The Sin of Solomon

I. Introduction
A. Last week: David. This week: David’s son, Solomon. And next week: Solomon’s son, Rehoboam.
B. 1Kings 11:1–14 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2 from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. 3 He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. 4 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done. 7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. 8 And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods. 9 And 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 10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the LORD commanded. 11 Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. 12 Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.” 14 And the LORD raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite. He was of the royal house in Edom.
C. Now for us to appreciate the drama of this story, we need to read it in the context it appears. Virtually everything up to this point in Solomon’s story is positive. From chapter 3 to 10. And the passage right before this is about the visit of the Queen of Sheba.
D. 1Kg.10:6-27 [The queen of Sheba] said to the king, "The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. 7 But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. 8 How happy your men must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! 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." 14 The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents, {That is, about 25 tons} 15 not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the land. 18 King Solomon made a great throne inlaid with ivory and overlaid with fine gold. 19 The throne had six steps, and its back had a rounded top. On both sides of the seat were armrests, with a lion standing beside each of them. 20 Twelve lions stood on the six steps, one at either end of each step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any other kingdom. 21 All King Solomon’s goblets were gold, and all the household articles in the Palace were pure gold. 22 The king had a fleet of trading ships at sea along with the ships of Hiram. Once every three years it returned, carrying gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons. 23 King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. 24 The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. 25 Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift -- articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules. 26 Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. 27 The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills.
E. Kingda Ka, at the at the Six Flags theme park in Jackson, Mississippi, is the world’s highest roller coaster at 458 ft. It reaches a top speed of 128 mph and includes a drop of 418 feet! The ride only lasts 28 seconds. You pretty much go up and then come down. That’s a lot like Solomon’s story. It goes up and up and up, higher than any other. And then it comes thundering down. You can get whiplash from just reading it! So, what are we to make of this spectacular fall of Solomon?
II. Well, first let’s examine Solomon’s sin a little closer. First, the background. Before God brought His people into the promised land, He gave them a number of warnings about living there.
A. Deuteronomy 7:3-4 “You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods.” (Cf. Exodus 34:12–16)
B. Deut.17:16-17 The king must not acquire many horses for himself...And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver &gold.
C. You see, this was a common way to build alliances in those days. You married the daughters of those you were in treaty with. This created connections and sympathies. If you were married to my daughter, I was a lot less likely to attack you, and were a lot less likely to attack me.
1. And it was considered part of ancient middle eastern hospitality to build a shrine for your new wife, to recognize the god of her land, so that she – and all the servants she brought with her – would have a place to worship in your country.
2. For instance, Jezebel, who wasn’t an Israelite, but the daughter of the priest-king of Tyre and Sidon, when she married Ahab, King of Israel, brought with her 850 priests of Baal & Asherah.
3. But it started with Solomon. In spite of God’s warnings against it, Solomon did this on a massive scale and what God said would happen happened!
4. All this, in spite of the fact that as a young man he’d chosen wisdom over riches, receiving both.
5. We don't know how many idol shrines he built, but it must have been a lot since he had 700 wives and 300 concubines, and it says in v.8 that Solomon did this "for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods."
6. These high places were significant edifices, for they seem to have lasted for hundreds of years, until the reign of Josiah, king of Judah, who finally demolished them.
a. But they endured and were used through the reigns of such good kings as Asa, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah and some through the reign of Hezekiah.
b. Even after the description of GOOD kings, it is usually added, "But they did not take down the high places," — referring to these high places that Solomon built for his foreign wives.
7. The two mentioned in the story, Chemosh and Molech, are just given to us as examples, chosen because of how notorious these two idols were. Both of these idols were infamous because it was regular practice for their worshipers to offer living human children as burnt offerings. I.e. He even made high places to these two child-sacrifice idols.
8. Imagine a visitor to Jerusalem who hadn’t been there for a few decades, driving their chariot into town. Wow! All the new shopping centers! All the new housing developments! And, what’s this?, Jerusalem was dotted with idol temples to foreign gods, much like Embassy Row.
D. "Among the many nations there was no king like [Solomon]. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women." – Nehemiah 13:26
III. How can we explain this? Why did Solomon go down this path?
A. Certainly at least a part of it was sexual lust.
1. Eccl.2 I said in my heart, “Come now, ...enjoy yourself.” I got many concubines, the delight of the sons of man. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure. But behold, this also was vanity.
B. It’s possible that Solomon was in love with power and prestige. It’s possible that Solomon wanted too much to live in the favor of Israel’s neighbors.
