Route 66: 1 Kings - The Rise and Fall of Solomon's Kingdom

Well, thank you, family, it's good to see you tonight.

And as we take our journey and continue our journey down Route 66 through the 66 books of the Bible, we find ourselves in 1 Kings tonight.

And if I hearken back to the book God's Big Picture by Vaughan Roberts, 1 Kings continues the history of the partial kingdom.

God's people are in God's place and as we consider First Kings tonight, we're going to rise to the pinnacle of the partial kingdom, but very quickly.

Thereafter we're going to slide down the hill into the depths of its demise.

So please pray with me for a moment before we begin.

Heavenly Father, as we look into your word tonight, may we learn and take lessons from the faithfulness and the unfaithfulness of Israel's kings, but may we focus our gaze most strongly on the perfection and the supremacy of the eternal King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom all the law and the prophets and the Psalms are fulfilled.

Father, we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.

1 Kings begins with an ending.

In chapter one we find King David, old and cold.

He's shivering on his deathbed.

Though his attendants pile blankets on him, he simply can't get warm.

After a while someone gets an idea and says why don't we search the realm for the most beautiful woman in the world and bring her to David's side and see if he can get warmed by her, and they find a beautiful young maiden named Abishag.

She's a Shunammite woman.

She's a Shunammite woman.

Thankfully, david either resists temptation or he's simply too weak and feeble to be comforted or intimate with her, and so that's a grace in itself.

But the once mighty king, the one who slew bears and lions, who brought down great Goliath, who killed tens of thousands of his enemies, who unified the kingdom and achieved peace on all of its sides, was now growing old and he now lies feebly on his deathbed.

He's completely mortal, unaware of what's happening in his kingdom.

He's bereft of vitality and about to go the way of all flesh.

I wonder what he might have been thinking as he traced the finger of God's providence throughout his life.

Maybe his mind went back to the great promise, the great covenant he received from God through the prophet Nathan, as we read in 2 Samuel 7, verses 12 through 16.

2 Samuel 7:12–16

When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.

He is the one who will build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

I will be his father and he will be my son.

When he does wrong, I will discipline him with a rod of men and blows from mortals, but my faithful love will never leave him, as it did when I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.

Your house and your kingdom will endure before me forever and your throne will be established forever.

David knew that the Lord was not speaking merely about his son, solomon, who would soon succeed him and build the temple.

We know from Psalm, chapter 16, and Acts, chapter 2, as pastor preached so well on Easter Sunday, that God was speaking about a future descendant, david's Lord, whose kingdom would never end.

Psalms 16 · chapter mention Acts 2 · chapter mention

Listen to David's response to God's promise in verse 18.

Who am I, lord God, and what is my house?

That you have brought me thus far?

What you have done so far was a little thing to you, lord God, for you have also spoken about your servant's house in the distant future, and this is a revelation for mankind.

What more can David say to you?

You know your servant, lord God.

Because of your word and according to your will, you have revealed all these great things to your servant.

Did you hear that David knew God was speaking about the distant future, and it was a revelation for mankind, for you and me.

His covenant with David was not about Solomon, but about Jesus, son of David, who said of himself that one greater than Solomon is here and who said of his house I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

As David is thinking these thoughts about the future, and he's lying on his deathbed about the future, and he's lying on his deathbed his eldest son, adonijah, is scheming to take over the kingship.

He hires 50 men to parade before him and crown Adonijah as king.

He sets up a big feast with sacrifices and proclaims himself king in his father's place while King David is still alive.

He doesn't consult with David.

We don't read that he prayed for God's blessing.

There's no anointing by the rightful priest, priest Zadok.

It's all about himself.

How much like Adonijah, are we Seeking every opportunity to puff ourselves up, believing we're entitled to rule rather than humbling ourselves before the rightful king, the Lord Jesus?

David's wife Bathsheba and Nathan the prophet, alert David to the coup that's happening outside the palace and they remind him that he had appointed Solomon to be the heir of his kingdom.

On the day Solomon was born, he was given a second name by God himself Jedidiah, meaning beloved of the Lord.

We're again reminded that God is no respecter of persons or human traditions, of primogeniture.

