9 October 2016
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to 1 Kings 11:1-13
1 King Solomon,
however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites,
Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 They were from nations about
which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them,
because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless,
Solomon held fast to them in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth
and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 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. 5 He
followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god
of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not
follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.
7 On a hill east
of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of
Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8 He did the same for
all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.
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. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to
follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command. 11 So the Lord said
to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and
my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away
from you and give it to one of your subordinates. 12 Nevertheless, for the sake
of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out
of the hand of your son. 13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but
will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of
Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”
-- it’s a widely accepted fact that
the American author Mark Twain was not a Christian -- which posed a problem
when he began courting Olivia Langdon in hopes of marrying her -- you see, in
his day, a man typically had to get permission from a woman’s parents before he
could marry their daughter -- and, herein lies the problem
-- Olivia came from a professing
Christian family, strong in the faith -- they not only attended church, but
lived out their Christian faith in their lives -- and Twain quickly realized
that there was no way Olivia’s parents were going to allow her to marry an
unbeliever -- so Twain hatched a diabolical plan -- he pretended to be a
spiritual seeker who needed the support and prayers of Olivia’s family in order
to clean up his life
-- and as he met with the family and
received their prayers and counsels -- as he continued to grow closer to Olivia
and began to imitate their faith, Twain presumably converted and became a
Christian -- and once Olivia’s family was convinced he was a Christian, they
permitted the marriage
-- but, as we know, it appears
Twain’s conversion was an illusion contrived to get permission from Olivia’s
family for her hand in marriage -- after the wedding, the letters from Twain to
Olivia changed in tone, and the religious feelings he had expressed in earlier
letters during their courtship were never mentioned again
-- in fact, after their wedding,
Twain began to ridicule Olivia's beliefs and devotion -- and soon Olivia’s own
faith and hope in Christ began to cool -- she eventually turned away from the
church and from her religion altogether, and a deep sorrow overtook her soul
-- Twain had never intended for this
to happen -- he did love Olivia and never meant to hurt her, but the damage had
been done -- he had broken her spirit and wounded her faith -- he said to her, "Livy,
if it comforts you to lean on your faith, do so." -- She replied sadly, "I
cannot. I do not have any faith left."1
-- as sad as it is, the story of
Olivia Twain’s waning faith is so often written into our own lives and our own
churches -- we find ourselves drifting away as the anchor of our faith is
severed by the world and our own flesh -- not so much in an intentional way as
with Mark Twain and Olivia Langdon, but in more insidious ways -- through the
gradual darkening of our own souls
-- everyone in here has probably
heard the story of the frog in boiling water -- I have to admit I tested it out
one time to see if it was true or not -- it is
-- if you take a frog and put them
into a pot of boiling water, they will immediately jump out -- they sense the
danger -- they feel the pain -- and they leap away to safety
-- but if you take a frog and put
them into a pan of cool water and slowly turn up the heat to boiling, the frog
won’t jump out -- it adjusts to the gradual change in temperature and will
literally allow itself to be cooked without doing anything to get away
-- that is true for so many of us --
it is the spiritual tendency of all our hearts -- as Robinson wrote in his
hymn, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it -- prone to leave the God I love” --
it’s a spiritual law akin to the second law of thermodynamics -- energy trends
towards entropy -- or, in other words, the spiritual always trends towards the
unspiritual -- the heart always bends towards evil -- belief always trends
towards unbelief
-- we see that played out so often
in the lives of those around us -- we see it played out in our own lives and in
our own churches -- and we see the warning to turn around from that path given
to us in passages such as this
-- the Bible tells us King Solomon
was the wisest man in history -- even in our day, with all its genius and
technological advances, there is no one who is as wise as Solomon was -- no one
who possesses the knowledge he had, nor who could apply it in similar ways
today -- Solomon’s wisdom is unparalleled -- he had been singularly blessed by
God with spiritual wisdom, and the success of his kingdom reflected the result
of this Godly wisdom
-- but despite all the wisdom
Solomon possessed, he ended up turning away from the God he loved -- from the
God who had gifted him with wisdom and wealth and power -- and he is recorded
in the Bible as an example of someone who started well but ended as a spiritual
failure
-- how could this happen to him? --
and how can we keep this from happening to us? -- that is what I want us to
talk about this morning
II. Scripture Lesson (1 Kings 10:23-11:13)
-- to better get a handle on what
happened to King Solomon, let’s back up and read a summary of his life
beginning in 1 Kings 10:23
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,[a] 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. 28 Solomon’s horses were
imported from Egypt and from Kue—the royal merchants purchased them from Kue at
the current price. 29 They imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred
shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. They also exported them
to all the kings of the Hittites and of the Arameans.
