God stirred him up yet an adversary, Rezon the son of Eliada, who had fled from Hadadezer king of Zobah, his lord.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And he collected men to him, and became captain of a band, when David slew them [of Zobah]; and they went to Damascus, and dwelt there, and reigned in Damascus.
Rezon was a runaway officer from a kingdom David had crushed, and he used that defeat to build a career: a band of fighters, a captured city, a throne of his own. His revolt began in David's day, but Scripture tells it here, right after Solomon turned to other gods — and that placement is the key to the verse.
The raiders in this verse rose out of a war Israel had already won. And God was the one who raised their leader up.
Another adversary that God raised up against Solomon was Rezon the son of Eliadah. He was the servant of Hadadezer king of Zobah whom David had decisively defeated (2 Sam. 8:3-8). Rezon "loathed Israel" (v. 25), and gathered followers, so that he became a captain of a band of raiders (v. 24). So these two enemies, Hadad and Rezon, believed they were right to hate Israel, because David had made their nations suffer.
Rezon had been gathering men since David's campaigns. Scripture says nothing about him until Solomon's idolatry is on the page.
I do not mean that the trouble caused by Hadad or Rezon began only when Solomon became an idolater. But I do point this out: the Holy Spirit holds back the account of the trouble they caused the king until then. The Spirit Himself presents it as a direct chastening of his idolatry.
One writer finds a single comfort in the whole record of Solomon.
This is almost the only comfort we have in the history given to us of king Solomon — that God chastised him. He chastised him. He did not just let the fruit of his evil, the results of his folly, show up in his family. He chastened Solomon himself, in his own lifetime. This is His way with His own people. In some cases it is almost the only hope you have that a person is a child of God: God does not let the evil pass, but deals with it now, in this world. Those He passes over despite their evil are plainly waiting to be condemned with the world. But those who are guilty and are dealt with now are the objects of God's fatherly care.
The damage went well beyond one raiding band.
Peace, the fruit that marked this reign, is destroyed. Solomon goes through a time full of troubles, riots, and plots against his throne. Nations such as Egypt once thought it an honour to be allied with him. Now they feed, promote, and support his worst enemies. All kinds of ties are weakened. The king's yoke weighs heavily on the people, to prevent rebellion at home. The result is only poorly suppressed discontent, which breaks out from time to time.
Solomon had taken wives from the very nations now attacking him. One writer draws the lesson for anyone tempted to make friends with what Christ has already defeated.
Underneath it all, the world always hates the Lord's anointed, and the conduct of believers, whether more or less blameworthy, only serves as a pretext for this hatred. The world is like Hadad and Rezon. The cross of Christ gives us a place to take toward the world — the cross by which the world is crucified to us and we to the world (Gal. 6:14). As long as we keep that place, and treat the world as a defeated enemy (John 16:33), it does not make a move. But let us make an alliance with it. Then it cannot forget its defeat. It may keep up a look of indifference, but it will hate us no less.
The band of raiders in this verse became a state — and that state shaped Israel's history for centuries.
David had reigned over Damascus. Only in the days of Solomon's decline did Syria begin to exist as a separate and independent kingdom (see 1 Kings 11:23-25). Its first king "was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon… And he loathed Israel and reigned over Syria." This continued to be the attitude of Syria toward Israel.
Enemies do not always have to rise. One writer names the condition that keeps them quiet.
"When a man's ways please the LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him" (Prov. 16:7)… It is a solemn thing when God has to enter into a dispute with any of us, but "if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged" (1 Cor. 11:31).
- Cause. Rezon's revolt began in David's day, but Scripture tells it only after Solomon's idolatry. The Spirit presents it as direct chastening for that sin.
- Mercy. Discipline in this life marks a person as under God's fatherly care, not as passed over and left for judgment.
- Cost. The peace that marked Solomon's reign gave way to plots, a heavier yoke, and discontent among his own people.
- Reach. A band of raiders became the kingdom of Syria at Damascus, an enemy of Israel long after Solomon was gone.
- Remedy. The world, like Rezon, is a beaten enemy until we ally with it. Judging ourselves spares us the discipline Solomon had to endure.
And he was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, besides the mischief that Hadad [did]; and he abhorred Israel, and reigned over Syria.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.