He chooses according to his own sovereign will.

He chooses Solomon, beloved of the Lord, as king and he blesses him to give us a glimpse of what the true beloved son of God would be like.

Solomon becomes a great king for a while and in some ways a type of Christ, but he's deeply flawed.

Why?

Because he's merely a mortal, a sinful human.

Only Jesus, the true Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord, the Eternal One, the God-Man, is qualified to be the perfect king, the one of whom God said this is my beloved son, my Jedidiah, if you will, in whom I am well pleased, if you will, in whom I am well pleased.

So God's choice.

Solomon is anointed by Zadok, the priest, at the direction of David, the dying king.

There's a great coronation Now, with Solomon as king.

This is not good news for Adonijah, the one who proclaimed himself king.

It's not good for him.

It's not good for all of his flatterers.

Adonijah, fearing for his life, runs and grabs hold of the horns of the altar and pleads for mercy.

Of the horns of the altar and pleads for mercy.

Solomon is gracious and spares his life, at least temporarily.

But Adonijah hasn't truly repented.

He has no intention of serving his younger brother, solomon.

He soon plots his move by asking for the hand of Abishag, that beautiful young maiden of David's.

Of course, this is a complete and total insult to David and to Solomon.

By desiring to have her, he reveals that his heart is still set on inheriting what David has and he continues to want himself to be king.

Needless to say, that becomes the end of Adonijah.

He is quickly dispatched.

Adonijah pleaded for mercy at the altar of sacrifice, but it wasn't heartfelt.

It was simply to escape the immediate danger.

His heart was still set on declaring himself king and he received his bloody reward.

Brothers and sisters, do not presume on the mercy of the king under false pretenses.

Do not pay lip service to the king while still attempting to place yourself on the throne.

King Jesus is sovereign Lord.

Bow before him and him alone.

Repent sincerely of your sins.

Seek his favor with all your heart.

Embrace him as Savior and Lord.

He's full of mercy and eager to pardon.

He's eager to pardon all who come to him through faith.

Grab hold of him for mercy at the cross of sacrifice.

Before he died, david charged Solomon with these words in chapter 2, verses 2 through 4.

Be strong and be a man and keep your obligation to the Lord, your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his statutes, commands, ordinances and decrees.

This is written in the law of Moses so that you will have success in everything you do and wherever you turn, and so that the Lord will fulfill his promise that he made to me.

If your sons take care to walk faithfully before me, notice God's requirement for leadership, for being a man.

Walk in the ways of the Lord, live by his commandments, walk the talk with heart and soul, and you'll be blessed by his grace.

God promises that if Solomon and his descendants walk in his ways with all their heart, there would always be a man on the throne, the royal throne of David.

Now, is God's covenant promise to David and Solomon a conditional promise or is it a promise that's eternal?

Is it conditional based on obedience, or is it an unbreakable promise for eternity?

The answer is yes.

Hold that thought and we'll come back to it.

Solomon is overwhelmed at the prospect and the seemingly unbearable burden of ruling such a great nation, and so he prays for wisdom.

God's pleased with his request and he tells Solomon in chapter 3, verses 11 to 14, because you've requested this and did not ask for long life or riches for yourself or the death of your enemies, but you ask discernment for yourself to administer justice.

I will therefore do what you have asked.

I will give you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has never been anyone like you before and never will be again.

In addition, I will give you what you did not ask for, both riches and honor, so that no king will be your equal during your entire life.

If you walk in my ways and keep my statutes in command, just as your father David did, I will give you long life.

Solomon is blessed with wisdom beyond any mortal before or after him and greater wealth than can be imagined.

He became recognized and feared by all nations far and wide for his wisdom, his wealth and his power.

He ruled and reigned supreme.

People would flock to him from all over the world, jew and Gentile, including the pagan queen of Sheba, and they would ask him questions just to behold his wisdom and to see his wealth.

And when they did, when they beheld his wisdom, they actually whether they were Gentiles or pagans or whatever, they would actually praise God for what he has done in Solomon's life and for the nation that he ruled.

The land was at complete peace throughout his reign and it seemed that all the promises of Abraham, isaac and Jacob in a land flowing with milk and honey had been fulfilled.

