Thursday
Evening Bible Study
November
8, 2012
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk
– Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church loved?
King David is dead and his son Solomon has become king. Solomon has built
the Temple and a great palace for himself. We’ve seen how he has become
extremely wealthy, and extremely powerful. He has become known around the world
as the smartest guy in the world. In a way, you could make the case that
Solomon is “The Most Interesting Man in the World”.
Play “The Most
Interesting Man in the World” clips
We’re going to see tonight that even the smartest man in the world can make
some HUGE mistakes.
11:1-8 Solomon’s Wives
:1 But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of
Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites—
:2 from the nations of whom the Lord
had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not intermarry with them, nor
they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.”
Solomon clung to these in love.
:1 Solomon loved
many foreign women
Lesson
Warnings
We can get into trouble when we ignore those warning labels, though you
have to admit some are a bit silly. These are actual warnings printed on
consumer goods:
On Sears
hairdryer: Do not use while sleeping.
On a Korean
kitchen knife: Warning keep out of children.
On packaging
for a Rowenta iron: Do not iron clothes on body.
On a Japanese
food processor: Not to be used for the other use.
On a child's
superman costume: Wearing of this garment does not enable you to fly.
Some warnings
are a little more serious than others. These are the ones you need to pay
attention to.
When a warning comes from God, we ought to take it pretty seriously.
God warned the people back in the time of Moses that they needed to stay
away from marrying these pagan peoples because the marriages would lead the
people to worship the foreign gods. (Deut. 7:1-6)
(Dt 7:1–6 NKJV) —1 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land
which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites
and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the
Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven
nations greater and mightier than you, 2 and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer
them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor
show mercy to them. 3 Nor shall you make
marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take
their daughter for your son. 4 For they will turn
your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and
destroy you suddenly. 5 But thus you shall
deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred
pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with
fire. 6 “For you are
a holy people to the Lord your
God; the Lord your God has chosen
you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the
face of the earth.
God doesn’t tend to give warnings without a reason.
God says to stay away from “strange women” (and “strange
men”)
God says they will turn you away from following the Lord.
God said to even tear down their altars, don’t get
involved in the things that will take you away from the Lord. Yet Solomon will
build their altars, not tear them down.
On Sunday
morning we will be talking about the importance of “love” in the life of the
believer.
(1 Jn 4:7 NKJV) Beloved,
let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of
God and knows God.
But the command for us to “love” is not about loving and
accepting everything.
We are NOT to love the world or the things of the world.
(1 Jn 2:15
NKJV) Do not
love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love
of the Father is not in him.
For believers, we need to be careful about the kind of love we have for
non-believers and the depth of our relationships with them.
We are to love them and encourage them to know the Lord.
We are not to allow their lifestyles to influence us make them our own.
(2 Co 6:14 NKJV) Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what
fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light
with darkness?
:2 Solomon clung to
these in love
clung –dabaq – to
cling, stick, stay close, keep close, stick to
(NLT) Solomon insisted on loving them anyway
Josephus
(Antiquities, 8:7:4) says, “He grew mad in his love of women, and laid no
restraint on himself in his lusts”
:3 And he had
seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives
turned away his heart.
:3 seven hundred
wives
I imagine for
some guys, this sounds like heaven. I guess for some guys, this sounds like hell. A very
bitter Solomon wrote at the end of his life:
(Ec 9:9 NLT) Live
happily with the woman
you love through all the meaningless days of life that God has given you under
the sun. The wife
God gives you is your reward for all your earthly toil.
Note that Solomon says “woman” in the singular. Stay with one woman. He
didn’t find fulfillment in wife number two, three, four, five hundred, or the
thousandth.
Some people mistakenly think that they will find happiness by dumping the
person giving them difficulty and finding another person.
Happiness is found when you learn to solve your problems and develop your
marriage.
:4 For it was so,
when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his
heart was not loyal to the Lord
his God, as was the heart of his father David.
:4 his heart was
not loyal to the Lord
Lesson
Lifelong walk
David was not a perfect man. He too had problems in marriage, like his
adultery with Bathsheba.
But David did not stray from his loyalty to Yahweh.
Solomon allowed his affection for his foreign wives to affect his worship
of Yahweh.
On his deathbed, David had warned Solomon:
(1 Ki 2:2–3 NKJV) —2 “I go the
way of all the earth; be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man. 3 And keep the
charge of the Lord your God: to
walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and
His testimonies, as it is
written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and
wherever you turn;
In his old age, Solomon would write,
(Ec 12:1 NLT) Don’t let
the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your
youth before you grow old and say, “Life is not pleasant anymore.”
Sometimes a young person makes the mistake of thinking
they’ll live a wild life while they’re young, and then straighten up when they
get older.
