1 Kings - Chapter 11

In chapter 11 of 1 Kings, it is revealed that King Solomon, despite his wisdom, made some grave mistakes. He married many foreign women from nations that the Lord had warned against, and allowed them to lead him astray into worshipping other gods. This angered the Lord, who decided to tear the kingdom from Solomon's hand and give it to one of his subordinates. Three adversaries, Hadad, Rezin, and Jeroboam, rose against Solomon, causing trouble from the north and south. Jeroboam was chosen by the Lord to receive ten tribes of Israel, while one tribe would remain with Solomon's descendants. Solomon attempted to kill Jeroboam, who fled to Egypt until Solomon's death. These events show parallels between Solomon and King Saul, both of whom were rejected as kings due to their disobedience. I am Julie Callio, your host, and thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to tune in with me today. If by chance you want to contact me, you can do that at zab.bc.pc at gmail.com. Today we are covering chapter 11 of 1 Kings, which is the end of King Solomon's reign. One thing I have found interesting is that King Saul, King David, and King Solomon each had a 40 year reign. The book of 1 Samuel basically covers Saul's reign, with David becoming stronger and Saul weaker, but that was 31 chapters. Then 2 Samuel covered David's reign, which started off strong, then his downfall with Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, and then his downward cycle. And his story was 24 chapters, with 2 chapters in 1 Kings, and now Solomon only receives 10.5 chapters for his reign. Another thing I find interesting is how the author decided to write about Solomon's life. The first 9.5 chapters are basically all the great things he had done with a few glimpses of what is coming, and then in chapter 10, bang, all the bad stuff in one chapter. Chapter 11 starts, King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonites, and Hittites. They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, you must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your heart after their gods. Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had 700 wives of royal birth, and 300 concubines, and his wives led him astray. 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. The thing that struck me this time around was when it said 700 wives of royal birth, which lends itself to believe they were all from other nations, since Solomon's family was the royal family of Israel, so did he marry any Jewish women at all? Maybe the 300 concubines were Jewish? I don't know. The sad part is that this was not specific as one of the rules the king should follow, because it was a rule that all the Jews were to follow. These are found in Exodus chapter 34 verses 15 and 16, and Deuteronomy chapter 7 verses 3 and 4. The Jews were also not supposed to make any treaties with these people, because they could turn their hearts to their other gods. So in chapter 3, after Solomon's reign was firmly established, the first verse said Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and married his daughter. This was warning lights flashing! Yesterday we compared Solomon's reign with the regulations for the king of Israel to follow, found in Deuteronomy chapter 17 verses 14 through 20, and we found out that he followed only two of the eight. He was selected by the Lord, and he was an Israelite. Now after these four verses in chapter 11, we learn that Solomon failed all the other six. He acquired a great number of horses. He went to Egypt to get most of them. He married many wives. He accumulated large amounts of gold. Silver was not a value at that time. We have no record of him writing down the law, and he considered himself better than his brothers, in one case because he was willing to put them into forced labor, and two because he turned from the law of the Lord and worshipped other gods. Some of these gods even did human sacrifices. We got another clue about that in chapter 3 verse 39, and it said Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the statutes of his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burnt incense on the high places. We know this is in worship of other gods because then after the Lord appeared to Solomon, he returned to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the Lord's covenant, and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Verse 6 says, So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord. He did not follow the Lord completely as David his father had done. Now this is a description that will be used throughout first and second Kings, and it is amazing how many good kings have bad sons who do not follow the Lord, and then a bad king might have a good son who follows the Lord. Also remember that David was not perfect. He actually broke five of the big ten commandments. He coveted his neighbor's wife. He committed adultery with her, which is a way of stealing her from Uriah. He lied numerous times to Uriah, and then David had him murdered to hide his sin. The thing is we can't hide our sin from God. He knows. Yet when David was confronted about his sin, he repented and did his best to make amends. He took Bathsheba into his home, comforted her with a second child, the first died because of David's sin, and the second child was Solomon. We also know that David had picked Solomon to be the next king of Israel. That's found in first Kings chapter 1 verse 13 and verse 17, and second Samuel chapter 12 verse 24b and 25 say the Lord loved Solomon, and because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah. This is probably when the Lord also chose Solomon to be the next king of Israel. One thing that is safe to say is that Solomon progressively married these women, yet we have no record until the end. Verse 7 tells us that he allowed all his foreign wives to build high places for their gods. Verse 9 says the Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. The Lord told Solomon, and again it does not specify how, that since his heart did not want to keep the Lord's covenant and decrees, God will