700 wives...300 concubines...12,000 horses...4,000 stalls...greater in riches and wisdom than any other king on the Earth. God told Solomon he would bless him as long as he remained true, but his many foreign wives turned his heart from the Lord. Somewhere Solomon's mother had to be saying "That girl's not good enough for you..."
We see in today's reading what the future of the kingdom will be and how God will accomplish it, and it needs to be placed in some context. Here's a brief timeline:
1446 BC--Exodus from Egypt
1406 BC--entry into the Promised Land
1406-1050 BC--era of the Judges, constant war and turmoil
1050-930 BC--era of the Kings (true peace for the last 60 years)
930 BC--split of Israel into Northern and Southern Kingdom
722 BC--Assyrian captivity, end of Northern Kingdom (the lost 10 Tribes)
586 BC--Babylonia captivity
522 BC--return from Babylonian captivity
This timeline covers about 1,000 years, and the period we're reading about is the absolute pinnacle of the kingdom. Solomon had wealth, peace, respect, wives (and wives and wives) and the Lord's backing. And yet he slipped, and we'll spend the next four months reading about the consequences of his actions. If someone like Solomon can fall, it has to serve as a reminder to keep ourselves ever vigilant. If there's one constant in the Bible, no matter how strong a person's faith, they can fall if they aren't continuously fearing the Lord.
Scott
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