Solomon worships the gods of his many, MANY wives and concubines. The Lord is angry and promises to take his kingdom from his son and give to Jeroboam. Solomon tries to kill Jeroboam.
The main point reiterated in this chapter, similar to many chapters within the Old Testament, is that of inherent blessings contingent upon obedience to commandments, and curses and destruction due to disobedience.
v.11
We see this point manifest. A curse was given to Solomon because he did not keep his covenant with the Lord or His statutes. His kingdom would be taken from him.
v.38
Once again, we see the Lord giving Jeroboam the same warning: obedience will bring blessings, disobedience will cause the Lord to take away what He gave him.
This is a common, yet central theme in all gospel literature. Solomon's kingdom being taken from him is symbolic of the loss of our own "mansions" above that we won't inherit because of our disobedience to covenants made to the Lord.
It is interesting to note that the people we focus on in the scriptures, generally, are those that have taken covenants upon themselves. We don't know much about others that haven't made covenants with God. We only seem to focus on the level of obedience of those that have. This allows us to specifically analyze these stories from that perspective, because we (I) have made sacred covenants with the Lord as well. The most we hear of other groups is that they come to attack or be attacked by the Israelites. What happened with those other groups?
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