none are left to follow the house of David except Judah alone (12:21). When Rehoboam launches a punitive war against the north, he is warned by a prophet named Shemaiah to desist, because this thing is from the LORD (12:24), and he obeys. So the kingdom remains divided from then on. Jeroboam immediately begins to go his own way, solidifying his power. He builds his capital at Shechem, and in order to prevent the people from going back to the temple in Jerusalem to worship, he sets of two golden calves—Baals—and tells them "here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt" (12:28). As we said earlier, the golden bull was the visual representation of the LORD, the God of Israel, but the LORD had explicitly forbidden any "graven image" of any god, including himself in the First Commandment. So this thing the Jeroboam does "became a sin," as our text tells us, "for the people went to worship [the golden calves], before the one at Bethel and before the other as far as Dan" (12:30). So Jeroboam rejects the covenant God tries to make with him, and establishes the pattern of the Israelite monarchy—one evil king after another being denounced by one prophet after another, sent by God to condemn idol worship and call the people back to the covenant.