Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Two days ago, we read in First Kings 1 through 2 how Solomon was appointed king.

Yesterday, we read in Psalm 119 about how God is the giver of wisdom, and today those two

streams flow into the same river. It's a good thing that Solomon asked God for wisdom, and we'll

get to that in a minute, because he's already started out by killing a few people, maybe

righteously, maybe not, and by marrying a foreign woman, which is definitely not a righteous

move. This marriage was for a political alliance,

so does that make it any better? No. We don't see it right away, but this eventually causes

his kingdom to crumble. What we can see right away is that it suggests he doesn't trust God to act on

Israel's behalf. He makes alliances that involve marrying the women God said not to marry.

And did you see who he married? Pharaoh's daughter, as in King of Egypt, as in the people who

enslaved God's people for 400 years and their name is synonymous with everything God tells them to

avoid? Just because Solomon's the king doesn't mean he gets a pass on obedience. In fact, he should be

the one setting an example. He's the leader. Unfortunately, much like his father David,

women are his weak spot. Solomon loves Yahweh, but he also likes to sacrifice to pagan gods.

He's got a divided heart. This wasn't uncommon in this day or even today,

honestly. It's called syncretism. It's where people try to synthesize two religious beliefs.

This works well with pretty much every other religion except worshipping Yahweh. In fact,

lots of religions encourage worshiping multiple gods, the more the merrier. But they're all on the same team,

team darkness and demons. Literally, every false religion is opposed to the kingdom of light,

even the false religion of morality that we see in a lot of cultural Christianity today.

Paul addresses this in Galatians 5-4, saying that those who believe in Jesus but rely on their

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