1 Kings 11:1-13 GUARD YOUR HEART ES 16 Jul 17 1672
Chapter 11 marks the turning point in Solomon’s life. He has left his first love and allowed other loves to take hold of him.
• He has wisdom, but wisdom cannot immune us from sinning against God. Solomon hardened his heart towards God.
Notice the number of times the word HEART is mentioned.
• 11:2 to the Israelites the Lord says, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your HEARTS after their gods.”
• 11:4 “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.”
• 11:9 “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.”
It has to do with the HEART. There is a TURNING of the heart. The problem, strictly speaking, is internal, not external. Solomon allowed his heart to be turned.
• The Bible talks about the hardening of the heart.
• Heb 3:12-13 “12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving HEART that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.”
• Heb 3:15 “As has just been said: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your HEARTS as you did in the rebellion.”
GUARD YOUR HEART. We can blame it on the difficult circumstances or the tempting situations we are put in, or whatever.
• But the truth is, it has to do with the condition of our heart. You wanted it.
• Solomon did not just love the foreign wives but HELD FAST to them in love (11:2). You cannot have two loves but he clung on to the other loves.
• The circumstances are just trigger points for what is already there in our hearts.
Solomon “loved many foreign women” (11:1), he “held fast to them in love” (11:2), and “his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God…” (11:4)
• He can blame it on the wives and the concubines but strictly speaking, that’s not the real cause. The heart of the problem is the problem of his heart.
Notice how the Word compares him with his father David:
• 11:4 “his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.”
• 11:6 “he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.”
• What so special about David’s heart? He is a sinner too. He committed adultery, he coveted someone’s wife, and he murdered the husband.
The words used here were “fully devoted and “follow the Lord completely”.
• You are not like your father because his heart is “fully devoted to God” and he “followed the Lord completely”.
• That’s his heart – not that he did not sin, not that he did not do any wrong - but that he was determined to get back.
• We know the story of David’s life. He wasn’t perfect in all his dealings, but his heart is devoted to God. He was determined to repent and return to God.
David turned his heart back to God, while Solomon turned his heart away from God.
• One is repentance, the other is the hardening of his heart.
• The Lord takes delight in “a broken and contrite heart”. (Psalm 51:17)
• David wrote Psalm 51 (his repentance psalm) publicly, for all to sing.
See how God honours David. When the Lord pronounces his judgement on Solomon, He said it twice, “for the sake of David your father.” (11:12, 13).
• 11:12 He is going to tear the Kingdom away from Solomon and give it to someone else, but “for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime.”
• 11:13 He will not tear the whole Kingdom away but leave you one tribe, “for the sake of David my servant”.
• See how God honours David. The Lord says, “I have found David a man after my own heart.” (Acts 13:22)
Guard your heart. Be devoted to God. Follow Him completely. Don’t compromise. Each time we sin, we repent and we return.
FEAR THE LORD
Do we really believe what God says? From Day 1, God has declared this warning openly to the PEOPLE of Israel – not to bring in foreigners and their practices.
• At Mount Sinai, the Lord spoke through Moses - Deut 7:3-4 “3Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.”
• And specifically about the KING - Deut 17:14-17 “14When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, "Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us," 15be sure to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite. 16The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, "You are not to go back that way again." 17He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.
This was spoken when they were at Mount Sinai, when Moses gave the Law. I went to check, that’s 480 years ago.
• God declared what would happen 480 years ago and He was spot on. What God said would happen, did indeed happen.
• Of course, when God speaks, it’s the truth, and it will come true.
If we try to go against what God says, we are destined to lose.
• God said what He meant, and meant what He said. Take God’s Word at face value.
Cultivate a fear of God in our heart.
• David wrote in Psalm 103:17-18 “17But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and His righteousness with their children's children - 18with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.”
• He is talking about the same group of people – those who fear God are those who keep His covenant and obey His precepts.
As far as David is concerned, there is no other relationship as critical as this - his relationship with God.
• He would not allow anyone or anything, not even his sin, destroy that. Resolve it and be restored.
• That’s why the author says David’s heart is different, he is fully devoted to God.
We see Solomon’s free-fall.
• He followed these gods: Ashtoreth – goddess of the Sidonians (11:5), Molech – the detestable god of the Ammonites (11:5), and Chemosh, the detestable god of Moab.
• He built high places to offer sacrifices to them, and did the same for all his foreign wives (11:8). He enslaved the NATION in idolatry.
The high places were there until King Josiah (JUDAH) came onto the scene.
• 2 Kings 23:13 “The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption-the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the people of Ammon.”
• That’s 350 years later and after 16 kings. You can imagine the damage done, not just to himself, not just to his family, not just to the nation in one generation, but to the generation and generation after him.
• In the end, even the grand Temple that Solomon built will be destroyed.
Solomon has no enemies, not within, not without. Not from his own siblings or generals, and not from outside. The Lord has given him “peace on all sides” (4:24)
• No one is going to threaten his throne. No one except himself. He is going to bring his kingdom and his nation down by his idolatry.
• His sin is his own enemy. His sin of idolatry will cause the downfall of Israel.
God pronounces it. He is going to tear his kingdom apart, but not in his lifetime, for the sake of David.
• God is going to leave him with one tribe JUDAH (and Benjamin), again the Lord says for the sake of David.
• God tempered His judgement with mercy and did not allow the split to happen in Solomon’s lifetime.
Take note of this: God metes out His sentences. He is the Judge.
• If His promises to us are sure, so are His sentences for crimes we commit.
• God will discipline the ones He loves.
What an irony! Solomon built all of these that we are seeing now – the Temple, the palace, and making a name for himself and Israel, and yet sowed the seed of the destruction of all of these.
• He destroys all that he has built up, by his own behaviour.
• No one brought down the Kingdom; he did. His sinful idolatry destroyed everything that was good.
• This is what sin will do in our lives. Don’t be fooled by it.
What can we learn from this message today?
(1) GUARD YOUR HEART
• Don’t play game with sin. Don’t compromise. Watch our life and deal with anything that might turn our hearts away from God.
• It might be our relationships, our career, our attitudes, or anything that has come between you and God.
(2) FEAR THE LORD
• Do everything that can spur your heart to love the things of God.
• Study the Word, make time to pray, make time to worship, meet with God’s people.
• DECIDE to obey God and keep His commandments.
