Our scripture lesson tonight comes from 1 Kings chapter 11. Hear now the word of the Lord from 1 Kings chapter 11. Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women from the nations concerning which the Lord had sent 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. He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart. 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. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 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. 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. And he did so for all his foreign wives who made offerings and sacrifice to their gods. 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 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the Lord commanded. 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. 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. 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." And the Lord raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad, the Edomite. He was of the royal house in Edom. For when David was in Edom, and Joab the commander of the army went up to bury the slain, for he struck down every male in Edom, for Joab and all Israel remained there six months until he had cut off every male in Edom, but Hadad fled to Egypt together with certain Edomites of his father's servants, Hadad still being a little child. They set out from Midian, and came to Paran, and took men with them from Paran, and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave him a house, and assigned him a balance of food, and gave him land. And Hadad found great favor in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him in marriage the sister of his own wife, the sister of Taphenes, the queen. And the sister of Taphenes bore him Genuboth, his son, whom Taphenes weaned in Pharaoh's house. And Genuboth was in Pharaoh's house among the sons of Pharaoh. But when Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers, and that Joab, the commander of the army, was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, Let me depart, that I may go to my own country. But Pharaoh said to him, what have you whacked with me that you now are seeking to go to your own country? And he said to him, only let me depart. God also raised up as an adversary to him, Rezon, the son of Eliadah, who had fled from his master, Hadadezer, king of Zobah. And he gathered men about him and became a leader of a marauding band after the killing by David. And they went to Damascus and lived there and made him king in Damascus. He was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon, doing harm as Hadad did. And he loathed Israel and reigned over Syria. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zerudah, a servant of Solomon, whose mother's name was Zerua, a widow, also lifted up his hand against the king. And this was the reason why he lifted up his hand against the king. Solomon built the millow and closed up the breach of the city of David, his father, the man Jeroboam was very able, and when Solomon saw that the young man was industrious, he gave him charge over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph. And at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Now, Ahijah had dressed himself in a new garment, and the two of them were alone in the open country. Then Ahijah laid hold of the new garment that was on him and tore it into 12 pieces. And he said to Jeroboam, Take for yourself 10 pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel. Behold, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon and will give you 10 tribes. But he shall have one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. Because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh, the god of Moab, and Milcom, the god of the Ammonites, and they have not walked in my ways doing what is right in my sight. and keeping my statutes and my rules as David, his father, did. Nevertheless, I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David, my servant, whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my statutes. But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand and will give it to you, ten tribes. Yet to his son, I will give one tribe, that David, my servant, may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put my name. and I will take you and you shall reign over all that your soul desires and you shall be king over Israel and if you will listen to all that I command you and will walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments as David my servant did I will be with you and will build you a sure house as I built for David and I will give Israel to you and I will afflict the offspring of David because of this but not forever Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam But Jeroboam arose and fled into Egypt to Shishak, king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon. Now the rest of the Acts of Solomon and all that he did and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the Acts of Solomon? And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was 40 years. And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David, his father. And Rehoboam, his son, reigned in his place. This is the word of the Lord. we've been seeing as we go through the story of Solomon. So