But when Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers and that Joab the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me depart, that I may go to my own country.”
Solomon's heart has turned from the Lord, and his peaceful reign now starts to collect enemies. Hadad, an Edomite prince who fled to Egypt from David's army, hears that David and Joab are dead and asks Pharaoh to let him go home.
Why Hadad Moves Now
Hadad had been alive and within reach for years. But Scripture says nothing about him until Solomon's heart goes astray. Commentators read that silence as deliberate.
William KellyGod does not say a word about that until Solomon's failure. Then Hadad comes forward in a clear and decided way, to be a scourge for the guilty king.
The result was not one battle. It was a slow unravelling of everything Solomon's reign was famous for.
H. L. RossierPeace, the fruit that marked this reign, is destroyed. Solomon goes through a time full of troubles, revolts, and plots against his throne. Nations such as Egypt once counted an alliance with him an honour. Now they feed, honour, and support his worst enemies.
The Trouble Comes from Where the Pleasure Came
Solomon's wives were foreign women, and the trouble now comes from that very direction.
Numerical Bible NotesSolomon kept company with foreigners, his heart was led astray, and enemies rise up from the very places he had used to please himself (1 Kings 11). A man's own plans and wilful choices always come back to him with a harvest of results. If he would only hear the Voice speaking in them, that harvest would bring him low before God, confessing his own helplessness and sinfulness.
A Hatred That Outlives the Men Who Caused It
Hadad waits for two deaths — David's and Joab's — before he stirs. Yet the men he had reason to hate were gone, and his hatred did not die with them.
H. L. RossierWhere 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 it. No doubt the behaviour of David's men had given him his reason for it. But Joab and David were dead, and the hatred went on. Underneath it all, the world always hates the Lord's anointed, and the conduct of believers, whether more or less blameworthy, only serves as an excuse for this hatred.
Solomon had also married an Edomite woman — a tie of family that did nothing to soften the man.
Leslie M. GrantNothing more is said about him after his return, but as an adversary of Solomon he seems to have taken up the cause of Edom against Solomon's reign. Though Solomon had married an Edomite wife, this did not lessen Hadad's hatred.
Egypt and Edom
Hadad was comfortable in Egypt and had every reason to stay. One writer reads the two countries in this story as pictures.
Leslie M. GrantHadad was an Edomite who had fled to Egypt when Joab, under David, had reduced the Edomites to almost nothing... Edom pictures the flesh while Egypt symbolizes the world. The world will always be friendly with the flesh, and Hadad was well off in Egypt.
That picture carries a warning for us.
H. L. RossierThe cross of Christ gives us our place toward the world: by it the world is crucified to us, and we to the world (Galatians 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, and it cannot forget its defeat. It may keep up an appearance of indifference, but it will not hate us any less.
The Mercy Inside the Discipline
Hadad returning home looks like nothing but loss for Solomon. Yet God set both a purpose and a limit on the adversaries He raised.
Leslie M. GrantTo speak to Solomon's conscience the Lord raised up adversaries against him. They could not remove him from the throne, but they were thorns in his side, causing unrest among the people.
One commentator finds here the single hopeful note in the whole account of Solomon's decline.
William KellyGod is wise, and that young prince was kept to be a sting to king Solomon. But this is a little comfort to us, and indeed, I may say, almost the only comfort that we have in the history that is given us of king Solomon — that God chastised him... Those that God passes over in spite of evil are persons who are evidently waiting to be condemned with the world, but those who, being guilty, are dealt with now are objects of God's fatherly care.
Summary
- Timing. Hadad was alive for decades, but he moves only after Solomon's heart turns. God held the adversary back until the hour of failure.
- Source. The blow lands from the very place Solomon had used to please himself. Choices come back as a harvest.
- Hatred. David and Joab were dead, yet the hatred lived on. It was never about them; the world hates the Lord's anointed.
- Alliance. An Edomite wife in Solomon's house did not soften Hadad. Friendship with the world never disarms it; it only makes you forget that it hates you.
- Mercy. The thorn came to reach Solomon's conscience, not to take his throne. God's discipline of a guilty man is the mark of a son, not of someone passed over.