Let me describe it from chapter 4, verses 20 to 34.

Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea.

They were eating and drinking and rejoicing.

Solomon ruled all the kingdoms, from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and as far as the border of Egypt, going down to verse 24.

That happens to be about three times the size of modern-day Israel.

Euphrates that happens to be about three times the size of modern day Israel.

He had peace on all his surrounding borders and throughout Solomon's reign, judah and Israel lived in safety from Dan to Beersheba, each person under his own vine and his own fig tree.

Verse 29,.

God gave Solomon wisdom, very great insight and understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore.

Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.

Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs and his songs numbered 1,005.

He spoke about trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop growing out of the wall.

He also spoke about animals, birds, reptiles and fish.

Emissaries of all people, sent by every king on earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to listen to Solomon's wisdom, and we continue to benefit from his gift of wisdom to this day as we read his Proverbs Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes.

And so what God had promised in Deuteronomy had come to pass God's people in God's land at rest.

The next step was for God to dwell among them.

Turning to Deuteronomy, 12, 10 through 11, god said when you cross the Jordan and live in the land the Lord, your God, is giving you to inherit and he gives you rest from all the enemies around you and you live in security, then the Lord, god, will choose the place to have his name dwell.

Bring there everything I command you, your burnt offerings, sacrifices, offerings of the tenth, personal contributions and all your choice offerings you vow to the Lord.

Solomon, wise and knowing his scripture, knows that now is the time to build the temple.

He conscripts 180,000 workers from Israel and he makes slaves of thousands and thousands of Canaanites who remained in the land to be partakers in the building.

All the structural stones were hammered and chiseled off-site so as to preserve the quiet reverence of this holy ground.

He uses tons of gold for many of the furnishings.

The entire Holy of Holies, the inner sanctuary where the Ark of God would rest, is overlaid in gold.

There are two enormous carved cherubims overlaid in gold and they sort of preside over the Ark of the Covenant in order to secure in essence the place where God would dwell.

Secure in essence the place where God would dwell.

The walls and the curtains were etched with figures of palm trees, flowers, pomegranates and cherubim in beautiful detail.

It was an absolutely glorious place.

The inscribed decorations and the progressive holiness of each space, from the outer court to the innermost holy place, provided a little bit of a reminiscence of the Garden of Eden.

It was a magnificent picture of the dwelling place of God among his people.

After seven years of work, the glorious temple was completed.

After seven years of work, the glorious temple was completed and Solomon, recognizing the transcendence of God, the God of heaven and earth, who is everywhere at once and creator of the universe, he wonders in chapter 8, verse 27,.

Will God dwell on earth?

Yes, he will.

At the dedication of the temple, the Lord comes in a great cloud of glory and manifests himself in the Holy of Holies among his people on earth.

Among his people on earth, the pinnacle of the partial kingdom is realized God's people in God's place, at rest, with God in their midst.

But as glorious as that was, it's only a brief and temporary shadow.

It's a faint copy pointing forward to a far more glorious kingdom to come.

Will God indeed dwell on the earth, solomon asks?

The answer to Solomon's question is much more profound.

It's a resounding yes, he, he has and he does in the person of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us.

We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only son from the father, full of grace and truth.

God himself takes on flesh in Christ, who tabernacled among us on this earth, and he continues to dwell by his spirit in the heart of every believer.

Listen to Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 19 through 22.

Ephesians 2:19–22

He dwells within the temple of the living stones, the church where Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone In him.

The whole building being put together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

In him you whole building being put together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

In him you are also being built together for God's dwelling in the spirit.

The Lord is dwelling right in the midst of us, living stones.

Praise God.

One day he will dwell forever with his redeemed subjects in a new heaven and a new earth, when he sits forever on the throne of David in perfect union with the Father, the Spirit and the people, his redeemed the.

Prophet Micah announces it in his book in chapter 4.

They will beat their swords into plows and their spears into pruning knives.

Nation will not take up sword against nation and they will never again train for war.

But each person listen to these words will sit under his grapevine and under his fig tree, with no one to frighten him.

For the mouth of the Lord of armies has spoken.

