1 Kings 8:60

so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God and that there is no other.

We’ve been tracing this from Genesis that God wants people to know who He is. He’s used all different kinds of things. He’s revealed Himself in many different ways to many different people. We get to Abraham (Genesis 12) where He says, "Through your seed, Abraham, all the nations of the earth will be blessed." I want you to keep in mind that even though we read about the Israelite Nation in the Old Testament, we’re really looking at God speaking and working through other people at the same time so that all peoples can know who He is. We’ve seen many examples of this and we’ll see many more.

Now turn to chapter 10. We’re going to see the split in the kingdom. I want to read some scripture that covers this split. If you read that and see the pattern for how the kings are introduced for Judah and Israel, you (anyone) can read the rest of 1^st Kings and all of 2^nd Kings and really understand it. It’s the same pattern repeated over and over.

1 Kings 10:23-29

King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift--articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules. Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills. Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt and from Kue --the royal merchants purchased them from Kue. They imported a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. They also exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and of the Arameans.

This is talking about Solomon’s splendor.

The point is that David united the kingdoms for the first time since the book of Exodus. Solomon takes over and goes even further because of his wisdom. All the riches are coming to Israel. David took it to a certain height. Solomon took it to an even greater height.

I told you that when you get through Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (which is right after 1^st and 2^nd Chronicles which parallel what we’re reading), you reach the chronological end of the Old Testament. You’re done. You’ve reached a point of about 430 BC and the quiet or silent time between the Old Testament and New Testament. So we are very close to the chronological end of the Old Testament.

We have other books after Esther (e.g., Job, Psalms, Proverbs, etc.). We will study those books, but those were written during the time period we’re studying now. Job was probably written during Genesis. Most of the Psalms were written by David. Then you get to Proverbs. We’re not going to cover Proverbs this morning but I want to make a connection between Solomon (how wise he was and how everyone on earth came to him for wisdom) and Proverbs.

Proverbs 1:1-2

The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight;

Proverbs is one of those books that gives you a lot of wisdom about living your life. You’ll hear me say when we get to Proverbs that there are 31 chapters in Proverbs, there are 31 days in a month, and you could read one chapter a day. By the time you finish the month, you will have read all the Proverbs. I highly recommend you start this. It’s very simple. If it’s the 17^th day of the month, what Proverb do you read? Proverbs 17. This is a way of learning and understanding some of the thinking Solomon had during the time he was king. Read Proverbs.

After Proverbs, we have a book called "Ecclesiastes." If you look at it, this is a book that some skeptics, critics, and doubters really love to read.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-2

The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem: "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."

By the time you get through reading Ecclesiastes, you are down in the dumps. Nothing is worth anything. This is the wisest person ever, speaking. He does give an answer toward the end of Ecclesiastes that we won’t explore today. We’ll wait until we get to Ecclesiastes and I’ll build a case.

These are the books written by Solomon. Here we are in 1^st Kings but over in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, we see what Solomon (through the power of the Holy Spirit) authored.

Remember that this is a kind of overview of the Old Testament so that if anyone asks you about it, you can give an accounting of the Old Testament.

Let’s go back to 1^st Kings. We just finished reading chapter 10. What feelings did you have at the end of chapter 10? Or, what feelings do you think they had about all these riches and wisdom? It’s good. The good times are here.

1 Kings 11:1a

King Solomon, however,

Uh oh. Here we go again. You’ve heard me talk about the "but" verses.

1 Kings 11:1b

loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter--Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites.

Remember. They weren’t supposed to be living at this time. God told the Israelites to get rid of them when they first entered the Promised Land.

1 Kings 11:2-3

They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, "You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods." Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.

Is there any doubt?

1 Kings 11:4-6

As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done.

Last week, I mentioned the "high places" and Asherah poles. Asherus was a sex goddess. They had male and female prostitutes in shrines and temples. Molech was a god that dealt with child sacrifice. This is how bad things have become. The more you read about this Nation now, the more you’ll see how far they get from God. God is showing them who He is, but they get away from it.

1 Kings 11:7

On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites.

Remember what I told you about high places. It is a religious site or shrine. Here is Solomon building one for these "gods."

1 Kings 11:8

He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.

This is similar to the New Testament verse that says, "Do not be yoked unequally." People can start asking, "Well, does that mean dating and business relationships?" Here, in the Old Testament, God says, "Don’t be unequally yoked." They were and there were problems. People were led astray. Solomon was led astray.

1 Kings 11:9-13

The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD's command. So the LORD said to Solomon, "Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen."

