-Transcript-
00:36 Welcome to the cafe today. Today we are talking about the downfall of King Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, David’s son, the builder of the great temple of God, one of the temples of God, Amen, Solomon’s temple. And we’re in 1 Kings:11 and this is dealing with the downfall of Solomon and I’m kind of getting right to it because there’s a lot of scripture here.
00:59 But King Solomon loved many strange women together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites and the Ammonites and the Edomites and the Zidonians and the Hittites of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, ye shall not go in them neither shall they come in unto you for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.
01:19 Solomon clave unto these in love and he had 700 wives, princesses and 300 concubines and his wives turned away his heart. For it came to pass when Solomon was old that his wives turned away his heart after other gods and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God as was the heart of David his father.
01:42 For Solomon went after Asherah the goddess of the Zidonians and after Milcom the abomination of the Amorites and Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord and went not fully after the Lord as David his father.
01:58 Then Solomon built a high place for Chamash the abomination of Moab in the hill that is before Jerusalem and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods and the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel which had appeared unto him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing that he should not go after other gods but he kept not that which the Lord commanded.
02:32 Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon for as much as this is done of thee and thou has not kept my covenant and my statutes which I’ve commanded thee I will surely rend the kingdom from thee and will give it to thy servant. Okay let’s take a step back here and look at this because this this still grieves me to this day to read this. I love Solomon.
02:53 I love reading First Kings. I love the idea that Solomon asked God for wisdom. I never thought to ask God for wisdom until I read First Kings and understood who Solomon was.
03:07 I just thought okay God gave me the brain he gave me and that’ll be it. And as I read First Kings and I saw how Solomon was so humble and that he asked God well God I don’t know how to lead these people I don’t know what to do but you do will you give me wisdom
03:24 and it pleased the Lord and ever since then I try to ask God for wisdom often and I see the fruit of that in my own life not that I’m incredibly wise by any means but just that God’s provision is protection decision-making
03:39 understanding that his ways are not the world’s ways all of those things come from godly wisdom and discernment. And so I see Solomon as such a strong biblical character and he’s so wise and as you go through First Kings you get in there the end of David’s reign in First Kings one
03:56 and Solomon kind of coming up through the ranks and two and three and he’s gonna build the temple and he builds this beautiful temple to the Lord and he has his own house which is also beautiful and he is doing great things and honoring God even almost preaches a sermon there in First Kings to God himself
04:15 and front of all the people and he’s praising God he’s offering these great sacrifices and he’s he’s just growing in the Lord and there’s great fellowship there and you start to notice a progression leading up to First Kings 11
04:31 because you start seeing that Solomon he may have had a little bit of idle time it looks like there was peace all around him and you’ve got you know Solomon finishing the temple that’s this big milestone
04:45 and he’s he’s got Pharaoh’s daughter and so forth as his wife the Queen of Sheba comes and it’s just praising him and giving him gifts and so forth and there’s kind of all of this excess right he’s got this big Navy the Bible speaks to
05:01 and he’s got all of these great imports which I can’t even imagine how valuable they were and the Navy would bringing him in and everyone’s bringing him gifts and you start reading this and you start thinking you know what it’d be pretty easy even for the wisest man in the world to kind of become intoxicated with this life
05:20 and become comfortable and become self-reliant and become in love with the things of this world and you know you just see it leading up to First Kings 11 and then you get to our text scripture in 1 Kings 11 and you see it starts with but a capital B
05:38 but but King Solomon loved many strange women hmm but and so despite all of these blessings despite all of this richness that God had bestowed upon King Solomon and giving him the honor of building him a temple and despite the fact that the Lord had spoken to Solomon and told him you know look if you’ll follow me right
06:02 if you’ll live by my statutes then you will do fine and you’ll be a year you and your line will be on the throne forever but I will take this away if you don’t obey me and so we see here you know that
06:19 that God wasn’t kidding when he made that remark let’s look at 1 Kings 9 and it came to pass when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the Lord in the king’s house
06:33 and all Solomon’s desire which he was pleased to do that the Lord appeared to Solomon the second time as he appeared unto him at Gibeon and remember Gibeon is where the Lord appeared unto Solomon after those thousand sacrifices and Solomon asked for wisdom okay so now there’s the second time Lord appears to him after he’s done everything that he had put on his heart to do
06:50 and verse 3 of 1 Kings 9 and the Lord said unto him I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou hast made before me I have hallowed this house which thou has built to put my name there forever and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually
07:04 and if thou wilt walk before me as David thy father walked in integrity of heart and in uprightness to do according to all that I have commanded thee and will keep my statutes and my judgments then I will establish the throne of my kingdom upon Israel forever as I promised to David thy father saying there shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel
07:26 but this is verse 6 of 1 Kings 9 if you shall at all turn from following me you your children and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you but go and serve other gods and worship them
