Slow Motion Fall

1 Kings 11:1-41

The other day Margaret and I were at the beach and were climbing around on the rocks. I was carrying our little dog and tried to sit down on a rock to rest for a moment and watch the waves. I wasn?t balanced well and the extra weight of the dog pulled me to one side. I began to fall, but it wasn?t one of those falls where you go down and that?s it. It was a kind of slow motion fall, where I just kept going down and down. I got scraped up pretty badly, the dog was untouched. It reminds me that often times in our lives, we fall away from the Lord not in a sudden one shot deal, but in a slow motion fall. It happens slowly over time so that we barely notice it until we find ourselves all scratched and hurt and wonder what happened.

Such was the case of Solomon. He started off so well, with everything a person would need to serve God and lead the nation to Yahweh. He had a peaceful, powerful nation, wisdom from God, resources to do whatever he wanted, affirmation from God, and the example of a godly father. Yet despite all that, Solomon ends up not walking wholly after God, he and his nation suffer for it for generations.

Deuteronomy 17:14-20 Kings were not to multiply wives, horses, or chariots, or silver and gold, and were to focus on the Word of God every single day. Solomon did all of the former and not the latter, and it created a tragic end to a life beautifully started.

There seem to be three big changes in the life of Solomon that we see in the final, and sad, chapter of his life. 1. He loved his wives more than God. 2. He began worshipping other Gods more than the Lord (first in the house, then in the nation). 3. He held on to power without relying on the Lord

1 ? 8

Exodus 34:12 and Deuteronomy 7:1-5 are pretty clear that Israel was not to intermarry with the nations they were dispossessing, nor were they to bow down to their gods but tear down their altars. Solomon may have married the women to increase the splendor of his kingdom and make political alliances, but at what cost? In marriage there is an emotional attachment that occurs. It happened to Solomon and what was led by a natural love led to tolerance, temptation, acceptance, practice, and promotion.

Men naturally want to please their wives. These women brought their idolatry with them. Instead of Solomon bringing them into Judaism, they brought him into idolatry. Maybe Solomon was outnumbered. Why did he put himself in a place where he was sure to be influenced? This is missionary dating gone way bad! Why do we put ourselves in situations and surround ourselves and connect ourselves with those that will pull us away from God?

Solomon is compared to his father David. Despite David?s failures he always loved the Lord. That was the key to his life. The one thing Solomon needed the most is the one thing he treated the most lightly. How lightly do we consider our relationship with God to be? Do we take it for granted?

Had Solomon done what Deut 17 required, written the Bible out himself and then read it every day, I wonder how things would have been different?especially since his foreign wives surely would have heard the word of God.

So what he tolerated, he began practicing, going after Ashtoreth, which is a reference to Ashtart, the Canaanite fertility goddess (also Astarte). You could say that she is the goddess of lust. She was the female equivalent of Baal. Here is some information about how she was worshipped:

There is evidence from both biblical and non-biblical sources that her worship included frenetic dancing and self-mortification with knives and whips. Cult prostitution was practiced in the worship of Astarte, but there were also eunuchs among the temple attendance. The eunuchs were reported to have castrated themselves in worship of the goddess; thereafter they would dress in women?s clothing (Cavendish 134)

http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~tomshoemaker/StudentPapers/canaanite.html

Molech (Milcom) was also known as Ba?al. This is one of the most horrible kinds of worship imaginable. Parents would sacrifice their children by placing them on the red hot ?arms? of the God. They were forbidden to cry during this for fear of upsetting the god. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch

Chemosh is known as the fish god. He is closely aligned with Astarte. Human sacrifice may also have been made to him.

9 ? 13

Notice some things here: I would not want God angry with me. Solomon should have known better. It was not out of ignorance that he disobeyed. This reminds me of Adam, who, for the love of Eve, purposefully chose Eve over God, and brought the curse on all of us. It was also permanent. God said ?this has been your practice.? The word means ?to become? but is an emphatic. It didn?t happen to Solomon, he was an active mover and made a decision. Solomon was still God?s child, but a knowingly disobedient one. So God must instigate discipline, just as he does for us.

14 ? 25

Hadad the Edomite. In 2 Samuel 8:13-14, Abishai under David?s reign, slaughtered 18,000 Edomites and put army outposts in Edom and made them his servants. Hadad escaped and was given Pharaoh?s sister in law as a wife. When David died he returned to Edom and made trouble for Solomon, but we don?t know how. This was Solomon?s trouble from the south.

Rezon. David defeated Hadadezar in 2 Samuel 8:3-9. Rezon had also escaped a David military campaign. Eventually he returned and captured Damascus in the north. Again, we don?t know just how he troubled Solomon, but presumably it was through some sort of military activity.

26 ? 36

Jeroboam. We will hear this name over and over. This man affected the spiritual character of much of Israel for generations. Here we have an ambitious and able man. He was so impressive that Solomon put him in charge of the forced labor from his tribe. But ambition is not what God is after. He has always wanted people to walk with him, to have a relationship with him. The ability to lead without God at the head is idolatry, serving the self rather than the Lord. Jeroboam would indeed introduce much idolatry into Israel, masked by religious overtones and political patriotism.

But this is the beginning, where Jeroboam has the opportunity to create a dynasty for himself, as long as he, like David, walks with God. Ahijah apparently took a new cloak and tore it up to symbolically show what he was going to do with the nation.

37 ? 40

The three things God tells Jeroboam were the same as were for David and Solomon: listen to God?s word, have a relationship with God, and let the life of God work out in your life.

It appears that although Judah will be greatly reduced after this, the house of David will ultimately prevail (and it did) vs 39.

Somehow Solomon must have found out what Ahijah said to Jeroboam, and here he acts more like Saul than David. He tries to have Jeroboam killed. When usurpers came against David he would rather switch than fight.

For his part, it seems perhaps Jeroboam was also fomenting rebellion because by the time Solomon dies, tribal leaders from the tribes other than Judah, were primed and ready for his leadership.

41 ? 43

Despite his failures, Solomon did a lot. And the wisdom he left us endures to this day as Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. The message of Proverbs is to fear God and obtain wisdom from him. Ecclesiastes says, all the pursuits of life are meaningless without the Lord. If only Solomon took all that wisdom to heart ? and that?s a danger. It?s not good enough to have head knowledge about God, it needs to be heart knowledge that actually affects our lives.

Conclusions

It makes me sad that after only one generation, Israel?s kings started their slow march away from God. But we should remember one thing, that walking away, you can always walk back. 400 years later, one of Solomon?s descendants, Josiah, walked fully back to the Lord and took down the high places that Solomon had set up,

It is never too late to mess up your life

Solomon lived most of his life walking with God. Sometimes we get to a point where we think we have this Christian thing wired and we stop trying. That?s a dangerous place to be in. There will always be things God is working on. Our enemy will always want to take you out of commission so never let your guard down.

Osmosis happens

Solomon surrounded himself with worldly influences and though it took time, he eventually gave into them. I?m not saying we should be monks cloistered away somewhere. We are ?in? the world, not ?of? the world.

1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world? the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions?is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. ESV

It is never too late for you to repent and turn back to the Lord.

Isaiah 30:15-16 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,

\"In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.\"But you were unwilling, 16 and you said, \"No! We will flee upon horses\"; therefore you shall flee away; and, \"We will ride upon swift steeds\"; therefore your pursuers shall be swift. ESV

To maintain a relationship, cut off the supply lines

Romans 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. ESV

?put on? means to sink into a garment

?provision? means to give thought to something in advance to prepare. It is a present imperative ? stop doing something you are doing.