This is the promise for us and for all who are attached as branches to the true vine, our Lord and Savior, king Jesus.

At the dedication of the temple, solomon has the priests sacrifice 140,000 sheep and oxen and then he prays to the Lord that the Lord would be gracious to his people when they turn towards the temple and repent of their sins and plead for forgiveness.

Notice how God responds to Solomon's prayer in chapter 9, verses 3 through 7.

The Lord said to him I have heard your prayer and petition that you have made before me.

I have consecrated this temple you have built to put my name there forever.

My eyes and my heart will be there at all times.

My eyes and my heart will be there at all times.

As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and in what is right, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and ordinances, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David.

You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.

But if you or your sons turn away from following me and do not keep my commands, my statutes that I've set before you, and if you go and serve other gods and bow and worship to them, I will cut off Israel from the land that I gave them and I will reject the temple I have sanctified for my name.

Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among the people.

Notice how God holds the king himself personally accountable.

If you walk before me, the people will be blessed.

But if you turn away, the people will be cut off.

The king is accountable as a representative of the people.

But, friends, no mortal king can fully comply and keep all of God's law and walk in his ways perfectly.

Not Solomon, not even David and certainly none of the kings that followed them.

So let's go back to that question I posed earlier.

God promised that if David and Solomon and their heirs to the throne walk and talk with all their heart, walk the talk with all their heart and soul, there would always be a man on the royal throne of David.

I asked whether this was a conditional promise dependent on obedience and faithfulness, or an unbreakable, eternal promise, and I said the answer was yes.

It's yes because it's both it's conditional and eternal.

But no earthly king could meet the conditions.

The only descendant of David and Solomon that could satisfy the conditions of the promise is King Jesus.

Jesus walked perfectly, obeying the law in every respect, in accordance with the will of the Father.

He walked in obedience all the way to the cross, where he sacrificed his own body, not those of 140,000 animals, but the sacrifice of himself.

Infinite God once offered for the sins of his people At the cross, he prayed Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

He trusted in the Father to do what he promised raise him from the dead and give him an eternal kingdom.

On the third day, god did exactly that.

He affirmed that Christ had kept the law perfectly by raising him from the dead.

And so God kept his promise to David and Solomon by raising up Jesus, the perfect keeper of the conditions of the promise, and established in him an eternal kingdom.

All who love him and put their trust in him as their savior and king, their righteous representative, are heirs of the kingdom.

Blessed and not cursed.

James, chapter 2, verse 5.

James 2:5

Sadly, as we get to chapter 11 in 1 Kings, we see the downward spiral from this pinnacle of the partial kingdom towards the depths of its demise.

The seeds of Solomon's downfall were there early on and they were now beginning to sprout.

Moses had given instructions in Deuteronomy, chapter 17, verses 16 to 20, as to how kings should behave.

Deuteronomy 17:16–20

He must not acquire many horses for himself or send the people back to Egypt to acquire many horses for the Lord.

God has told you you are never to go back that way again.

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 when he's seated on this royal throne.

He is to write a copy of this instruction for himself on the scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.

It is to remain with him and he is to read from it all the days of his life so that he may learn to fear the Lord, his God, to observe all the words of his instruction and to do these statutes.

Then his heart will not be exalted above his countrymen and he will not turn from this command to the right or to the left, and he and his sons will continue reigning many years in Israel.

Well, solomon must not have written these instructions on a scroll, and if he did, he didn't read them every day, as God told him to.

According to 1 Kings, chapters 4 and 10, solomon had 4,000 stalls of horses, which he got from Egypt.

1 Kings 4 · chapter mention

He had 12,000 horsemen and 1,400 chariots.

Early in his reign, solomon married Pharaoh's daughter, pharaoh of Egypt, and he formed a strategic alliance.

When he was clearly told not to go back that way again, he accumulated enormous amounts of silver and gold.

The weight of gold that came to Solomon annually was 666 talents, that's 25 tons every year, besides what came from merchants and traders' merchandise and all the Arabian kings and others that paid tribute to Israel.

Later in life, and worst of all, he accumulated 700 wives and 300 concubines and they led him, and eventually the entire nation, down the path of detestable idolatry and eventual captivity nation down the path of detestable idolatry and eventual captivity.

