1 Kings 11 (Part 2) Bible Study (The Lord Raises Adversaries) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

So at this point, meet me in the book of First Kings Chapter 11,

1 Kings 11 · chapter mention

First Kings Chapter 11, where we will complete this chapter

1 Kings 11 · chapter mention

together by the grace of God and before we even begin anything,

let's pray Nestle Lord for help. Father, we are fully convinced

that if you don't help us, this will be a powerless A futile

meeting. Lord, we know that and

everything that we do, even in your name, it requires your

help. And so we look to you with

genuine, sincere hearts, fully convinced that you must be here

and you must guide us through these verses.

So we pray with absolute trust and joy, knowing that this is a

prayer that you are excited to answer, that you will indeed

teach us the truth, so that we can know you and walk with you

the way that you've called us to.

So Lord, may we hear your voice in this time, and may we be

changed as a result of these things.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

For the rest of this chapter, you and I are going to read,

maybe painfully, of the detailed consequences of Solomon's

disobedience. Last week, where we came

together to the beginning of this chapter, we learned of the

great breach of Solomon's sin and what it violated in terms of

God's covenant and His laws to him and the people of Israel.

But this evening we are going to learn and be reminded yet again

that sin is not free. Sin has wages.

No matter what sin we entertain consciously, there is always a

undisclosed price tag attached to it.

And what we're going to learn here in this lengthy portion of

Scripture is just that. And although the consequences

and the repercussions of Solomon's sin are unique to him,

because he is a king, and because he is a descendant of

the Davidic line, the overarching reality and the

experiences that he will endure are universal, are universal.

Meaning the essence of these outcomes are relative to you and

I. Because what we have to

understand as children of God is that when we even sin, though we

have been grafted in by grace, and though we have been

justified by faith, that does not mean we can pursue this walk

the way we want. No, there are still rules and

regulations, boundaries within this relationship that bless us.

And when we violate or veer off, we pay a price, to an extent.

And that's especially true when we premeditatively and

intentionally pursue wrongdoing. And so if there's any way to

frame this text and to divide these verses, if there is a

title that you can take away from this Bible study, it is

this. I want to speak to you tonight

about three things that deliberate disobedience will

affect in your life. Three things that deliberate

disobedience will affect in your life, and that is illustrated by

Solomon's example. And we will begin now in verse

9. And let's read here the verse

the 1st 2 verses of the portion allotted to us we read here in

First Kings 11, verse nine. And the Lord was angry with

Solomon because his heart 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.

The first thing that deliberate disobedience effects, if you're

taking notes, is this. The pleasure of the Lord, The

pleasure of the Lord. What we read here at the outset

of this Bible study is something that we don't hear often about,

and that is the Lord's anger, the Lord's anger toward someone

And we learn much about the Lord's jealousy last week.

And just like the Lord's jealousy, his anger is always

justified. It is a holy anger.

It is never erratic. It is never inexcusable.

It is something that is always tied to his righteous character

and that is no different here. We see here that the Lord was

angry with one of his servants, and this is important to see,

especially when you compare it with how we began with Solomon's

reign. When you reflect on where

Solomon started, it makes this commentary even more

heartbreaking. Turn with me to 1st Kings 3,

where Solomon begged the Lord for wisdom as he realized that

he has been appointed the throne and he knew that he could not do

this without God's assistance. And so he pleads with the Lord

for wisdom. And this is the Lord's response

to Solomon's heart posture at the beginning of his career in

First Kings chapter 3, verse 10. It pleased the Lord.

1 Kings 3:10

It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this.

So Solomon began with pleasing the Lord, and at the last

chapter of his life he ends up grieving the Lord.

He starts by pleasing the Lord. He ends by grieving the Lord.

And I believe that this consequence to sin is especially

effective for those who have personal history with God.

For the people here who have walk with the Lord, who have

worshipped the Lord and enjoyed worshipping the Lord.

For those who have prayed and sought answers.

For those who even at this time can look back and point to

moments where God intervened with His love and His undeserved

acts of mercy. This should, this should, should

stir us. Because what we learned from

this is that the first thing sin does is it breaks God's heart.

It breaks God's heart, this anger here, yes, it stems from a

law that has been broken, but read again with me, says here in

the Lord verse nine was angry with Solomon because his heart

had turned away from the Lord. This is a heart thing.

This is relationship. This is this is a longing that

God has for our hearts. And most of us in here, I'm

sure, cannot be at ease knowing that our inexcusable actions are

causing a loved one to be heartbroken.

That would disturb us if our conscience has not been

completely seared. That would move us, That would

haunt us to a certain degree. And some of you in here have

experienced the pain of heartbreak as a result of

somebody else's failure in your life, maybe a friend that you've

had many memories with who has made promises to you, who's even

said to you that we will be friends for the rest of our

lives. I'm always here for you.

And they have doing something that betrayed you and that broke

your heart. You know what that feels like?

And I think this is important to put ourselves in the shoes of

the Lord because he's expressing this from a place of

relationship. He's not just expressing this

from a legal standpoint. This is God's heart being broken

because the heart of one of his own has turned away from him.

Feel that. Feel that and translate that

into your life as you are tempted with sin.

What will this do to my God, to his heart?