far, the focus has been on the wisdom of Solomon. And we've seen Solomon in his wisdom and his glory, the golden age of the kingdom of Israel, the United Kingdom. And chapter 11 now reveals his folly. You think of what we've seen so far. Back in chapters one and two, Solomon successfully fended off challengers to his throne. At the beginning of chapter three, he married Pharaoh's daughter. And this was a good thing. This was not a problem. This was not, oh no, this was the beginning of the end. Because in all of that chapter three, in all of everything that Pharaoh's daughter did, where did she go? What did she do? She lived in Jerusalem, Solomon built a house for her that was part of the royal palace complex that was connected to the temple complex, which makes it really clear. She was worshiping Yahweh. There's no hint of Pharaoh's daughter bringing the gods of Egypt with her. So this is a success story. Solomon married well. she worshipped Yahweh. Now in chapters 11 and 12 we hear that Solomon marries other foreign women and especially women from those people groups whom God had forbidden. Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, Hittite. Exodus 34 or 16 specifically warns against the Hittites and other Canaanite women. Deuteronomy 17 warned against kings multiplying wives And you see very quickly that Solomon clings to these in love, and his wives turned away his heart. This is now, Chapter 11 is bracketing Chapter 3, because in Chapter 3, Verse 3, we were told that Solomon loved Yahweh. Solomon loved the Lord. That was in the context of Solomon's marriage alliance with Pharaoh. When he marries Pharaoh's daughter, we're told, he loved Yahweh. So at the beginning of Solomon's reign, he marries Pharaoh's daughter and remains true to Yahweh. But now we are told that Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh. You could almost see this as if he had only loved one This could have meant the salvation of Egypt. But Solomon turned aside from the path of faithfulness. He forgot the Lord and clung to foreign women instead. Now, when it says that his heart turned aside, it's important, it's a bit of a challenge in the Old Testament because we live in a world, we have a language, the English language, that uses two different words for the intellect and the emotions. So we tend to talk in terms of the mind and the heart. In Hebrew, the word heart covers both. the mind and the heart. It's the thinking part of you as much as the feeling part of you. So the intellectual and the emotional are both included. The heart in Hebrew is the thing that wills. Usually we don't really think of our hearts as, we think of our mind as we make decisions. And that's where the heart is the thinking, willing, deciding part of you. And you notice five times in verses two through four, we hear about the heart. you shall not enter into marriage with them neither shall they with you for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods and his wives turned away his heart his wives turned away his heart after other gods and his heart was not holy true to the Lord God as was the heart of David his father and this contrast with David reminds us that what made David distinct was his heart He continued to will to remain faithful to God. He remained true to the Lord. He never turned aside to worship other gods. The first commandment is you shall have no other gods before me. When you place something else before God, your heart is no longer true to him. when your mind and your heart, when your will and your reason, when you choose to walk in other ways, down other paths, then that is turning away from the Lord. And ultimately, all sin is rooted in this fundamental problem. All sin is rooted, this is why David will say, against you, you only have I sinned. And you're like, wait, didn't David sin against Bathsheba? Didn't he sin against your rock? Oh, sure. But he recognizes, oh no, my sin is against God. Every time we sin, our sin is fundamentally against God. And if you don't see how you've sinned against God, then you don't really understand your sin. Solomon loved his wives more than he loved his God. Now, what did that mean? What does it mean that he loved them more than he loved God? Well, look at what he did. It's not just that he let them worship other gods, but as king, he's the one authorizing the construction of these shrines. As their husband, He's the one paying for the sacrifices at these shrines. So even if he's thinking, oh, well, I'm just letting them do these things, it's not really me. No, he's the one doing this. He is not loving the Lord first, he's loving them first, and so now he's turning to idolatry. And chapter 11 shows us that the wages of sin is death. God had promised Solomon that if he used his wisdom wisely and obeyed him, then God would bless him with long life. He dies at the age of 60. Now, how old is 60 in those days? Pretty old, but not very old. And that's dying at the age of 60. I mean, sure, he reigns for 40 years, but he was 20 when he began to reign. And so he actually dies a relatively young man compared to some of the other kings who lived longer. So this is not exactly long life by biblical standards. 