“The Tragedy of A Poor Finish” – FBC Morning Light (6/2/2023)

Well, a good Friday morning to you, coming to another weekend and looking forward to the Lord's Day. I hope you can gather with us as we assemble this coming Sunday. We're going to have a little different schedule this Lord's Day, regular Sunday school hour at 9 .30 and then morning service at 10 .30.

And then after the morning service, we're going to gather at Centennial Park in Rock Falls and have a potluck sort of a meal together, a good time of fellowship outside, weather permitting. So we're planning that this Sunday after the morning service.

Solomon’s Divided Heart and Foreign Wives

Well, today in our Bible reading plan, we're reading in 1 Kings 11 and 12, Acts 21 and Psalm 110. And 1 Kings 11 is really kind of a hard chapter to read because of the previous grandeur of Solomon's kingdom.

Now we've pointed out along the way, we did just yesterday, that all of the grandeur can be a great indicator of God's blessing, His gracious blessing upon the nation, upon Solomon. But in all of that splendor, there was some subtle little indicators of some problems.

One of those problems goes all the way back to chapter 3, where Solomon made this treaty with Pharaoh. And to sort of reinforce the treaty, he took Pharaoh's daughter as his wife, brought her to Jerusalem, and made her his queen.

Well today, we read that she wasn't his only one. Oh, and by the way, we also pointed out the problem with the chariots and the horses at the end of chapter 10 yesterday. So in the grandeur of his kingdom, there have been some indicators, some hints, that all is not well, and bode some challenging days ahead.

Idolatry, a Divided Heart, and the Lord’s Judgment

Alright, so we come to chapter 11, and here we discover that Solomon really has a problem when it comes to women. It says that Solomon loved many foreign women, not just Pharaoh's daughter. Many foreign women.

Women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites, from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, you shall not intermarry with them nor they with you. A very clear violation of what was a very clear command.

And the Lord explained why. He said, because they will turn your hearts after their gods. Well Solomon clung to these in love, the end of verse 2 says, and he had 700 wives who were princesses, and in addition to that, 300 concubines.

Women that he took into his harem that didn't have the privileges of wifedom, but nevertheless had the, he had the privileges of them, and treating them as, with the benefits of having them as wives. So these 1 ,000 women that Solomon took to himself, tolerating wrong affections and acting upon them, will inevitably lead you away from loyalty to the Lord and his word.

That hint of divided, of a divided heart, is all the way back in chapter 3. He loved the Lord, but he also wanted this treaty with Pharaoh and wanted Pharaoh's daughter for himself. That was just the starting point.

And that division in his heart for something other than what God has said, for something that which God has prohibited, only grows throughout his reign as a king. And so we find in verse 4, that when Solomon was old, that his wives, just as God had warned, turned his heart after other gods, and his heart, Solomon's, was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.

So he had a divided heart, a love for God to some extent, but a diminishing love for God as he got older, and a love for his wives and their gods increased. Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.

Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David. He built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the people of Ammon.

And he ended up leading the rest of the people of Israel, many of them, into that kind of idolatry. And he did this for all his wives, his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

And so here he is, in old age, he has allowed his divided heart to be even more divided, and that part of his heart that was disloyal to the Lord became dominant. And so, as a result, along comes adversity and opposition.

Verse 9 says, the Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel. And the Lord said, okay, from here on out, you're going to have adversity, you're going to have problems, and furthermore, the kingdom is going to be divided because of the divided nature of your heart.

And the majority of the people of Israel, the majority of the land of Israel, is going to go after paganism, and there's just going to be a small remnant, just like the small remnant of Solomon's heart that had some love for God, the majority of his heart did not.

It's going to be reflected nationally. And so, for the rest of chapter 11, you find these different adversaries that rise up. He has three different adversaries that give him grief until the end of his life.

And you know, adversity and opposition in life may be, may be a form of punishment, the consequences of departing from the Lord. Not necessarily so, in fact, many times the Lord uses adversity and difficulty and opposition in our lives simply as refining tools, or refining fire, if you will.

But in the case of Solomon, it was actually a form of punishment, and in the end, Solomon dies. Alas, how tragic not to end well. Oh, may it be our desire as God's people to grow in our love for him, to diminish any area of our heart that is not true to him, and that we would truly end well by God's grace.

Prayer to End Well

Let's pray to that end. Our Father and our God, on this last workday of the week, we pray that as we enter into the weekend, our hearts would be challenged and encouraged to love you more and more deeply, more faithfully.

And Father, I pray that, I pray that we would continue to grow in grace and the knowledge of our God and our love for our Savior, so that in the end, we might end well. We pray this in Jesus' name. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Friday and a wonderful weekend, and again, if you can join us on the Lord's Day, we'd be glad for you to come Sunday morning, 9 .30 for Sunday school, 10 .30 morning service, and then about 12 .30, 1 o 'clock, we're assembling for a picnic out in Centennial Park.

Have a good rest of your day. God bless.