I've talked to many people who have found themselves in deep

sin, consecutive seasons of sin, and I've been disappointed not

because necessarily they are in sin, though that is

heartbreaking in itself, but their confession of sin.

Many people are more concerned about their reputation, their

resources, what their elders might think, what their wives

might think, what their and very little people.

In my own experience, your experience might be different.

My own experience, very little people have confessed.

I've broken God's heart, I've broken my God's heart.

And the Holy Spirit gives us texts like this to show that his

heart is effective. Primarily.

You know, when the Lord Jesus spoke through John to the seven

churches in Revelation, the first church that was addressed

was the Church of Ephesus. It was a doctrinally sound

church. It was a church that can sniff a

false apostle a mile away. It was a church that worked

hard. But it was a church that was

indicted for this one thing. Most word for word translations

put Revelation 2 four. In this way you have left your

first love. The ESV would say it this way.

You have left the love that you had at first.

But if you understand it in how most translations put it, you

have left your first love that says something about what God

longs from us. You've probably heard other

people. You probably said this yourself.

You love God and you heard people say I love God.

But God's not after just your love.

He wants your first love. God will not settle for 2nd

place. He will not.

In your heart, God wants preeminence By virtue of being

creator, sustainer, provider, savior.

God is worthy of your first love.

He does not want any rivals. He does not want a slot in your

heart. He wants the whole thing.

And so he tells this church you've left your first love.

Oh, I'm sure they didn't stop loving God, but he was removed

from first place. And Solomon here has done much

more than just leaving his first love.

This man walked away from God completely.

And we're we're learning something about why God was

grieved even more. It's at the last part of verse

9. So Solomon turned his heart away

from the Lord, and then the Holy Spirit says the God of Israel,

who had appeared to him twice. That moved me.

We've studied how the Lord appeared to Solomon twice, with

unique and incredible manifestations of his voice.

You know, you have some people who believe that if they just

have these incredible experiences with God, if they

just witness certain miracles, or if they experience the Lord

in a personal and extraordinary way, that they'll be more

dedicated to him. Solomon proves otherwise.

Here's this man who had two experiences that most of us, if

not all of us, would never experience on this side of

glory. And despite those experiences,

he was still able to turn away from the Lord.

Experiences do not automatically mean that you will be faithful.

It should cause you to be more faithful because what we learn

from this, according to what the Holy Spirit reveals, is that God

takes into account the testimonies and the experiences

that He grants us. He remembers it.

And the greater our experiences are with God, the greater our

responsibility is to God. The greater our experiences are

with God, the greater our responsibility is to God.

That is true for every individual, and that was

especially true for this nation called Israel under the Old

Covenant. Turn with me to Amos Chapter 3,

Amos 3:2

verse 2. You get a lot of people today

who are bent out of shape, even I'm talking about those within

Christendom, about this idea that God has made a covenant

with this people called Israel. And that covenant still stands.

And one of the arguments is, well, how is it that God can

make such a promise to one people group?

Yes, we know that in the cross. We know that because of what

Christ has done, that wall of hostility is brought down.

Gentiles have been grafted in. I don't want to get into that

discussion now, but I want to make a comment based on what the

Lord himself has said, that although this people experience

certain privileges, with those privileges came

responsibilities. Here's what he says in Amos 32,

the Lord speaks to these people and He says, you only have I

known of all the families of the earth.

He's highlighting the privilege of being elected unto a service

you only have. I known of all the families of

the earth. Therefore I will punish you for

all your iniquities. Do you see that, Israel?

Don't get it twisted. Just because you've been

selected by me from all the families of the earth does not

mean that I wink at your sin. Does not mean that you get to

have special treatment from me. No, no, no.

In fact, because you belong to me.

Because you've been called to specific role on the earth, you

have extra accountability from me.

And so I will punish you for your iniquities.

So yes, Paul confesses that this people had an advantage, but we

also seen the Scriptures that with that advantage came great

accountability. And we look at this and we see

this relatable to Solomon as a king in Israel and the people of

Israel. Well, no.

It relates to us as well. We have different churches

represented here, and I pray that every single one of you,

wherever you come from, go to a Bible preaching God fearing

assembly. And if you do, you should

rejoice in that and consider that a gift from the Lord.

But with that gift also is a responsibility.

Don't boast too much that your pastor preaches good sermons,

because you'll be held accountable for what you hear

every week. Now, we don't think about it

that way, right? Oh, yes.

We want deeper revelation of God's word.

We want to learn it at a rate that might not be normal.

Perhaps we want a depth that most people won't have.

OK, great. But understand that with what

God will show you, he will hold you accountable.

This is not just information. This information demands

obedience. It demands change.

And and so with the degree that he reveals himself and gifts us

and gives us experiences, comes a responsibility.

God appeared to Solomon twice, and he notes that in light of

his disobedience, how could you walk away from God after you've

given you these experiences? And so it's a warning, even it's

a warning, and this chapter really is a warning.

The first thing that are deliberate disobedience effects

is the pleasure of the Lord, the heart of God.

The second thing that are deliberate disobedience effects

are the promises of the Lord, so the pleasure of the Lord, but

now the promises of the Lord. Let's read from verse 11.

Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, since this has been

your practice, other transitions will say this way, since you

have done this. But the ESP says, 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 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.

So the Lord is repeating something.

You've heard me emphasize a word tear, tear away.

And he's telling Solomon, who has enjoyed the the rule over

all the tribes of Israel, that things are going to change now.

I'm going to remove a majority of these tribes.

For the sake of your father, David.

I'll keep one. I'll keep one for you and the

rest of your descendants. But your experience of having

the entire nation will now be affected because of your

disobedience. This was a promise that God gave

to David. He gave to his son and the

succeeding kings. And now this promise would not

be experienced in its fullness. Contrary to popular belief, not

every promise that God gives is unconditional.

Praise God that the significant ones are.

But not every blessing is automatic, even for those who

are walking in Christ. There are certain things that

can only be unlocked and enjoyed in the place of conscious

obedience to the Lord's Word and cannot be known otherwise.

And what we need to do as diligent students is realize

what it is that God demands of us in the New Covenant to know

that how we can experience all of his promises in Christ Jesus

on this side of heaven. And I think of one example of

how this is true. It's in Second Corinthians 71

where Paul makes this amazing claim and provides this

wonderful insight for what our motivation one of our motivation

should be in pursuing complete holiness. 2nd Corinthians 7, one

reads. Since we have these promises,

Beloved, Since we have these promises, beloved, let us

cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit,

bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

There's so many things I can say about this verse.

Let me make one comment before I get to the main point.

OK? Notice, he says, bringing

holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Holiness is not a scary word. Maybe in your upbringing, if you

came from a legalistic background, you equate holiness

as a dirty thing. As a legalistic concept,

holiness is simply health for your spirit.

None of you are afraid of health for your body.

You shouldn't be afraid of holiness because holiness is

health for your spirit. And he says bringing holiness to

completion. Contrary to what some believe,

Paul is not speaking here about sinless perfectionism.

You can never know a sinless state consecutively until you

get to glory. That's what glorification is all

about. Completion here, in the original

word simply means maturity. Maturity.

Let's bring our holiness to a mature state and the only way we

can arrive to a state of holiness, supreme and heightened

health for your spirit. Wouldn't you want that?

Power in the Spirit, clarity in the Spirit, peace in the Spirit,

joy in the Spirit, Power again in the Spirit?

If you want to arrive there and live there, you're going to have

to do it in the fear of God. This is what this teaches me.

If you don't have the fear of God, you'll never know

completion and holiness. You can only know completion and

holiness if you first understand what it means to fear the Lord.

So that's why you have a lot of people in Christendom, a lot of

people even in the church, who never arrived to a place of

maturity spiritually. And I argue in great part, is

because there's a lack of fear in their lives.

If you minimize the fear of God in your life, whether you

realize it or not, you're minimizing your spiritual

maturity. OK, that's a side point.

Here's the main point. What's the motivation for us to

pursue holiness and completion? Paul states in the first few

words, since we have these promises, promises, there are

certain promises that Paul just spelled out clearly, right?

His wording here denotes that he just finished explaining certain

promises. And it goes.

Now that I've given you these promises in the New covenant

that are for you pursue holiness so that you can secure these

promises in your life. What are those promises?

Well, some translations say therefore, right?

So he just finished saying something.

And all we have to do is look back the first few verses of the

last portion of chapter 6. Here's one of them.

In 2nd Corinthians 616. Here's one of the promises Paul

says. What agreement has the temple of

God with idols? For we are the temple of the

living God, as God said. Here's one of the promises.

I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I

will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Quiz you like quizzes, right? Quiz.

Is Paul quoting scripture here? Yes.

Who here knows which book of the Hebrew scriptures he is quoting?

Leviticus. Leviticus, chapter 2611 and 12.

Well, the Lord is speaking to his people.

He's speaking to his people about their holiness under the

New Covenant. And he promises them.

If you hold to this code, here's what I will guarantee you.

I will dwell among you, and I will walk with you.

And Paul, by the Spirit takes that promise.

There are a lot of things in Leviticus that we don't do

right. That's why you're wearing a

certain fabric shirt, and that's why, men your your hair is

trimmed on your sides. But Paul, by the authority of

the Spirit, reaches to one of these promises, and he applies

it to the New covenant. And how do we summarize what

this, what this promise is all about?

It's very easy. Greater intimacy with the Lord.

I will dwell among you and I will walk.

How? Well, how does that happen now?

Do we have a room called the Holy of Holies?

Do we have a tent that we live beside?

No, no, no. It's called the Holy Spirit who

lives in you, the new Tabernacle.

And so he applies this old covenant promise, and by

permission of the Holy Spirit, he applies it to the New

Covenant context. And he says the Holy Spirit, the

glory of God that dwelt in that tent around the people, now is

able to live in you as the new tent of God.

Which tells me that there is something about this promise

that's not just theoretical or theological, It's experiential,

greater intimacy with the Lord. Here's one of those promises.

And he says, since we have these promises run after holiness,

shut off all the defilement of the flesh in the body, get rid

of all those things that might, that might all turn, effect this

promise, I don't know what can be greater than greater intimacy

with the Lord? I don't.

I don't know. Have nothing else to offer you.

