The Divine Thorns
Introduction: The Law of the Harvest
We live in a sentimental age, an age that believes it can have its sin and eat it too. Our culture is dedicated to the proposition that a man can sow thistles and expect to harvest figs. We want the thrill of the rebellion without the hangover of the consequences. We want to defy gravity without the unpleasantness of the pavement at the end. But the God of the Bible is not the indulgent, senile grandfather of our modern imagination. He is the living God, and He has hardwired His universe with an unyielding moral structure. What a man sows, that he will also reap. This is not a suggestion; it is the law of the harvest.
Nowhere is this principle more starkly illustrated than in the life of Solomon. In the previous section of this chapter, we saw the tragic account of Solomon's decline. The wisest man in the world made the most foolish of choices. He multiplied wives, which God had forbidden, and those foreign wives turned his heart away from Yahweh to their grotesque idols. He sowed the seeds of apostasy in the high places around Jerusalem, building shrines to Chemosh and Milcom. He broke the first and greatest commandment, and he did it with his eyes wide open.
Our text today is the story of the harvest. It is the account of the whirlwind that follows the wind. The Bible does not present this as a series of unfortunate geopolitical events or bad political luck. The text is brutally clear. "Yahweh raised up an adversary." "God raised up another adversary." The political disintegration of Israel was not an accident of history; it was an act of God. God is the one who sends the thorns. He is the one who appoints the adversaries. This is the story of how God, in His absolute sovereignty, begins to dismantle the golden age of Israel as a direct, covenantal consequence of its king's idolatry.
The Text
Then Yahweh raised up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite... And God raised up another adversary to him, Rezon the son of Eliada... Now Jeroboam the son of Nebat... also raised his hand against the king... for thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and give you ten tribes... because they have forsaken Me...’ Solomon sought therefore to put Jeroboam to death; but Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt...
(1 Kings 11:14-40, selected LSB)
The Foreign Thorns (vv. 14-25)
The first wave of God's judgment comes from the outside. God reaches into the past and brings forward two old enemies to become thorns in Solomon's side.
"Then Yahweh raised up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite..." (1 Kings 11:14)
The first thing we must see is the clear agency of God. Yahweh did this. A secular historian would say that Hadad was motivated by a long-simmering desire for revenge against Israel for Joab's brutal campaign in Edom years earlier. And that would be true, as far as it goes. But it does not go nearly far enough. The Bible gives us the ultimate cause behind the proximate cause. Why did Hadad's desire for revenge flare up now? Because Yahweh blew on the embers. God is sovereign over the hearts of kings, even pagan kings with a grudge. He can use a man's sinful desire for vengeance to accomplish His own righteous purposes of judgment.
Hadad's story is a remarkable providence. He escapes a massacre as a boy, finds refuge and favor in Egypt, marries into the royal family, and waits. He is a loose thread from David's conquests, and now God pulls that thread. Solomon had married Pharaoh's daughter to secure his southern border, but God uses that same Egypt to shelter and nurture an enemy who will now trouble that very border. God's providence is never outmaneuvered by our clever political alliances.
Then we see the second external adversary.
"And God raised up another adversary to him, Rezon the son of Eliada..." (1 Kings 11:23)
Again, the text is explicit: "God raised up." Rezon was a fugitive, a bandit leader. He was a nobody who took advantage of the chaos of David's wars to carve out a petty kingdom for himself in Damascus. From a human perspective, he was an opportunist. From a divine perspective, he was an instrument. God does not need a superpower to chasten His people; a marauding band will do just fine. God took this Syrian warlord and made him an adversary to Israel "all the days of Solomon."
These two men, Hadad and Rezon, represent God's external pressure. They are the beginning of the unraveling. The peace and security that had defined Solomon's reign are now gone. The borders are no longer secure. The king who sought peace through compromise with idols now finds he has no peace at all. This is because true peace is a fruit of covenant faithfulness, not political maneuvering.
The Domestic Thorn (vv. 26-39)
If the threats from Hadad and Rezon were troubling, the threat from Jeroboam was catastrophic. The first two were thorns in the flesh; this one was a dagger aimed at the heart. The enemy is now within the gates.
"Now Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, Solomon’s servant... also raised his hand against the king." (1 Kings 11:26)
Notice who Jeroboam is. He is not a foreign prince. He is an Ephraimite, from the powerful northern tribe of Joseph. And he is "Solomon's servant." In fact, Solomon recognized his talent, that he was a "mighty man of valor" and "industrious," and promoted him to a high position over the labor force of the northern tribes. Solomon, the great builder, personally elevated the man who would tear his kingdom in two. There is a deep and bitter irony here. The very skills Solomon valued and promoted are the skills God will use to dismantle his legacy.
