1 Kings 10:14-22; 11:1-6 | After entering into God’s promises and receiving his promised land, Israel’s leaders set about recreating Egypt. This comes to a head with Solomon, whose excesses cause Israel to collapse under its own oppressive weight. Solomon, blessed by God for God’s purposes, embraces his shadow mission and fails his people and God by becoming the very kind of big deal from whom God had saved them 500 years before.