Transcript How the Mighty Fall

How the Mighty Fall
Fallen Heroes of the Old Testament
SOLOMON
David’s Family
WIVES
Michal (Saul’s Daughter)
CHILDREN
Ahinoam ----------------------------------------1. Amnon
Abigal (Nabal’s Widow)-----------------------2. Chileab (Daniel)
Hebron
Maacah (Daughter of King of Geshur) ---3. Absalom
Tamar
Haggith-------------------------------------------4. Adonijah
Abital ---------------------------------------------5. Shephatiah
Eglah ---------------------------------------------6. Ithream
Boaz
Obed
Jesse
Ruth
Jerusalem
DAVID
Bathsheba (Uriah’s Wife) -------------------7. Shammua (Shimea)
8. Shobab
9. Nathan
10. Solomon
Other Wives and Concubines
11. Ibhar
14. Nogah 17. Elishama
12. Elishua (Elisama) 15. Nepheg 18. Eliada (Beeliada)
13. Eliphelet (Elpelet) 16. Japhia 19. Eliphelet
David’s Commission to Solomon
2 Kings 2:1-4
1 As David's time to die drew near, he charged Solomon his son,
saying,
2 "I am going the way of all the earth. Be strong, therefore, and
show yourself a man.
3 "Keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to
keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances, and His
testimonies, according to what is written in the Law of Moses,
that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn,
4 so that the Lord may carry out His promise which He spoke
concerning me, saying, 'If your sons are careful of their way, to
walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their
soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.'
1 Kings 3:1-4
A Dynasty is Launched
1 Then Solomon formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt,
and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her to the city of David until he
had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall
around Jerusalem.
2 The people were still sacrificing on the high places, because there was no
house built for the name of the Lord until those days.
3 Now Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David,
except he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
4 The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high
place; Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.
1 Kings 3:5-9
Solomon’s Prayer
5 In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night; and God
said, "Ask what you wish me to give you."
6 Then Solomon said, "You have shown great loving kindness to Your servant
David my father, according as he walked before You in truth and
righteousness and uprightness of heart toward You; and You have reserved
for him this great loving kindness, that You have given him a son to sit on his
throne, as it is this day.
7 "Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my
father David, yet I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come
in.
8 "Your servant is in the midst of Your people which You have chosen, a great
people who are too many to be numbered or counted.
9 "So give your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to
discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of
Yours?"
1 Kings 3:10-15
God’s Response
It was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing.
11 God said to him, "Because you have asked this thing and have not asked for
yourself long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the
life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand
justice,
12 behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a
wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you,
nor shall one like you arise after you.
13 "I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so
that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days.
14 "IF you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments, as your
father David walked, THEN I will prolong your days."
15 Then Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream.
1 Kings 3:16
Two Women
Solomon’s Wisdom
Now God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like
the sand that is on the seashore.
30 Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the
wisdom of Egypt.
31 For he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol and Darda,
the sons of Mahol; and his fame was known in all the surrounding nations.
32 He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005.
33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows
on the wall; he spoke also of animals and birds and creeping things and fish. Men came
from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who
had heard of his wisdom.
1 Kings 10:6-8
Queen of Sheba
"It was a true report which I heard
in my own land about your words
and your wisdom.
"Nevertheless I did not believe the
reports, until I came and my eyes
had seen it. And behold, the half
was not told me. You exceed in
wisdom and prosperity the report
which I heard.
"How blessed are your men, how
blessed are these your servants
who stand before you continually
and hear your wisdom.
1 Kings 10:23-24
Greater Than All of the Kings on Earth…
So King Solomon became
greater than all the kings of
the earth in riches and in
wisdom. All the earth was
seeking the presence of
Solomon, to hear his wisdom
which God had put in his
heart.
Wealth Beyond Imagination
“I have also given
you what you have
not asked, both
riches and honor,
so that there will
not be any among
the kings like you
all your days.”
1 Kings 4
One Day’s Provision for Solomon’s Court
• 30 kors of fine flour (kor = about what a donkey
could carry on its back -- about 6½ bushels)
• 60 kors of meal
• 23 fat oxen
• 20 pasture feed oxen
• 100 sheep
• Plus… deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl
1 Kings 10
“Some Very Nice Dinner Ware”
• 666 talents of gold/year
• All drinking and eating
vessels were pure gold
1 Kings 10:1-4
The Beginning of the End
1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the
daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and
Hittite women,
2 from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of
Israel, "You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate
with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods. "
Solomon held fast to these in love.
3 He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred
concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.
4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after
other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his
God, as the heart of David his father had been.
