Solomon and Homosexuality

In I Kings 11:1-2 we find the following comments from God: "But King Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; Of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the Children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love."

This counsel to stay away from intimate interaction with these heathen nations was given to Israel by God in Exodus 34:10-17 and reads as follows:

"10And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the LORD: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.

11Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

12Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:

13But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:

14For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

15Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;

16And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.

17Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

All of the above data was available to Solomon and should have been incorporated into his view of life. But Solomon, as we have discussed earlier, had slowly but surely cast off the Bible as His source of instruction and guidance. He apparently was living in the security that he could trust his own wisdom and need not consult with God to guide his footsteps. Proverbs 16:9; Psalms 73:2-3

After making the decision to have strange wives, Solomon began to reap the harvest of his decisions. As a result of marrying these wives in rebellion against he counsel of God, they turned his heart, and they enticed him to worship their gods in harmony with their religious traditions. As a result of this decision many strange errors came into Israel. One of those errors was the sin of homosexuality – sexual contact with persons of the same sex.

We know that homosexuality was one of the many activities of the Canaanites from the book of Leviticus 18:1-5, 22, 24-30:

"1And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

2Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God.

3After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.

4Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God.

5Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.

22Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

24Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:

25And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.

26Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you:

27(For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;)

28That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.

29For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people.

30Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.

We will be visiting this list in Leviticus 18 for several different studies to discuss various abominations of the lands for which Solomon chose to take his wives. But for this study I want to discuss just one issue that is the abomination of a man being sexually active with a man or a woman being sexually active with a woman. Leviticus 18 clearly states that one of the activities, which God calls an abomination, was that of homosexual contact.

When Solomon opened the doors to participate in his wives worship activities then one of the things that came with it was to introduce homosexuality to the nation of Israel and thus to communicate this abomination to the rest of the world. We know this because the world was coming to Solomon for instruction on how to do things the way that God would have them to live. His worship activities would be part of that instructional process.

We know that homosexuality was started and developed in Israel because the Bible tells us it happened. I Kings 14:22-24 "And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done. For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree. And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations, which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel" This happened during the time of Rehoboam Solomon’s son.

A Sodomite is one who practices Sodomy. Sodomy is defined in the dictionary as the homosexual proclivities of the men of Sodom; carnal copulation with a member of the same sex or with an animal; or non-coital copulation with a member of the opposite sex. In some studies a Sodomite is one who is a male temple prostitute. One who is an active sexual partner, for males, and possibly females, in a religious service. But however one wants to define a Sodomite God pronounces it as an abomination especially in the context of any sexual conduct outside of the marriage arena, and certainly in light of what we have read in Leviticus 18:22 – "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination.

Solomon should not have married his wives, and he should not have allowed his wives religious practices to contaminate the land. God wants purity of character to be seen in all human conduct and especially including sexual behaviors. But Solomon, once he had let his hold go on God, was not manly enough to stand up to his wives but was a pawn in their religious activities.

Some think that the prohibition against homosexuality is simply an antiquated Old Testament error. But all through Scripture God is very consistent in his rejection of homosexuality as a behavior. Whenever any of the kings of Israel were in a state of righteousness one of the things that happened was that any signs of Sodomy/Homosexuality were removed. See Deuteronomy 23:17-18; Judges 19-20; I Kings 15:11-12; I Kings 22:44-45; II Kings 23:7.

In the New Testament one of the consistent themes of Paul is his condemnation of sexual activity outside of the marital relationship and especially that of man with man or woman with woman. Romans 1:24-27. Paul even goes to far as to copy the Old Testament provision that homosexuality was worthy of death, along with all of the other sins listed in Romans 1:29-32. Paul was not isolating homosexuality from all of the other sins but was directly including homosexuality as something worthy of death. Paul repeats this concept in I Corinthians 6:9 by incorporating effeminate behavior and abusing of themselves with mankind.

John the Revelator states that any abomination – mankind having sexual contact with mankind, will have its part in the lake of fire. Revelation 21:8. He then repeats this when talking about dogs – male homosexual or male sexual prostitute Deuteronomy 23:17-18 – can not enter into the New Jerusalem. John includes this sin in a list of other sins; again, to God all sin is worthy of death. Revelation 22:14-15

In conclusion, when Solomon allowed his wives to bring in their religions, many grave errors came with this religious expression including the error of homosexuality. This is a part of the process of Solomon’s rebellion, and this error is also seen in the many errors of Babylon, the end time abomination that is the Anti-type of Solomon’s rebellion. I pray that each one who reads this study, if they have a problem with homosexuality will take it to Jesus to receive the help that only He can give.