Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 210
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IMMERSE
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KINGDOMS
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| 10:25–11:13
God had given him. Year after year everyone who visited brought him gifts
of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules.
Solomon built up a huge force of chariots and horses. He had 1,400
chariots and 12,000 horses. He stationed some of them in the chariot
cities and some near him in Jerusalem. The king made silver as plentiful
in Jerusalem as stone. And valuable cedar timber was as common as the
sycamore-fig trees that grow in the foothills of Judah. Solomon’s horses
were imported from Egypt and from Cilicia; the king’s traders acquired
them from Cilicia at the standard price. At that time chariots from Egypt
could be purchased for 600 pieces of silver, and horses for 150 pieces of
silver. They were then exported to the kings of the Hittites and the kings
of Aram.
Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh’s daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from
among the Hittites. The Lord had clearly instructed the people of Israel,
“You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their
gods.” Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway. He had 700 wives of
royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away
from the Lord.
In Solomon’s old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the Lord his God, as his father,
David, had been. Solomon worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Si
donians, and Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites. In this way,
Solomon did what was evil in the Lord’s sight; he refused to follow the
Lord completely, as his father, David, had done.
On the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, he even built a pagan shrine
for Chemosh, the detestable god of Moab, and another for Molech, the
detestable god of the Ammonites. Solomon built such shrines for all his
foreign wives to use for burning incense and sacrificing to their gods.
The Lord was very angry with Solomon, for his heart had turned away
from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. He had
warned Solomon specifically about worshiping other gods, but Solomon
did not listen to the Lord’s command. So now the Lord said to him,
“Since you have not kept my covenant and have disobeyed my decrees,
I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your
servants. But for the sake of your father, David, I will not do this while
you are still alive. I will take the kingdom away from your son. And even
so, I will not take away the entire kingdom; I will let him be king of one
tribe, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, my
chosen city.”