Berean Mind

Solomon had a lot of women. The bible says:

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, (1 Kings 11:1)

from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, "You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods." Solomon clung to these in love. (1 Kings 11:2)

He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. (1 Kings 11:3)

Now if I'm reading this correctly, and I pray that I am, Solomon literally had 1700 women in total.

• 700 wives
• 700 princesses
• 300 concubines

If Solomon wanted to, he could have gone 4 years and 240 days without ever seeing the same woman twice.

• 4 * 365 = 1460
• 1700 - 1460 = 240

There are 365 days in a year and according to these calculations, if I'm reading the scripture correctly, he didn't have see the first women for 4 years plus. These women had no interest at all to serve the true and living God and the bible mentions quite a few times in the context of 1 kings 11 that "their gods" were abominations (vs. 5,7). An abomination is a vile, shameful, or detestable action, condition, habit.

• It's vile because it doesn't glorify the true and living God and breaks one of His commandments
• It's shameful because it dishonors the true and living God
• It's a detestable action, not only for the women involved but do we doubt completely that these women didn't know who Solomon's God was or is? Rebellion is a form of witchcraft.
  
• Their condition was hopeless because they didn't know the true and living God for the pardon of their sins nor did they care.
  
• The habit is hard to break and we as humans are enslaved to sin and hate God by nature; thanks to Adam's disobedience to God. Unless God saves us, we will continue to remain in that state. We thank God for the Holy Spirit for He is the one who helps & convicts us to be conformed more and more in the image of the Son; namely Jesus Christ.
  

Indeed, Solomon had a lot of women, and these women cost him. The kingdom was torn from him and yet again we see God's grace because the kingdom was not torn during his days in the land of the living. This account is yet another example of the God that we serve. He is not all merciful when we understand that the mercy that we desire is contingent upon the repentance and trust in His Son. The "all merciful" comments that we tend to hear from individuals who claim to understand God's mercy need to wake up and realize that God's mercy is contingent upon certain things. The scripture is very clear that it was the will of the Father to crush His Son for the redemption of those that would come to Him (Is 53:10). A loving God makes provisions so His people wont suffer and God did just that in the atoning work (life & death) of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Posted in: God, Kingdom, Solomon, Women on Monday, April 28, 2008 at at 8:59 AM