>> Jen: Good morning, faithful listeners. Thanks for tuning into the Bible explain podcast. So do you guys remember on yesterday's podcast episode, at the very end, I mentioned that I was beginning to lose my voice? Well, that's because I ended up getting very sick. I recorded that episode on Friday of last week, which almost never happens. I'm usually never that prepared and never that far ahead. But I happen to be ahead in my podcast
episodes. So on Friday, after I was done recording that episode, I was, you know, feeling worse and worse as the day went on. And I was like, man, I just don't feel good. So then Saturday, I woke up and I was like, oh, boy, I'm definitely sick. And then Sunday was when it really hit me. I was so sick. I woke up with, like, the most terrible sore throat I think I ever had in my life. And I couldn't talk. Like it was completely laryngitis, and
I had a fever and everything. And I was like, man, this really sucks. And I decided, because I'm, like, on this health journey, you know, I decided to, instead of chugging dayquil and night quill like I usually do, I decided to let my fever just run its course. In fact, I helped it along. So what I did was I went out in the sun because it was very beautiful, sunny day on Sunday. And I just lied there. And I lied there for a solid
hour, and I actually fell asleep for a little bit. So when I came back into the house, I was super nauseated and really sick because the sun literally depleted all of my electrolytes. I had sweated them all out. So I chugged a big thing of water and finished my nap up in my air conditioned bedroom, and I was sweating like a pig the entire time. And 3 hours later, when I woke up, oh, my gosh, it was like night and day. I felt so good. It was like that sickness was gone.
So it's just amazing how the body heals itself when it's given the right conditions. And that is because God is an intelligent designer. He's so smart to put things in place. Like feverse. Sure, you can hear that my voice is not back to 100%, but otherwise, the rest of me is basically 100%. But now my poor husband is sick, so I hope you guys are all staying healthy and, uh, you know, not catching whatever is going around right now, but
tell me how you've been feeling. Contact me. I do enjoy hearing from all of you. Let's read one kings 3115. I'll be reading from the web as I always do. Grab your cup of coffee or your cup of tea this morning, and let's enjoy reading scripture together. Solomon made an alliance with pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and he brought her into David's city until he had finished building his own house, Yahweh's house and the wall around
Jerusalem. However, the people sacrificed in the high places because there was not yet a house built for Yahweh's name. Solomon loved Yahweh walking in the statutes of David his father, except that he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. The king went to gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar in Gibeon. Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, ask for what I should
give you. Solomon said, you have shown to your servant David, my father, great loving kindness, because he walked before you in truth, in righteousness and uprightness of heart with you. You have kept for him this great loving kindness that you have given him a son to sit on his throne as it is today. Now, Yahweh, my God, you have made your servant king instead of David my father. I am just a little child. I dont know how to come out or to go
in. Your servant is among your people, which you have chosen, a great people that cant be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people that I might discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours? This request pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked
for this thing. God said to him, because you have asked for this thing and have not asked for yourself a long life, nor have you asked for riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding, to discern justice. Behold, I have done according to your word. Behold, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has been no one like you before you and
after you, no one will arise like you. I have also given you that which you have not asked, both riches and honor. So there will not be any among the kings like you for all your days. If you will walk in my ways to keep my statutes and my commandments as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days. Solomon awoke and behold, it was a dream.
Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the Ark of Yahweh's covenant and offered up burnt offerings, offered peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants. At this point in time, Solomon now has been firmly established as the king of Israel. It says in verse one, Solomon made an alliance with pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and took pharaoh's daughter and brought her into David's city. So one of the first things that Solomon does is he makes an alliance
with some of the kings of the region. He made an alliance with Egypt specifically, and he became the pharaoh's son in law because he married the pharaoh's daughter. This was something that, uh, kings would often do. You know, we've heard about this throughout all of history. Kings will marry, um, the daughters of other countries in order to form an alliance with that particular country, because now, through marriage, those
two kings are connected. So it shows that they are going to take care of each other and that they are going to protect each other. So the first thing Solomon does is form an alliance with Egypt. And this might look like a really good thing, you know, to the Israelites at the time, because Egypt was pretty powerful for the most part, and having an alliance with Egypt in that way would have a lot of benefits for
Israel. But the fact is, this was actually against God for Solomon to marry Pharaoh's daughter for multiple reasons. If you turn to deuteronomy chapter, what is it, 17 about the rules for kings? And I've referenced this chapter multiple times over the past, like, several months. In the Old Testament law, God gives specific commandments for the eventual king. So let's turn to deuteronomy 17 and read verses 14
through. Let's see, 14 through 17. When you have come to the land which Yahweh, your God, gives you, and you possess it and dwell in it, and say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me, you shall surely set him whom Yahweh chooses as king over yourselves, which that, in fact, was Solomon, because God chose Solomon out of all of David's sons. So, yes, Solomon should have been the king. You shall set a king over you from among your brothers.
