1 Kings 11:20

Genubath: son of Hadad an Edomite by an Egyptian princess, sister of Tahpenes the queen.

Now he comes forward. God is wise, and that young prince was kept to be a sting to king Solomon. But this is a small comfort to us. Indeed, I may say it is almost the only comfort we have in the story we are given of king Solomon — that God disciplined him. He did not merely let the fruit of his evil, the results of his folly, show up in his family. He disciplined Solomon himself, in his own lifetime. This is His way with His own people... The people God passes over despite their evil show that they are 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.

Hadad had fled to Egypt, had been welcomed at Pharaoh's court, had become his brother-in-law, and his son had been brought up among the heirs to the throne. Where do the sympathies and favours of the world go? Not to David, but to David's enemy. One feeling in Hadad's heart speaks louder than all the honours and pleasures of Egypt's court: hatred, hatred against Solomon. He gives up all his advantages to satisfy this hatred. Underneath it all, the world always hates the Lord's anointed. The conduct of believers, whether more or less blameworthy, only serves as an excuse for this hatred.

The Lord did not let Solomon have everything go his way. To speak to Solomon's conscience the Lord raised up adversaries against him. They could not remove Solomon from the throne, but they were thorns in his side, causing unrest among the people. Hadad gained favour with Pharaoh king of Egypt, even to the point that Pharaoh gave him his own wife's sister as a wife. Edom pictures the flesh while Egypt symbolises the world. The world will always be friendly with the flesh, and Hadad was well off in Egypt.

The king's unfaithfulness would also bring the Lord's discipline down on him during the last years of his reign. Peace, the fruit that marked this reign, is gone. Solomon goes through a period full of troubles, revolts, and plots against his throne. Nations such as Egypt once counted it an honour to be allied with him. Now they feed his worst enemies, raise them to honour, and support them.

Grace known by us in Christ does not deliver from this holy government of God... Solomon kept company with foreigners, his heart went astray, and enemies rise up from the very places where he drew the means of pleasing himself. A man's own plans and willful choices always come back to him with a harvest of results. If he would only hear the Voice speaking in them, they would bring him low before God, owning his helplessness and sinfulness. Then he would receive the lifting up that God always gives to those who humble themselves under His mighty hand.

When Hadad heard that David was no longer living, he wanted to return to his own country. After he returned, the record here says nothing more about him. But since he was an adversary of Solomon, the implication is that he took up Edom's cause and resisted Solomon's reign. Though Solomon had married an Edomite wife, this did not lessen Hadad's enmity.