Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Thursday, November 22, 2012 Read – 1 Kings 11 & 12 It does not take long to find out the answers to some of the questions that we were pondering over after yesterday’s reading. Chapter 11 tells the sad story of Solomon’s errors. The wisest man in the world turns out to do some foolish things. We have heard of multiple-wives throughout this story. Solomon takes that to the farthest extreme – 700 wives and 300 concubines! I think we have part of our answer about this business of multiple-wives. I don’t think it was part of God’s plan. Tragically, it is Solomon’s love for all of these wives that gets him into trouble. It is important that we do not somehow blame all the women – Solomon is the culprit. All of these women come with all of their gods and foolishly Solomon begins to worship many of them – Astarte, Milcom, Chemosh, Molech. Tragically these gods demand the very life of their adherents. Molech was a particularly demanding god demanding child sacrifice. There is evidence in the Bible that some of the Israelites actually did participate in this horrendous practice. This is where Solomon’s foolishness led. A second foolish error on Solomon’s part was to conscript labor from his own people. This eventually will lead to rebellion – but not until after Solomon has died. Chapter 11 introduces us to Jereboam, who at one time was in charge of Solomon’s forced labor. Jereboam sees the oppression that Solomon’s actions are causing and leads a rebellion. He will reappear shortly in the story as the north and south divide. How great is the fall of what was once Solomon’s world-class kingdom! The story of Solomon ends much like the story of David did. There is a simple announcement of Solomon’s death. The account is incredibly short. We might have expected to hear of a magnificent state funeral and long mourning. The story tells us of neither. Following the death of Solomon, the narrator goes on to tell of the collapse of Solomon’s kingdom. Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, succeeds him in orderly fashion. That will be the story of most of the succession of the kings in the south. This is a marked contrast to the chaos involved in the succession of David. Perhaps the dynasty of David learned something from that. Rehoboam attempts to follow in his father’s footsteps. He does not succeed. Ten of the northern tribes break away and form their own nation. For the sake of David, Rehoboam is left with two tribes. From a political point of view perhaps the breaking apart of the kingdom was inevitable. Those in the north once belonged to the “house of Saul” and perhaps they never forgot that. The seeds of this division have long been laying in the soil waiting to germinate. From now on we will need to speak of a Northern Kingdom, called Israel, and a Southern Kingdom, called Judah. The Northern Kingdom chooses Jereboam to be their first king. Jereboam takes action to insure that his followers will not be lured south and back into the Southern Kingdom. He sets up two golden calves as places of worship in the north – one at Bethel and the other at Dan. Readers of this story cannot help but remember the story of the Golden Calf at Sinai. The stories are meant to relate to one another.