1 Kings 11:4-8 - His wives turned his heart after other gods

11:4

“As Solomon grew old ...” God had warned that marrying foreign women would lead to one being led astray to worship other gods. As Solomon grew old , this happened. Solomon’s heart went after other gods, and he was no longer “fully devoted to the Lord”. David also sinned in the sexual area, (though not to the same extent as Solomon), but he never went in for idol worship.

11:5-8

Some of the false gods that Solomon went after are named. Molech was associated with child sacrifice. “So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord”. The phrase “did evil in the eyes of the Lord” is one that will appear many times in 1 and 2 Kings. Solomon built high places for these “detestable” idols. He seems to have made offerings and sacrifices to the gods of all his wives. The text makes clear that these gods were “detestable”.  Solomon was active in worshipping idols, building high places for the false gods.

Mark 13:20-22 - Do not believe it

13:20

The Lord cut short the number of days of the siege. The siege lasted “only” five months. This was quite long enough, but sieges could go on for a lot longer than that. If it had gone on much longer then no one would have survived. Why did God cut the days short? “For the sake of the elect”. Note that in all this while men are taking actions, ultimately it is the Lord who is in control. This should induce both fear and hope. Fear because God is a God of judgement, and judgement comes. Hope, because God is also a God of mercy. If we focus on only one of these aspects we will not have a complete or accurate picture.

13:21,22

When there are times of great crisis people are desperate for an answer, so are particularly prone to believe “answers” proffered by all sorts of people. Jesus warns the disciples that “at that time” false messiahs will appear. Schnabel reports a number of false messiahs and false prophets who appeared in the time leading up to AD70. People will also be looking for a messiah. Jesus also says that the false messiahs and prophets will “appear and perform signs and wonders”, with the intention of deceiving the elect. Now these people claimed various things were signs, but were not great at doing wonders! These words also apply to the very end, for Revelation also speaks of the beat out of the sea performing signs and wonders (Rev 13:12-14).

1 Kings 11:1-3 - Solomon loved many foreign women

11:1,2

We now come to the absolute downfall of Solomon. He had sinned earlier by marrying Pharaoh's daughter, and we have seen his excesses with regard to wealth and horses and chariots. We now see that Pharaoh’s daughter was only the start. Solomon “loved many foreign women”. These included women of Israel’s enemies, and the Lord had warned the Israelites not to intermarry with.  The Lord had also given them the reason for this warning, for “they will surely turn your hearts after their gods” (Deut 7:3,4). “Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love”.  The words here imply that these were not mere political marriages, but that there was a much deeper connection.

11:3

The numbers are simply staggering! 700 wives and 300 concubines. Solomon was a deeply disordered man. I find it amazing that a man who on the one hand was so wise, was, at the same time, an utter fool. He did everything to excess. I think it is also worth noting that the scale of his sacrifices were also excessive. He did everything to excess. 

Mark 13:17-19 - How dreadful it will be

13:17,18

Jesus remarks on how dreadful it would be for “pregnant women and nursing mothers”, and presumably for the old and infirm. Remember that Jesus is talking, in immediate terms, about the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, things that the people held dear. “Pray that this will not take place in winter”. Things would be bad enough for the weaker people, but would be even worse if they occurred in winter. So Jesus urges them to pray that these events would not happen in winter. This actually implies that while these events would certainly occur, the prayers of the people could have some influence on what God did.

13:19

“Days of distress unequaled from the beginning ... until now”. It is always difficult to compare terrible events, but the days of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple were certainly terrible. At one point the Romans were crucifying up to five hundred people a day in front of the city walls in an attempt to persuade the people to surrender. Josephus claimed that over a million people died, now these may be exaggerated figures but still indicate the size of the suffering. “Never to be equalled again” is a hyperbolic statement (Schnabel) pointing to the continuation of history.

1 Kings 10:23-29 - King Solomon was greater inriches and wisdom

10:23-25

Solomon became the richest person on earth, though that actually means the region they lived in, rather than physically the whole world, for the writer did not know about the whole world. However, it is possible he was actually wealthier than anyone else on earth. The people of other nations did know that Solomon’s wealth had something to do with the God of Israel. People brought more gifts to Solomon.

10:26-29

Solomon also accumulated chariots and horses. All of this was in direct contravention of Deut 17:16,17 where the Law says:

The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.

As we see, Solomon broke everyone of these prohibitions. We haven’t had much mention of the wives yet, but we will soon see that he broke that one in a big way. At the beginning I wondered why God gave Solomon wealth. Perhaps the case was that God gave him wealth, but then Solomon just wanted more and more and went to all sorts of lengths to get it.

Mark 13:14-16 - The abomination that causes desolation

13:14

Now we come to the interesting bit! Of course, all this chapter is interesting, but this part causes all sorts of debate and problems, “the abomination that causes desolation”. Let’s start on solid ground, there are three references in Daniel that this is referring to: Dan 9:27; 11:31; 12:11. The term “abomination that causes desolation” is a translation of a Hebrew term that means “detestable thing”, and standing where it does not belong means standing in the temple. 1 Maccabees 1:54 refers to Antiochus Epiphanes IV erecting a desolating sacrifice  on the altar of burnt offering in 167 BC. Josephesus tells us that pigs were sacrificed. The immediate fulfilment may have been in August of AD 70 when Roman troops made sacrifices in the temple court. However, this is contested. Other possibilities can be seen in Schnabel. This does not mean that related events would not happen later.

13:15.16

The “let the reader understand” in the previous verse shows that the people of the time would, or at least could, understand the meaning.The warning in v14 was not an esoteric comment on the book of Daniel, but a very practical warning, and in these two verses they are warned that when these things happen there is no time to lose. They will need to flee, and it will not be an orderly departure. There will be no time to gather up one’s possessions.

1 Kings 10:14-22 - The weight of gold

10:14-17

Gold features prominently in this section. The amounts of gold seem enormous, but are comparable with figures found in  other records of the region and time. 666 is of course the number of the beast in Revelation, but that is probably coincidental. The gold came from far and wide. Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold. One might comment that he had nothing better to do with the gold, and is just accumulating wealth for its open sake.

10:18-22

Solomon also made “a great throne”. We get more details of the things he did with the gold. We are also told about the size of his merchant navy, and the journeys they went on. On these journeys they brought back gold, silver and ivory, along with apes and baboons. Again I note that none of this is actually achieving much good.