tear the kingdom from him and give it to one of his subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David, my servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. Verses 12 and 13. One thing my Old Testament professor used to say, whenever we see judgment, we should always look for grace. In Solomon's judgment, because of David's faithfulness, Solomon would not see the tear, and David's descendants will have some of the kingdom and keep Jerusalem. Unlike David, when Solomon was confronted by the Lord, there is no mention of his repentance. In these next verses, we see some similarities with Solomon and King Saul. Starting with verse 14, we see the downfall of Solomon. It read, Then the Lord raised up against Solomon an adversary, Hadad the Edomite, from the royal line of Edom. Edomites were descendants of Esau, and David and Joab had overtaken the land, which is the southern part of Solomon's reign, south of the salt sea. As a child, Hadad had escaped David and moved to Egypt, and he blossomed there, and Pharaoh's family took him in. Once he heard that David and Joab were dead, he asked Pharaoh to let him go home, and he went. Verse 23a says, And God raised up against Solomon another adversary, Rezin son of Eliadah, who was from Zobah, the northern part of David's territory. He led a band of rebels against David, but now they took control of Damascus and settled there. Verse 25 says, Rezin was Israel's adversary as long as Solomon lived, adding to the troubles caused by Hadad, so Rezin ruled in Aram and was hostile toward Israel. In other words, Solomon had adversaries both north and south. Then we find one more from within. Verses 26-40 talk about a third adversary, Jeroboam. And verse 26 says, Jeroboam son of Nebat rebelled against the king. It began with Jeroboam being a man who served the king, and he did such a great job that Solomon put him in charge of the whole labor force of the house of Joseph. After he was promoted, he was leaving Jerusalem, and Ahijah, the prophet of Shiloh, met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. It is clear that the two of them were alone in the country when the prophet took his new cloak that he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces, which represented the twelve tribes of Israel. And he told him, verses 31 and 32, Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the Lord the God of Israel says, See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon's hand and give you ten tribes, but for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe. Solomon is from Judah, and then he will also get Benjamin, but they will be known as Judah, and the northern ten tribes will be called Israel. The Lord continued to tell Jeroboam that the reason for this was because Solomon and the people had forsaken the Lord and worshipped other gods. They had not walked in the ways of the Lord. The Lord also explained that the reason Jeroboam does not get all of the nation is because of the faithfulness of David, and the Lord's promise that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my name, verse 36. The conditions that the Lord gave to Moses and Joshua and King Saul and King David and King Solomon also apply to Jeroboam. If you do whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and commands as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David, and will give Israel to you. I will humble David's descendants because of this, but not forever, verses 38 and 39. Verse 40 tells us that Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, so he fled to Egypt to Shishank the king and stayed there until Solomon's death. This is the first time that we have the name of the king of Egypt, and this king is now different than Solomon's father-in-law. Some of the similarities we see with Saul and Solomon are they were both rejected as king because of their disobedience. The Lord told them both the kingdom would be taken from them. Both David and Jeroboam were rising stars in the service to the king, and they both fled from the kingdom because both Saul and Solomon tried to kill that next king. The end of chapter 11 verses 41 through 43 read, As for the other events of Solomon's reign, all he did, and the wisdom he displayed, are they not written in the book of annals of Solomon? Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. Then he rested with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father, and Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king. With the death of Solomon in 930 BC comes the end of the united kingdom of Israel, and now is the era of the divided kingdom. Yet in the midst of this judgment we have grace. In chapter 9 verse 3 the Lord said he consecrated Solomon's temple by putting quote my name there forever, my eyes and my heart will always be there. Solomon declared in chapter 8 verse 60 that the reason for it is so that all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God and there is no other. The queen of Sheba knew that when she said in chapter 10 verse 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. Why would the Lord's eyes and heart always be with Jerusalem? Why is Jerusalem still attributed to the name of the Lord? Because he kept his promise to David and Jesus, Jesus was born in Bethlehem from the tribe of Judah and he came to Jerusalem to be crucified for the sins of the world so that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The city of Jerusalem still represents to the world that the Lord is God and there is no other, which is why some people hate that place even to this day. Its presence on this earth reminds us all God keeps his word. The question is will we surrender like King David or will we go our own way like so many of the kings will do? If you have heard his voice today, please don't harden your heart like Solomon, repent if you need to, bow before him and acknowledge that he is God and there is no other and his eternal love for Israel goes to all who repent and turn to him. Ladies, let's be women who hear from the Lord and obey like David. Until next time, and thanks so very much for listening.