That is the the pinnacle of the promises of God in the new

covenant on this side of heaven. And there are other promises,

and Paul spells that out elsewhere.

So we see this understanding that there are promises of the

Lord that our disobedience can rob us from.

And remember that as you are standing before the temptation

of amusing yourself with sin, whatever that sin may be,

because whatever you think will bring that thrill, it will

always cost you Greater promises and greater fulfillment, greater

pleasure in God. And that's what we see with

Solomon. But notice, even in this right

there is mercy. Look back at verse 12, the 1st

Corinthians 11. Excuse me, First Kings 11.

Yet, for the sake of David, your father, I will not do it in your

days. And then in verse 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 Solomon.

It's not going to happen in your lifetime.

It's going to happen with your son.

And I'm not going to take all the tribes.

I'm going to leave one tribe because I made a promise to your

father. You know what this is supposed

to do to us as we're reading this text?

This is God's declaration of his fidelity in the middle of

studying Solomon's unfaithfulness.

So even in this dark chapter, we're supposed to feel

refreshed. How?

Because as I'm studying the colossal mess up of a man who

experienced so much, I'm confronted with a promise

keeping God. Solomon didn't keep his promise.

Solomon could not hold his weight.

Solomon could not keep up with what he had said.

But you know who does? God, God, Man will make vows.

Man will claim things. Man will say something and end

up changing their mind down the road.

God is not like man. So even in this rebuke, even in

this chastisement, God is declaring and showing.

He is unlike man. When I say something, I mean it.

I don't let things happening around me.

I don't let people around me alter my word.

When I say it, I mean it and I keep it.

This is the God that we serve. So every time you read this

book, every time especially you read promises concerning today

and promises and prophecies for tomorrow.

You can bank your life on this. God said it so he will mean it

and he will keep it. So I'm refreshing reading this.

Thank God my king is not like King Solomon.

Thank God my king is not like King David.

He's the king of all kings. We talked about how deliberate

disobedience effects the pleasure of the Lord, how it

affects the promise of the Lord being experienced in their

fullness in our lives. Lastly, let's read a few verses.

You probably noticed there's a lot more verses here, and I want

to just highlight a few verses from this next portion and then

we'll dissect them verse by verse.

Read with me verse 14 of this chapter and the Lord raised up

an adversary against Solomon Haddad, the Edomite.

He was of the royal house in Edom.

Let's put that aside and come down to verse 23.

God also raised up as an adversary to him, resigned the

son of Eliada who had fled from his master had Azur king of

Zoba. And lastly, let's come here to

verse 26. Jeroboam, the son of Nibat,

Nephromite of Zerodah, a servant of Solomon whose mother's name

was Zeraya. A widow also lifted up his hand

against the king. So the Lord now raises up 3

opponents, 3 adversaries against Solomon.

Again, what makes us heartbreaking is when we reflect

on Solomon's experience when he was walking with the Lord.

So we read those 3 verses right? God raising up an adversary, God

raising up an adversary. Jeroboam raising up his hand

against the king. Solomon made this awesome

confession declaring the goodness of God in First Kings

1 Kings 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5 and it's so sad to see where it's led to 1st Kings

five. Look at this in verse 4.

This is Solomon speaking and notice what he gladly admits and

declares. And 1st Kings 54 But now the

Lord my God has given me rest on every side.

There is neither adversary nor misfortune.

No adversary. Listen, we've been studying

Solomon's life for quite a few weeks.

Have we read of any significant adversary rising up against

Solomon as long as he was walking with the Lord?

No. As long as he shunned idolatry?

No, but now that he is walking in rebellion, God raises up

three of them. Deliberate disobedience not only

affects the pleasure of the Lord, not only does it alter the

promises of the Lord, some of them it also affects the peace

of the Lord in our lives, The peace of the Lord.

Solomon's reign was characterized by peace, and you

and I in Christ have access to greater peace.

Solomon could give peace economically, politically, in

society, Christ can bring peace internally, where peace matters

the most, greater peace. But what we learned here through

Solomon's example is that when we choose to live in sin, not

only do we put a pause on the promises of God, but we replace

them with problems from God. You put a pause on the promises

and you invite problems. And those problems are allowed

by the Lord, who raised up these adversaries?

Satan. And the Lord raised them up.

The Lord removed the hedge. The Lord opened the floodgates.

For all this time God apprehended these adversaries,

He kept them at Bay. And when Solomon kept ignoring

the Lord and kept walking away from the Lord, the Lord says

enough is enough. I have to get your attention

somehow. And he chooses to raise up these

adversaries For what? For what reason?

To rouse up a slumbering Solomon in his sin so that he could

ultimately repent and turn back to the Lord.

So you heard about the mercy of God, how he said what?

That he would not allow all the the tribes we removed from the

Kingdom of David, and that it would not happen in his

lifetime. I argue that God's mercy still

being displayed here, saying how houses God's mercy because God

and his love will not allow his child to remain in sin

undisturbed. That's God's love toward you and

I God doesn't just let you go your way.

God will chase you and God will agitate you and God will signal

to you over and over again. He will not give up on you.

This is God's mercy in these adversaries coming against

Solomon. One of the worst ways God can

judge a people or a nation is when He lets them be in their

sin, when He lets them have their idols.