1 Kings 11 concludes the story of Solomon by showing us that the wages of sin is death. And not just the death of Solomon, but then the dismemberment, the death of his kingdom. And I would suggest that if you look at the structure of the passage, this shows us how the wages of sin is death. It just moves through these themes coming to the death of Solomon and of his kingdom. Solomon has a long reign, and he had started well. But for many years, he appears to have been playing with temptation. We're told that when he was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods. After all, it would take more than a few years to collect a harem of 700 wives and 300 concubines. Now, you may have noticed it called them all princesses. And you might wonder, where did he find 700 princesses? In those days, every sort of city would have its own king. We've heard about how there are lots of cities in the region that are not actually under Solomon. And so, basically, king, we might call them petty kings, but there are lots of kings in the region that may or may not be under Solomon's rule, But so the fact that he's marrying, it's also worth noting, 700 may be a, not just a round number, but a hyperbolic number to say a whole lot of them. And so for many years, Solomon is playing with fire. And this is a good warning for us. And notice it's not just for the young. Oftentimes we tend to focus on young people, beware of playing with temptation. The lesson of Solomon is, old folks, beware of playing with temptation too. Because when he was young, he was faithful. When he was young, he was worshiping the Lord and him only. When he was young, the most important princess he marries was the daughter of Pharaoh, and yet she worships Yahweh. And now all of these lesser princesses, they're all worshiping their own gods, and Solomon's heart turns away. He was dabbling with unbelief by marrying these foreign women. He was playing with temptation, thinking he was wise enough to get away with it. But playing with sin will result in death. So, put to death. those things that belong to the old man. Do not indulge the desires of the flesh, but cling to Christ. And in a sense, the lesson of Solomon is wherever you are, whatever stage of life you're in, start now. Don't wait and don't think, oh, I'll get around to it someday. No, just if you see that it's a problem, Turn away from it, turn back to the Lord, repent, and believe the gospel. And remember, the wisest man who ever lived turned away from the path of wisdom. You can never rest in the war against sin. There is no early retirement from the Christian life. You never reach a point of saying, I remember a moment in my life where I thought, yeah, I know there's a lot of things I need to work on, but I'm doing okay. If you've ever had that thought, repent. Don't go there. If you haven't had that thought yet, beware of it. It's deadly. Let your heart be devoted to Christ alone. So the golden age of Israel's history, this new Eden that Solomon has built, ends the same way the first Eden did. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Solomon, who's been portrayed almost as this second Adam, ends the same way the first Adam did. Because what Solomon is showing us is that we need a son of David who will do more and better than Solomon. We've seen Solomon fulfills everything that God promised Abraham. It all happens in Solomon's day and comes to a screeching halt in his failure and rebellion and doing evil what is in the sight of the Lord. Now, it's also important, the verb that's used saying that Solomon was clinging to these foreign women, This is actually the verb that Deuteronomy had used four times to urge Israel to cling to the Lord. Solomon is not clinging to the Lord. He is clinging to foreign women. He's endorsing polytheism in his kingdom. And sure, undoubtedly, he still believed in Yahweh as the highest God, but Yahweh is not interested in being the chief God in a pantheon. No, you worship the Lord and him only shall you serve. So verse 9 tells us that 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. It reminds us, no, the Lord had appeared to him twice, had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. He does precisely what the Lord told him not to do. In the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. And just like Adam, he does precisely the thing that God told him not to do. But before you mock Solomon, take a hard look at yourself. Aren't we the same way? The very thing we know is wrong is the very thing we do. And so therefore, the Lord said to Solomon, since this has been your practice. Your practice? Yes. Remember, David sinned. That is common to kings. But David repented, and therein lies his uniqueness. Solomon sinned. That is common to kings. Solomon did not repent. He continued in this practice, and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I commanded you. I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. And in verse 30, Ahijah will tear his garment as a sign of this judgment. And yet he promises that for the sake of David, I will not do it in your days, but in the days of your son. And I will leave one tribe for your son, for the sake of David, my servant. and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen." So God has brought everything to fulfillment in the days of Solomon. All that God had promised to Abraham, all that God promised through Moses had come true, but the