1 Kings 11

Vv. 4, 5, his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God,... For Solomon went after...

Even in the Old Testament, the concern was for the heart to be perfect toward God, which the Pharisees and others forgot all about. God is concerned that the heart be perfect toward HIM, and the heart, perfect or imperfect, will result in actions, v. 5.

Actions will prove the condition of one's heart.

God looks on the heart. Man looks on the outside, and without exception, the outside will reflect the heart. There is no way around the fact.

V. 6. From the sound of these verses, it seems Solomon did not actually worship these false gods, but tolorated or permitted their worship by his wives. Notice elsewhere where the kings of Israel worshiped the false gods, the term is used that the king served the gods. It is never said that Solomon served these gods, only that his heart was not perfect toward the Lord God. I Kings 16:31, 23:53, 2 Kings 16:3

The indication is that Solomon did not actually serve Ashtoreth, Milcom, and other gods any more than he built (v. 7) the altar to Chemosh, and Molech.

V. 8 seems to indicate that Solomon made provisions for his strange wives to burn incense and sacrifice unto their gods, much as Christians make provisions for the flesh.

9:25, and three times a year did Solomon offer... There is no indication that Solomon discontinued the three time a year offering. What is said, however, is that his heard was no longer in the offering, 11:9. He is just doing or going through a formality while permitting idol worship within his own household.

Solomon knew these false gods were vanity (8:23), but he allowed others in his household to worship them, even though he did not. "They are nothing, and it won't hurt for my wives to serve them." Do we allow idol worship in our homes: rebellion, immoral music?

V. 9, the Lord was angry because...his heart was turned... Not because Solomon's actions were turned, but because his heart was turned. He probably still did on the outside what was expected of him.

Notice:

1. Warning from the written word of God.
Deuteronomy 17:16.

2. Warning from his dad, David.
1 Kings 2:3, 4, 1 Chronicles 28:9.

3. Warning from God himself, twice.
1 Kings 3:5-14, 9:2-7.

4. Warning from God's man, Ahijah.
1 Kings 11:20, may have been what was said to Solomon in 6:12, 13, for the Lord only appeared to him twice (#3), so the third time may have been in chapter 6.

5. Warning from circumstances.
11:28-40. Solomon saw God's hand on Jeroboam. Solomon saw all the warnings start to be fulfilled, but they had no effect on him, to motivate him to change. He even saw warnings in his own son, Rehoboam. (I imagine Rehoboam as a "whuss", because he was raised among 1000 "mothers", and because of his foolish attempt to be a man after he became king by raising taxes.

6. Warning from his enemy, Jeroboam.
11:40, Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam because he knew the kingdom was to go to him for his, Solomon's, sin. As with Saul, rather than deal with his own sin, he tries to stop the result of his sin, David in Saul's case.

7. Warning from himself; his own warnings.
Proverbs 29:1, &c., Solomon himself had preached, cried out, warned, pleaded, cried, done all he could in his earlier life to warn others of the very thing he fell into, strange women.

He could look back on his own writings, listen to his own sermons, talk to those who came to hear his wisdom back then, but all to no avail.

11:9, his heart was turned to go its own way.

Note for pastors:

We can warn our people from 1) Scripture, 2) their parents, 3) supernatural interventions, 4) other preachers, 5) their circumstances – the results coming to pass in their own families, 6) even point them back to what they used to preach about when they taught SS or VBS, and they are still going to follow their heart, and their children will pay.

It is sad, and I hate to see it. People sit under warning after warning, and even agree that the warnings are true, but never lift a finger to change. Their personality is "perfect". They bend over backwards to help others; they will agree with the message, but...

I guess about all we can do is continue to pray for them, hoping that God in his mercy will turn their hearts back to him, and we must keep our eyes on the Lord. Not dismiss his message and word (warnings) as powerless, but recognize the hardness of men's hearts deceive their own selves, James 1:22. Remember, the wisest man to ever live wold not, could not heed his own warnings, and even after several warnings from God himself, could not turn back.

There are some other things here.

Solomon falls after his great religious experiences of:

1) building the glorious temple.
2) wonder prayer of dedication.
3) greeting of the queen of Sheba.

Religious emotions are no guarantee of safety, strength nor stability; in fact, quite the opposite. The time after the great religious experience is the period of greatest danger.

It was the strength gained in his battles with Saul and the philistines that strengthened David for rule.

It is the pressures to bend to the world's ways that will strengthen us, when we don't bend.

Notice also that Solomon's wealth went to his enemies. The thing that he gave his life for as well as his heart, including his children, were soon gone after he was gone, as his son and all Judah served false gods, 14:22.

