I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 11-12.

    Despite his great wisdom, Solomon chose to take wives from among those who worshiped other gods. Further, he built shrines and erected altars for the worship of their gods. He even joined them in that worship. The writer tells us that this sin on Solomon’s part led God to raise up adversaries against him. There is a direct connection between Solomon worshiping other gods, and encouraging others to worship them by building shrines to them, and the collapse of the kingdom which his father David had built.
    As I read this I was reminded of a discussion I had recently about the fact that God is a rational God and His actions are therefore rational. We can understand how the punishment He metes out follows from the sin which it punishes. So, how did Solomon’s sin lead to the dissolution of his kingdom? By encouraging the worship of other gods, Solomon divided the people of his kingdom. They no longer had a unified moral code. Some followed the moral code as given by God. Others followed one of the moral codes connected to the worship of one of the other gods whose worship Solomon encouraged. What happened under Solomon is the reverse of what happened under Joshua. Joshua told the people of Israel to choose whom they would serve, declaring his own loyalty to God. Solomon told the people that they did not have to choose, and attempted to live accordingly.