This is a prophetic saying right now but we will see it fulfilled shortly.

Someone asked, "If Solomon was so wise, how could he have these problems?" Is that a fair question to ask?

<He might have known it was wrong but was willfully weak. Just because we know right from wrong doesn’t mean we always do what is right.>

<Other kings were doing it. He took on the ways of this world.>

Why didn’t his wisdom rule out in this?

<Maybe it wasn’t spiritual wisdom. Maybe he had a big head. Maybe he got satisfied and content. Jesus was the only person ever to remain sinless. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.>

I think that is what’s going on here. You can look and say, "Well, Solomon should have known." He probably did know. But the flesh in us really raises its’ ugly head and we give in to it. It’s a lesson for us that the wisest man who ever lived still gave in to the flesh. He still had that fleshly desire and fleshly attention to the world, to women, and to things. I think it was the flesh. We cannot disregard the flesh in our lives today as Christians. We’ll study that in the New Testament.

<Yes, Solomon had wisdom but he lacked a balance with discipline, humility, and love. He didn’t have the other counter-balancing traits that God has. God’s wisdom alone will not save us. God’s love alone will save us.>

None of us are as wise as Solomon. None of us would even start to say we’re as wise as Solomon. But there is probably a time during our Christian walk where we say, "You know, I think I have it figured out now. I think I know how the flesh works and I know how Christian maturity works. I have it all figured out." You know what the next step is, don’t you? You will fall flat on your face. God says, "It is not in pride but in humility that you come to me." Obviously, Solomon had some pride. With everything that was happening to him, the prideful flesh took over. We see his wisdom in Proverbs and we see him struggling in Ecclesiastes. We see him struggling with "What is the meaning of life?" even though he had everything anyone could possibly want.

1 Kings 11:41-43

As for the other events of Solomon's reign--all he did and the wisdom he displayed--are they not written in the book of the annals of Solomon? Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. Then he rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son succeeded him as king.

Does anyone remember how many years Saul reigned? 40 years. David reigned for 40. Solomon reigned for 40 years. We’ve had 120 years of kings.

Now we get to Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. Starting in chapter 12, some of you may have the heading "The Divided Kingdom" in your Bible. This is key to understanding Jewish history and where the tribes are.

1 Kings 12:1-5

Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all the Israelites had gone there to make him king. When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: "Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you." Rehoboam answered, "Go away for three days and then come back to me." So the people went away.

You can read about Jeroboam earlier in 1^st Kings.

This is called blackmail. "If you lighten up, we’ll serve you." This is what they’re doing. They are dealing with the king, the descendant from Solomon, Rehoboam.

You can read about the advice he gets and whom he consults—the young people and the old people.

1 Kings 12:12-16

Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, "Come back to me in three days." The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, he followed the advice of the young men and said, "My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions." So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the LORD, to fulfill the word the LORD had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite. When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king: "What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse's son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David!" So the Israelites went home.

Remember that it has already been prophesied that the kingdom would be torn from him.

This is the split. The split occurs. Remember back in Joshua that they broke up the Land for the tribes (the children of Israel). As they split, Jerusalem is now in what is called the Southern Kingdom (Judah). From now on, when you read the prophets and the rest of Kings, pay attention to references to the Southern Kingdom (Judah) or the Northern Kingdom (Israel). Today, Israel refers to all the Land but at this point in time in the Old Testament, Israel refers only to the Northern Kingdom. Ten tribes are in the north and two tribes are in the south (Judah and Benjamin).

Just like the North and the South during the American Civil War, the Nation splits. They split because of how harsh Rehoboam was treating them. But even before that, it was because of Solomon’s disobedience to God and leading people astray. God said, "I’m going to tear the kingdom from you." This is God’s judgment. We’re going to see this judgment continue. We’ll get to that.

Remember that Jerusalem is referred to as the City of David. This is where Solomon’s Temple is built and the male Jews (Israelites) are supposed to come three times a year to make sacrifices. The Ark of the Covenant is here. So, the center of the religion and worship is in Jerusalem. Does everybody understand that? What we’re about to read is going to change all that.

1 Kings 12:17

But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.

Rehoboam still ruled over Judah. He is the king of Judah. The king of Israel is Jeroboam. It’s interesting that their names are so close.

1 Kings 12:18-20

King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David.

1 Kings 12:25-27

Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel. Jeroboam thought to himself, "The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam."