1. And that this ambition drove him to ally himself with the nations around him through marriages.
C. It’s very possible that his great success went to his head.
1. Success so dangerous. It tempts someone to put his confidence in his earthly resources.
2. Life looks very secure from a rich person’s point of view, but nothing is secure except the Lord.
3. As it says in 1Tim.6:17 “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.”
a. You see, that’s the tendency of those are rich: to be haughty – as if they are the ones who produced their wealth – and to put their security in their riches, instead of in God.
b. It is easy for us when we are successful to get wrapped up in the enjoyment and glory of our success and forget that our true home is not in this world, but in God.
D. It’s possible that God’s blessings went to Solomon’s head, that all the hullabaloo about his wisdom and fame caused him to think he was above the law, and above God’s discipline, that the rules didn’t apply to him.
IV. In spite of the fact that there is much we don’t know about the “why” of Solomon’s sin, it seems to me that there are a number of important lessons we can learn from it.
A. In a number of ways, sin is irrational, it’s surprising, it’s confusing.
1. After the story of Solomon, we are left scratching our heads, wondering how sin can coexist with such wisdom.
2. But it’s not just here. After Peter’s denial of Christ, we’re left wondering how a man so strong and bold could suddenly become such a coward.
3. And, reading Romans 7, we are left wondering how a man as devout as the apostle Paul could say, “I do not understand my own actions...For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.” (Rom.7:15, 19)
4. The human heart and mind can be so strong on some things, and so blind and weak in others.
5. JRR Tolkien captures this well in Bilbo & Frodo Baggins, who are so pleasant and good-natured on the one hand, but have the potential to turn into virtual monsters in some circumstances.
6. Solomon shows us that you can’t get wise enough to be exempt from the foolishness of sin.
B. And this, I believe is a call to humility, a call to be afraid of ourselves and what we might do. No matter how strong we feel, no matter how solid we think we are in the Lord, we are always vulnerable to sin, and we must therefore always approach life with humility.
1. If Solomon can’t be trusted to do well, why in the world should we feel confident in ourselves: “Lord, help me today!”
2. The story which begins with, “Solomon loved the LORD” (1Kings 3:3), ends with “Solomon loved many foreign women” (1Kings 11:1). This needs to sober us.
3. We know that our faith is sustained by God. But it is very possible for someone who looks unshakably strong in his faith to fall away from it.
4. Just like Peter, it is easy when we’re young, when our faith is infused with youthful idealism, to boast in our spiritual fervor, and think that we will never fall.
5. What I’m talking about is illustrated in the attitude of little children toward crossing the street.
a. They ought to feel very secure when holding daddy’s or mommy’s hand, and they ought to feel very afraid on their own.
b. They are so vulnerable. But they don’t sense their vulnerability. They want to do it themselves.
6. What’s in our kids is also in us. That same spirit of feeling secure on our own is so foolish.
7. “Let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall.” (1Cor.10:12)
8. I am not trying to drive us to despair, but to humility. I am trying to drive us to a faith which does not feel secure in itself but in the Lord to whom we cry out to sustain us to the end.
9. We should always feel insecure enough to make us always want to be holding God’s hand.
10. In Solomon we see the weakness of the best of men. It is given to us to show us what might happen even to the best of men if they do not keep their eyes on the Lord.
C. And it often begins with small and subtle compromises.
1. David’s fall came all at once. Solomon’s was little by little. It seems to have been gradual.
2. It took years to get this bad, the result of the accumulation of many compromises with idolatry.
3. The first time he married a pagan wife and built her a shrine for her idol (1Kings 3:1), it was probably made clear that this was not for the people of Israel, it was just for this new wife of the king and her entourage. But eventually, it not only ensnared Solomon, but many others in Israel.
4. We should be afraid of falling into heresy. We should be afraid of falling into immorality. But we should also be afraid of slowly drifting away from the Lord as well.
5. Talk to your neighbors. Many of them were once very active in Christian things, many were once living lives of devout Christianity. Some were church leaders, some were pastors. But that is now just a part of their past. They have long since abandoned their activity & even much of their faith. Faithfulness requires vigilance and perseverance.
D. This story shows us that life doesn’t hinge on just one big decision, but is a composite of thousands of small decisions.
1. This is something which confuses a lot of people about the story of Solomon. They think that once he’s made his big decision to choose wisdom over riches, that he is destined to succeed.
2. They make same mistake about those who make a decision to follow Christ. They think that once folks make that decision and say the sinner’s prayer, they are destined for heaven.
3. In both cases, this is far from accurate. The life of faith isn’t just one decision; it’s a walk, it’s a journey, it’s a life.
