Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Day 99: 1 Kings 10, 11 and 12


King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women (1 Kings 11:1).

The smartest man in the world lost his head over a pretty woman… actually it was a thousand pretty women. It was not uncommon for one king to marry off his daughter to another king or to another king’s son to solidify an alliance. That’s probably where a lot of Solomon’s wives came from. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase wedding present.

Solomon had inherited a strong and stable kingdom. But even if his military was the strongest in the entire world, Solomon the man still had chinks in his armor, which left him vulnerable. His weakness? His foreign wives and their gods.

These dalliances affected not only Solomon, but brought great hardship on the nation. Today’s passage cites Solomon’s disobedience as the root cause of Israel’s dissolution into two kingdoms – the northern of which would keep the name Israel, and the southern to be called Judah – which would be realized during the reign of his son Rehoboam.

Due to God’s favor and David’s capable leadership, Israel was the premier military strength in the region. It didn’t have to worry about being attacked by any foreign enemy. Though the front door was locked up tight, what no one counted on was the new king leaving the side door wide open to an even more formidable foe.

TODAY’S MEDITATION
In taking inventory of your defenses, where are you most vulnerable? What are you going to do about that this week?

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