Solomon’s End (Part C)

Situational ethics, the end justifies the means. This is not Christian. This is the world and it's very dangerous. God has not left questions of right or wrong to be decided by changing circumstances. There's grace given to the leaders. Jesus said, what you bind, I'll bind, what you let loose, I'll let loose, because I understand you're going to be in tricky situations, but you don't know the clear answer.

I don't want you fretting over that. You've got to make a call sometimes and I'll back you up. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 1 Kings.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick with his message called Solomon's End in 1 Kings 11. We have three examples of prophets, or not prophets, people in the Bible trying to make their point, drive it home in an extraordinary way. The first is that gruesome Levite who chose to butcher his dead concubine to make his point and chopped her up and sent her to the various tribal leaders to rally them for war.

And there's just no way to spin that into something good. Saul, less ghoulish than that Levite, he butchered an ox to rally Israel to answer the cry for battle. Less ghoulish, but still butchering. But here the man of God chooses something less savage to drive home his point.

He rips up a garment. Gerald Bohm's not going to forget this. The message is going to be very clear. He won't walk away saying, now did he mean, he's going to know full well and he's not going to ever forget this. He will act like it did not happen, according to God, when he becomes an apostate. But right now the prophet tears the garment into these pieces. This division that is coming of the kingdom will not be the peaceful product of negotiations.

It won't be the northern tribes negotiating with it. It will be a rip, painful work of God's displeasure will befall the people of Israel. So let's move on, verse 31.

And he said to Gerald Bohm, take for yourself ten pieces. For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you. Verse 32, but he shall have one tribe for my sake, for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.

Well, as I mentioned, he's not going to forget or be confused about this message because of how Ahijah illustrates it. The citizens of the ten tribes who decide to stay in Judah, they'll be free to stay there and remain faithful to the throne of David. Levites will then later come from the northern kingdom because when it splits, the people have no, they're not thinking, okay, we now have a north and southern kingdom, but they still have Jerusalem as their central place of worship.

And Gerald Bohm's going to see that as a threat, and he's going to try to, he's going to take steps to stop that, and he's going to be largely successful. And thus we have the prophets to the north, like Hosea and Amos, for example. Well, it says here in verse 32, behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and give ten tribes to you. What an unpleasant message for the prophet to get. I mean, there he's minding his business, doing whatever he's doing, making candles, whatever, working on a transmission for this new chariot he's got. And the message comes to him, I'm going to split the kingdom. So the unpleasantness of receiving this kind of a message, then having to deliver it, and then living to see it happen. But this is what the man of God does. He says, I'm just a messenger, and I deliver the message.

I'm not here to edit it or criticize it. Verse 33, because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemash, the god of the Moabites, Milcom, the god of the people of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways to do what is right in my eyes and keep my statutes and my judgments as did his father David. You teens, you notice here, the world has got plenty of fake gods for you. They'll just make one up that you might like. Don't forget you used to come to church on a Wednesday night. You came to graduate school. Well, some used to be like, I had to come. Well, God then, he is the one that designed that. You were born into a home, Jesus said, love the Lord enough to come to a midweek. At what point are you responsible to say to God, thank you? Well, when you're faced with these fake old gods in the world, the god of intelligence, the god of pleasure, the god of drugs, whatever it is, stand up to it and don't be Satan's little whooping boy or girl as it might be. Christianity requires you be involved. That's why Jesus said, take up your cross. It's personal. All right.

That was not a rant. And we move on back to this, these fake gods. So here is where we come to, it says, notice, we notice that they are identified as the cause because they have forsaken me and worshiped asterisk, not just Solomon, they.

The people were enjoying it. I think if the people, maybe if the people pushed back a little bit more, maybe Solomon would have been, you know, maybe I shouldn't be doing this. They had a booming economy and a dud religion, dud faith, and it's nobody, nobody's fault but their own.