But see, God here is pursuing this man.

Despite all the shortcomings and all the disappointments, the

Lord says I'm still going to find a way to get your

attention, and if it if it needs this, then let it be.

There's a profound verse that solidifies this point about how

unrighteousness will not provide peace.

Only righteousness, practical righteousness will provide

peace. It's in Isaiah 32, verse 17,

Isaiah 32:17

Isaiah 3217. Here's what the prophet says.

It's a wonderful insight about how walking with the Lord

promises his peace, Isaiah 3217 reads.

And the effect of righteousness will be what peace.

The effect of righteousness will be peace and the result of

righteousness. Oh, I love these two words

quietness and trust forever. That's a verse that America

needs. You want peace, America, you

need righteousness. Yes, first you need the

righteousness that is imputed by Jesus Christ.

And then from there you need the practical righteousness that he

empowers you to walk in. The effect of righteousness is

peace. No righteousness, no peace.

And that's especially true for the child of God who knows

better. A lukewarm Christian is the most

miserable person on earth. Really.

I argue that say how Because you have enough of God where you

can't enjoy the world the way you would hope to, and you have

enough of the world where you can't enjoy God the way you're

supposed to. You're just like in this

miserable limbo. And it's so pathetic to watch

because there you are, just trying to create mud pies and

figure out how this whole thing works.

It doesn't work until you submit to righteousness, consecrate

yourself unto the Lord. Can I just be real?

Can I just talk? Yeah.

OK, Aren't you the happiest when you're the holiest?

When you're when you're the closest to the Lord, aren't you

the happiest? Right.

Yeah, I know. You try to numb yourself with

entertainment and you try to silence your conscience by doing

all these different activities, but you know that you are the

most glad when you're the closest to God.

You know that there's a lightness, there's a strength,

There's a confidence. There's a joy to your step

because only God provides that. Just a reminder.

The effect of righteousness will be peace.

There's no peace for Solomon Now Why?

Because there's no righteousness.

So now let's explore these three adversaries separately.

Verse 14. And the Lord raised up an

adversary against Solomon Haddad, the Edomite.

He was of the royal house in Edom for when David wasn't Edom.

Now we get the back story of how this man comes on the scene when

David was in Edom and Joab, the commander of the army, went up

to bury the slain. He struck down every male in

Edom for Job, and all Israel remained there six months until

he had cut off every male in Edom.

But Haddad fled to Egypt together with certain Edomites

of his father's servants. Haddad still being a little

child, they set out from Midian and came to Puran and took men

with them from Puran, and came to Egypt to Pharaoh, king of

Egypt, who gave him a house and assigned him an allowance of

food and gave him land. And a dad, found great favor in

the side of Pharaoh, so that he gave him in marriage the sister

of his own wife, the sister of Tappanese the queen.

And the sister of Tappanese bore him Ghenobath, his son, whom

Tappanese weaned in Pharaoh's house.

The Gator bath was in Pharaoh's house among the sons of Pharaoh.

But when Haddad heard in Egypt that David slept with his

fathers, and that job the commander of the army was dead,

Haddad said to Pharaoh, let me depart, that I may go to my own

country. But Pharaoh said to him, what

have you lacked with me, that you are now seeking to go to

your own country? And he said to him only, let me

depart, Haddad. Where is he from?

Where is he from? He's from Edom.

Why should that be important for us?

Don't go too far. Consider the context of

Solomon's life. I'll give you another hint.

Consider the context of the chapter that we're studying.

Edom. He's from Edom.

Look at the first few verses of Chapter 11.

Something should stand out. Very good verse one.

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the

daughter of Pharaoh Moabite, Ammonite.

Tell me the third one. Edomite, Cydonian and Hittite

woman. So Solomon, yes, in his lust had

all these women. But there was also a hint of

political strategy here. He marries into the Edomite

clan, the Edomite people. He thought he was clever.

He was operating under human wisdom here, thinking to

himself, I will be able to promote peace if I have these

marriage alliances. And perhaps for a season there

was a soothing effect of him marrying into this people group.

Ain't know what this teaches us. Because what Solomon did here,

marrying these foreign woman was a sin, not because they were

formed, but they were foreign to God.

And what he thought would provide him security and

prosperity and peace betrayed him.

Now you have a man from Edom who is going to harass you for the

rest of your life. Sin always lies to you.

It always does. It always lies to you.

And again it seems to bring some kind of relief, some kind of

escape. But it will always come back to

bite you. Always.

You don't know when, you don't know how, but sin is very clever

and finding a way to make sure that you get that check.

So he marries into the Edomites and now his enemy, his first

enemy is from Edom. And this is what we learned from

this man in the beginning of this portion of scripture.

But we also notice something about Haddad notice.

So he he now experiences this massacre, right?

He escapes this war and he finds himself in Egypt under the care

of Pharaoh. And for some reason, Pharaoh

shows unusual kindness them, gives them housing allowance,

food. And he loves him so much that he

even makes an alliance with him by allowing him to marry his

sister-in-law. Everything's going well for for

Edith, I mean, I mean for her dad.