second Adam, the one who restored paradise, did not persevere to the end. And this is the difference between Solomon and Jesus. Solomon gets off to a great and glorious start, but could not finish what he started. We need a king, and in Jesus we have a king. who has persevered to the end. And he sat down not merely on the throne of David in Jerusalem, but at the right hand of the Father in heaven." So, okay, so Solomon has turned aside. Then in verses 14 to 25, we hear that the Lord raised up a Satan. That's the word used here. It's an adversary, but the word the word Satan means, adversary. In fact, God raises up two Satans. First, we have Hadad, the Edomite. He's a descendant of Esau. You think back to Jacob and Esau, they didn't get along all that well, and their feuding continued through many generations. In fact, it's really interesting looking at this triumvirate of people who are in opposition to Solomon and then Rehoboam. Because in our story, Hadad sounds somewhat like Joseph. He flees to Egypt, finds favor in Pharaoh's sight, and then marries the sister of the queen. When David dies, he returns to his own land. of Edom and is a perpetual thorn in Solomon's side. You can sort of see this, it's sort of like this exodus, the Edomites now going to Egypt in place of Israel and then returning to their own land. This man with royal connections comes up from Egypt and starts harassing the Molech-worshiping king in Canaan, except this time the Molech-worshiping king is not a Canaanite. It's Solomon. It's the Lord's anointed. It's the son of David who should be worshiping Yahweh, but he's not. And if you think about it, Hadad marries the sister of the queen that makes her the sister-in-law of Pharaoh, which makes her either the aunt or maybe the great aunt of Pharaoh's daughter who marries Solomon. Notice what's happening. I mean pretty much Egypt is becoming the refuge of all sorts of people and the ally of all sorts of people. Egypt is playing all sides of this conflict because Egypt is returning to power and Egypt doesn't really care which one of these kingdoms outdoes the others. Egypt wants to be in charge of all of them. So Egypt is going to support everyone in the story. So, but notice that when David dies and Hadad hears that Joab, the general who had destroyed the Edomites, is dead, he insists on returning to Edom, which means that he returns to Edom right around the time shortly after Solomon becomes king, which would mean just after Hadad leaves Egypt, Pharaoh, whose sister-in-law is married to Hadad, offers his daughter to Solomon. So you have this sort of marriage alliances with both. Great. He encourages Solomon, but he also supports and encourages Solomon's Satan. But there's another Satan, another adversary in verses 23 to 25. Rezon, the son of Eliad, who had fled from his master, Haradazer, king of Zobah. Now, listen to the story of Rezon and think about what you know of the story of David. Doesn't he sound like a David? He was previously the servant of Hadadazer, just like David had been the servant of Saul. And he gathered men about him and became a leader of a marauding band, after the killing by David. And they went to Damascus and lived there and made him king in Damascus. David had sort of followed a very similar route. And he was an adversary, a Satan of Israel, all the days of Solomon doing harm as Hadad did. So if you can see how, it's in a sense, if Hadad reminds us of Israel coming out of Egypt, but a sort of a counterfeit Israel, not the real thing, then Rezon is something of a counterfeit David. Again, certainly not the real thing. Now why am I mentioning all this? This is gonna be a pattern that scripture follows. If for instance, in the book of Revelation, you see the beast is a counterfeit Christ, and the second beast is a counterfeit Holy Spirit, and the harlot Babylon is a counterfeit church. And this is all patterned off of what the book of Kings had shown, that there's this Edomite with a story like Israel, and a Gentile king with a story like David. And this will happen again when another Edomite, a guy named Herod, the Edomian, conspires with a Gentile pilot. But the Romans and the Edomites in Jesus' day will only be able to actually get anywhere if they have an inside man. And that's what we see in Jeroboam. Because the third to rise up against Solomon is not called an adversary or Satan, he is one who lifted up his hand against the king. And, verse 27 says, here's why. Here's an insider. He was one of Solomon's trusted servants. He's one of the inner circle. He's in charge of the forced labor from the house of Joseph. He knows what the labor conditions are like for the people, and we'll hear about this next time. But he was a faithful servant to Solomon, just like David had been a faithful servant to Saul. And just as Samuel had anointed David to succeed Saul, so now Ahijah the prophet designates Jeroboam to succeed Solomon. Back in First Samuel 15, we saw that when Saul tore Samuel's robe, Samuel used that to say, and the Lord's gonna tear the kingdom out of your hand. And now Ahijah replays that episode, except now using his own robe, he tears it into 12 pieces, and says take 10 to Jeroboam and when you listen to the promise made to Jeroboam it sounds a lot like the promise made to David if you will listen to all