The Downfall
Jeffery Anselmi / General
The King: The Rise and Fall of Solomon / Sin; Obedience and Disobedience / 1 Kings 11:1–13
The Lord despises idolatry, because when your heart is divided, you cannot be loyal to him.
INTRODUCTION
• The story of Solomon is tragic yet common.
• Solomon's life story is one that is full of beauty, prosperity, peace, and trust—at the beginning.
• There is no denying how blessed and loved Solomon was by the Lord and how he made a positive impact on Israel's people.
• However, in 1 Kings 11, we see King Solomon's fall due to his divided heart.
• Solomon acquiring so many wives served as a way to form alliances with other kingdoms. Still, while this way of handling alliances was acceptable in the culture, it was not permitted in God's law.
• Solomon was doing what everyone else was doing; he was doing what other Kings would do, but was that the wise course of action?
• When I pondered Solomon's life, I have often wondered how a person who was so blessed by God could turn so far from God.
• Solomon serves as a cautionary tale for Christians who have the same tendency to go along with what is "normal" in the culture.
• No matter what culture says is appropriate, we must stand firm in what the Lord requires of us.
• How did Solomon fall so far from God? Did his downfall happen overnight or over time?
• As we conclude our series on the Rise and Fall of the King, we will examine who this man who had been so abundantly blessed by God, would experience such a spiritual and relational downfall with God in his life.
› Big Idea of the Message: The Lord despises idolatry, because when your heart is divided, you cannot be loyal to him.
• Let’s turn to 1 Kings 11:1-4 together!
1 Kings 11:1–4 CSB
1 King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh’s daughter: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women 2 from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, and they must not intermarry with you, because they will turn your heart away to follow their gods.” To these women Solomon was deeply attached in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives who were princesses and three hundred who were concubines, and they turned his heart away.
4 When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods. He was not wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God, as his father David had been.
SERMON
I. Distractions
• Solomon did not wake up one day, and all of the sudden, for no particular reason, he was not walking with God.
• Solomon did not wake up one and find that God ran away from him; Solomon’s downfall took time, a long time.
• From the story of Solomon, we can see that the downfall begins with distractions.
• On November of 2009, Andy House was driving a rare 2006 Bugatti Veyron (VEY RON) EB near Galveston, Texas.
• His cell phone had fallen from the center console, so he reached down to retrieve it from the floorboard.
• When the 34-year-old man looked up, a large brown pelican was flying alongside his car.
• The bird so startled him that he dropped the phone, swerved the car, lost control, and ended up in three feet of saltwater.
• Up until that time, there were only 15 of these rare exotic cars in the U.S.
• The Bugatti Veyron (VEY RON) is the fastest and most expensive production car in the world, capable of reaching 253 mph, and this one was new to House.
• He had just bought it the previous month for $1.25 million with 500 miles on the odometer.
• Possessions never last the way we hope, and sometimes, as ironic as it may be, they are stripped away by the distraction of something else. Houston Chronicle, 11/13/9, Front Page
• In 1 Kings 3:3, we are told that Solomon loved the Lord.
1 Kings 3:3 CSB
3 Solomon loved the LORD by walking in the statutes of his father David, but he also sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
• This thought sounds great until you look at the end of the verse, where we see that Solomon was also sacrificing and burning incense in the high places.
• Hold on to the concept that Solomon LOVED the Lord for a second.
• Solomon professes a love for God, so where should his focus be placed?
• If you love your spouse or your children, where should your attention be placed?
• In verse one of our text, we are told that Solomon LOVED MANY foreign wives, well, 700 to be exact.
• Solomon also had 300 other ladies on the side.
• I do not know about you, but that seems like a MAJOR distraction to me?
• The other noteworthy thing is the word LOVE in verse one is the same verb used in 1 Kings 3:3 speaking of Solomon’s love for God.
• When we get distracted in life, bad things happen. When we are supposed to be focused on God, distractions can quickly take us off the rails with Him.
• Solomon’s downfall happened over time, and that time was littered with bad choices resulting from being distracted by other women.
• King Solomon had many foreign women in his life that he loved and married (v. 1).
• We see the primary issue that the women were Canaanite women, which the Lord had forbidden all of Israel to intermarry with (vv. 2–4).
• Specifically, the Lord commanded Israel and the king not to intermarry with Canaanites because they would turn them away from the one true God and toward other foreign gods (Deuteronomy 17:16-17).
Deuteronomy 17:16–17 CSB
16 However, he must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire many horses, for the LORD has told you, ‘You are never to go back that way again.’ 17 He must not acquire many wives for himself so that his heart won’t go astray. He must not acquire very large amounts of silver and gold for himself.
• Sometimes when we aren't careful, we will allow things that we enjoy to become idols.
• Their capacity for harm becomes even greater when we don't realize they are idols and turned us away from God's love.
• For example, it is essential that when we love something or someone, they aren't influencing us away from spending time with God.
• For Solomon, his distractions became his obsessions, and these distractions would sew the seeds of his downfall.
• Solomon probably married many of these women for political reasons to form alliances with other nations, a common practice in the ancient Near East.
