23So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. 24All the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart. 25Year after year, every man brought his tribute, vessels of silver, vessels of gold, clothing, armor, spices, horses, and mules.
26Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen. He kept them in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem. 27The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem, and cedars as common as the sycamore trees that are in the lowland. 28The horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt. The king’s merchants received them in droves, each drove at a price. 29A chariot was imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for one hundred fifty shekels; and so they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Syria.
Solomon is crowned king and at first things go very well. He asks God for wisdom in how to rule and he is given knowledge and wisdom that no one had ever experienced before. Israel flourished and Solomon even built a temple in Jerusalem. But with all of his wisdom there was one thing that Solomon lacked, he did not remain obedient to the word of God.
Many years previously God set out standards the king should live by (Deuteronomy 17.) The standards were as follows: Don’t increase your stables, don’t go back to Egypt, don’t marry foreign wives as they will turn your heart to foreign gods and don’t accumulate personal wealth. Solomon broke every rule!
These standards may seem unusual for us but they were in place for very good reasons. With each rule that Solomon broke the further the whole nation removed itself from God.
As he increased his wealth, Solomon no longer had to rely on God and in his self-sufficiency, he took matters into his own hands, removing God from his rightful place. He married many foreign women and he began to worship their gods and involved all Israel in this idolatry. By increasing his stables, he had to trade with Egypt the most renown horse trader at the time. Egypt was a symbol of slavery and injustice. God did not want his people to return to a place and situation, that he had so miraculously set them free from. God’s expectation for his people has not changed, we worship only him, allow him to be in full control and do not return to the places that he has set us free from.