Participants: Pr. Doug Batchelor
Series Code: EG
Program Code: EG002903
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00:09 It's been 2000 years since the glorious light of the cross
00:12 illuminated a world veiled in darkness and confusion about the 00:15 character of God. And still today the greatest need of 00:19 mankind is a revelation of God's love as revealed in the life of 00:23 Christ. Amazing Facts presents the Everlasting Gospel with 00:26 Pastor Doug Batchelor coming to you each week from Sacramento 00:30 Central Church in sunny California. Discover hidden 00:34 treasures in God's word today. 00:37 Today we'll have the final installment, part V, of Solomon 00:43 and deal with the world's wisest fool. We had some interruptions 00:49 because of the holidays and travel but I think this is a 00:53 very important series. Up to this point as we've followed the 00:57 history of Solomon we've seen many examples where he is a 01:00 type of Christ. And he's the son of David of course. He built up 01:05 the house of the Lord. He was in great glory and riches and 01:09 wisdom. In many ways he's an echo as much as you could have 01:13 humanly of someone who was like Christ in many ways. He was 01:16 dedicated to the Lord. He loved the Lord. And up to this point 01:20 as we track the history of Solomon, we see that from the 01:24 time that he takes the throne and there was a life and death 01:28 battle right then, but secure in the throne he continued to go 01:32 up. He built up the temple, built up his house, became a 01:35 witness to all nations. We had two Sabbaths where we talked 01:39 about the pinnacle, the zenith, of the kingdom. And then the 01:42 gentiles flowed unto him, the wealth of the gentiles flowed 01:45 to him. They came to him seeking for witness. He was a light to 01:49 the whole world. Everything was good, good, very good and today 01:53 it's not so good. Something happens and he just sort of 02:01 falls off the other side. And it's not pleasant to talk about 02:05 but it presents a very important warning for us. How even a 02:10 person who is blessed with every single earthly advantage 02:14 when we begin to trust in ourselves without the wisdom of 02:18 God's Spirit, worldly wisdom can make you a fool. You know the 02:24 Bible says the wisdom of men is foolishness to God. And as 02:28 Solomon began to trust in himself, something started to 02:33 happen and he drifted away. Now you remember last week we talked 02:36 about the Queen of Sheba and how she came and the wealth was 02:40 flowing into Solomon. There's a very interesting passage that 02:43 happens. After this experience with the Queen of Sheba, he's 02:47 sort of on top of the world. That becomes the tipping point. 02:51 Now as we prepare to talk about the fall and the sin of Solomon, 02:56 I want to remind you that he is still in history considered a 03:03 good king. He had 25 or 30 years of faithfulness before this big 03:10 backsliding experience. And he did backslide big time. 03:14 But don't forget his father David had some backsliding of 03:18 his own and he'll be in the kingdom. So we need to look at 03:22 what happened and how Solomon fell. I don't know how far I 03:27 want you to take this next point but it struck me as interesting. 03:31 I thought that you might also find it interesting. The number 03:35 666, when you mention that number, I saw y'all look up. 03:40 I just mentioned it. Oh, you woke right up. I mean I've seen 03:44 that before. I'll never forget the time I was checking out of 03:49 a store and the tally of the goods I bought came up to $6.66. 03:55 And I remember the cashier, she said oh look at that 666. And I 03:59 I said, do you know what it means? She said no but it's bad. 04:05 That's all she knew. And I've got a friend and his phone 04:10 number is something 666 and I said does that make you nervous? 04:14 He said, no, people remember it. But you know, and if you go to 04:17 some event where the seats are numbered and you have to choose 04:21 between sitting in seat 666 or seat 667, you'll probably move 04:25 over one. Just because we're all that superstitious and we wonder 04:29 what does it mean. Well there are three times in the Bible you 04:34 find the number 666. Revelation, of course, 13. Then you've got 04:39 another example where you find 666 in the book of Ezra where it 04:42 says when the children of Israel came back from the captivity 04:49 there were the descendants of a man by the name of Adonichem. 04:50 That's where you get the word 04:53 Adoni is a name for God Adonichem 04:55 means the Lord has arisen. Six hundred and sixty-six people 04:59 came back with his group. And then the third time is 05:03 immediately after the visit of Sheba, in the story of Solomon. 05:08 By the way, you find it two times. You find it in I Kings 05:11 and you find it in II Chronicles 9:13. It says the weight of gold 05:17 that came to Solomon yearly, not just one time, yearly, was 666 05:23 talents of gold. Now I don't think that's a coincidence. 05:27 I'm not sure exactly what it means but I don't believe there 05:30 are any coincidences in God's word. Isn't it interesting. 05:34 Solomon's life goes like this. You get to the Queen of Sheba, 05:38 top of the mountain and then it says 666 and it goes down. 05:41 Do you think that's a coincidence? I thought that was 05:45 worthy of mention. Six, six, six is also what you call an 05:49 abundant number. That's what it means where it says that it 05:55 is the sum of one plus two plus three up to 36. But it's a 06:02 triangular number because 36 is 12 + 12 + 12. Now 12 is an 06:06 interesting biblical number. It represents the church. Three 06:11 times the same number equals 36 that leads to that abundant 06:16 number you add up the sum of that you get 666. Also there's 06:21 360 days in the Jewish year which I thought was interesting. 