The enchanted kingdom of opulence and splendor was doomed. And the clock is ticking before nothing, there will be nothing left to be reminded of it except what's in print. Islam has supplanted the gods of this region of the world, just pushed them all out and just, you know what, this is the god you're going to worship now, like it or die. Verse 34, however, Ahijah is still speaking God's message, I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand because I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of my servant David whom I chose because he kept my commandments and my statutes. This is David again.

God misses no chance to dote on this man. He's just constantly, the prophet that's writing this story is like, David this and David that. The kings need to know he is the gold standard, his devotion to God.

Psalm 130 verse 3, if you Yahweh should mark iniquities, oh Lord, who could stand but there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared. These are the kind of things David wrote and taught. And the Psalms that don't have his name on it but have this sentiment, you know David influenced that. The Jews weren't getting there without David. When he comes along the line he shows them how to write a psalm.

So much so that the sons of Korah, many of those psalms are likely authored by David and they're the ones that produced them, sang them. Just this influence. And look at today, we have this broke, woke junk. Who's influencing that? Well Satan himself. I mean you have these evil people that want to rule and can't even define what a woman is. I mean, I mean somebody ought to tar and feather that person and parade them through the streets for all the damage they're trying to do to future generations than this one too. This generation, not the righteous or the sensible ones, but there's an element of this generation that has a stupidity that humanity has never seen before. And they're boxing themselves in and they don't even care. Men winning, winning women's sporting events and I mean, Antichrist is coming. He's going to have a world of people that are dumb as a sack of wet mice to just lead around and do whatever he wants and this is just, it's beyond shame. It's now into deep, dark wickedness. That's what it is. People refusing to give a basic definition.

It started with the other guy, you know, depending on what if is. I'm president of the United States, messing with the, you know, acting like, anyway, acting like, alright, back to the scripture. You can get the pundits to tell you that, but the pundits can't tell you what 1 Kings 11, 8 through 43 is all about.

That would be for men like me. Okay, verse 35. But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand and give it to you, give it to you.

Ten tribes. Again, he'll know that a prophet has spoken to him. Rehoboam, who will, Solomon's son, not Jeroboam who he's talking to now, when Rehoboam comes along, he will know this prophecy.

He will know it was spoken. This prophecy is what Solomon uses to want to kill Jeroboam. Jeroboam's going to have to run to Egypt until Solomon dies. Because when Solomon hears about this, he's not going to side with God, he's going to try to kill this man. Well, Rehoboam knows this, but in his arrogance, he dismisses it. How many people hear the word of God and dismiss it as unimportant to them?

Hell is full of people like that. Verse 36. And to his son I will give one tribe, my servant David, may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city, which I have chosen for myself, to put my name there. Again, God missing no chance to dote on David. I want, you know, I don't know, I'm kind of careful about that. God doted on Job. That was intense.

So, you know, I'd like to keep a low profile maybe. Anyway, David, God, prolonged the shining lamp of David. He kept the oil flowing to the lamp of David to this very day. Here we are speaking of David as the lamp of Israel. To this day we read and sing his Psalms and study his life and his interactions with God and people.

That light shines on and it helps us see our way. Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, yet your commandments are my delight. Your word, in the midst of my troubles, your word is no less than your commandment.

It's not like, oh, you know, how come you're not helping me now? Your Bible says you're going to do this. No, David didn't go that route. David stood his ground. Verse 37, so I will take you and you shall reign over all the heart.

I'm sorry, I just want to get to other points about David. And this verse is in my way. Verse 37, so I will take you and you shall reign over all your heart desires and you shall be king over Israel.

This is pretty intense. What Jeroboam will do will be irreconcilable, but how many men were alive in Israel when this was spoken? Let's just say two million, conservative number.

That would mean Jeroboam was one in two million men. Out of two million men, he gets the call. What's he going to do with it? He's going to shred the call. That's what he's going to do. The same way the garment was ripped to shreds, he's going to rip the calling to shreds. And there are people that still, I think when a man says he's ordained to be a pastor and he goes and runs for office, he's just ripped his calling to shreds. How can you do that?