-- it all sounds good, doesn’t it?
-- if you were looking for someone who was the epitome of success -- who had it
all together -- looks, wealth, wisdom, power, influence -- Solomon would be
your man
-- as it says in verse 23, Solomon
was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth -- he
had it all -- he knew it all -- he was success personified
-- he was so wise, the whole world
would come to hear him speak -- he had chariots and horses -- he had so much
money and shared it so freely with his people that silver became commonplace
and wasn’t considered to be of great value anymore -- Solomon was the kind of
man that other men wanted to be and women wanted to be with
-- but one thing is missing in this
recitation of all that he had and possessed -- faith -- no mention is made here
at the end of Chapter 10 about Solomon’s faith -- of his devotion to the God
who had blessed him -- of his obedience to God’s commands and desires
-- which brings us to Chapter 11 --
look at verse 1
1 King Solomon,
however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites,
Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 They were from nations about
which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them,
because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless,
Solomon held fast to them in love. 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth
and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. 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. 5 He
followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god
of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not
follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.
7 On a hill east
of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of
Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8 He did the same for
all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.
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. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to
follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command.
-- this section begins with the
word, “however” -- it marks the point of failure in his life
-- yes, Solomon had more wisdom than
anyone else in the world, however...
-- yes, Solomon had more wealth than
anyone else in the world, however...
-- yes, Solomon had more power than
anyone else in the world, however...
-- however, he neglected that which
was the most important of all -- the state of his soul -- as Jesus said in Mark
8:36, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their
soul?” -- this is exactly what Solomon had done
-- in
defiance of God’s commands to the Israelites, Solomon had married many foreign
women who had turned his heart from following the one true God of Israel to
their foreign, pagan gods -- rather than standing firm in his faith, Solomon
allowed the influence of his wives to lead him astray
--
look back at verse 4
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. 5 He
followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god
of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not
follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.
7 On a hill east
of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of
Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. 8 He did the same for
all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.
-- as Solomon grew old, his devotion to God waned, and
he did not follow the Lord completely, as David had done -- he didn’t abandon
God completely, but added the worship of other gods into his religious
practices -- and the nation followed suit
--
things got worse and worse as the worship of pagan gods became accepted as okay
-- as the new normal -- I mean, you can understand the feelings of the people
-- “the government says it’s okay, so we should start accepting the worship of
other gods, too” -- “the government has approved this, so we should, too” --
and the nation of Israel began down a steep, slippery slope to unbelief and
idolatry and evil
-- it
reached the point where altars were built for Chemosh and Molech on the high
places in Israel, and sacrifices -- including the sacrifice of the children of
Israel -- were offered to these evil gods
-- how did this happen? -- how could
a nation set apart and called by God turn away so completely and totally within
a matter of years?
