Solomon - the man and his foolishness

My question: why did God allowed such laws when he already indicated that Israel shall have him as King only?

The King

Deu 17: 14 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, "Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us," 15 be sure to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite. 16 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." 17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.

18 When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. 19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees 20 and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.

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Deu 17:14-20 The law of the king. The law anticipates the people wanting a king, like other nations (14), as they actually will in due course (1 Sa. 8:5). Deuteronomy thinks of God as Israel’s king. This is said in 33:5, and implied in the treaty–structure of the book. The same sense that human kingship is not God’s ideal plan for Israel is expressed clearly by Gideon (Jdg. 8:23), and by Jotham’s fable (Jdg. 9:7-15). When the Lord himself says Israel’s request is a rejection of him as king (1 Sa. 8:7), he may be criticizing the spirit of the request only, thus leaving the door open for his king (David). Nevertheless, Deuteronomy seems not so much to institute human kingship as to permit it, and ensure that it is of a certain type.
The king according to Deuteronomy is by no means like the kings of the nations. He is chosen by God (15a) and, therefore, not self–selected by his own power. He is a brother in Israel (15b) and, therefore, essentially equal to other Israelites. He must not exploit his position in order to gain wealth, armies or many wives. Israel was not to exchange the tyranny of Egypt for a ‘mini–Pharaoh’ of their own. It is striking how similar this portrait of the false king is to [p. 216] that of Solomon after he had become unfaithful to God (1 Ki. 10:26-11:8).
The ideal king, in contrast, is a student of God’s law (18-20). He thus acknowledges that God is the true king of his people, and will not bear his office out of pride or ambition.
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interestingly, the writer of 1 Kings brilliantly interwove this issue of kingship (Deu 17) into (1 Ki. 10:26-11:8)

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1 Kings 10: 23(NIV) King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. 24 The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. 25 Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift—articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules.

26 Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, [h] which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. 27 The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills. 28 Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt [i] and from Kue [j]—the royal merchants purchased them from Kue. 29 They imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels [k] of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. [l] They also exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and of the Arameans.


All these snippets of information are woven into a vastly impressive tapestry. But the writer’s handiwork also includes another thread. A strand of criticism runs almost invisibly through this whole section. The stipulations of Dt. 17 concerning the life–style of an Israelite king are subtly echoed here. ‘He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold’ (Dt. 17:17); this Solomon did. ‘The king... must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them...’ (Dt. 17:16); Solomon certainly did the former and probably the latter as well, for his horses were imported from Egypt (28). In other words, it seems that the writer of Kings is not only glorifying Solomon in this passage but also criticizing him. His greatness was partly achieved by overriding the stipulations of Deuteronomy. In view of the solemn warning given in the previous chapter, this passage rings loud alarm bells!

of cos.... what follows is....

1 Kings 11

Solomon's Wives

1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, "You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods." Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. 5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech [a] the detestable god of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done.
7 On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.

9 The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD's command. 11 So the LORD said to Solomon, "Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. 12 Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen."

reflection coming up next...