So we see the type of behind the scene alliances and confederacies that go into the making of a king. Transitions of such power rarely are smooth. Not only is there old blood but new blood that must be settled. The juvenile Solomon must make some king like decisions from the start. Remember that it was the people who wanted a king over them in the first place. Here they have it.
The life and reign of David now comes to an end. It is not all that we will learn about him however, David penned a great many of the Psalms and had an influence in Solomon's collection of Proverbs. There we will hear his inner thoughts from his perspective and find why he is called a man after God's heart. David had many great strengths and a few serious faults. He is portrayed in both as being human. Judging him is like judging ourselves in some respects but, we too easily forget that he also was under the pressures of being king. The history of Israel/Judah is overwhelmed with unrighteous kings. David like no other stands out as good.
Within two chapters we see both the wisdom God tangibly gave Solomon to rule Israel and the spiritual stupidity and disobedience Solomon used in his own life to apply it. The lesson is that wisdom does not always know enough to see through the deceptions of entanglements. Wisdom often out smarts it's own good.
There are many today who believe that faith is blind and misleading, that intellect is the purer of the two human forms. If one could suppress the defilements of faith they say, the truer intellect would shine through. The lesson learned from Solomon is that while the two together are important, the truest wisdom is of not doing what you were directly told not to do; purer faith and intellect is to obey God in both. The proof is what then happened to the unified nation of Israel.
It should be noted here before passing on the importance given to Solomon by the black arts and satanic cults. These gods and goddesses his wives were ensnaring him with were not just unknown idols of antiquity. Even Free Masonry holds Solomon and a "secret knowledge" supposedly found later in his Temple as central to their beliefs.
Jeroboam didn't use cunning words to pursue his people, he used the familiar forms of a counterfeit religion. It seems to have been a fairly easy sell. Words and debate seem highly over rated. Revolution takes on massive currents of it's own. Pinning his cause to a familiar and disapproved symbol of the past worked brilliantly.
No doubt that prophets are held to a higher standard for having been a representative of the name of God. This prophet did as he was told in the first instance but, was tricked into disobeying in the second. He could withstand the request of a king but not the request of another lying prophet. Familiarity and similarity can breed disobedience.
Let's not let this testimony for David go unnoticed. This is perhaps the best explanation of what it means to be a man after God's heart; especially for a ruler.
The first point to be made here is that this is all happening so soon after the building of the Temple. You would think that for some time at least that Israel (now Israel and Judah) would be committed to and blessed by the presence of the Temple. It is like the Temple wasn't even there. Suddenly a rush of groves and high places and alters and golden cows pop up; and the Temple has already been raided by Egypt. I had mentioned previously that the Temple would be a target? Now we are seeing whom would be targeting the Temple.
Made Israel to sin? With all sin that is going on amongst the people now it seems odd that one leader could make the nation to sin all the more, but, that is the importance of a leader. We tend to think of sin in individualistic terms based largely on whether it hurts anybody else. We also tend to think of religion as something personal and private (what harm is to anybody if I sacrifice in the evening to Baal rather than Jehovah?). Sin should be thought of as a fluid pool all around us, the water you swim in is the water I swim in. That the nation can sin, that the leaders of a nation can make us to sin more, these are the things of sin that should be considered fully.
One hundred prophets hidden for protection strategically in two groups of fifty; do we grasp how hostile and desperate this situation is? So there are good and godly people remaining, even prophets. Many are on the run, many are silent, some stand up, a few of the most effective and public are pursued and therefore exiled to shelter. The stage is set for one major prophet Elijah. I guess living the godly life isn't always as easy going and peaceful as we'd like to think it.