Solomon is saying that you’re wasting your life.
Straighten up while you’re young and you’ll enjoy life more.
And then stay straightened up. Solomon blew it in his old age. He let down his guard.
:5 For Solomon
went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians,
and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
:6 Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord,
and did not fully follow the Lord,
as did his father David.
:7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on
the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech
the abomination of the people of Ammon.
:8 And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and
sacrificed to their gods.
:5-7 Ashtoreth … Milcom … Chemosh … Molech
These are some of the pagan gods from the world in those days.
Ashtoreth was
one of the early “sex goddesses” before there was “Victoria’s Secret”.
Chemosh was
also known as “Baal-peor” and “Baal-zebub”.
Milcom
and Molech were different names for the same god, one
that required worshippers to offer their live babies in sacrifice.
Illustration
:7 on the hill that is east of Jerusalem
This would be the Mount of Olives.
Play Mount of Olives map clip.
Solomon didn’t build these places for
idolatry in some distant land, but right across the valley from the Temple.
Jesus prayed on the Mount of Olives, “Not
My will but Thine”.
Solomon set up places of idolatry there.
:6 Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord
Lesson
Dumb and Dumber
Usually we expect just us stupid people to do stupid things.
Illustration
Under the category: “Too Stupid,” here is a true story out of San
Francisco. It seems
a man, wanting to rob a downtown Bank of America, walked into the branch and wrote “This iz a stikkup. Put all your muny in this bag.” While standing in line, waiting to give
his note to the teller, he began to worry that someone had seen him write the
note and might call the police before he reached the teller window. So he left
the Bank of America and crossed the street to Wells Fargo. After waiting a few minutes in line,
he handed his note to the Wells Fargo teller. She read it and, surmising from
his spelling errors that he was not the brightest light in the harbor, told him
that she could not accept his stick up note because it was written on a Bank of
America deposit slip and that he would either have to fill out a Wells Fargo
deposit slip or go back to Bank of America. Looking somewhat defeated, the man
said “OK” and left the Wells Fargo. The Wells Fargo teller then called the police who arrested the
man a few minutes later, as he was waiting in line back at the Bank of America.
- AP 11-14-97.
Yet here is the
wisest man on earth doing the dumbest thing on earth.
Even smart people can do stupid things.
If Solomon can screw up his life like this, do I somehow think I’ve reached
a point where I can’t stumble as well?
11:9-13 God’s
rebuke
:9 So the Lord became angry
with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,
:10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go
after other gods; but he did not keep what the Lord had commanded.
:9 who had appeared
to him twice
Solomon didn’t have any excuses in not staying faithful to the Lord. He had
experienced two encounters with God.
God appeared to
Solomon in a dream while he was in Gibeon. It was there that Solomon asked God
for wisdom (1Ki. 3). There was also a
hint about walking in God’s ways:
(1 Ki 3:14 NKJV) So if you walk in My ways, to keep My statutes and My commandments,
as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”
God appeared a
second time to Solomon to answer Solomon’s prayer of dedication of the Temple
(1Ki. 9:2).
(1 Ki 9:4–7 NKJV) —4 Now if you
walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in
uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if
you keep My statutes and My judgments, 5 then I will establish the throne of
your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You
shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’ 6 But if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do not keep My
commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and
serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land
which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I
will cast out of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all
peoples.
Here the warning was a little more direct, but again God
told Solomon that he needed to walk in the ways of God.
:11 Therefore
the Lord said to Solomon,
“Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes,
which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and
give it to your servant.
:12 Nevertheless I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father
David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
:13 However I will not tear away the whole kingdom; I will give one tribe
to your son for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem
which I have chosen.”
:11 I will surely
tear the kingdom
Even though we’re going to see some problems with Rehoboam
that will lead to the division of the kingdom, the actual blame for the kingdom dividing falls on
Solomon.
:11 and give it to
your servant
The servant’s name will be Jeroboam.
We’ll see this in a few verses…
:12 for the sake of
your father David
Because of God’s love for David, the full judgment against Solomon’s reign
wouldn’t take place until after Solomon’s death.
:13 I will give one
tribe to your son
The kingdom will split into two parts.
The southern
kingdom will be known as “Judah”,
and will include the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.
The northern
kingdom will be known as “Israel”
(or sometimes also as “Ephraim”), and will contain the other ten tribes.
When you are reading your Bible, it is important to understand the time
context of the passage you are reading. If the passage was written after
the division of the kingdom (such as the prophets Isaiah or Jeremiah), and you
see the name “Israel”, it most likely refers to the northern kingdom.
11:14-25
Adversaries
:14 Now the Lord raised up an
adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was a descendant of the king in Edom.