Deuteronomy 7:3-4
Dire Warning
Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you
shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you
take their daughters for your sons.
"For they will turn your sons away from following Me to
serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be
kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you.
1 Kings 10:1-4
The Beginning of the End
1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the
daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and
Hittite women,
2 from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of
Israel, "You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate
with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods. "
Solomon held fast to these in love.
3 He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred
concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.
4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after
other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his
God, as the heart of David his father had been.
Nehemiah 13:23-27
“Don’t Be Like Solomon!”
23 In those days I also saw that the Jews had married women from Ashdod,
Ammon and Moab.
24 As for their children, half spoke in the language of Ashdod, and none of
them was able to speak the language of Judah, but the language of his own
people.
25 So I contended with them and cursed them and struck some of them and
pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, "You shall not give your
daughters to their sons, nor take of their daughters for your sons or for
yourselves.
26 "Did not Solomon king of Israel sin regarding these things? Yet among
the many nations there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God,
and God made him king over all Israel; nevertheless the foreign women
caused even him to sin.
27 "Do we then hear about you that you have committed all this great evil
by acting unfaithfully against our God by marrying foreign women?"
1 Kings 11:1
Solomon’s Wives
• Egyptian (Daughter of the
Pharaoh
• Moabite -- Descendants of Lot
• Ammonite -- Descendants of Lot
• Edomite -- Descendants of Esau
• Sidonian (Phoenicians)
• Hittite (Syrian)
1 Kings 11:5-6
One Thing Leads to Another
For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians
and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites.
6 Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not
follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done.
1 Kings 11:6
“Evil in the Sight of the Lord”
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1 Kings 15:26, 34
1 Kings 16:19, 25, 30
1 Kings 22:52
2 Kings 3:2
2 Kings 8:18
2 Kings 13:2
1 Kings 11:4 and 6
Not Like Father, Like Son
11:4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his
heart away after other gods; and his heart was not
wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of
David his father had been.
11: 6 Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord,
and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had
done.
1 Kings 11:7-8
One Thing Leads to Another
7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable
idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for
Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon.
8 Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense
and sacrificed to their gods.
California MetroLink Crash
September 2008
Deuteronomy 17:16-17
Rules for Kings…
"When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and
live in it, and you say, 'I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,'
15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses, one from
among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a
foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.
16 "Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he
cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the
Lord has said to you, 'You shall never again return that way.'
17 "He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will
turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.
18 "Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write
for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.
19 "It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to
fear the Lord his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes,
20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn
aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may
continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.
God’s Promises and Warnings
How Could This Possibly Happen?
• He didn’t see the warnings
• He felt immune, … after all,
he was pretty “cool.”
“We fool ourselves
by the smallness of
our surrenders.”
1 Kings 10:23
“I’m Above It All
“King Solomon became
greater than all of the kings
of the earth in riches and
wisdom.”
How Could This Possibly Happen?
• He didn’t see the warnings
• He felt immune, … after all,
he was pretty “cool.”
Proverbs 30:8-9
“Lord, Please Bless Me, … But Not Too Much”
“Keep deception and lies far from me, Give me neither
poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food that is my
portion, 9 That I not be full and deny You and say,
"Who is the Lord?" Or that I not be in want and steal,
and profane the name of my God.”
Oliver Goldsmith
The Deserted Village
“Ill fares the land, to
hastening ills a prey, Where
wealth accumulates, and
men decay…”
Psalm 20:6-7; Psalm 33:16-20
“Father Knows Best”
Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He will answer him
from His holy heaven With the saving strength of His right hand.
Some boast in chariots and some in horses, But we will boast in
the name of the Lord, our God. (Psalm 20)
The king is not saved by a mighty army; A warrior is not
delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory;
Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Behold, the eye
of the Lord is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His
loving kindness, to deliver their soul from death And to keep
them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help
and our shield. (Psalm 33)
How Could This Possibly Happen?
• He didn’t see the warnings
• He felt immune, … after all,
he was pretty “cool.”
• He didn’t believe in the
warnings
Sooner or Later, the Foundation Matters
1 Kings 11:4 and 6
Not Like Father, Like Son
11:4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his
heart away after other gods; and his heart
was not
wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the
heart of David his father had been.
11: 6 Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord,
and did not follow
father had done.
the Lord fully, as David his
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
“My Conclusions…”
“The conclusion, when all has been heard,
is: fear God and keep His commandments,
because this applies to every person. For
God will bring every act to judgment,
everything which is hidden, whether it is
good or evil.”
1 Corinthians 10: 11-12
Now these things happened to them as an
example, and they were written for our
instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have
come.
Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed
that he does not fall.
Your Thoughts?