Solomon’s End (Part A)

This man Solomon, how many times has the Lord appeared to you?

And yet he gets two appearances and two other encounters that were just remarkable. This further complicates our view of Solomon. Here's what Solomon said when he was older. Whether good or evil. Solomon, I don't know what to believe coming from you. I read your proverbs and I find you trample every one of them. Solomon's End. There's so many titles you could give this, you know, he did it to himself, no one else to blame, things like that. Very educational, I think, to consider the life of Solomon.

It's not a pleasant study, at least not for me. I am looking forward to the prophets coming on the scene and dealing with the wicked kings that we're going to encounter. It is true, I think, that wisdom leaves its signature on anything well made.

You look at that and say, man, somebody was really on the ball when they put that together. Solomon, this man of wisdom, did not leave a well made signature on the kingdom that he was handed by his father. He was so prepared for it by David. You know, we talked about that last speech that David gave to his son.

How powerful it was. Be the man, Solomon. Stick with the Lord.

Get the job done. And it leaves us scratching our heads. Now, we have to always remember in coming across such sinners as Solomon that other people's sins look easier to avoid than my own. You know, if somebody is sinning because they like bananas too much, you can say, boy, that's an easy one. I can't understand why they're so susceptible to that. And then, of course, there are the struggles that we as individuals have that we expect to be understood.

And so we have to always be careful, of course, when we're condemning someone's actions. Solomon makes it easy. He gives it to us and we have to talk about that. Where is Solomon right now? We'll get to that in a little bit.

We'll get to that, but not right now. Anyway, I think it was his sense of exception that ended in disaster. And it's not hard to see that in a celebrity. He was a celebrity. I mean, people came to hear him speak, which was the custom of the day. The wise would go hear the wise speak. We'd get some of it in the Book of Acts, even centuries later. There in Athens, Paul is dealing with people who Luke said these guys had nothing else better to do than pick on each other.

Well, Solomon, again, as celebrities tend to have this sixth sense of entitlement. They tend to not expect to be held accountable for the things that they do. They tend to want to be excused from the standards that apply to everybody else.

We see this all the time. And he is no different. He just carried it into his religion with God. He felt that he was the exception, that he could do better, that he would get an excuse. Those gateway sins of crashing in on Deuteronomy 17 were just that. Gateway sins that led him finally to idolatry.

The worst of them all. And I think Solomon, most of the kings that we come across, they had this problem. They felt that they had royal privilege. Now, there is a such thing as executive privilege, and it has its place. I mean, people in certain positions need to have the right to do certain things that others may not have. Not in an abusive way. But he, of course, this is not executive privilege.

This is disobedience. And, of course, when you look at the life of King Saul, his motivation was self-love. Saul just felt he was better than everybody.

It was all about him. And he was bloodthirsty. He murdered people. He did not only kill them, he murdered them. To murder them, you have to kill them. But murder is not justifiable. Killing might be. So, here is Solomon.

What else could it be? How else can we account for this behavior that we get from a man who authored no less than three books of our Bible? You just can't dismiss that. We'll come to some of this in a little bit. We look now at verse 9. So Yahweh became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from Yahweh, God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. Well, God is constantly provoked.

It is ongoing. Human beings, sinners, are always provoking God. But to see Solomon do it, of course, is disturbing as I've already mentioned. Hebrews 10, 31, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And here is Solomon falling into the hands of the living God in one sense, not the final sense. It says because his heart turned from Yahweh, God of Israel.

Now, I know we covered some of this already, much of this, but it merits reviewing one more time. The mental reflex is to question his salvation after reading this. His heart turned from Yahweh, God of Israel. We read that about anybody else in the Bible.

We say, well, that guy's lost. But we come to Solomon and we say, but wait a minute, there are some other sections of scripture that enter the picture that force us to review or re-examine this and not say, you know, this is real easy. Was he saved? Yes, his wives turned his heart after other gods, but it was his fault. But God anticipated this man's sin before he was born. God addressed the sins that Solomon would do and what God's response would be to the sins that Solomon would do. And you can't cherry pick and say, yeah, but that's only the sin of not making up his bed in the morning.

No, the sin was comprehensive. 2 Samuel 17, but my mercy shall not depart from him. He's talking about Solomon, the child that David and Bathsheba have conceived. No case for Solomon. I'd rather err on the side of grace than legalism because I'm a sinner and I need grace and I love grace.

That doesn't mean that it's abusive. 1 Chronicles chapter 22, this is what it says of, God says of Solomon, he shall build a house for my name and he shall be my son and I will be his father and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever. Now, of course, that's far reaching to the millennial kingdom of David, but it singles out Solomon as a unique character in human history.

I mean, David, of course, is in this category, too. So I go back to, had he not penned, been used by God to author, or God the author of it, Solomon the scribe, three books of the Bible and Psalms, he wrote Psalms, some Psalms that is, it would be easy to dismiss him. But when Peter writes, for prophecy never came by the will of men, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. 2 Timothy 3, all scriptures given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and righteousness. God took this man who became jaded because of his wealth and the women and all the stuff that, not that the women were wrong, not that they were right, part is that together they crossed lines, they sinned. And yet, when he is old and jaded and he writes about it, God says, I could use that because, or God rather says, I'm going to use that because God says there are going to be others that are going to feel the same way. And I don't know, I did not read the book of Ecclesiastes at 16 years old. I don't know what I would have thought.