What about a leader enables us the people to make more sin? Is it the brute strength of his sinful conviction? Is it the deeds his tight-fisted rulings and decisions impose upon us? Is it that we are suddenly subject to his over powering will? Rarely! Often it is his own ineffectiveness in dealing with the forces at work around him. It is the momentums that grow quiet organically against him that he does not stand to oppose. The factions that press against him that he seeks to appease and quiet, the idolatrous wives that force their own agendas, the decisions not made, the ideals compromised, the groundwork never laid or surrendered, the stabbing of the backs of his close allies for the sake of calming his distant enemies. Sin is not always caused by his strength or conceit but, more often by his weakness. Political strength is often determined by the perceived weaknesses in leadership that other factions intend to exploit. His sin enables a great many more to sin as well.
Hopefully, we are beginning to see why God was not too much for the establishment of the monarchy early on. He had Samuel warn the unified kingdom in very personal and family level terms that any commoner would understand and fear. There is just so much political distraction and bloodshed resulting. This is what those of influence wanted however. This is what they got.
It occurs to me that throughout the kings the high priests are pretty much silent. We see an occasional prophet, but, what about the general day to day counsel and influence of the church. This is not to say that they weren't there, it is to say that there is little mention of their role and position in these national matters.
We have here a king that did right and yet the Lord smote him with leprosy. That the Lord is said to have done it may show a purpose or intent but, the verse does not state shat that might be. We can guess perhaps that not all the high places were removed and yet other kings had done the same. We could guess that maybe it was for the purpose of someone(s) other than the king. Or it may have been no purpose at all other than to develop him in a way different than other kings. The Lord's judgment is perfect and true whether we know why or not.
It must be said that these assassinations are becoming much to commonplace in Israel. It is evident that none are seeking the Lord and that the stability and psyche of Israel are effected.
I thought that the ways of Jeroboam were in eliminating the use of the Temple in Jerusalem with the two golden calves, it was a falsified form of Judaism. Here I am seeing sacrifice and high place worship which suggest Baal. Have the two religions merged or morphed?
This is one of the key chapters in the entire Bible. We see the final fall of Israel in all of it's horror. God's protection is completely lifted and only Judah remains. Key is the complete discription of what God had expected, how they had completely failed, and how the invading and occupying forces felt (fearing the Lord but, planting there own regional gods just the same). Considering the hope and the warning declared by the elderly Moses, this is a sad sad end.
Even the holy objects of old have now become idolatrous objects. Braking the object helps us to see that it wasn't the object itself that performed the previous miracles but what the object symbolized.
What would Judah had done had it not been for the strength and conviction of Hezekiah? We tend to think that when a man is strong desperate sittuations never come against him, somehow he just handles things before they get out of hand. For some this is true. For others however they are strong before and they are all the more stronger for the desperate experience. Leaders are tested. The stronger they are the stronger they are tested. Weak leaders are rarely tested because they fail at every turn and compromise to every situation.
What a terrible moment tiny Judah faces here. A true test of their conviction to Jehovah. There is no way for them to stand by their own resource or aliances. The Assyrian envoy calls his shot, puts the situation in brutally clear terms, compares Jehovah to all the other gods that have been defeated, bribes the citizens support against king Hezekiah. Jehovah preforms His work in a way that one could make no mistake that it was only by His own hand.
What a terrible moment tiny Judah faces here. A true test of their conviction to Jehovah. There is no way for them to stand by their own resource or aliances. The Assyrian envoy calls his shot, puts the situation in brutally clear terms, compares Jehovah to all the other gods that have been defeated, bribes the citizens support against king Hezekiah. Jehovah preforms His work in a way that one could make no mistake that it was only by His own hand.
What a terrible moment tiny Judah faces here. A true test of their conviction to Jehovah. There is no way for them to stand by their own resource or aliances. The Assyrian envoy calls his shot, puts the situation in brutally clear terms, compares Jehovah to all the other gods that have been defeated, bribes the citizens support against king Hezekiah. Jehovah preforms His work in a way that one could make no mistake that it was only by His own hand.
While Jeroboam was well aware of why God was choosing to divide the nation because of a particular false worship by Solomon kjv@1Kings:11:31-39, it is of interest that he used the occasion to set up a false worship of his own.
2012 - pBiblx2 Field Wise Bible System Version 2.0.9d - GPL3
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