-- they followed The Three C’s of
Spiritual Defeat: Complacency,
Compromise, and Corruption
-- Solomon and the nation of Israel
became complacent in their lives -- they were satisfied with how things were
and saw no need to keep striving to make things better -- not only was Solomon
rich, but everyone in the country was rich, too -- they had plenty of food --
they had plenty of resources -- they were respected by the other nations -- and
they lived in peace and prosperity -- they had all they needed and, as a
result, they became comfortable and complacent in their lives
-- they were like a frog in a pot of
lukewarm water, just chilling out, enjoying the scenery
-- from there it became easy to begin
to compromise their faith and their moral standards -- they had so many people
streaming to Israel from all over the world, bringing new ideas and new
religions and new ways of thinking -- the king’s own wives were bringing new
ideas on worship to the land -- and, sure, maybe that’s not the way they had
been taught as children, but this was a new world -- a new time -- and things
changed -- people just needed to be more tolerant and understanding
-- maybe it was time to add these
new ideas and new ways of thinking to their lives -- and, as a result, they
began accepting moral and ethical stands that were not in keeping with their
traditional religious beliefs -- they began adding into their worship ideas
they gleaned from the other religions -- why not? -- what was the harm
-- and little by little, the water
in the pot began to heat, but very few noticed -- those who did were ridiculed
by the public -- those who cried out for a return to the former ways of God
were called bigots and intolerant and castigated as deplorable because of their
traditional values and morals
-- and, inevitably, complacency and
compromise led to corruption -- to total depravity -- to a complete turning
away from what was good to that which was evil -- to that which was opposed to
God Himself
-- just as Sodom and Gomorrah had
become totally and completely evil, within and without, so had Solomon and the
people of Israel -- they no longer pretended to follow God, but openly
worshiped foreign gods and did that which was evil in the sight of God
-- verse 9
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. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to
follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command. 11 So the Lord said
to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and
my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away
from you and give it to one of your subordinates. 12 Nevertheless, for the sake
of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out
of the hand of your son. 13 Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but
will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of
Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”
-- complacency led to compromise
which led to corruption which ended up with God’s judgment and wrath being
poured out on the nation
-- because of the sins of the people
introduced by Solomon, the kingdom of Israel was split -- God commanded it be
divided and separated -- its wealth and its power dissolved -- its influence
lessened
-- the peace was shattered as God
raised up enemies against Solomon from within and without -- and what was once
a great nation fell to never rise again
III. Application and Closing
-- we need to pay attention to the
voice of God as He speaks to us from His word -- the path that the nation of
Israel followed in this passage is being writ large in our own country today --
we see America following the same path of complacency, compromise, and
corruption -- and the judgment of God cannot be far behind unless we do
something about it
-- but the warning in this passage
is not just for nations, but for us as individuals -- all of us are prone to
wander in the same way as Solomon -- all of us are prone to leave the God we
love -- to become complacent with our lot in life -- to compromise our morals
and our values and our faith -- and to become corrupt in our very beings
-- it should be a warning to us how
many great men and women of the Bible started well in their lives, only to end
as Solomon did later in life -- what’s important is not how you start your walk
of faith, but how you end it -- and unless we are diligent, it is easy to cut
our anchor lines and to shipwreck our faith
-- but even if you find yourself
walking down the slippery slope of complacency and compromise and corruption,
all is not lost -- there is another word that begins with the letter “c” that
can turn things around -- The Cross
-- The Cross stands before us as a
beacon on our path -- as a lighthouse to warn us away from the rocks of
complacency and compromise and corruption -- as a safe port in the storm
-- The Cross is our source of
redemption -- offering both forgiveness of our sins and the power to turn away
from sin completely -- The Cross shows us the way when we are lost -- and all
we have to do is turn back from our sin -- to turn back from our wicked ways --
to pray and seek the face and the presence of God and turn to the Cross -- and
we will find grace and mercy and redemption
-- just because we find ourselves on
a slippery slope leading away from God, both as individuals and as a nation,
doesn’t mean we have to continue on this path -- God calls us to return to Him
-- He calls us to repent -- to turn around -- and to come back to the God we
love
-- as Jesus counseled the church of
Ephesus in Revelation 2:4-5, “You have forsaken your first love -- remember the
height from which you have fallen -- repent and do the things you did at first”
-- the answer to the slippery slope
is to repent and do the things you did at first -- to turn back to the true
worship of God and to put behind you all the things that are hindering that
worship -- to follow the laws and the commands of God -- to once again hold
yourself and this nation to a higher standard of moral values and ethics
-- just because everyone else is
going over the cliff doesn’t mean you have to go, too -- you can take a stand
-- you can be a voice -- you can make a difference
-- it all begins with recognizing
the error of your ways -- of repenting from complacency, compromise, and
corruption -- and of following the path of God regardless of who else walks
your way
-- Solomon and the nation of Israel
failed to follow the path of God -- they chose the way of the world to their
detriment -- may we choose a better way and a better path
-- let us pray
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Modified from Susan
K. Harris, "The Courtship of Olivia Langdon and Mark Twain,"
Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture (Cambridge University
Press, 1996), pp. xiii; submitted by Aaron Goerner
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