The Lord warned David that if his son does wrong, "I will punish him with a rod wielded by men." (2 Samuel 7:14) This is what we'll find happening in today's text and in tomorrow's text. The Lord will allow adversaries to rise up against Solomon, not to destroy him but to discipline him to help him see the error of his ways. The Lord doesn't discipline His children for discipline's sake alone; it is a form of correction. Solomon evidently did not repent and change his ways when the Lord verbally took him to task in yesterday's study. The Lord must now turn to other methods to get Solomon to ask himself, "Why are these hardships coming into my life? Why is the latter part of my reign not peaceful like the first part?" And he is meant to conclude, "It is because I have not been fully committed to my God."
I want us to take a moment to remind ourselves that not all hardships are a result of sin. We live in a fallen world where the rain falls on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:45) Some hardships are allowed to come into our lives to correct wrong behavior and some are allowed to come into our lives for other purposes. Discipline doesn't always mean "correction"; it can also mean "training". An example of this would be the years David spent in exile while Saul sought his life. These circumstances don't appear to be the consequences of sin on David's part (not that he was perfect) but instead they appear to be training for godliness and for leadership so he could be the type of king the Lord wanted him to be.
But in Solomon's case we know he's gone astray. Right after the Lord tells him how displeased He is about his idolatrous behavior, an adversary rises up against him. "Then the Lord raised up against Solomon an adversary, Hadad the Edomite, from the royal line of Edom." (1 Kings 11:14) You'll recall that the Edomites were descended from Isaac's son Esau, whereas the Israelites were descended from Isaac's son Jacob. The Edomites and Israelites were close kinsmen but the Edomites treated the Israelites horribly when they came out of Egypt. The Bible mentions that Hadad is from the "royal line of Edom" and this is a reference to Genesis 36:31 where we were told that the Edomites had kings before the Israelites had kings, then that same chapter goes on to name the royal rulers of ancient Edom. Hadad is a descendant of this family line named in Genesis 36.
In David's time, during a conflict with the nation of Edom, Hadad had to flee to Egypt while still a young boy due to the slaughter of many men of Edom. "Earlier when David was fighting with Edom, Joab the commander of the army, who had gone up to bury the dead, had struck down all the men in Edom. Joab and all the Israelites stayed there for six months, until they had destroyed all the men in Edom. But Hadad, still only a boy, fled to Egypt with some Edomite officials who had served his father. They set out from Midian and went to Paran. Then taking people of Paran with them, they went to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave Hadad a house and land and provided him with food." (1 Kings 11:15-18) We don't know a great deal about David's conquest of Edom but were told in 2 Samuel 8 that he and his army struck down 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt and then set up garrisons throughout the land of Edom and made the Edomites subject to the nation of Israel.
In verse 15 above, when the author says the soldiers struck down "all the men" in Edom, this does not literally mean every Edomite male was killed by them. There were still plenty of Edomites in existence after this conflict but the author likely means they killed as many members of the royal family and as many top government officials as they could, along with a large number of the soldiers they fought in battle. Some of the officials (men) who had served Hadad's father fled with the young Hadad to Egypt for his safety where the king of Egypt granted Hadad asylum. This is similar to what happened with Mephibosheth, the grandson of King Saul. Earlier in the Bible, when King Saul and his son Jonathan and two other of Saul's sons were killed in battle with the Philistines, Mephibosheth the son of Saul was just a young boy. But since the death of Saul and Jonathan put Mephibosheth next in line for the throne, the young boy's nurse feared the Philistines would come for him and kill him. She grabbed him up and fled, falling with him and causing the injury that caused him to be lame in both feet for the rest of his life, and then she got him to Lo Debar where he lived in obscurity until King David later called for him to show him kindness for the sake of David's friendship with the late Jonathan.
When Hadad reached adulthood, the king of Egypt arranged a marriage for him with his sister-in-law. "Pharaoh was so pleased with Hadad that he gave him a sister of his own wife, Queen Tahpenes, in marriage. The sister of Tahpenes bore him a son named Genubath, whom Tahpanes brought up in the royal palace. There Genubath lived with Pharaoh's own children." (1 Kings 11:19-20) Was the king who helped Hadad also the same king whose daughter Solomon married? Or was Solomon's Egyptian father-in-law the pharaoh who succeed the king who helped Hadad? It's really not possible for us to figure this out for certain since the Bible rarely provides the names of the kings of Egypt. Not even the pharaoh of the exodus, for example, is named for us. But if Solomon's father-in-law and the king who helped Hadad were one and the same, it's clear that Hadad doesn't share the Egyptian king's friendship with Solomon. Instead Hadad wants revenge for what David did to his people. David is no longer living but David's son is and Hadad is content with troubling Solomon in place of David. "While he was in Egypt, Hadad heard that David rested with his ancestors and that Joab the commander of the army was also dead. Then Hadad said to Pharaoh, 'Let me go, that I may return to my own country.'" (1 Kings 11:21)
It likely appears to the king of Egypt as if Hadad, knowing that David and Joab are dead, feels safe returning to Edom. Pharaoh probably believes only that Hadad wants to go home now that no one is seeking his life. But at the same time, Pharaoh has been so good to him that he can't imagine why he'd want to leave the glories of the kingdom of Egypt for the kingdom of Edom which is past the zenith of its glory now. Edom is subject to Israel; it is not a sovereign nation. "'What have you lacked here that you want to go back to your own country?' Pharaoh asked. 'Nothing,' Hadad replied. But do let me go!'" (1 Kings 11:22)
What does Hadad do after he leaves Egypt? Interestingly, the Bible does not say! But now another man rises up against Solomon and adds to the trouble caused by Hadad. "And God raised up against Solomon another adversary, Rezon son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah. When David destroyed Zobah's army, Rezon gathered a band of men around him and became their leader; they went to Damascus, where they settled and took control. Rezon was Israel's adversary as long as Solomon lived, adding to the trouble caused by Hadad. So Rezon ruled in Aram and was hostile toward Israel." (1 Kings 11:23-25)
David defeated Hadadezer's army in battle in 2 Samuel 8. Then, when the Arameans came to help Hadadezer, David defeated them too. He put garrisons in the Aramean-controlled city of Damascus and made the Arameans pay tribute to Israel. So we see that both Hadad and Rezon are holding grudges against the late King David. They are both from territories that are now subject to Israel. I assume they both stirred up strife and rebellion among their people against King Solomon and against Israel.
We don't know exactly what these men did to trouble Solomon but we know the Lord allowed the trouble because Solomon has been living in disobedience. If Solomon responds to this discipline wisely, he will repent of his sins of idolatry and utterly forsake these sins. We know by the words he wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes that he felt he had followed some of the wrong things in life. He said he had denied himself nothing he'd ever wanted but that all these things left him feeling empty. He came to the conclusion, at the end of the book, that our lives must be focused on the Lord for anything to matter, so he summed up his discourse like this: "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)
In tomorrow's text we'll learn of another person who caused trouble for Solomon. This person will also cause trouble for Solomon's son and successor.
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