I King 10 – 11 and II Chronicles 9

The descriptions of what the Queen of Sheba found when she visited Solomon were absolutely incredible. The Queen wanted to see for herself if what she had heard was true. She found it was but what she heard didn’t begin to describe the wisdom of Solomon or the greatness of his kingdom.

Were you saddened by what you read today? Solomon, who was the Lord’s man for so long, who asked for wisdom instead of riches, who built a Temple for the Lord, who had all of the riches anyone could ask for, failed himself and the Lord. He “loved many foreign women…700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines.” The Lord made it clear that the people of Israel were not to marry non-Israelite women “because they will turn your hearts to their gods.”

And that is exactly what happened to Solomon. Those foreign women influenced Solomon to worship not only Astoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, but also Molech, the god of the Ammonites, and Chemosh, the detestable god of Moab. He not only worshipped these false gods, but he built shrines to them.

What were these gods like? Ashtoreth, who was called Aphrodite by the Greeks, was the goddess of fertility, sexuality, and war. She is often associated with Baal and worship of her involved child sacrifice. Molech, associated with the sun, is another false god, the worship of which involved child sacrifice. Chemosh was also associated with human sacrifice.

Isn’t it interesting that all three of these mentioned false gods worshipped by Solomon believed in sacrificing children? I would expect that most people would find this practice offensive and evil. In Genesis 1, when God created man in his image, the first command He gave them was “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it.” Is Planned Parenthood with its child sacrifices the new Astoreth or Molech or Chemosh? 50 million babies have been sacrificed since Roe v Wade. Talk about sad.

As a result of Solomon’s sin, the Lord raised up Hadad the Edomite and Rezon as adversaries and the kingdom of Israel was divided: Jeroboam, one of Solomon’s officials was approached by the prophet Ahijah and told he would rule over ten of the twelve tribes of Israel because Solomon had not followed His ways and done what was pleasing in His sight.

Tomorrow, it’s Proverbs 30 – 31.

Until next time…