4. God had warned Solomon about this at the dedication of the temple: “If you will walk before me, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, 5 then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever. 6 But if you turn aside from following me and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name...will become a heap of ruins.” (1Kings 9:4–8)
5. It was only by walking in the ways of the Lord each day that one receives the blessing of God, not just making one large decision.
6. For Solomon, his many decisions to compromise with idolatry eroded and eventually washed away his one decision to choose wisdom.
E. We should not envy the rich and successful.
1. Solomon’s riches and glory were God's response to his request for wisdom and discernment to reign well as king. Because he didn't ask for riches and honor, God gave him both wisdom and riches & honor.
2. But I think we also see in Solomon’s success a glimpse of how God wants to lavish every one of His children with wealth and glory and blessings of every kind.
3. You know, every parent has a desire to bless his children. We want to give them any thing we can to make them happy. God is even more than way — and He has unlimited resources!
4. But it is really good for us to be that rich and successful?
5. It is as if in Solomon we are shown the riches of God's generosity toward His beloved children untempered and unrestricted, and it shows us why God doesn’t lavish this kind of success on His children very often in this life.
6. I think we see in Solomon the way God would like to treat His precious people. Jesus would like to make each of us as rich and famous as Solomon. But we also see why He cannot treat His people that way: because of what it does to us.
7. But this doesn't mean that God is being less generous toward us. In fact, it means that He is being much more generous to us. For in holding back from us the riches and glory of Solomon, He is blessing us even more. We’ve got to see and believe this!
8. Now make no mistake, God has lavished upon us "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." And there is a sense in which He gives us every blessing on earth as well.
9. And one day we will receive all this and more.
10. But because of His grace, He holds back earthly blessings which would cause us to stumble.
F. It is dangerous to feed the flesh.
1. Solomon kept saying yes to his desires. He kept indulging himself. And it gradually killed him.
2. Rm13:14 Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
3. Galatians 5:16 Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
4. Seeds are little. You can sow them and the ground doesn’t look any different — at first. But it sure becomes obvious as to what you sowed.
5. Where are you sowing? What you sow you shall also reap. That’s what happened to Solomon.
6. When you’re in the situation, your heart asks, “What’s the problem with one more?” One more seems like such a small thing. What’s the difference if you do something 383 times or 384?
a. “I can start resisting temptation tomorrow!”
b. Seeds are small! But they have big consequences. Oak trees grow from acorns!
c. Have you ever seen a black lung, the product of a lifetime of smoking? Each cigarette did virtually no damage. It is the combined effect of many 1000's which turned it black.
d. There are so many things like that in life. Someone keeps feeding the flesh, little by little, day by day. And what could have been a story of life and health and accomplishment becomes a story of emptiness and death and despair.
7. Galatians 6:8 The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
8. "Sow a thought and you reap an action. Sow an action and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny."
V. I would like to conclude our examination of Solomon by bringing in Jesus.
A. Solomon was the promised son of David who would sit on his throne and build God’s temple. But of course, Jesus is the greater Son of David, who sits on the throne of David forever and is even now building God’s temple from the living stones of His beloved people.
B. Certainly we see in Solomon’s glory and kingdom a glimpse of the glory of Christ & His kingdom.
1. God says over and over again in the Bible that someday all the wealth of the nations is going to be brought into the house of the Lord, all the money and the honor that has been achieved in this world will be transferred over to the family of Christ.
C. Solomon was great in wisdom, but Jesus was the epitome of wisdom.
D. But not only was Jesus greater than Solomon, Jesus showed Himself to be a crystal clear contrast to Solomon with regard to Solomon’s sin.
1. He loved God with all His heart, soul, mind and strength.
2. He refused to bow down to anyone besides God, saying in response to Satan’s temptation, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” Luke 4:8
3. And unlike Solomon He refused to grasp the glory. He did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but emptied Himself. (Phil.2:5-8)
E. Now this wasn’t just because Jesus didn’t have a heart of sin like Solomon did. It was because Jesus came from another world. He knew that this world was not His home, nor the home of His people. He knew that the realities of heaven far outweighed the best things of earth.
1. He couldn’t be seduced by all the pleasures and temptations of this world because He knew they were scams, He knew they were satanic ploys to enslave us.
2. He knew that true freedom, and true security, and true joy, and true life come only in Him, in spite of all the false claims of the devil and his servants.
F. So, in His name this morning, I invite you to come to Him, come to Jesus.
1. He will not lead you down an easy path, but He will lead you down the path to life.
2. For the path which most follow, which may seem wide and pleasant, is really the path to death.