that I command you and will walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments as David my servant did I will be with you and will build you a sure house as I built for David and I will give Israel to you and I will afflict the offspring of David because of this but not forever. God promises to Jeroboam, if you will walk before me, then I will do for you what I promised for David. Except there's no promise of forever. Indeed, the promise is not forever. But it's also worth noting that when David was anointed in 1 Samuel 16, there was no promise of forever at that time. David had to be faithful to the Lord to get the forever promise. And that's where, in the same way, Jeroboam is called here. This is, you might say, in the calling of David was, will you trust me? And what we saw all through Samuel was David trusted the Lord. He waited on the Lord. He did not insist on rushing through things. I'll take it in my own hand. No, David did not take it in his own hands. He waited. Will Jeroboam be faithful? And we'll see even next week that it didn't turn out so well. But that's where we sometimes forget that God's promise to Jeroboam was, your kingdom will be established. I will build you a sure house as I built for David. And this story is, in many respects, the key to understanding the Book of Kings. Because the kings of Israel will walk in the ways of Jeroboam, sinning the sin of Jeroboam, which we'll see next time. But this reminds us again how remarkable David was. A king who avoided idolatry for his whole life. Wouldn't that be easy? One little thing, all you gotta do, don't worship anybody. It seems to be much more difficult than it sounds. But this is something for us to remember because, again, our problem is that we worship other gods too easily. We turn aside from the Lord our God and listen to other voices far more quickly than we'd like to admit. Now, another theme that we see in the Book of Kings is how the word of the prophet comes to pass. The Book of Kings deals with the intrigue of kings and generals, the most powerful men in the world. But time after time, the most powerful men in their world are humbled by a man who simply talks. It is not the power of kings that rules the world. It is the word of the Lord. And Solomon sees all this and hears about all this and therefore sought to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt. Common pattern in our text. As Saul had persecuted David, forcing him to flee to the Philistines, so now Solomon persecuted Jeroboam. forcing him to flee to Egypt, the same place where Hadad had gone a generation before. But Solomon had walked in the ways of David for many years, with the result that his wisdom brought about a golden age. But now Solomon has chosen the path of Saul. His heart has turned away from the Lord his God, and so God will bring his own sin upon his head. And though the way in which The world is turned upside down. Even though the son of David sits on the throne in Jerusalem, the appointed deliverer, Jeroboam, flees to Egypt to find refuge. It's, again, the world turned upside down. And the death of Solomon reminds us that the wages of sin is death. For 40 years, Solomon reigned And upon his death, the kingdom itself died. And again, dying at the age of 60, he's not especially an old man. He turned from the path of wisdom and his heart turned to other gods. And it's worth noting that in the book of Proverbs, chapter one through nine, Proverbs will present the paths of wisdom and folly as two women two ways, two paths. And the father says to his son in Proverbs 4 verse 5 and following, get wisdom, get insight. Do not forget and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her and she will keep you. Love her and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this, get Wisdom. And whatever you get, get insight. Prize her highly and she will exalt you. She will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a graceful garland. She will bestow on you a beautiful crown. And then when Proverbs 6 goes on to talk about the strange woman, the foreign woman, It's actually the same term used for Solomon's foreign wives, because folly is embodied in Solomon's turn to other gods through foreign women, through women who embody foolishness. And we too often, like Solomon, drift from wisdom to folly, lured aside, whether it's by bodily desires, intellectual curiosity, or the quest for stuff and status. And that's where we need to hold fast to wisdom. The beginning of wisdom is this, get wisdom, spend your life with her, be devoted to her. And that's why Paul says that our Lord Jesus Christ has become for us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. We need Jesus. We need the wisdom that comes only from him. Lord, have mercy on us and help us because we need your wisdom. We need your beloved son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who came in our flesh, who joined himself to our humanity, that he might triumph over the powers of sin and death and the devil. Thank you. Thank you for your love for us in him, that we can turn to you and turn away from our folly, turn away from foolishness, that we might return to you. So help us, Lord, to hear your voice and to heed your warning. Help us to get wisdom, that we might prize her highly. For Jesus' sake, amen.