You may not put a foreigner over you who is not your brother. Now, that's just common sense. Obviously, even here in America and other countries around the world, you have to be native born in order to become, like, president of that country. That just makes sense, because somebody who is native born is going to understand the culture of the society that they live in way better than a foreign
born person would. Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to the end that he may multiply horses. Because Yahweh has said to you, you shall not go back that way again. So that verse could absolutely be interpreted as you shouldn't have dealings with Egypt specifically for the reason of acquiring more security for yourselves, because God has commanded you are never to go back to Egypt for help ever again. Because don't forget where the
Israelites came from. They were all slaves in Egypt. They had to be rescued out of Egypt. The Egyptians were very terrible to the Israelites. And God, through, uh, his miraculous power, displayed his love for the Israelites by pulling them out of Egypt. And so God commanded the Israelites basically from the very beginning. He said, don't go back to Egypt. Don't desire Egypt. Don't try to make an alliance with Egypt because you've been pulled out of that
slavery. So don't try to go back to it. Once again, don't try to look at Egypt for help. Now, I should mention here, of course, it doesn't specifically say that the king can't marry the pharaoh's daughter. But what was the point of Solomon even marrying pharaoh's daughter? It was for the alliance. It was so that Israel and Egypt could be connected to each other, so that Egypt could provide military assistance when Israel needed it. That was the point of Solomon marrying
Pharaoh's daughter. Now, the other reason this was wrong for Solomon to do was because if you turn to deuteronomy seven, which is another Old Testament law, it says in verse one, I'll read verses one and one to three. When Yahweh, your God, brings you into the land that you go to possess, and you cast out many nations before you. The Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzite, the Hivites, and the Jebusite.
Seven nations greater and mightier than you. And when Yahweh, your God, delivers them up before you and you strike them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. You shall not make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son, for that would turn away your sons from following me, that they may serve
other gods. And Yahweh's anger would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. God was pretty clear, not just from this passage, but also several others, that the Israelites were not to intermarry with the people who surrounded them. And, uh, not because of racism or anything like that, but because the people who surrounded the Israelites were pagans, and the pagan people would worship their gods. Obviously, and would entice the Israelites
to start worshipping their gods as well. So if the Israelites are intermarrying with the pagans that surround them, that's going to lead the hearts of the Israelites astray, because they're going to want to please their pagan girlfriends and boyfriends and pagan wives and husbands. Obviously, that is even true to this day. You know, I want to do the things my husband enjoys doing because I want to enjoy my husband's company. So we do a lot of the
same things. That is what God is talking about here. It has nothing to do actually with race, because if you look in the Book of Ruth, which we've already talked about, Ruth was a moabite woman who was raised pagan, but when she went to Israel, she actually converted and started worshiping Yahweh. And then she actually married Boaz, who was a man in Israel. And that union between Ruth, the Moabitess and Boaz, the israelite man, was blessed, and Ruth became actually David's great
grandmother, I think it was. So it had nothing to do at all with race, otherwise Ruth would never have been allowed to marry Boaz. It had everything to do with spirituality. So if a pagan person decided to start worshipping Yahweh and started living like an israelite and converted to Judaism, then obviously that person would be allowed to marry an israelite man. But that wasn't the case here. For Solomon in one kings three, Pharaoh's daughter was a
pagan woman. And even though she isn't part of one of the tribes that are listed in deuteronomy seven, that the Israelites weren't allowed to marry, it doesn't make a difference because it was talking specifically about paganism. God did not want the Israelites to intermarry or intermingle with the pagans because that would cause their hearts to be led astray. And not to give too many spoilers, but that's kind of what happens to Solomon. So Solomon probably shouldn't have
married Pharaoh's daughter. I'm sure there's some sort of argument that could be made for it that, you know, Solomon was not in the wrong to marry Pharaoh's daughter. But I think there's enough biblical evidence from the Old Testament to suggest that Solomon was at least skirting a line, at most, disobeying God's law. So he brings Pharaoh's daughter to Jerusalem, and he actually kept her in a separate location, which is really interesting, until Yahweh's house
was built. So Pharaoh's daughter was not allowed to live with Solomon inside of David's palace. And you know why? It's because she was considered unholy and unclean because she was a foreign woman. So what does that tell you? That tells you that Solomon already knew that marrying Pharaoh's daughter was something he probably shouldn't do, because the
Israelites were supposed to be holy. And even Solomon himself knew that Pharaoh's daughter, because she worshipped idols and because she had pagan rituals that she would do, she was not considered holy. Now, had she converted to Judaism and followed God's laws and was a Yahweh worshipper, then there could be an argument for that. But unfortunately, there's no biblical evidence
for that. And I would say that the evidence actually points in the other direction, that she certainly was not a Yahweh follower because she wasn't even allowed in David's palace, because David's palace was considered to be holy, to be set apart. But continuing on in verse one, we're still only in verse one. And I'm, uh, 20 minutes into this episode almost. It says Solomon did not really let Pharaoh's daughter live with him until he
ends up building all of these other places. And then later on in scripture, we're going to see that Solomon also built a house for Pharaoh's daughter so that she could live in comfort in Jerusalem, but not also be intermingled and associated with the holy things of God. But moving forward in first kings two, it says, however, the people sacrificed in the high places because there was not yet a house built for Yahweh's name.