:14 an adversary
– satan – adversary, one who withstands
:15 For it happened,
when David was in Edom, and Joab the commander of the army had gone up to bury
the slain, after he had killed every male in Edom
:16 (because for six months Joab remained there with all Israel, until he
had cut down every male in Edom),
:17 that Hadad fled to go to Egypt, he and
certain Edomites of his father’s servants with him. Hadad was still a little child.
Hadad had fled his homeland way back in the days
of David. He was Edomite royalty.
:18 Then they arose from Midian and came to Paran; and they took men with them from Paran
and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave him a house, apportioned
food for him, and gave him land.
Play Edom to
Egypt map clip
Edom is the nation southeast of Israel in modern Jordan. Midian is further
south in the Arabian Peninsula. Paran on the Sinai
Peninsula They finally land in Egypt.
:19 And Hadad found great favor in the sight of Pharaoh, so
that he gave him as wife the sister of his own wife, that is, the sister of
Queen Tahpenes.
Hadad marries the Pharaoh’s sister-in-law.
Solomon is married to Pharaoh’s daughter.
:20 Then the sister of Tahpenes bore him Genubath his son, whom Tahpenes
weaned in Pharaoh’s house. And Genubath was in
Pharaoh’s household among the sons of Pharaoh.
:21 So when Hadad heard in Egypt that David
rested with his fathers, and that Joab the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me depart, that I may go to my
own country.”
:22 Then Pharaoh said to him, “But what have you lacked with me, that
suddenly you seek to go to your own country?” So he answered, “Nothing, but do
let me go anyway.”
:14 Hadad the Edomite
We aren’t told exactly what kind of trouble Hadad
caused Solomon, but that he caused some kind of trouble.
Lesson
Trouble and judgment
Not every
difficult time in my life is an indication of judgment.
Play John 9
clip (Jesus healing the blind man)
(Jn
9:1–3 NKJV) —1 Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind
from birth. 2 And His
disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that
he was born blind?” 3 Jesus
answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God
should be revealed in him.
We
would make a serious mistake to think that every difficult thing in life
is a result of sin or God’s judgment.
Sometimes God allows difficulty in our lives in order to
display His work in us.
But sometimes
God will allow (“stir up”) adversity in my life as a result of my sin.
When I am going through difficult times, it’s important to ask yourself the
question, “Did I do something to bring this about?”
David wrote,
(Ps 139:23–24 NKJV) —23 Search me,
O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if
there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.
I know it’s not a very politically correct thing to say, but I wonder about
some of the things that are happening in our nation.
I think about the difficult economy.
I think about the storms like Hurricane Sandy.
And I wonder if God isn’t trying to get our attention.
I’m not saying that the people on the east coast have done
something terrible and that’s why they got hit with the hurricane, but that we
as a nation of gone way off track.
I’m a little concerned that issues like abortion and gay
marriage weren’t a little more front and center in the recent presidential
campaigns.
Several states voted on Tuesday to make gay marriage
legal, something that has only happened by court action up to now. Gay marriage is now becoming “acceptable” to
our culture.
I think about how we don’t even blink anymore when a
boyfriend and girlfriend move in and start living together without being
married. The concept of waiting until you are married seems soooooo
outdated.
And then there’s the marijuana laws…
The author of Chronicles records:
(2 Ch 7:12–14 NKJV) —12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and
said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself
as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up
heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send
pestilence among My people, 14 if My people who are
called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn
from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their
sin and heal their land.
I wonder what it will take for our nation to wake up and
realize just how far we have walked away from God.
I would love to hear a governor or a president call the
nation to prayer and repentance. For now
… we pray.
:23 And God
raised up another adversary against him, Rezon
the son of Eliadah, who had fled from his lord, Hadadezer king of Zobah.
:24 So he gathered men to him and became captain over a band of raiders,
when David killed those of Zobah. And they
went to Damascus and dwelt there, and reigned in Damascus.
:25 He was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon (besides the
trouble that Hadad caused); and he abhorred
Israel, and reigned over Syria.
Play Zobah and Syria map clip.
Rezon fled from Zobah,
which is northeast of Israel, in the land of Syria. He takes his men and goes to Damascus where
he makes himself king and causes trouble for Solomon.
:23-25 Rezon … Hadad
Josephus wrote that they teamed up together to cause trouble sending raiding parties into
Israel.
Josephus records (Antiquities, 8:7:6),
Hadad, by Pharaoh’s permission, came to
Edom; and when he was not able to make the people forsake Solomon, for it was
kept under by many garrisons, and an innovation was not to be made with safety,
he removed thence, and came into Syria; there he lighted upon one Rezon, who had run away from Hadadezer,
king of Zobah, his master, and was become a robber in
that country, and joined friendship with him, who had already a band of robbers
about him. So he went up and seized upon that part of Syria, and was made king
thereof. He also made incursions into the land of Israel, and did no small
mischief, and spoiled it, and that in the lifetime of Solomon. And this was the
calamity which the Hebrews suffered by Hadad.
