There was a price to pay for all the grandeur that Solomon surrounded himself with. Solomon had expended so much of the nation’s resources on his building projects that, when it came to paying Hiram the king of Tyre back, he was forced to pay him with twenty towns in Galilee. This is the sort of detail that you may well skim over, but this was actually a terrible offense. Solomon gave a foreign king a part of what God had given to his people as an inheritance forever! The other remarkable detail that we should note in this passage is that Solomon married a daughter of Pharaoh. Marriages like this were always political; they were the seal of an alliance between nations. The Egyptian Pharaohs usually did not give their daughters to foreign kings in marriage. They thought themselves too good for that. So, it is a sign of how influential Solomon became that he should marry this Egyptian princess. For this too, however, there was a price. He had to build a palace just for her. He would also have to allow her to practice her religion. This was the price for keeping the alliance healthy. So, it seems that Solomon was beginning to prioritise politics over faithfulness to God. These are the signs that he is gradually slipping away from God’s agenda into his own agenda. It always happens gradually. We have to keep a tight rein on our hearts lest this sort of thing happens to us.
What is your main agenda and highest priority in life?
Read 1 Kings 9:10-28