I probably would have said, huh, what's he talking about? But as an older person without the beard, of course, I would pass for 20 or so, we've covered this, it's theological. But anyway, as an older man, it makes perfect sense. It's all nothing, it's all nothing.

A time to plan, a time to reap, a time to, these cycles are driving me nuts. There's a time of peace and then there's a time of trouble, then there's a, I'd rather just go to heaven. So when we say, boy Lord, even so, Maranatha, just take me out of here, are you not expressing the sentiment of Ecclesiastes?

His life is hard. I believe that the children of grace root for a man like Solomon. Oh Lord, I pray he recovered rather than, he needs to go to hell, the hottest part. This warped sense of entitlement by his power, by his wealth, by his urges, the lust that he had, and his lusts were not just for women, his lusts extended into capital gains, power, control. And so he became tolerant of the things that God despised, and then he began to, of course, support them, subsidize them, as we talked about. Did he reason in himself, did he say to himself, so long as I don't believe in these fake gods, what's the real harm of keeping the peace with the other surrounding kingdoms, and putting up a few monuments, it's all wood, hay, and stubble, I don't really buy into it, I think that might have been a large part of it.

That is, first off, it failed, we'll come to that as we go through it, but secondly, situational ethics is not an excuse to disobey God. Paul talks about that to the Thessalonians, again, we'll come to it, so let me keep going here before I owe you too much come to it points. It says here in verse nine, who had appeared to him twice, this man Solomon, how many times has the Lord appeared to you?

And yet he gets two appearances and two other encounters that were just remarkable. This further complicates our view of Solomon. Here's what Solomon said when he was older.

For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. Solomon, I don't know what to believe coming from you. I read your Proverbs and I find you trample every one of them. Not everyone, but you trample a lot of them, so why should I believe this is any value? Well, because God put a stamp of approval on it, number one, and number two, Solomon had that sense of entitlement. These Proverbs are for you, they're really not for me. Some preachers preach down to congregations like, you're the ones that need this, I don't. I don't think the anointed ones do, but I know that there are those that do speak down, they write books as though, you know, you're the one that needs this and I'm the one to help you out with it. That's a human characteristic. I want to say, am I wrong, but I don't want to give you a chance to disagree out loud. Verse 10, and he had commanded him concerning this thing that he should not go after other gods, but he did not keep Yahweh, what Yahweh had commanded.

And of course, he's not the only one. That his heart knew better as that scenario I gave just a moment ago when he said, well, that's them, that's not me, there's no real value. Well, that's a little consolation because again, he imported idolatry and supported idolatry and because of him, it just continued to spread. Now, from God's standpoint, God could have been a lot worse if I let it go any other way.

This way at least contained some of it because we do have some kings coming that will deal with this as best they can. But none of them could completely eradicate the land of idolatry, none of them, not even David. This is true in a church.

You can have a small church and think that you can uphold the scripture. It's just so difficult. It's this constant, it's like gamma rays, you know, it's just these waves, they just keep coming.

Then we have these lulls and then boom, here it comes again. And it is just a never-ending struggle. So you have to, you're ready for it and just say to yourself, well, I don't want to be the guilty one should something like this take place. He did not keep what Yahweh had commanded him, clear and to the point, creating the problem for all Bible teachers after this. I mean, you imagine giving a lesson of Solomon to like a five-year-old in the way they can, they're going to call you out. And God likes this guy? I mean, this is not matching all the other things you're telling me about being true to God.

And it is an issue, but there's growth in peeling back the layers. Anyway, these women were idol worshipers, but Solomon was just flat out disobedient. Would Jesus have used Solomon in one of his sermons as he did Jonah, portraying Jonah in a positive light and saying, Solomon and all of the, you know, consider the lilies of the field, they neither toil nor they spin, yet I say to you, Solomon, as much as he was blessed, that's what the meaning is, there's not ever any such as one of these.

So would the Lord have propped up Solomon like that if Solomon was in hell at the time he was giving his sermon? See, I think this causes us to think, and I think God wants us to think. We can only go over so far, and we can never go outside the box of scripture. Well, Jeremiah 17 says, Yahweh searched the heart, I test the mind. Even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. Well, we're going to get some verses from David that are going to say, Lord, thank you for your mercy on me, on us when we sin.

Which mount do I go to when I consider the judgment of others, or on others? Like a Solomon, for example. Do I go to Mount Sinai to judge Solomon with the thunder and the lightning and the trumpets and the barriers? God said, you know, anybody, man or beast, come near this mount and shoot them with an arrow. That is at the giving of the law at that time in Exodus 19, that season in Israel's history. Access to God was blocked at Mount Sinai. Oh, Moses could go up and Joshua could go up with him, but the people really had not that access. They were terrified. You speak to God, Moses, we are terrified. Or if you don't opt for Mount Sinai, maybe you will opt for Mount Olivet. Where tears and sweat splattered on the ground in preparation to die for me, for sinners.