How does that sound? This king is saying that when his ten tribes go down to Jerusalem, they’ll be influenced by the people of Judah. King Rehoboam’s people will be handing out leaflets saying, "Hey, come back to us. Stop this civil strife." That’s what Jeroboam is thinking, "If they go down there, that’s what is going to happen."

Now listen to this. Those of you who’ve been through Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers are going to be shocked. Here we are with people who call themselves worshippers of God.

1 Kings 12:28a

After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem.

Golden calves!!?

"It’s just too hard for you to go to church. It’s too far away. The roads are too dusty. People will rob you."

1 Kings 12:28b

Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."

What!? Are you all as shocked as I am when you read this? Here is Jeroboam, the king of Israel that served under Saul, David, and Solomon. They have heard, seen, and know about Jehovah God, Elohim. They are still worshipping idols! Here is a king saying, "I’m giving you golden calves to worship as they are the gods who brought you up out of Egypt." What do you think of that?

<I think it must have been a lot of fun, somehow or another, to worship those idols. They must have been able to do a lot more stuff and not get in trouble with those gods. Something is drawing those people back to idol worship. They are being told that something wrong is OK if you worship the idols. What gets me is that these people actually had God appearing to them. They could see Him. They could talk to Him. I mean we can talk to Him but He doesn’t vocally answer us. You have to keep a journal and over time, you’ll see how God is working with you and answering prayer. For them, it was immediate. These people were willing to bail on God at the drop of a hat to get involved in this idol worship. It’s just amazing to me that they could have this first-hand knowledge of God and for some reason keep being drawn back to those idols.>

Why do they keep going back to idols? One reason is lifestyle. If this is the lifestyle I want to have then these are the gods I want to support my lifestyle. I’ll create them. What if we have idols today in our lives and we don’t know what they are? Of course they are not the images of golden calves, but there are other idols.

Some of you may have the NIV Study Bible. Look at page 575. You have something called "The Appeal of Idols." Do you have that? Read that. It talks about the power, passion, pleasure, praise, and popularity of idols. The idea is, if you haven’t studied about idol worship, why did people turn from God to idols? Today, what kinds of idols could we have and not know it? Think about power, passions, and pleasures. Here’s the challenge: You may not have any physical idols in your house but think about this… If you grew up developing your concept of God (Creator, Sustainer, and Savior) by listening to your parents talk or act a certain way, hearing and seeing other "Christians" act a certain way, you could get yourself molded into thinking that you’re worshipping God but it’s a God you’ve created. I’m not saying you’re not saved. Hold on a minute.

You could definitely be saved but your image or concept of God is not what it should be. It’s not the God of the Bible. When we look at these people, that’s what they called God. Here’s how bad it’s going to get: They are going to take the Temple, arrange the things according to God’s instruction, and then place other idols inside the Temple. Do you know why they will do it? To make it easier. So that when you go to church, you can worship Jehovah God for 30 minutes, turn around, and worship Asherah, Chemosh, or Molech. Why? They were trying to satisfy their lifestyle. It’s what they wanted. It’s what they wanted to do and what they thought should happen to them. That’s how they constructed their religion. It began for God, Jehovah, but they added to it to satisfy themselves.

One of the errors Satan can deceive us into making is us putting God in a box. Then we have all these other things that are just like these idols. They are right there along with them. We justify them. The quickest way to find one of these idols is when I say something, the pastor says something, or more importantly, when you’re reading the Bible, and the Holy Spirit starts pounding on you. You say, "Wait a minute! What do you mean ‘Forgive my sister for what she said to me or my brother for what he did to me.’" Something just starts pounding on you because in your mind, for example, you may have a definition of "forgiveness" that is not biblical. It’s what you’ve created and you think that’s the way God forgave you. Do you hear what I’m saying? In other words, your definition of forgiveness may say, "As long as I do this, that, and the other, God will forgive me." That’s not the forgiveness God shows us in the Bible. God in the Bible says, "I sent my Son to die for you and forgive you of sins forever." That’s God. Can you believe that? If that’s true then you can forgive anyone. I’ve picked on "forgiveness" but it could be anything.

When we look at these people, we say, "How can they possibly do that?" It’s easy. It’s easy for us today. They had the idols and they were going after power, passion, pleasure, praise, popularity, etc. They put them out there and thought, "We can have God and we can have our idols at the same time." God says, "No." What was the one thing He told the Hebrews? The First Commandment? There is no other God. "It’s me and only me. That’s it." Think about our lives. What do we devote our time, our talents, and our thoughts to? What do we devote all our energy to as Christians? You’ve heard this before. Compare the amount of time you spend with and for God to the time you devote to other things. You don’t think you have idols in your life? They are there and we must get rid of them. It’s a revolutionary lifestyle I’m talking about as a Christian. We have to do it.