11:26-40 Jeroboam’s
Rebellion
:26 Then Solomon’s servant, Jeroboam the son of Nebat,
an Ephraimite from Zereda,
whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow, also
rebelled against the king.
:27 And this is what caused him to rebel against the king: Solomon
had built the Millo and repaired the damages
to the City of David his father.
:28 The man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor; and Solomon, seeing
that the young man was industrious, made him the officer over all the labor
force of the house of Joseph.
Play Zereda and Jerusalem map clip
Zereda was a city north of Jerusalem, part of the
tribe of Ephraim. As Solomon was
building in Jerusalem, one of his projects included the “Millo”. Jeroboam was part of these work projects.
:28 the young man
was industrious
industrious – two words: ‘asah – to do, fashion, accomplish, make; m@la’kah – occupation, work, business
Jeroboam was a hard
worker, in the Hebrew literally a “doer of work”. This is certainly the kind of person you want
to promote.
Solomon saw good things in Jeroboam.
:29 Now it happened
at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on
the way; and he had clothed himself with a new garment, and the two were
alone in the field.
:29 Ahijah – ‘Achiyah – “brother of Yahweh”
:29 Shilonite – an inhabitant of Shiloh.
Play Shiloh map
clip. Shiloh was the old city where the
Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle used to be back in the days just before
Samuel got going in his ministry.
:29 clothed himself
with a new garment
Ahijah is wearing a new coat, just for this occasion.
:30 Then Ahijah
took hold of the new garment that was on him, and tore it into
twelve pieces.
:30 twelve pieces
Why twelve pieces? Because Israel is made up
of twelve pieces, twelve tribes.
Jeroboam is wondering what in the world this man is doing!!
Tearing the garment is similar to what happened with Samuel and Saul:
(1 Sa 15:27–28 NKJV) —27
And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul seized the edge
of his robe, and it tore.
28 So Samuel
said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of
Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is
better than you.
The torn robe
symbolized a torn nation.
:31 And he said
to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I
will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to
you
:32 (but he shall have one tribe for the sake of My servant David, and for
the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of
Israel),
:33 because they have forsaken Me, and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of
the Sidonians, Chemosh the
god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the people
of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways to do what is right in My eyes
and keep My statutes and My judgments, as did his father David.
:34 However I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, because I
have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of My servant David,
whom I chose because he kept My commandments and My statutes.
:35 But I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand and give it to
you—ten tribes.
Jeroboam is going to become king.
It will happen when Solomon’s son Rehoboam becomes
king.
Jeroboam will rule over ten of the twelve tribes.
:36 And to his son I will give one tribe, that My servant David may always
have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for Myself, to
put My name there.
Besides his own tribe of Judah, Rehoboam will be
allowed to rule over the tribe of Benjamin as well. Benjamin was also the tribe that King Saul
came from.
:37 So I will take you, and you shall reign over all your heart desires,
and you shall be king over Israel.
:37 over all your heart desires
Apparently Jeroboam liked the idea of becoming king.
:38 Then it shall be, if you heed all that I command you, walk in My ways,
and do what is right in My sight, to keep My statutes and My
commandments, as My servant David did, then I will be with you and build for
you an enduring house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you.
:38 if you heed all
that I command you
God is offering to give Jeroboam a kingdom that will last forever, as long
as Jeroboam follows the Lord.
This is what God offered to David.
This is what God offered to Solomon.
Now Jeroboam is being offered this.
He will be the last God will make this offer to.
Lesson
Leaders who will follow Him.
God is looking for men and women who are willing to do what He says.
(2 Ch 16:9 NKJV) For the eyes of the Lord
run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those
whose heart is loyal to Him…
:39 And I will
afflict the descendants of David because of this, but not forever.’ ”
This isn’t a permanent punishment for the house of David.
When Jesus sets up His kingdom, it won’t be a divided kingdom.
:40 Solomon therefore sought to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled
to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt
until the death of Solomon.
Apparently either Jeroboam or Ahijah let people know what has
happened. Solomon responds by trying to
have Jeroboam killed, and Jeroboam flees to Egypt until Solomon is dead.
:41 Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, all that he did, and his wisdom, are
they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?
:42 And the period that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was
forty years.
:43 Then Solomon rested with his fathers, and was buried in the City of
David his father. And Rehoboam his son reigned in his
place.
:43 Rehoboam – R@chab‘am – “a people has enlarged”