So even though verse one mentioned that Solomon was going to build Yahweh's house at this point in time, Solomon had not yet built it because he was still a young king. He had just married Pharaoh's daughter, and, uh, he hadn't gotten around to building Yahweh's house yet. And it did take a very long time for Solomon to build it. I think it was something like five or maybe seven years. I can't remember specifically. But Yahweh did not have a temple yet, a permanent
resting place for the ark of the covenant. So the people were going to these high places to burn incense and to sacrifice their offerings. But the high places were really problematic. And God was very irritated with the high places, actually, from the very beginning. There's evidence of this in, once again from deuteronomy, chapter twelve.
In verse one of deuteronomy twelve, it says, these are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days that you live on the earth, you shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall
dispossess served their gods. On the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree, you shall break down their altars, dash their pillars into pieces, and burn their asher up holes with fire. You shall cut down their engraved images of their gods. You shall destroy their name out of that place. And you shall not do so to Yahweh, your goddess, but to the place which Yahweh, your God, shall choose out of all of your
tribes to put his name there. You shall seek his habitation, and you shall come there and bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, and the wave offering of your hands and your vows and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock there. So God was clear from the very, very beginning that the israelite people were not to worship on the high places. And unfortunately, pretty much everybody did worship on the high places, even
SAMUEl. Samuel, the great priest, the last judge of Israel, who was able to communicate with God. There are verses that say that he actually worshiped on the high places. Now, that doesn't mean that he was going to these high places to worship pagan deities. I don't believe Samuel was worshipping any pagan deity. I think he was worshiping Yahweh. But the fact was he was still going to the high places to worship
Yahweh. And the high places were very irritating to God because they were remnants of the canaanite ideology. Uh, the Canaanites would go to these high places and set up their Asherah poles and the big phallic looking things, and then they would do all sorts of crazy things, and they'd burn incense to their gods and everything like that. And so God was clear that he did not want the Israelites worshiping Athenae, the high places, because the Israelites were supposed to be
different than the nations. They were supposed to be set apart. And so if the Israelites are going to the high places and worshipping, you know, even Yahweh, similarly, as the Canaanites were worshipping their gods, that is not being holy, that is not being set apart. That is being the same as all the other nations. And God wanted the Israelites to be different and to
be set apart. And so, unfortunately, because Yahweh's house wasn't built yet, the Israelites were going up to the high places to worship Yhwh, these previous canaanite areas where the pagan gods were once worshipped. And that's what the Israelites were using. Now, you could make the argument, well, you know, God didn't want David to build him a
house, yet he wanted Solomon to build that house. So isn't it kind of God's fault that the people were going to the high places, since there was no, uh, house built yet for Yahweh where people could go and worship? And I would say, no, there's no argument for that, because the people didn't have to go to the high places to worship God. They could have gone somewhere else. God was very clear in deuteronomy not to worship at the high places. And unfortunately, pretty much everybody did, including
Solomon. It says Solomon loved Yahweh. Walking in the statutes of, uh, David, his father, except that he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. That is verse three. And so that's a negative mark against Solomon, even though he loved Yahweh. And he was likely burning this incense and sacrificing these animals to Yahweh and not to some other deity or whatever, but yet it still was against God. It says the king went to gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place.
