“God raised up another adversary
against Shlomo, Rezon the son of Elyada,
who had fled from his
lord Hadad‘ezer king of Tzovah.”
– 1 Kings 11:23
So we’ve just finished talking about Hadad.
He was the Edomite homie the Lord raised up to harass Solomon.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t the only thorn the Lord would insert in Solomon’s side to punish him.
Verse 23 tells us about another dude named Rezon, son of Elyada, whom the Lord also raised up to vex Solomon.
He was one of King Hadad-ezer’s royal servants.
By the way, King Hadad-ezer has zero relationship to the Hadad we’ve been discussing in previous posts.
Here’s the Scripture reference where this event was recorded:
“David, on his way to establish his dominion
as far as the Euphrates River,
also defeated Hadad’ezer
the son of Rechov king of Tzovah.”
-2 Samuel 8:3
Rezon will also appear in chapter 15.
But he’ll go by the name of HEZION instead.
Here’s why.
“Rezon” isn’t actually a real name.
It’s a title
It’s connected to the Hebrew word RAZAN or רָזַן, which means prince, ruler, or potentate.
So HEZION was the individual’s personal name
But REZON was his royal title.
This is just like how ABIMELECH is also not a formal name.
It’s an official title that means “My father is king.”
Anyway, when David’s army was in the process of defeating Hadad, Rezon managed to escape with a ruthless band of homies skilled in thievery and assassination.
This group of outlaws was so powerful they invaded the city of Damascus and took the dang place over.
This was a blow to Solomon since Damascus was inside his territory.
It appears that Solomon was never able to get Damascus back.
At least we don’t have any record of him trying to do so.
Verse 25 tells us that….
“He remained an adversary as long as Shlomo lived,
causing difficulties in addition to those of Hadad.
He detested Israel and ruled Aram.”
So both Hadad and Rezon served as serious thorns in Solomon’s rear end pretty much until Solomon passed away.
Neither homie was strong enough to take on Solomon and the entire nation of Israel individually.
But that didn’t matter.
Rezon had established a power base with his cronies in the north.
And Hadad had set up shop in the south with his homies.
By coordinating their efforts, these two men could harass the hell outta Israel from two different directions.
And that’s exactly what they did.
You can bet your booties that Israel’s tribal leaders weren’t too happy about the situation.
They implored Solomon to take care of these gentile homies.
Solomon tried, but he was never able to get the upper hand.
Why?
Because the Lord was protecting their rear ends.
That’s right.
God Himself had allowed Hadad and Rezon to achieve just enough power to weaken Solomon’s kingdom from within.
But there’s another point we’d be remiss to overlook.
And this also leads to today’s takeaway.
Let’s face it, folks.
After all has been said and done…
When it came to being a ferocious warrior who wasn’t afraid of conflict.
And fighting fire with fire.
Solomon was nothing like his father David.
When some homie came looking for a fight…
David was willing to welcome them with a knuckle-fist sandwich.
Solomon, on the other hand, was a man of diplomacy.
He preferred making deals, negotiating peace, finding middle ground…
Or sometimes simply throwing money at a problem to make it go away.
Don’t forget that Solomon inherited a kingdom that his father had to build through years of bloody warfare.
Solomon wasn’t cut from the same cloth as his father.
He didn’t possess the warrior’s mindset or the military instincts needed to deal with men like Hadad and Rezon.
And that’s your lesson for today.
We live in a world with ruthless dictators and militant organizations that only understand the language of violence.
You can’t always practice peaceful diplomacy with monsters like that.
Hitler is a perfect historical example.
Many world leaders tried to negotiate with that tyrant, making concession after concession in the hope of preserving peace.
It was all to no avail.
Churchill was one of the leaders who recognized the danger Hitler represented.
He understood that the only way to stop Nazi aggression was to meet military force with military force.
And that’s why I applaud Netanyahu’s boldness in confronting Hamas and Iran militarily.
This is a man who gets that certain threats can’t be eliminated through ridiculous diplomatic negotiations.
Sometimes you gotta confront evil with overwhelming force.
King David understood that.
Ya feel me?
Done.
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