The central event is the prophecy from Ahijah the Shilonite. This is not a palace coup plotted in secret; this is a divine decree announced in the open field. The prophet's action is a piece of street theater with cosmic significance. He takes a brand new cloak, a symbol of the new, unified kingdom under Solomon, and rips it into twelve pieces. He then gives ten of those pieces to Jeroboam.
The meaning is unmistakable, and Ahijah leaves no room for doubt. "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and give you ten tribes'" (v. 31). This is a sovereign decree. And God gives the reason with perfect clarity: "because they have forsaken Me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth... Chemosh... and Milcom" (v. 33). The political schism is the direct result of religious apostasy. Politics is always downstream from worship. When a nation forsakes the true God, it will inevitably fracture and fall apart. You cannot hold a nation together with idolatry.
But even in this severe judgment, we see the stubborn grace of God. The kingdom is torn, but God's covenant with David holds. God promises to leave one tribe for Solomon's son, not for his sake, but "for the sake of My servant David" (v. 32). He promises that David will "have a lamp always before Me in Jerusalem" (v. 36). This is the thread of the gospel. The judgment on Solomon is real and devastating, but it will not thwart God's ultimate plan of redemption. The lamp of the Davidic line will be battered and flicker, but it will not be extinguished until it leads to the birth of the Son of David, the Light of the World.
God even makes a conditional offer to Jeroboam, the same offer He made to David: if you will walk in my ways, "then I will be with you and build you an enduring house" (v. 38). God is offering Jeroboam the chance to be the head of a new, faithful dynasty in the north. The tragedy of the rest of the story is that Jeroboam will take the ten tribes but reject the condition, immediately setting up his own idolatrous system of worship.
The Foolishness of Fighting God (v. 40)
The prophecy has been delivered. The reason has been given. The judgment is decreed. How does the wisest man in the world respond? Does he tear his own clothes in repentance? Does he fall on his face and plead for mercy? Does he destroy the high places he built?
"Solomon sought therefore to put Jeroboam to death..." (1 Kings 11:40)
This is the final, tragic evidence of Solomon's hardened heart. His response to the declared word of God is not repentance, but resistance. He hears that God is going to give ten tribes to Jeroboam, so he tries to kill Jeroboam. This is the logic of a fool. It is the logic of Pharaoh, who tried to destroy God's people after God had declared He would deliver them. It is the logic of Herod, who tried to kill the infant Jesus after the Magi announced the birth of the King of the Jews. You cannot fight God's providence. You cannot murder your way out of a divine decree. Solomon's wisdom has utterly abandoned him, rotted away by his idolatry. He is now just another petty tyrant, flailing against the sovereign will of the Almighty.
And where does Jeroboam flee? To Egypt, of course. Egypt is always the world's alternative to trusting in God. Hadad was sheltered in Egypt. Now Jeroboam is sheltered in Egypt. The place of Israel's original bondage has become the refuge for the instruments of its judgment.
Conclusion: Your Appointed Adversaries
It is easy for us to read this story and cluck our tongues at Solomon's folly. But the principles at work here are timeless. God is still sovereign, the law of the harvest is still in effect, and our sin will still find us out.
When you sin, when you set up idols in your heart, whether they are idols of comfort, or lust, or greed, or approval, do not be surprised when God raises up an adversary against you. It may not be an Edomite prince or a Syrian warlord. It may be a difficult boss. It may be a rebellious teenager. It may be a sudden financial crisis. It may be a persistent illness. But make no mistake, if you are a child of God, He will not let you sit comfortably in your sin. He will send thorns. He will appoint adversaries to discipline you, to chasten you, to drive you back to Himself.
The great question for us is this: how will we respond? Will we be like Solomon, who, when confronted with the consequences of his sin, tried to kill the messenger and fight the providence? Do we lash out at the people and circumstances God is using to get our attention? Do we try to manage, manipulate, and murder our way out of the problem?
Or will we have the wisdom to see the hand of God in our troubles? Will we have the humility to repent? Will we confess that God is just and that we have sinned? Will we tear our own robes instead of trying to silence the prophet?
The good news is that even in judgment, God's grace remains. He disciplined the house of David, but He did not abandon it. He preserved a lamp. And that lamp is Jesus Christ. Because of Solomon's sin, the kingdom was torn. But because of Christ's perfect obedience, a new and better kingdom has been established, a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Our hope is not in our own wisdom or ability to keep the covenant. Our hope is in the Son of David, who kept it perfectly for us. Therefore, when God sends His divine thorns into your life, do not resist. See them as the severe mercy of a Father who loves you too much to let you get away with your idolatry, and let them drive you to the cross of the King who took the ultimate thorn, the crown of thorns, for you.