Solomon offered 1000 burnt offerings on that altar. So Solomon, he's probably a bit misguided, because that's what Israel had always done, is to go to these high places and to burn the sacrifices there to Yahweh. And it's very possible also that Israel, certain Israelites were actually going there to worship other deities, I should mention. So they were probably mixed areas where some Israelites and Canaanites and whoever lived in the area would go to that high place
and not be burning sacrifices to Yahweh. But then other Israelites, like Solomon, would go and be burning sacrifices to Yahweh specifically. But Solomon is offering a huge sacrifice to God. It says he gave 1000 burnt offerings on that altar. And I would say that this was probably in Thanksgiving that Yahweh had actually, you know, given the throne to Solomon or something like that. But once again, this was still against God. And it was
clearly laid out in the law that this was against God. And unfortunately, Israel's leaders never clearly gave the law to the people. They weren't doing their job. And so somebody should have told Solomon that this was wrong. But, uh, possibly even the priests were going up to the high places to worship, uh, God. So, like I said, solomon goes to gibeon to sacrifice to God there. And in Gibeon, Yahweh appears to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, ask for what I should give you.
And in a nutshell, Solomon answers God. And he says, I want to be able to judge your people properly. I want to have wisdom on how to do this thing, because I am very unknowledgeable. He calls himself a little boy, just as his dad had done on his deathbed. Remember, David, in his last words, he basically told Solomon to be a man. He's like, all right, little boy, grow up and be a man. You got to become the
king. And so Solomon, it looks like, had a little bit of an insecurity about his age because he was a young man. So he calls himself a little boy, and he says, you know, I just want to be a good king. I just want to be a good judge. So, God, please just give me the wisdom to be able to be a good king and a good judge. And so God is so pleased with Solomon's response because it was so
humble. Solomon was admitting defeat. He was admitting that he didn't have all the answers, that he didn't know how to be a good king, and that only Yahweh ultimately could be a good king, because that wisdom would be coming from Yahweh. And God is very pleased with Solomon's answer. And so he actually grants Solomon's request. He actually says to Solomon, I'm going to give you so much wisdom that there's not going to be a king like you ever again.
In fact, I think he says, there's not going to be anybody like you. Yeah. So if you go to verse twelve, God says, I have given you a wise and understanding heart so that there has been no one like you before you and after you, no one will arise like you. So Solomon was going to have a lot of knowledge about many different topics, about many different things, so that he would be a great king and a great judge of Israel.
So you might argue, well, because God was willing to grant Solomon this request. That means that God was very happy with Solomon, and Solomon wasn't doing anything wrong. But that's not true. Notice that Solomon was in Gibeon when God appeared to him in this dream. That means that Solomon had just finished that night performing all those sacrifices on the high
places. Yet God, in his kindness and in his mercy, chose that exact moment to come to Solomon and to grant Solomon's request and to give, uh, Solomon even more, actually, than Solomon even asked for. Because not only does God give Solomon a wise and understanding heart, but he also gives Solomon riches and honor, is what he says. So there will not be any king among you or like you
for all of Solomon's days. But going back to my original point, God chose to do this when Solomon was in Gibeon, sacrificing at an area that he shouldn't have been sacrificing at. And notice what Solomon does the very next day. He goes to Jerusalem, the proper place of worship. And he stood before the ark of Yahweh's covenant, and he offered, um, up burnt offerings, and he offered peace offerings, and he made a feast for his servants.
So God got through to Solomon's heart and possibly convicted Solomon that where he was sacrificing was not the right place, because why wouldn't Solomon just stay in Gibeon and perform those sacrifices once again, it was because Solomon was convicted that he shouldn't be in Gibeon, that he should be back in Jerusalem, where God had chosen where the ark of the covenant was, and he should be sacrificing to God right there, man. Considering the fact that, uh, my voice isn't doing so well,
this was a really long episode. I was telling my sister this morning, she's like, jenna, you're gonna be able to record an episode today. And I was like, yeah, I'll be fine. I'll be able to record an episode. I was like, maybe I'll just do a short one, though. Maybe like, you know, 15 minutes. I'm sure people will understand. And then here it is, 30 minutes in. But this. This portion was so good, I had to talk about it, you know? So I hope you guys all
enjoyed it. And if you did, tell people that the Bible explain podcast exists, and also go to Apple podcasts or any other platform that you're listening on, and please rate the podcast five stars and also write a nice little review. And sometimes I like to read those reviews also on the podcast. I haven't done that in a while, but I'll remember to do that soon. Anyway, faithful listeners, have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day. I will see you all tomorrow for an episode from first
Corinthians. Happy listening, and God bless.