He could have just stayed there and just lived the rest of his

life in that place. But when he learns that David

and Joab are dead, he now comes to Pharaoh and asked for

permission to go to his own country for one sole purpose.

I will live the rest of my life assaulting and harassing

Solomon. What does that reveal about what

was in this man's heart after all these years?

Vengeance. Bitterness.

Unforgiveness. This man was harboring these

things, and when the opportunity arose, he took advantage of it.

And what's so fascinating is that he was willing to walk away

from this favor that he experienced.

He was willing to walk away from his livelihood, his familiarity,

to now live with a campaign, to be a thorn in Solomon's side.

A brief point, but it's really a sad illustration of what

bitterness can do to a man, and what bitterness is willing to

lead a man into and lead a man away from as much as you feel

empowered in your unforgiveness, because in your mind you

entertain these thoughts towards that person who has hurt you.

Ultimately, you're draining yourself of life.

Here's this man now walking away from all these things so that he

can be an antagonist against the son of David.

But now we read about this other man, verse 23.

Not much is said about him in comparison to Haddad and

Jeroboam, but let's read God also raised up as an adversary

to him. Razon, the son of Eliade who had

fled from his master, had it as their king of Zoba, and he had

gathered men about him and became leader of a marauding ban

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 Haddad did, and he loathe Israel and reigned over

Syria. The thing that I want to

highlight here is that unlike Haddad, this man here was not of

royal birth. He was.

He was a servant to his master. And though this is God

recruiting men with evil intent in their hearts, the rule of

recruitment is still true for the righteous.

God can raise up a man from royalty or from obscurity.

He can recruit a man from nobility and a man who nobody

knows about. And so that's a positive way of

looking at this. So you have a Haddad who many

people knew and was used obviously for.

And as an instrument of judgement.

And then you have this man, Rezon, where some people might

have not known as much and he was still used by God.

In a positive sense, this is an encouraging thing.

In this context, it's a terrifying thing.

You know. What you notice here is that you

have these political shifts. You have the rise and fall of

kings. And from a natural standpoint,

it just seems political. But there's a spiritual reason

behind it. There's a spiritual component to

this. The the real reason for all of

this is that there's a leader who's in covenant with God, and

he's about to experience God's judgment, and God's going to use

people to bring about that judgment.

And so with all that we see in this world, it's very tempting

to look at it from a humanistic, natural standpoint.

Realize that the essence of our universe is that there is good

and there is evil. There is a God, and there is a

devil. And ultimately, this is about

souls entering into one of two places in eternity.

And God knows how to govern the universe even now, not just in

the Old Testament. Even now He is governing

nations, and he's dealing with leaders And one of God's

instruments of judgment when a nation has fallen to a place of

no return is that he will use another nation to judge that

nation. Study the ways of God and you'll

see that that is consistent with his character.

And so you have this other man now who is out of obscurity, but

the main person out of these three is Jeroboam.

Why is that? Because with Haddad, you had

harassment against Solomon from the South with resin, you had an

adversary from the North. With Jeroboam, you have an

adversary. From where?

Where is he? He's from within.

He's an Israelite. He's not a foreigner.

He's among the brethren. And so this is where most of

this text is dedicated to, to this man.

And so let's read a few of these verses.

We'll stop and we'll continue. Jeroboam, verse 26.

The son of Nebat and Ephraim might have Zerodah, a servant of

Solomon whose mother name was 0. 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 Milo and

closed up the breach of the city of David, his father the man

Jeroboam. Notice this, 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. So Solomon has relationship with

this man. Solomon in fact hired this man.

And when you look at this verse, it's quite interesting because

Solomon, we're about to learn, reigned for 40 years.

Who else reigned for 40 years in Israel?

Saul, the first king of Israel. Who else?

David, Solomon's father. So the 1st 3 kings of Israel

reigned for 40 years. Even in verse 28 you can do a

comparative study between all those 3 kings and learn

something about each of these kings.

When Solomon saw Jeroboam that he was a very able man and

industrious man, hard working, diligent, he recruited him unto

himself. It reminds me of the verse of

Saul and who he looked for when he hired men into his work.

So turn with me. This is going to be worth it.

Turn with me to First Samuel and let's look back at who Saul

looked for while he was king in chapter 14 and verse 52.

Notice what we're told about what Saul was looking for in a

man. First Samuel chapter 14, verse

1 Samuel 14:52

52. There was hard fighting against

the Philistines all the days of Saul, and when Saul saw any

strong man or any valiant man, he attached him to himself.

So Solomon looked for industrious men, men who really

got things done, because he was this man who always worked on

projects and construction endeavors.

When Saul looked for men, he looked for valiant, strong,

courageous warriors, and he attached them to himself.

Who did David look for? Are we told anywhere?

The kind of men, the character, the quality of men that David

looked for? Any idea?

I'll give you a hint. It's not found in First or

Second Samuel. What kind of boys did David look

for to join in his ranks? I'll tell you where it's in a

Psalm. Psalm 101.

And look at verse six with me and you'll get your answer.

This is the Psalm of David. And I'll be patient and wait for

you. I'll wait till the rustling of

the leaves make no more noise. Psalm One O 1, verse six reads.

This is David speaking. I will look with favor on the

faithful in the land that they may dwell with me.