Sadly, the wealth and glory Solomon worked so hard to build only lasted 5 years after his death, as the king of Egypt came against Jerusalem, and took away all the treasures, 14:25, 26.

Wealth is no sign of strength, and at the end, Solomon admitted that only what is done for Christ will last, Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14; accordingly, it is evident that the wealth Solomon gathered was not for God's glory, but for his own.

1 Kings 11:26ff.

Note that God raised up Jeroboam.

A mighty man of valor
A young man
An industrious man

He was all the world might desire in a man.

But there is no mention that he was a man who sought God. He had all the world's qualifications for success which Solomon saw, and he was placed in authority. This was Solomon's undoing, but God's hand was in it.

God will raise up the wicked to chastize his people for their sins.

The Social Bureaucrats of our day have risen to power in response to Christians refusing their social obligations to the widows, the poor and to their family members, as well as their responsibility to take Christianity into their everyday lives.

Example:

The women's right's movement came into being years ago because the women had become no more than slaves: no property rights, no personal rights. If her husband died and left his estate to her, she almost became a ward of the state. If she remarried, all when to her new husband who could leave her pennyless. The was considered to emotional to car for herself, and the state took steps to see that someone else would take care of her by taking control of her property.

Sad to say, the church did not object, nor try to protect the widow, in this case from the theft of her property by the state. The woman's movement then sprang to life to regain her freedom, independence and protection of her property (Scripturally), and of course, we see the capstone today in the ERA movement.

Whose fault is the ERA:

The church's. The Christians for not standing up for the rights of the widow years ago according to the Scriptures, and because the church did not , then God raised up an ungodly movement to protect the widows' rights. As with all ungodly movements, of course, it gained popularity, and the movement then went overboard with no Scriptural boundaries upon it. (1 Kings 11:37.) IF the church had taken up the widow's's cause, it could have gained popularity and stopped within the Scriptural boundreies. The generations down the line are paying the price, just as Solomon's kinds paid the price for his ungodliness. Our grandchildren will pay the price for our indifference.

The same thing holds true in all areas:

Taxes, SS, Social programs, "public education" as our central government races toward total socialism. It can all be traced back to the fact that God's people are not doing what is right in an area, and God motivates the ungodly to take over that area, and do what the church fails to do.

It is impossible for there to be a social reform in the centeral government without a return to Biblical principles in the people who are called by his name. As long as his people refuse to do what is demanded of them, God will use the king or adversary (in this case, Jeroboam, the servant) to do it. The social programs will be taken care of, either by the godly or the ungodly. If the programs are left to the ungodly, Jeroboam, or the state, will lift his hand against the godly.

As his people turn over various areas of responsibility to the state, the state will lift its hand against his people.

V. 33, because they have forsaken him, he raised up the ungodly. Jeroboam was used as an instrument to chastize his people, and God rewards him with success in his personal ambitions. Isaiah 10:5.

1. His ambition was to overthrow Solomon, v. 27
2. Solomon and his people were in rebellion against the Lord; they had forsaken him, v. 33.
3. God had promised to chastize his people, vv. 9-13.
4. Jeroboam now is going to fulfill God's promise, v. 31.
5. His reward will be to be ruler over the ten tribes, v. 35.
6. God will use Jeroboam's selfish personal desires too chastize his people for forsaking him, v. 37.
7. But if Jeroboam will follow the Lord, then he will be established, v. 38.
8. Jeroboam's reign was to afflict the seed of David for forsaking God, but not forever (Christ), v. 39.
9. Solomon died, and Solomon's son, Rehoboam, was given a chance, but he failed. Jeroboam led the ten tribes in rebellion, and succeeded, for the cause was from the Lord, 12:15. God is now going to chastize the ten tribes for forsaking the Lord, 11:33.
a. God hardened Rehoboam's heart to wise counsel.
b. God raised up Jeroboam, the servant.
c. God was the author to accomplish the chastisement of the people for forsaken him, 12:15, 24.
10. Jeroboam now makes two golden calves for Israel to worship, 12:28. Instead of Israel going home and serving God, they go home and serve idols.
a. Notice that Israel had already forsaken the Lord, or they would not have been so wiling to serve Jeroboam's false gods, vv. 25-30. The people forsook the Lord under Solomon, not under Jeroboam, Solomon's son. Circumstances simply revealed what was in their hearts.

11. Jeroboam simply did what God said he could do, 12:33 with 11:37. God knew Jeroboam would do this, and this is what the people wanted. They had already forsaken the Lord in their hearts; now they act upon that forsaking with the two calves.

12. God had given Jeroboam, the servant, a choice, 11:38, and he did what was in his heart.
Jeroboam also reaped the results of his sin the same as did Solomon, in his children. 14:1, 15:29, 30. Jeroboam caused Israel to sin by making it easy for them. He made sin easy, but did not force Israel to sin, 12:28-31.