<You’re talking about these people. If we look back 3000 years at these crude, unsophisticated, nomadic people, they have set up these golden calves. When we compare current-day, American society to these people, we are light years ahead of where they were. So our "golden calf" must be light years ahead of their golden calves. What is our "golden calf" today?>

It could be a career. It could be your children. Your children could become an idol in your life. It could be yourself. Absolutely—what I want to do and be.

When we get to the New Testament, we will talk about the process of becoming separate (called sanctification). You have the world and the Spirit. When you become a Christian, what God says you are to do is become like Christ. This involves recognizing the idols or self or whatever and remove them. Get rid of them. Don’t become dependent on them. They are worldly. They have nothing for us. They are empty. We’re going to see that with Solomon over in Ecclesiastes. "Meaningless, meaningless. Everything is meaningless." This is what we are to be doing as Christians every day of our lives, not just on Sunday. Every day of our life, we are to be conformed to the image of Christ. This is called a process of sanctification or becoming separate.

Why be separate? Because you are a new creation. God, through His Son Jesus Christ, has made us a new creature. Old things have passed away. All things have become new. That means we are to live a different life here. As we live a different life, all other nations will see that. That’s the witness and testimony we have. It is not for us to look good as Christians. It is not. We don’t become sanctified and separate and say, "Look what I’ve done. Look how I’ve achieved this." The "I" is still in there. The only person that can make you separate is Christ, not you. You cannot do it. You cannot be a Christian. It is spiritually impossible for anyone here to be a Christian of themselves—to say, "I’m going to act like a Christian." As soon as you say that, you are not listening to what the Bible says.

The Bible says, "Take up your cross daily (sacrifice yourself) and let Christ dwell in you." Paul said, "I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. But it is not I but Christ who lives in me and motivates me and tells me what to do through the power of the Holy Spirit." It is a life of freedom. It is complete freedom. It is no longer bound by anything on this earth. It is no longer bound by these idols. Do you know what these idols did? We read about some of the problems they had early on with these idols. Remember when Rebekah hid them under her so that no one could find them? They are a burden. You have to take care of them. You have to feed them or polish them. They are worthless, though. The Bible tells us that. "Go to your idols and see if they will deliver you."

The deception from Satan is to say, "Well, you are not a cult member or a devil worshipper." He’ll convince you of that and you’ll conclude that you are therefore not an idol worshipper. Twenty-five years ago, I had an obsession with football. It was an idol to me. At times, my yard becomes an idol to me—my yard has to be clean and neat. Don’t run over it and get out of the way. If you ask the Holy Spirit to show you idols in your life, He will show them to you. They will be real. They will be things that you do not want to turn loose of. They give you some kind of momentary pleasure or momentary power. But when you really look at it, it takes you away from God. Satan deceives on it.

Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

A daily devotional is a great help to make us aware of idols in our lives. In my mind and in my life, when I’m reading, I am convicted. I’ll be reading along and say, "Wow. That’s true in my life. I cannot deny that." That is allowing the Holy Spirit to work on you. Now I am not saying read daily devotionals without the Bible. What you’ll find is that when you get into those, it’ll tell you to read the Bible and then read their comments.

1 Kings 12:29

One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan.

This is interesting. Look up Dan and Bethel on a map. You can see how some would go to Bethel and some to Dan. No one had to go to Jerusalem anymore. It made it real easy.

1 Kings 14:22-24a

Judah did evil in the eyes of the LORD. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than their fathers had done. They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices

This is Rehoboam, as king of Judah.

That is the wording you will read throughout the rest of Kings: high places, Asherah poles, sacred stones, etc. That will be the distinction.

1 Kings 15:1-3

In the eighteenth year of the reign of Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijah became king of Judah, and he reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother's name was Maacah daughter of Abishalom. He committed all the sins his father had done before him; his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his forefather had been.

You will have charts (in the workbook and also in many of your Bibles) that will show you the kings and how long they ruled.

Here’s what will happen: the Bible will say, "This king came into Israel/Judah during the XX^th year of that king’s reign in Judah/Israel." It will give you the name, when he started to reign, and how long he reigned in relation to the king of the opposite kingdom. This is how you can track who the kings were and more importantly, how they each responded to God’s word—did they walk in the ways of the Lord or did they do evil in the eyes of the Lord. This is what I want you to track for the rest of Kings.