Lesson, I King 11: The End of Solomon, The End of Unity

I Kings 11:1-13

Solomon had reached the pinnacle of power and glory and wealth for a Middle Eastern king at that time. Israel was a military power and economic power. He was given what God promised him after he asked for wisdom instead of anything else.

 

As a child I read a story about the Queen of Sheba (Ethiopia or similar African country. There are, lots of legends people think are in the Bible but are in other literature really. According to this childhood story, Solomon was so wise that he was given the ability to talk to animals (not in the Bible; his wisdom was for discernment and judgment of the people). A bee stung him and he conversed with it and agreed not to kill it for stinging him. Later the Queen of Sheba came to his court with all kinds of gifts (this is recorded in I Kings 10) and wanted to ask him questions. She put him to the test with two bouquets of flowers, one by an artist and one real, and he was supposed to judge which was real. The bee showed up and went to the real one and he was able to discern. (Like Androcles and the Lion)

 

But….no one lives forever, and by the time Solomon is dying at the age of sixty or more (ruled 40 years, perhaps his lifestyle ws leading to disease), his multiple wives have turned his heart away in his weakness to allow the worship of others pagan gods, even though he was supreme over these other cultures. Back then a conquered people would accept worship of their conquerors; he’s doing the opposite. Something slowly went wrong with him in his old age. Dementia? Or the effects of a life time of choices? Cynicism? The book of Ecclesiastes would lead us to believe that all his knowledge and wisdom led him to doubt and apathy, but I think his engaging in sin was more like it.  He kept looking for pleasure and it took him nowhere, and he knew he had put the Lord God away from his life despite his gifts. 

 

This is a cautionary tale in so many ways.

·      Aging and what comes with it can dull our love for God rather than make it sweeter and lovelier. It can make us bitter rather than thankful. But we have to come to peace with our sin and that God has forgiven us and doesn’t hold us accountable any more, but only because of Christ, not because of us. In Solomon’s case he became cynical and I have to wonder if he felt unforgiven, or needed forgiveness and refused to repent. 

·      We can lose sight of the giver rather than the gifts. Solomon had so much and called it futile and meaningless (vanity). Even Jerry Seinfeld says “Everything we own is in the process of belonging to someone else, falling apart, or ending up in a landfill.”

·      We can begin to see ourselves as the originator of the gifts rather than the recipient and steward.

·      Solomon’s wealth (and wives) was so extreme that it is hard to even believe or imagine. However, it does show that there is no limit to our lusts when they are not checked or there is no accountability. Do you remember Imelda Marcos in the 1980s, the wife of the president of the Philippines? It was a country with a lot of deep poverty, but she had 2700 pairs of shoes. Do you remember that TV show in the ‘80s, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. I used to watch it, and I mostly remember mansions with gold all over them. Conspicuous consumption. Why? Because they could. The rest of us respond with “that’s foolish,” “that’s cool,” or “wow!”

·      In terms of the wives, It makes us wonder if he was a sex addict or had given himself over for a perversion. Some of the marriages were for political reasons, some for show, but really? I Kings 11 says he loved them and held fast to 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines, so that is a lot of sex. And they were pagans from ethnic groups the Israelites were not supposed to intermarry with.

·      Solomon obviously had a lot of offspring (it’s unlikely he could be much of a father) and since his wives worshiped Ashtoreth (sex goddess of Babylonians) Molech and Chemosh (gods demanding child sacrifice) one wonders if that went on under his watch and in his family, too. We only know of one of his children, Rehoboam, who was nothing but trouble here.

 

II. Still, Solomon had enemies, I Kings 11:14-23.

 

III. A prophecy against Solomon. I Kings 11: 24-40.

 

IV. The prophecy was fulfilled because Rehoboam was rebellious and unwise. I Kings 12:1-33.

 

So, 40 years (always symbolic) after David’s death, the kingdom has fallen into chaos. Already! How fast! Why?

 

Leadership failed.

 

People failed: They were responsible.

 

 nkjvProverbs 4:23: Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life.

NIV: Above all else, guard your heart,
    for everything you do flows from it.

NASB: Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life.

Holman: Guard your heart above all else,^[a]
for it is the source of life.

ESV: Keep your heart with all vigilance,
    for from it flow the springs of life.

 

Solomon did not keep his heart with all diligence, even though he wrote these words.