He who walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me.

Saul. Look for strong warriors.

Solomon, look for industrious men.

David look for God fearing men. That's what we look for.

Another nugget to prove and show why David stood out among the

kings of Israel. How David was a man after God's

heart. Not that he was just a

worshipper, but the fellowship that he had with certain people

indicated the kind of man he had, the kind of heart he had as

a man toward his Lord. I'm going to look for those who

are faithful, those who are blameless, and those are the

guys that I'm going to hire. Those are the guys that are

going to be in close proximity to me.

So you see the spirituality of this man.

Saul didn't have it. Solomon didn't have it.

David had it. That moves me.

I don't know if it does anything for you.

Let's come back to our main text in verse 29.

And at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the

prophet Ahijah, the Shiloh knight, 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 he

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'm 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've chosen, of

all the tribes of Israel, because they have forsaken me,

and worshipped Ashtroth, the goddess of the Sidonians, Kemos,

the God of Moab, and Milk on the God of the Ammonites.

And they have not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my

eyes, and keeping my statutes and my rules as David, his

father, dead. 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 we'll

give it to you. 10 tribes. Yet to his son I will give one

tribe that David, my servant, may always have a lamp before me

in Jerusalem and the city I have chosen to put my name.

Now look at that. This is astounding.

Verse 37. And I will take you, and you

shall reign over all that your soul desires.

That may be an indication that Jeroboam actually had on his

heart to be a king. 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 affect afflict the offspring of David because of

this, but not forever. Do you see this?

Do you see the depth of this promise, how massive this is.

I will build you a house, just as I did for David.

That is huge. Imagine that.

Did Jeroboam take this seriously?

We're going to find out that he doesn't.

The depravity of man is mind blowing.

Imagine this opportunity, this covenant that God makes with

David, right? It's unique in many ways, but

Jeroboam has this opportunity now to have a name for himself

and a name for the rest of his descendants for generations to

come. And he blows it.

Just feel how stupid we can be sometimes because of our sin,

How foolish we can be. Look at verse 39 and I will

afflict the offspring of David because of this, but not

forever. That verse confirms what we

studied many weeks ago about God's warning to Solomon as

descendants for his disobedience.

We we had to make the decision concerning Solomon, the Davidic

line, and the people of Israel as a whole, God's punishment

toward them. Would it be permanent or to be

temporal? And we agreed that it was

temporal. And here's another verse to

confirm that I will flick the offspring of David because of

this. But not forever.

Not forever, because I keep my word and there are promises that

I still must fulfill to David and to Abraham.

So it's not going to be forever. You're saying that was very long

winded. This seems to be drawn out.

This seems to be not practical. Seems very historically

necessary, but I'm not sure how it helps me.

Well, all that I just read to you is supposed to build up to

what we're about to read in verse 40.

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. You would think after God

raising up 3 adversaries, you would think after learning that

you're going to have the 10 tribes removed from you.

And somehow I'm sure he had an intelligence agency, he realized

that Jeroboam was the guy that was going to have these tribes.

You would think that after all of that this would cause you to

fall on your face and say God please forgive me and instead

all it does is Rev Revs him up to pursue further disobedience.

I'm going to kill you. You're the guy that God said is

going to take my place. I'm coming after.

Jeroboam learns of this and he flees the scene.

Not only the sin devastate us, right?

Deliberate disobedience. It can make a person delusional.

Delusional. Saying What do you mean?

It was the word of the Lord that Jeroboam was supposed to be

king, wasn't it? Was it Jeroboam's idea?

No. It was a prophet.

It was authenticated by man of God.

Solomon knew this, and he could care less.

He could care less. God's will, That doesn't matter.

I'm king. I'm coming after the one that

God chose. Sin makes us delusional.

It makes us think that we can thwart.

It makes us think that we can resist.

It makes us think that we can flee from God, from God saying

how, How is the wisest man in the world capable of stooping

down to this kind of level of reasoning?

You know, the Bible actually tells us how I've mentioned this

verse on different occasions in our study of the Old Testament,

but we are creatures that require repetition in order to

learn. In Hosea 411, we are told how a

man like Solomon can think this way, and we're almost done here.

Look what the Prophet says in Hosea 411 about two particular

sins, and it will all make sense.

Now we're told here that whoredom, wine, and new wine,

which does what? Take away the understanding.

So we all agree that it being intoxicated by alcohol disarms

us from having judgment, clear judgment, discernment,

reasoning, right? But wine is equated with

whoredom. They're mentioned together, so

there are certain sins of the flesh that have the effect on

the mind as alcohol does. It removes your ability to make

sound, clear decisions to interpret things rightly.

And one of those things is lust. Whoredom.

Did Solomon struggle with whoredom?

It's an understatement. Whoredom.

So the wisest man in the world gave into whoredom.

And here's the consequence. According to Hosea 411, he was

stripped from his understanding. He couldn't think right.

He couldn't think right To what extent?

That when the word of the Lord went out from a prophet, he

thought he could actually stand against it.

Sin makes us delusional. Sin makes us stupid.

It really does. Some of us can testify to that

when we were in sin. Some of us have witnessed that

and other people who have run headlong into sin.

