Read 2 Chronicles 8, Habakkuk 3.
This devotional is about 2 Chronicles 8:11: “Solomon brought Pharaoh’s daughter up from the City of David to the palace he had built for her, for he said, ‘My wife must not live in the palace of David king of Israel, because the places the ark of the Lord has entered are holy.’”
Yesterday we read in 2 Chronicles 7 about how Solomon dedicated the temple and received assurance that the Lord would accept the sacrifices made in that temple and that he would bless Solomon’s kingdom for as long as he obeyed the Lord.
But here in 1 Chronicles 8, Solomon turned to other matters on his to do list. The one that interests me for this devotional is described in verse 11. In that verse, Solomon moved his wife, the Egyptian daughter of Pharaoh “up from the City of David.”
The “city of David” is the old part of Jerusalem. It is the fortress that the Jebusites built and lived in until David conquered them in 2 Samuel 5:6-10. David inhabited that fortress (2 Sam 5:9), built his personal palace there (2 Sam 5:11), and also put up the tent that served as the tabernacle there (2 Sam 6:12) until Solomon built the temple.
Here in 8:11, however, Solomon thought about the theological implications of being married to Pharoah’s daughter. Specifically, he did not want her to live “in the palace of David.” This was after Solomon had built his own palace (v. 1: “Solomon… built his own palace”) so maybe this suggests that Solomon’s Hebrew wives lived in David’s palace. At any rate, Solomon’s words suggest that David had brought the ark of the covenant into his palace at some point. It is possible that David had the priests bring the ark many times, if he was bringing it there to inquire of the Lord. Solomon then reasoned that he shouldn’t bring his Egyptian wife into David’s house “because the places the ark of the Lord has entered are holy.”
As a result, Solomon built a separate palace for his wife, the daughter of Pharaoh. This house was probably outside the city of David; Solomon’s many building projects expanded the city’s borders well beyond the original fortress that David took from the Jebusites and inhabited.
Follow me on this:
- Anywhere the ark went is holy and David’s palace was one of those places.
- Solomon was concerned that his Egyptian wife NOT live somewhere that the ark had gone.
- So he built Pharoah’s daughter her own palace outside the city of David (2 Chronicles 8:11).
Why did he do this? It seems to me that he was concerned for her life. If God killed Uzzah for touching the ark which was an act that dishonored the holiness of God (2 Sam 6:7) then it was dangerous business to let the Egyptian woman near David’s house lest she also defile a place that God’s ark had made holy.
What is the implicit assumption here? It is that Pharaoh’s daughter was unholy. She had not converted to Judaism but remained a worshipper of false gods despite her marriage to Solomon. His marriage to her was in disobedience to God’s commands so it put him in a tough situation that he “solved” by giving her a separate compartment to live in. That’s right, Solomon attempted to compartmentalize his life to keep a place where he could be disobedient to God’s direct will.
God’s word was proved right later when this woman (and others) turned Solomon’s heart toward other gods. Following God’s word is hard enough; we have God’s Spirit but our efforts to be holy are opposed by the sin nature within, the world, and the devil. Solomon put himself in a position to choose between pleasing God or pleasing his spouse. Guess which choice is the easiest to make?
If you’re not married, this is one reason why it is wrong to marry an unbeliever. Don’t even date an unbeliever because you will face temptations that challenge your faith over and over again.
But all of us, at times, try to compartmentalize our lives. We try to live a life that pleases God but keep a little workshop in the basement for our own pet sin projects. Solomon shows us that this compartmentalization does not work. Jesus said you can’t serve two masters–God and money–but there is more than money that wants to be your master.
Where are you compartmentalizing sin in your life? Will you remove it like a tumor or let it grow until it spills out of its compartment and takes over your spiritual life?