1 Kings 11:14-25
"14 And the Lord raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite. He was of the royal house in Edom. 15 For when David was in Edom, and Joab the commander of the army went up to bury the slain, he struck down every male in Edom 16 (for Joab and all Israel remained there six months, until he had cut off every male in Edom). 17 But Hadad fled to Egypt, together with certain Edomites of his father's servants, Hadad still being a little child. 18 They set out from Midian and came to Paran and took men with them from Paran and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave him a house and assigned him an allowance of food and gave him land.19 And Hadad found great favor in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him in marriage the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen.20 And the sister of Tahpenes bore him Genubath his son, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh's house. And Genubath was in Pharaoh's house among the sons of Pharaoh. 21 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.” 22 But Pharaoh said to him, “What have you lacked with me that you are now seeking to go to your own country?” And he said to him, “Only let me depart.”
23 God also raised up as an adversary to him, Rezon the son of Eliada, who had fled from his master Hadadezer king of Zobah. 24 And he gathered men about him and became leader of a marauding band, after the killing by David. And they went to Damascus and lived there and made him king in Damascus. 25 He was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon, doing harm as Hadad did. And he loathed Israel and reigned over Syria."
The record of the last days of Solomon's reign make grim reading and stand in marked contrast to its opening chapters. There, it was the story of how God put down all his enemies under him; here, God moved adversaries against him, who troubled him for the rest of his days. This is but one of many, many passages which reveal the truth of the warning that 'the way of the transgressor is hard', and it has a lesson for the easy-going complacency of an age which no longer takes the idea of the wrath of God seriously. Divine judgment is not something that belongs only to the hereafter; it is being revealed, here and now, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, as Paul avers in Romans 1:18. One can well image Solomon feeling that everything was going wrong, and this was the simple truth, for, when we cut across the divine will, nothing will be right in our lives. Is it difficult to see in our own national life the development of a similar situation? As a nation we have abandoned the divine laws, and have gone after strange gods. It is not surprising - it is inevitable - that things should have gone wrong, in the economic and industrial sphere and in international relations, and that recurrent crises should loom up to distract and disturb our peace. And what is true in national life is just as true in individuals. When a man refuses the rule of the gospel, or having once known it departs from it, God will bring distress upon distress, misfortune after misfortune upon him. It is an inviolable and eternal law that those who flout the holy law of God will surely pay dearly for their folly.