But this is how we can make sense of Solomon's actions here,

thinking that he can stand in the way of God's purposes and

the way that he could overcome this consequences by turning

back to the Lord. And instead he thought that he

can do so by acting in his own strength.

Here's the conclusion. You and I are never going to

study about Solomon directly after this moment, so enjoy this

chapter. It's sad, but we still must

consider it. Verse 41.

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? In 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.

Most people believe that when Solomon became king, he was in

his 20s, early 20s. We're told here that he reigned

for 40 years, making him somewhere around 60 something

years old. Is that a long life?

Not really. You know why that's important to

know. Go back to First kings three and

look at verse 14. He's what the Lord told Solomon

at the beginning of his reign. And if you will walk in my ways,

keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father

David walked, then I will do what lengthen your days.

Did that happen to Solomon? Not if he started in his 20s.

So he even cut himself short of the years that he could have

known in life. I believe that.

And this is what makes it so heartbreaking.

If you consider the book of Ecclesiastes then you can make a

case as Solomon repented near the end of his life.

But if you just stick to 1st Kings 11 we talked about how sin

has the ability to take away understanding.

I'm absolutely shocked that at no point in this chapter that

Solomon consider what he had himself said to God in First

1 Kings 8 · chapter mention

Kings chapter 8 when he had dedicated the temple and through

a sequence of request he made this this passionate plea.

Lord, if your people sin against you, and they turn toward this

place, and pray towards this place and plead for forgiveness,

will you hear them? And he gives all these different

scenarios. You remember that.

And the Lord gives him the assurance I will honor that.

And Solomon didn't even take advantage of his own plea.

All it would have taken is him to humble himself, turn his face

toward the House of God, call upon the Lord.

And this could have been a very different ending.

But he didn't. He dies in apostate.

If we just stick with First Kings 11 it's a sad sign and

it's meant to warn us. It's meant to keep us in a place

of dependency on the Lord. Deliberate disobedience effects

three things for the child of God.

It affects the pleasure of the Lord, it affects the promises of

the Lord. And it affects the peace of the

Lord that he wants to give us that we can only know in

righteousness. And I hope that what you hear

from Solomon's life, what we studied about Solomon's life,

would encourage you to do one thing, finish well, I don't have

many goals in life. Somebody asked me recently

what's your goal for this new year?

Look, goals are important. It's important to be goal

oriented in many ways. Can I tell you the goal of

goals? That I get to the end and I hear

my master say, you know, well done, good and faithful servant.

That's what I'm in for here. Well done, good and faithful

servant. Oh, what will that do to your

heart when you stand before the master and he looks at you in

the eyes and he says you did it. You faithfully served me.

You finished. Well, enter into the joy of your

master. That makes it all worth it.

That makes it all worth it. With all that Solomon had in his

life. He died as a pauper, and I don't

want that for anybody. I want your funeral and mine to

be a celebration. I want you and I to be able to

sign off in this life with a smile, knowing that we did what

the Lord asked us to do Imperfectly, yes, for for sure,

but consciously pursuing it in the strength of the Spirit.

And if you and I even tonight, are in a place where we're not

supposed to be, and every point that I made made total sense to

you, I feel the effect of my sin on the pleasure of the Lord, on

the peace of the Lord, on the promises of the Lord.

Just do what Solomon said you can do, But it's even better in

the New Covenant, because you don't have to turn to some

house, you don't have to visit some city, You don't have to

bring some kind of animals. You just look to the cross and

you look to the Lamb of God and you pray in Jesus name and

everything will be made right in a moment.

Oh sure, you might have some scars because of your sin,

because naturally that's what sin does, but at least you've

secured your fellowship with the Savior Lord.

We ask tonight that in this difficult, challenging chapter

that we've taken 2 weeks to study, our hearts would not be

heavy, but we would rejoice knowing that you loved us enough

to preserve such a testimony so that we would be preserved from

making the same mistakes. We bless you not just in your

promises, not just in your proclamations of love, but even

in your warnings. We say thank you, thank you for

your warnings. And we ask, Lord, that if there

is anything in our lives that we are pursuing deliberately that

is clearly wrong in your word, that we would at this time

through this Bible study, say enough is enough.

I want to know the pleasure of the Lord.

I want to know all His promises, and I want to know this peace

that I've not known since I have lived this way for those in this

place. Lord, who don't know you in a

real born again way. May even this Bible study show

us and reveal to us the joys that we can know in Christ when

we repent and believe in what He has done on the cross.

Lord, we stand together tonight concluding this very important

chapter in our study and knowledge of the Word of God.

We say thank you for the 1st 11 chapters of First Kings.

Now prepare us for the rest of this book.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Stand with me.

Stand with me. Let's celebrate.

You know why we can celebrate? Because the way you divide first

kings. If I can remind you from the

first time we started the first chapter is in two-part 1 to 11.

the United Kingdom. From 12 to the end of the book,

the divided Kingdom. Now we have passed through the

threshold of the divided Kingdom.

We are now going to study the people of Israel in a way that

we have never studied them before. 10 tribes versus 2A

Northern Kingdom versus a southern Kingdom.

So you made it. Thanks for sticking around for

the 1st 11 chapters. Let's worship the Lord.