• Solomon KNEW what God had to say on the subject of marrying foreign women as well as the reason for the prohibition, yet here we are, 700 wives and 300 emergency reserves later.
• The path to Solomon’s downfall was he allowed himself to be distracted, his distractions hurt him in many ways.
• Not all of the things in life are bad, but even the best things in life can be bad when we allow them to take over first place in our lives.
• Solomon will eventually find this out.
• Let’s turn to 1 Kings 11:5-9.
1 Kings 11:5–9 CSB
5 Solomon followed Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the abhorrent idol of the Ammonites. 6 Solomon did what was evil in the LORD’s sight, and unlike his father David, he did not remain loyal to the LORD.
7 At that time, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abhorrent idol of Moab, and for Milcom, the abhorrent idol of the Ammonites, on the hill across from Jerusalem. 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who were burning incense and offering sacrifices to their gods.
9 The LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.
II. Disobedience
• Downfall begins with distraction which leads to disobedience.
• Remember what was said in verse 4?
1 Kings 11:4 CSB
4 When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods. He was not wholeheartedly devoted to the LORD his God, as his father David had been.
• Solomon's heart was turned away from God by his wives, and Solomon was now following other gods.
• Can you imagine this?
• Solomon, a man who was abundantly blessed by God, is now following his wives' false gods.
• How did this happen? When you allow distractions to overtake your life, bad things happen.
• Not only was Solomon's heart turned away from God, but he was also following other gods.
• Our text tells us that Solomon was no longer wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord HIS God, how sad!
• Solomon was following these detestable gods. Notice how the text is trying to convey just how bad this had become.
• The word ABHORRENT is used twice in verse seven to describe the false god's Solomon was following.
• Solomon not only went after detestable idols of Ashtoreth (ASH TO RETH), Chemosh (KEY MOSH), and Molek (MOE LECK) but also built them altars for sacrifice and worship within the land (vv. 5–6).
• His turning away displeased God. Verse 9 reminds the reader that he appeared to him twice, giving Solomon fair warning of the consequences for disobedience.
• We may get frustrated with things happening in our lives, and instead of using the past as a source of hope, we revert to our old ways.
• "There are several problems, however, with what Solomon has done.
• First, he has disobeyed Moses' law for marriage, which constitutes a breach of the agreement Solomon makes with God in 1 Kgs 3:1–14; 6:11–13; and 9:1–9.
• Moses says in Deut 7:3–4 and Exod 34:15–16 that Israelites must not intermarry with non-covenant nations.
• Why? Because God says 'they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods' (Deut 7:4).
• Judgment will then result.
• Second, Solomon has broken Moses' commands for kings (cf. Deut 17:14–20). Moses explicitly says, 'He must not take many wives or his heart will be led astray' (Deut 17:17).
• Indeed, all of Moses' dire predictions come true in Solomon's case.
• His wives do lure him into idolatry. Solomon, however, is responsible for his own actions. He knows better but does not act on this knowledge" (Paul R. House, 1, 2 Kings, The New American Commentary 8 [Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995], 167).
• Verse nine reminds us that God was angry with Solomon.
• This situation highlights how we can experience God and see his glory in mighty ways, yet still find ourselves acting as if we have never encountered him.
• Solomon was so gifted and blessed by God, yet here we are.
• Can you think of a time when your distractions led to disobedience?
• Let’s turn to verses 10-13
1 Kings 11:10–13 CSB
10 He had commanded him about this, so that he would not follow other gods, but Solomon did not do what the LORD had commanded.
11 Then the LORD said to Solomon, “Since you have done this and did not keep my covenant and my statutes, which I commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. 12 However, I will not do it during your lifetime for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of your son’s hand. 13 Yet I will not tear the entire kingdom away from him. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem that I chose.”
III. Division
• Downfall begins with distractions, which leads to disobedience, which leads to division.
• Verse 10 reminds us as to WHY God commands that His people were not to marry those outside of the nation, then we are reminded that Solomon did not do what the Lord commanded.
• The result of Solomon’s disobedience was division.
• We see a fracture in the relationship with God.
• Sin separates us from God.
• Solomon was a man who was so close to God that God appeared to him twice in his life.
• We also see that Solomon’s disobedience affected the nation as well as the history of the nation.
• Solomon’s disobedience led to the division of the nation of Israel.
• However, it is worth noting that God kept His promise to David by leaving one tribe intact.
• God made it clear that He did not do this for Solomon, but rather for His faithful servant David.
• When we are disobedient to God, it affects not only ourselves, but it will impact those around us.
• Think about how many people have been affected by the sin of adultery: children, jilted spouses, parents, grandparents, friends of the family.
• God wants to be in fellowship with us, but sin and disobedience will lead to nothing but division.
• Solomon forgot that God loved him.
• Solomon drifted away from God over time, wrong choice after bad choice.
CONCLUSION
• Solomon’s downfall came through the slow but steady infiltration of sinful influence and an attitude of complacency that trapped him.
• We too can find ourselves in similar situations if we do not remain steadfast and alert in our faith.
• We must remain on guard at all times, examining our hearts and minds, while removing idols and possible idols out of the way so that Christ has full reign of our hearts.
• Our application point is simple. A distracted, unrepentant heart will always be our downfall.
