IT BROUGHT DOWN A KING, IT'LL DO THE SAME TO YOU (1 KINGS 11:1-13)

THE FOLLIES OF KING SOLOMON (1 Kings 11:1-13)

Sermon by Mr Nathanael Goh

God’s Rules	Solomon’s Actions
Deut 7:2-4 Do not Intermarry with the people you defeat.	1 Kings 11:1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites.
Deut 17:14-20 ·      Must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them. ·      Must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. ·      Must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.	1 Kings 10-11 ·      accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, ·      Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and from Kue[j]—the royal merchants purchased them from Kue at the current price. 29 They imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. ·      He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines ·      The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents. All King Solomon’s goblets were gold, and all the household articles in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Nothing was made of silver, because silver was considered of little value in Solomon’s days.

 Whose fault was it anyway that Solomon fell from grace?

·      Blame the foreign wives? In the history of the Israelites, God had allowed his leaders to have foreign wives e.g. Moses’ wife (Midianite); Boaz’s wife (Moabite). It was not an ethnic issue with God. In those instances, there was peculiar circumstances. But in Solomon’s case, it was a conscious choice in choosing the daughter of the Pharoah to be his wife (see 1 Kings 2). It presented a danger to the covenant faith.

·      He had this enormous harem to enhance his renown. Instead of trusting God to do that for him, he wanted to be like the powerful kings in those times (complete with the collection of horses, chariots and wives).

·      He demonstrated his political astuteness by entering into treaties with these foreigners through marriages.

·      He was unscrupulous in his dealings with Hiram the King of Tyre who supplied wood for the building of the temple by giving him 20 towns in worthless parts of Israel (1 King 9:10).

This propensity to slide downwards can be seen even in the beginning in 1 Kings 3:3, “Solomon showed his love for the LORD by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.” This exclusion clause indicates that even before the fear of the Lord in him got eroded, he had taken what was a mark of pagan worship for the worship of the Lord.

It was common for the conquered people to worship the gods of the victor so Solomon had no reason to worship the gods from those countries he subjugated. Yet we are told in v 4, “As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.” So for his sin of idolatry, judgment came swiftly.

To his sin of idolatry, god acted without delay. Even though God had honored him twice, his conscious decision to defy God had repercussions on his people. It was the trigger that started the people of God down the long road to exile.

He allowed his familiarity with God to erode his fear of the Lord. God became dislodged from that 1^st place in his list of priorities.

John Wesley on King Solomon, “See what need those have to stand upon their guard, who have been eminent for religion. The devil will set upon them most violently: and if they miscarry, the reproach is the greater. It is the evening that commends the day. Let us therefore fear, lest having run well, we come short.”

It is important to realize that this alertness against temptations from the enemy should be an ongoing thing throughout our lives. 1 Peter 5:8 warns us, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Solomon started out with so much promise and yet because he did not run the race to win the prize. What the Queen of Sheba observed as praiseworthy in the beginning of Solomon’s reign [1 Kings 10:9 “Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the LORD’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness”] was to disappear gradually.CONCLUSION

In our mutual relationship with God, we must not discard our reverence for a holy God. The mentality that “I know already” breeds contempt for the Lord and it leads to blatant disobedience. We must take care not to dilute the truth that God is transcendent.

When we wish to truly follow God, we must learn to fear the Lord all our days and keep vigilant about it.

Ps 111:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.”

Prov 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

Acts 9:31 “Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.”

Reflection Questions:

1.      Have you allowed the fear of the Lord to be eroded as you become more and more familiar with God? Can you identify the instances like the way the historian identified Solomon’s acts that told on him?

2.      Am I vigilant with the race of faith that I am running? Am I running to win the prize or is my heart contented and complacent?

3.      What are some places in my life where I am blatantly disobedient? Pray and ask the Lord for forgiveness.