Solomon’s story is the story of Israel. His life is a prophetic picture of the sad trajectory of God’s people up to the exile. (It is worth noting that in the Hebrew Bible the books of Joshua through Kings are referred to as ‘The Former Prophets’.) Just as God gave Solomon great wisdom, so he had given Israel his law. They were to carry a wisdom to which the nations would look for light, just as the queen of Sheba had come to Solomon. But Israel took all that God gave them and made an idol of it just as Israel had made a golden calf at Sinai using the gold that they plundered from Egypt. God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others. His gifts to us are to be used as materials to build him a temple to glorify his name. Instead, however, we are very prone to using these gifts to build a tower of Babel to make a name for ourselves. Solomon built a temple for God. But he then went on to construct a tower of Babel (figuratively). As a result his kingdom was fragmented just as the people of Babel were fragmented. It seems that God’s blessings to Solomon went to his head. He developed an insatiable hunger for greatness. That Solomon was seduced by his many wives has a kind of double meaning here. These wives all represented foreign alliances that were necessary to maintain Solomon’s wealth and influence. Enjoy God’s gifts and blessings but don’t make them into an idol or a tower.
Ask God to show you where you may have used his blessings to build a tower.
Read 1 Kings 11