Leading to the tearing of the veil in the temple. So in my heart, when I look at people who are just, you know, in the sphere of my life. Do I think that I'm going to, is my approach to condemn, condemn, condemn? Or is my approach to, Lord, there's got to be a way to be useful, to be part of the solution, to save their soul. You know, if you're a gossip, just say you're given to gossip.

One way to fight it, I don't know that you can overcome it, you might be able to, you might not. But one way to fight gossip is to pray for the people that you're, you know, gossip to God. But good notes. You know, you'll catch yourself if you want to say, you know God? And this person did that? What am I telling God for? You know, this is not right.

I wouldn't want to be treated this way. And so maybe you would pray for them. We must not believe that Jesus died only for those who behaved themselves.

Because that would disqualify a lot of us. So, anyway, behind, you know, the life of Solomon, how is the Christian going to look at Solomon? I think the Jews largely just ignored it.

They just, you know what? We're not going to go there. Well, I mean, look what they did with Saul. They named their kids after King Saul. Who would name their kid after Saul? Oh, no, no, not that Saul.

It was another one I went to high school with. Anyway, verse 11. Therefore Yahweh said to Solomon, because you have done this and have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.

Well, this judgment doesn't fall and it happened shortly after Solomon's death. But this is a prediction, of course. There is predictive prophecy.

Anytime, if you're speaking scripture, the office of, that's prophecy. It may not be predictive prophecy. There's foretelling and there's forthtelling. There's telling what's going to happen, predictive, and then there's telling what has happened in its proper application, forthtelling.

So that we understand that. Let's look at five categories of predictive prophecy, of telling the future. Well, there is prophecy that is fulfilled. In this case, this verse is fulfilled.

It has happened. It wasn't at the time, but it is to us now. Then there is the perpetual fulfillments of prophecy that we come across in scripture. An example of that would be Matthew 26, verse 13.

I think you'll like this one. Verse 13, surely I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her. That's perpetual.

That's what has happened. John Wesley was preaching on this. Spurgeon preached on this.

I mean, we preach on it. This is perpetual fulfillment of a prophecy. There's progressive fulfillment of prophecy. Whereas it's just a prophetic layout, and it just comes in waves. Israel being repatriated, for example.

The cashless society. We're watching this form, and there are other things that are going to go with it. Right now, I don't think the infrastructure of the world is just ready to receive Antichrist enough to satisfy the prophecies concerning what he's going to do.

But then there's room to say, well, he can fix that very quickly. So, we're watching that. There's, of course, unfulfilled prophecy, which is the great tribulation period, of course.

That would be one, for example. Then there is the eternal prophecies. Paul said that we will forever dwell with the Lord, and there we shall forever dwell. And that is going to happen, and it will be eternal. And so, it's nice to see that, this approach to prophecy in the scripture, because it gives us a better understanding of our God, how he works, and our role in response to what he teaches us.

Here in verse 11, where it mentions, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. Well, that's going to be Jeroboam. Unfortunately for us, we have Solomon's only named child, Rehoboam, only named son, Rehoboam. And then we have the enemy of Rehoboam and Solomon, Jeroboam.

It would have been nice if their names were just not so similar. Until you get it, then it doesn't make a difference. Anyway, verse 12. Nevertheless, I will not do it in your days. For the sake of your father, David, I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Well, God's postponing this judgment. I think on behalf of the remnant that was still alive from David's days, and it was certainly a postponement. My guess is that there were lives that God wanted to spare from this judgment.

That would be acceptable, I think. But anyway, every king of the Jews lived in the shadow of David. And God is the one that set that up. God cast the shadow of David. David did not.

David just loved the Lord and man after God's own heart. And we're going to get, David's name shows up 16 times in this chapter. 15 times just from chapter 9 to verse 43.

15 times. David's name is mentioned, is employed. And it's going to cause us to look at that. Verse 13. However, I will not tear away the whole kingdom. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David.

There he is again. And for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. Simeon, the tribe of Simeon. Its territory was surrounded by Judah's territory. And by this time, Simeon had been assimilated into Judah.

The individuals still retained, you know, I'm Simeonite, but they really had no tribal leaders and they were just absorbed. We'll find out that after Jeroboam starts pulling his dud moves, many of the Levites will leave the north and come and dwell in Judah also. This mention of David, you know, I cringe when I hear people criticize David unwisely. It's fine, you know, he's mad at his sins, right?

But to harp on those sins, I'd be very careful because God doesn't do that. God holds up David as his poster boy king. Verse 14.

And I want to know about that. Why is God doing that? Verse 14. Now Yahweh raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad, the Edomite.

He was a descendant of the king of Edom. Well, with a name like that, if you're not a father, you just have a lot of explaining to do all the time. Hey dad, I'm sorry, I'm not a father.

That's your name. Anyway, there's a couple of them in here that are sentences, you know, boards up. And that's where I lose it, you know, when I see these things in Scripture, they're just so silly to me. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross-Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

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