Jeroboam, the servant, gave Israel two standards until Israel was carried off—serve God: 1) as did his father, David, and 2) as did Jeroboam who made Israel to sin. See 10:29, 14:24, 15:9, 18, 24, 28, 17:21. (Israel had already departed from the Lord.

13. God used wicked Jeroboam, the servant, to bring Israel's secret forsaking of the Lord out into the open, so it could be dealt with. Jeroboam did nothing but reveal the hearts of the people, as they were under Solomon. 11:33.

14. As God chastises his people for forsaking him, no one will be able to look at them and say, "God is unjust" in dealing with them.

a. if he had chastised them for their secret sins (which he did, but went the long way around because of his mercy), maybe the people might not have known why the chastisement was coming. Nor would the passerby have known about their secret departure from the Lord.

b. this way, with Jeroboam, their secret forsaking is made public, with the two golden calves. They now start their false worship, so when God brings evil upon them, both they and the stranger will see the reason for their evil destruction, and glorify God for his mercy that he did not do it sooner.

Of course, by revealing the heart under Jeroboam, the people should have easily seen their rebellion, and turned back to the Lord, but they did not.

God also kept a light in Judah where those who truly wanted to worship him could still do so.

Jeroboam only revealed the heart. He only brought into the open what had already taken place under Solomon. God used Jeroboam to chastise his people.

Thus, God uses the ungodly to:

Expose his people's secret sins.
Call them to repentance.
Reveal the true state of their hearts, indifference and forsaking him, to the surrounding heathen world.
Chastize his people.

And he rewards the ungodly for doing his will with prosperity, power and authority over his disobedient people.

Therefore, prosperity of the wicked is no sign of their being right with God, even as God does the prospering.

Like the church and the widows: God's people forsook God, and ignored the plight of the widows. God raised up the ungodly to help them. The ungodly get to do whatever is in their hears, with no restrictions (they will pay the price, though, through sowing and reaping). Now the church, God's people, must fight against things like the ERA, which is just one example of hundreds. God will use the rod of men to chastize his people.

Where have we ignored and forsaken God in our hearts? God will raise up the ungodly to expose and chastise his people, and the ungodly will do all that is in their hearts. The ungodly are not the ones to blame, but those who are called by his name are to blame.

(10/17/84)

V. 27, Jeroboam sought to overthrow Solomon. Jeroboam had been promised the kingdom, vv. 23, 24, but not until after Solomon's death. Jeroboam sets out to take the kingdom before Solomon's death, and Solomon sought to dispatch with Jeroboam, and with good reason, v. 40

How like us: God gives us a promise, and instead of waiting for him to bring the seasons to pass, we set outto change the times and seasons ourselves, to bring it to pass.

But even at this, Jeroboam's rebellion (it was rebellion because it was before his time) should have been a warning shot across the bow for Solomon's ship to turn from its course toward the reef and destruction.

Jeroboam's rebellion, along with the others mentioned here in chapter 11, should have been a warning of what was going to happen to his children, but even in their rebellion, God prevented their success until it was his time.

Evil men, no matter how wicked and ungodly, will not prosper until God is ready for them to prosper. God raised up the adversaries here, but he also prevented their success until he was ready.

Rather than deal with his sin, Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam because of the promise, v. 40.

How like human nature. We want to get rid of the results of our wicked ways rather than deal with the cause of the results—that is, change our wicked ways.

7/7/85 PM

Notice in closing of this chapter, vv. 42, 43.

Solomon died, leaving an unbelievable amount of wealth and a great many women behind for his servant Jeroboam, but he did not leave one godly child. There are only two other children of Solomon's mentioned, two daughters, 1 Kings 4:11, 15.

A poor man who loves God can have a houseful of children by one wife.
Yet the wealthiest man who ever lived only had three children by a thousand wives, of which we have a record.

What was Solomon's life? He is raised in a bright cloudless day, set midst thunderstorms, showers, tornadoes. Why? He forgot the Son, and lost everything, even his children. Without leaving a godly heritage, what is the use?

1. What kind of heritage are we leaving?
Money, bank account, property? Our servants will spend that on rebellion against God. There will be a Jeroboam to expose it sooner or later.

A godly heritage? Our children will live and prosper with this.

Folks, what will the kids, and friends, remember about us? How we served and loved the Lord; our faithfulness and commitment to him, or our commitment to the world and its pleasures?

2. Solomon was committed to the things of this world. Rehoboam inherited his love for this world, and Jeroboam took it away.

We must show those around us, watching, a commitment to him.

3. The word of God identifies wealth with a loving wife and lots of godly children.