Listen to 1 Kings 11, 4-8.

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 followed Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the abhorrent god of the Ammonites.

Solomon did what was evil in the Lord's sight and, unlike his father David, he did not remain loyal to the Lord.

At that time, solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the aberrant idol of Moab, and for Milcom, the aberrant idol of the Ammonites, on the hill across from Jerusalem.

He did the same for all his foreign wives who were burning incense and offering sacrifices to their gods.

Solomon utterly failed in his function as the representative of righteousness, the keeper of the conditions, and it led to the breakup of the kingdom.

Chapter 11, verse 11.

God was extremely angry and said 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.

Now, by his grace, god held off his wrath through the remainder of Solomon's life and he did that for the sake of David.

But when Solomon died and his son, rehoboam, assumed the throne, god raised up Jeroboam in the northern kingdom as the leader of the 10 northern tribes.

Jeroboam meets with the new king, rehoboam and he pledges loyalty.

He says to Rehoboam if you'll reduce the heavy burden and the heavy yoke that your father placed on our backs, then we'll be subject to you and we'll be loyal.

So King Rehoboam says okay, let me think about that for three days.

I'll get back to you.

That for three days I'll get back to you.

And Rehoboam goes and gets advice from two sets of advisors.

First he goes to the elders, the wise men who grew up around the wisdom of Solomon, and they tell him yes, lighten the load, make the yoke easier on these people, don't lord it over them, and they will serve you.

Then Rehoboam goes to his young advisors, his friends and his flatterers, and they tell him you should make the burden and the yoke even heavier.

Unfortunately, rehoboam listens to his young friends and he goes back and tells Jeroboam sorry, we're going to make the burden even heavier on you.

Sorry, we're going to make the burden even heavier on you.

And Jeroboam says okay, that's it.

We have no longer any place in the house of David, and that was the splitting of the kingdom, just the way God had predicted to Solomon.

Jeroboam's first evil act in the north is to erect two golden calves, one in Dan and one in Bethel.

And he tells the people these are your gods, who brought you up out of Egypt.

We've heard that one before.

You don't have to go all the way to the temple and take that big journey every three times a year to worship the Lord.

You can worship these carved images at the temple of convenience.

And so the slow downward spiral of idolatry gets worse and worse.

The 10 tribes in the north engage in civil war with Judah and Benjamin in the south, which continues for decades.

The 40 years of unified peace and prosperity under Solomon is just a shadow that's vanishing.

But with a hopeful eye towards the future, the partial kingdom is in the depths of demise.

In the north, every succeeding king is an idolater, and among the worst is King Ahab with his evil wife Jezebel, and near the end of 1 Kings we see the prophet Elijah humiliate Jezebel and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, proving that the idols of this world are no gods at all.

But the people then and today still bow down to worthless idols of their own imagination.

Many of the subsequent kings in Judah in the south are evil as well, except for a few reformers who succeed for a short time to restore the worship of the true God of heaven and earth.

And for a while they push back here and there against the worship of worthless idols.

But God, in his amazing mercy and according to his eternal promise, provides a glimmer of hope in the south.

He preserves the royal seed of David from generation to generation until the birth of the righteous branch, the root from the stump of Jesse.

The Lord Jesus Christ.

Stump of Jesse, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Friends.

Jesus is the righteous and sovereign king anointed by the Father himself.

He has defeated the power of death and the ministers of evil.

He is the king who has fully met the conditions of the promised eternal kingdom.

As our representative, he is the suffering servant who was obedient unto death, shedding his blood and eternal sacrifice, once offered for the forgiveness of sins to secure the redemption of all who put their trust in him, all who put their trust in him.

He is our righteousness.

His yoke is easy and his burden is light.

It's not oppressive.

As the queen of Sheba came and marveled at the wisdom of Solomon and praised God for it, come bow before King Jesus.

Marvel at his majesty and grace, the one who's greater than Solomon, the one in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

Serve him and him alone, your Savior, lord and sovereign king of kings.

And one day, according to Revelation 1115, you will hear the trumpet sound and loud voices in heaven saying the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.

Hallelujah, amen.