Would you like to read James McNaught’s novel Sinking Sand”? click here: Sinking Sand
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
1 Kings 3:1–4, “And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem round about. Only the people sacrificed in high places, because there was no house built unto the name of the LORD, until those days. And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places. And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place: a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar.”
When Israel first entered the Promised Land, they made an agreement with the Lord. Israel promised to obey the Lord and the Lord promised to keep Israel safe from all their enemies. (See Lev 26: 1-13) The Lord also told Israel that when they had a king, he should not return to Egypt. This included the fact that Israel had been delivered from Egyptian slavery and they were no longer to rely on Egypt for their security for the Lord was more reliable than any Egyptian. Royal marriages were not considered to be love matches but they were seen as national alliances. The king who married another king’s daughter would have a hostage in his palace and if the other king were to attack he would lose his daughter. On the other hand, the wife was to look after her father’s interests as long as she was alive. Hopefully one of her sons would be the next king and be able to work for the good of both kingdoms. When Solomon married Pharaoh’s daughter, he was trusting in the marriage alliance rather than the Lord. He brought her into his own house in Jerusalem. This happened before the Temple had been completed, even though the Ark had been brought to Jerusalem and the Tabernacle was established there so that the altar was in place and sacrifices could be offered in the approved way. Solomon still loved the Lord and offered sacrifices to the Lord even though he had trusted in an alliance with Egypt. Obviously Solomon didn’t have his own copy of the book of the Law that he had written out with his own hand that he read day by day. (compare Num 17: 14-20)
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