I don't know of any that I admire for doing that. Maybe you do. That's fine. But I don't see how you can trade. Well, I'm more help to the public if I'm in public office.

No, you're not. It's hard enough to find people to man a pulpit the way God wants them to man a pulpit. God can find politicians, as we can see, in insane asylum.

They're easy to find. Verse 38, then it shall, you know, as one Chesterton, when I contemplate how few politicians are hanged, talks about how sad he is when he contemplates how few politicians are hanged. You're sorry they were getting away with the evil that they were getting away with. Anyway, back to verse 38, then it shall be if you heed or that I command you walk in my ways, do what is right in my sight, to keep my statutes and my commandments as my servant David did, then I will be with you and build for you an enduring house as I built for David and will give Israel to you. Can't say that about Solomon. Can't take David's name out and put Solomon's name or Saul's name, and you will not be able to put Jeroboam's name there either. The tragedy is that Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, is next in line.

That's what God had to work with, and Jeroboam, the one who will take the northern kingdom, is what God had to work with. Verse 39, and I will afflict the descendants of David because of this, but not forever. David is the most mentioned man in the Bible, a second to Jesus Christ. Over 1100 times, his name comes up. Moses is next, about 740 times.

I think that's remarkable. See, these are the reading between the lines of things that are there. When you come to the life of David, you're reading the life of a man who God just kept bringing up throughout his scripture, Old and New Testament alike. Verse 40, Solomon therefore sought to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam arose, fled to Egypt to Shishak, king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon. Now, Shishak sold seashells.

Again, rivals to the throne, not taken lightly. Why didn't Solomon petition the Lord and said, turn to his temple and repent? Why did not Solomon seem to just disrespect his own advice? Maybe, maybe he had some sort of virus.

I don't know what's affected his thinking, but he had to have just thought he was above his own teachings. Verse 41, and maybe, you know, get to heaven. He said, Solomon, what was your problem? I had a fever.

I just, I wasn't well. Maybe there's some excuse, but it's in God's hands. Verse 41, now the rest of the Acts of Solomon, all that he did and his wisdom are then unwritten in the book of the Acts of Solomon. Well, God wasn't interested in preserving that document. Verse 42, and I'm glad because I'm, this is it.

We get to move on after this chapter. Verse 42, and the period that Solomon reigned in Israel over all Israel was 40 years. So, again, the legalist struggles to get Solomon forgiven or in heaven. Grace looks to cheer him on in the mental approach. The difference between the two mindsets is that grace, well, legalism seeks to seek and destroy. That's how legalists live. The very sins they're guilty of, they're just magnifying you and turn on you and make this presentation that they're righteous and you're not.

If you, especially if you get on their wrong side. Grace looks to seek and save, not seek out and destroy, but to seek and to save. So, illustrating this, we have Elijah and under Old Testament law and Old Testament dispensation, the period of time that, how it worked, they came to arrest this man of God for being a man of God. And he calls fire. He says, I'm a man of, if I am a man of God, may fire come down and take you out. And fire did that. Lightning came out and by the time the third captain got there, he says, please, don't kill me. And Elijah goes with him.

This, of course, impresses us until we come into touch with grace. So, in the New Testament, when the disciples, two of the disciples, the brothers, John and James, they didn't like the way one village treated Christ. So, they said, shall we call fire down on them?

Like, who are you to call me? We call fire. Christ could have said, sure, go ahead, let me see what you got. And nothing would have happened.

The sun is still out. Anyway, Christ rebuked them, lightly, gently, I would think. And he said, you don't know what spirit you're of. We're not here to seek out and destroy people. We're here to seek and out to seek and to save. And this is what he says in Luke's Gospel, 1910. The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost. This is grace.

Grace tries. It doesn't mean it excuses the wrongs. It's not firm when it needs to be firm against wrong or the impenitent.

But it does mean if it has a chance to bring forth a solution, it's going to do that. I've known many illegalists. It's very hard for them to get out of it, too, once they're in it. And they have a way of making everybody else feel that they are the model.