07:40 verse 7 is the consequence then I will cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them and this house which I have hallowed for my name will I cast out of my sight and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people and he goes on God the Lord goes on telling Solomon what will happen now why would God give Solomon this warning
08:01 I mean think about it Solomon is being very blessed he’s built the temple is on the you know everything is going great God’s giving him this warning because God can see the future God has foreknowledge there’s nothing that is beyond God
08:12 God understands past present and future he transcends time as we know it so God is telling Solomon basically forecasting what’s gonna happen and what is Solomon to do is he to obey the Lord well you would think so but again go back to this idea of being intoxicated with odd because right
08:30 after the Lord speaks to him the Queen Queen of Sheba comes and it’s just so impressed and gives him gifts and everything is going good and then we get the first Kings 11 when things are not good and he gets together with these foreign women women of the Moabites the Ammonites the Edomites the Zidonians and the Hittites
08:51 now if Solomon is getting together with these women that are not of God’s chosen people is he not violating what God wanted him to do because after all the Lord desired the Israelites to go into Canaan land and possess it and get all of these other people out because of their strange gods
09:12 verse 2 of 1 Kings 11 of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel ye shall not go into them that means you shouldn’t be with them marry them etc neither shall they come in unto you for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods Solomon clava unto these in love so he fell in love with these foreign women
09:32 and they brought him to their gods and there was I guess a thousand in total 700 wives princesses and 300 concubines and his wives turned away his heart
09:45 verse 4 of first Kings 11 for it came to pass when Solomon was old that his wives turned away his heart after other gods notice that when he’s old and he’s weak
09:59 and that’s when the devil is gonna come when you’re tired when you’re weak you know when you’re ignorant whatever it may be but when you are compromised the devil is gonna come and trample down and he was able to do it to Solomon and get him away from the things of God and the ways of God and get him focused on things that were an abomination to God
10:14 and here Solomon loves the Lord and yet is drawn away and this should be a lesson for us to teach us that no one is wise enough to resist temptation and no one is wise enough to be wiser than God
10:29 and no one is able to live in the way that they want to live and still be godly right because if you live the way you want to live according to the flesh if I think about someone that’s got hundreds of wives
10:46 and concubines they’re clearly living according to the flesh they want the praise they want all that comes with it amen and I’ve got one wife I can’t imagine even having two Amen
10:59 that one that one is plenty for me and so I can’t imagine all that came with all those wives and concubines but nevertheless they took him away to false gods I mean can you think of anything worse for the king of Israel than to be yoked up with these women these foreign women
11:17 and this is exactly what God had warned the Israelites to stay away from as they went to occupy the Canaan land and to wipe these people out and here we have just one generation away from David all of this happening
11:30 and so it teaches us very important lessons about the downfall of Solomon about what it means for us you know again the age being being weak in old age right that we have to be very careful and guard ourselves when we are weak whether we’re sick whether we’re tired whether we’re stressed that’s when great sin can come upon us and the progression that this started
11:52 before really it’s written in in first Kings 11 it started before then right amen the progression and we need to see that God is paying attention because God it’s mentioned in the scriptures that God had spoken to Solomon twice you think God forgot the warning
12:09 that he gave to Solomon surely he didn’t so how do we apply this to our lives we need to focus on being sold out for God and heed his warnings in other words we need to fear the Lord when he tells us to watch out when he tells us that to depart from the unclean thing to cleanse our hands as dirty singer sinners
12:29 and to draw an eye to him and he’ll draw an eye to us when he tells us not to have idols in our heart as little children we shouldn’t have idols in our heart when he tells us to make him Lord when he tells us that if we love him
12:43 we’ll follow his commandments when he tells us to spread the good news and share the gospel when he tells us that he’s coming again soon and his reward is with him we should pay attention to these things we should apply them to our heart we should become on fire for God by reigning ourselves in
13:00 and being sober right being being ready for these attacks understanding that they’re prevalent and they’re everywhere and that we need to be on guard because clearly if Solomon was the wisest man to ever live then that’s not us amen so if he was taken in a snare and in a massive trap that led to his downfall certainly it could lead to ours if we are not careful
13:21 and we’re not super careful and and you know yes you can dive deeper into the passions that tempt us and and when when lust is you know when it’s conceived when you go when you give into your lust you know because it’s not a sin to be tempted what can happen there but what we need to do is get back to the Bible
13:38 Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by the devil and he quoted scripture all three times and we need to be in the book and be guarded and realize if it could happen to Solomon it can happen to us so we better be on guard
13:52 and be ready for whatever the devil is gonna throw our way so that we can then stand firm and strong for God in these last days when so many are falling away we can say we love Jesus Christ in and indeed we love Jesus Christ in word and indeed and God will bless us.
14:10 thank you for listening take care God bless and Amen