And I think whenever they're doing that, the reality is they're worse. They've learned to cover their sins and fool some of the people. Grace, that is what the New Testament, ministers of grace, that's who we are.

The goodness of God that is not deserved, but it is not recklessly poured out either. If you want to go to your grave thinking that there's no such thing as male and female, grace will not help you because you have rejected it. He made them male and female. How dare you touch that? They can't even get the right amount of colors in the rainbow. You notice that? There's missing one. It's like, man, that's dumb.

It's not a rainbow now. Anyway, they try to hijack things. That's what they do.

Teens beware of them. They hijack words, everything. You know, it used to be, you know, if you got a bonus in your paycheck, you were happy and gay. They stole that word. They tried to steal that word, and now if you say you're happy and gay, you're something else.

And now they don't even want you to use that word. Satan is a serious deal. God is more serious. Choose him.

Sorry, make sure I'm not messing up my time. Verse 43, so then Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father and Rehoboam his son reigned in his place. So, I mean, what else is to say? He was influenced by lower urges to give in. He imported idolatry into the promised land.

This brought down the judgment on him. The chronicles do not record the sad ending of Solomon because the chronicles are written for those Jews coming back into the promised land, and God is encouraging them and not looking to remind them. They didn't need that reminder and was buried in the city of David his father. There's no record of Solomon giving the spiritual send-off to Rehoboam that David gave to Solomon. Remember, we covered that. Solomon be a man, and where did Solomon give that to Rehoboam?

It doesn't seem to have done it. As magnificent materialistically speaking as he was spiritually, he was a pauper. The name of Solomon, it never moved the hearts of the people like the name of David. That's why we talked about how many times David's name shows up in Scripture and so ends the gloom and the failure that was so full of promise that scares us, it spooked us.

But yet, Judas is a worst-case disaster. And Rehoboam, his son reigned in his place. He inherited an incredible kingdom and lost it. That's what's going to happen, this kingdom. My nickname for Rehoboam is migraine, because whenever I think of how much of a fool he was, I get a migraine.

And his dumber friends, man, when we get to them, we'd be glad to get past them too. There's one other point this evening that I think I passed over, and maybe I'll have to wait until next time. I wanted to comment on situational ethics, but I did not want to comment on it, the sense of entitlement. This situational ethics, the end justifies the means. This is not Christian.

This is the world, and it's very dangerous. God has not left questions of right or wrong to be decided by changing circumstances. There's grace given to the leaders. Jesus said, what you bind, I'll bind, what you let loose, I'll let loose, because I understand you're going to be in tricky situations when you don't know the clear answer. I don't want you fretting over that.

You've got to make a call sometimes, and I'll back you up. It doesn't mean it would be the right call, but anything less would mean nobody would want the job. This is what Paul says in 2 Timothy. Also, if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.

According to the rules. So you can run like a winner or run like a sinner is what God is saying. In other words, it matters.

It matters. The rules do matter, and Solomon was the one that felt he was above these rules, and it brought a lot of pain to other people. Well, that's it for Solomon.

Next up, Rehoboam and Jeroboam go at it. Let's pray. Our Father, may we take to heart all the lessons that you give to us. May it sink down into the lives, especially of our youth, who, Lord, may be missing it or maybe getting it. May they get it and may they never lose it. May you protect them from Satan who wants to pick them off. May your blessings be on their lives. May they grow into people who not only love you but will serve you and will preach Jesus Christ. We ask you in Jesus' name.

Amen. 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.

We trust that what you've heard today in the book of 1 Kings has had a lasting imprint on your life. If you'd like to listen to more teachings from this series or share it with someone you know, please visit crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just visit crossreferenceradio.com and follow the links under radio. Again, that's crossreferenceradio.com. Our time with you today is about up, but we hope you'll tune in next time to continue studying the Word of God. Join us again as Pastor Rick covers more in the book of 1 Kings on Cross-Reference Radio.