06:27 Six, six, six is the sum of the square of the first seven prime 06:33 numbers. Y'all remember the prime numbers? The first seven 06:38 prime numbers are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17. It is the sum of 06:42 those first seven prime numbers squared. The square of 2 plus 06:47 plus the square of 3, plus the square of 5, plus the square of 06:50 7, plus the square of 17 on up the first seven prime numbers is 06:54 666. And I even saw a graph one time where you get boxes in a 06:58 row. The Babylonians had done something where they took boxes 07:02 of 36 and it came to 666 of course. So it was sort of a 07:07 mystic number that represented man. It represents the kingdom 07:12 of man trusting in man and that's why it's also identified 07:17 with the beast. It's salvation by works, trusting in earthly 07:21 wisdom. We remember the seventh day to remember God as creator. 07:26 What day was man made? The sixth day. So it represents the number 07:31 of man. Anyway just thought I'd mention that, 666 talents of 07:35 gold and he starts going down hill after that is mentioned. 07:40 Now what ends up happening to Solomon is predicted by Moses. 07:45 Turn in your Bibles please to Deuteronomy 17. There's a 07:50 prophetic warning given for the very things that he fell into. 07:55 Good counsel for us. Today we're going to be talking about how to 07:59 avoid backsliding and if you have backslidden, how to repent. 08:06 Deuteronomy 17 verse 14: When you come to the land. By the way 08:11 if you circle or underline in your Bible I'd like to give you 08:16 a couple places you might underline here. When you come 08:19 to the land which the Lord your God is giving you and you 08:23 possess it and you dwell in it and you say I will set a king 08:26 over me like the other nations around me. Park for just a 08:30 second right there. You might underline, I will set a king 08:33 over me like the other nations. Were they supposed to have a 08:36 king like the other nations? You remember when they first went 08:39 to Samuel and said we want a king like the other nations and 08:42 it broke Samuel's heart. And God said, it's broken my heart more 08:45 than it's broken your heart. They haven't rejected you 08:47 Samuel, they've rejected me. It was God's plan that they were 08:51 a theocracy, not a monarchy. They were to be led by the Lord. 08:55 The high priest or the judge in Israel or the prophet was to be 08:59 the spokesman. He didn't design that they were to have a king 09:02 like other nations. They were to be a nation of priests led by 09:06 the Lord. That's what God said. So when they said we want 09:09 another king like the other nations, God said you don't know 09:12 what you're asking for. Oh, we want a king. You're going to be 09:15 sorry. Now God didn't use all that sarcasm in his voice that I 09:19 just had but that's pretty much what he told them. And they said 09:23 no, no, we want a king. We want a god we can see. See other 09:28 nations, they worshipped their kings as gods. Alexander the 09:31 Great said he was a god. The Cesar's said they were god. 09:34 The kings of Medo and Persia were worshipped as gods. And God 09:38 was very reluctant to give them a king that would be treated 09:41 that way. So first thing God predicted is that you're going 09:44 to end up asking for a king. It happened. He said if you do it, 09:48 make sure he's one of your brethren. You shall not have an 09:52 alien king over you. They finally did when they had Herod 09:55 the Great. He wasn't a pure Jew. He's to be one of your relatives 10:00 You're not to pick a king who is not one of your brothers. Then 10:04 he goes on and says, He shall not multiply horses to himself. 10:09 Notice that, underline multiply horses. Nor cause the people to 10:13 return to Egypt to multiply horses. Specifically he says 10:17 don't even go to Egypt to multiply horses. Because they 10:20 had these fields there by the river, a lot of horses that were 10:23 bred and trained in Egypt. The best horses. You've heard of 10:25 Arabian horses. They really came from Egypt to start with. For as 10:30 much as the Lord has said unto you henceforth you are not to 10:33 return to go to Egypt anymore. Neither shall he multiply wives 10:38 to himself. Underline there multiply wives. That his heart 10:42 turn not away. You multiply wives, they will turn your heart 10:47 away. This was written by Moses hundreds of years before Solomon 10:51 but it is really a history of exactly what happened to Solomon 10:55 exactly. Neither shall he greatly multiply to himself 11:00 silver and gold for himself. That's what Solomon did. 11:06 Keep in mind David had lots of silver and gold but he put it in 11:08 the treasury of the Lord for the temple of the Lord. He didn't 11:12 put it for himself. Now these were warnings that Moses gave 11:15 and when the kingdom reached it's pinnacle during the reign 11:19 of Solomon, Solomon after it said 666 and after the visit 11:24 of the Queen of Sheba it recites that all these things started to 11:27 take him down. But some people say I don't have to worry about 11:32 having too much money because you can still be rich and trust 11:36 the Lord. Or they might say, well you know I've been married 11:39 and I've been divorced and I've been married and I've been 11:42 divorced but you know you can still have a good relationship 11:45 with the Lord. Or they might say you know I've got a big house 11:48 and it's got a safe full of guns I've got my own arsenal. I've 11:51 got my horses and my chariots and you can have that and be a 11:55 Christian and still be saved. But when you start putting your 11:58 trust in these things and you start wandering from the thus 12:03 saith the Lord, you're going to go down. You can't. God is 12:07 merciful, it's true, but you can't walk near the edge that 12:11 long without tripping and something's going to happen. 12:15 And that's what Solomon was doing. He was trying to have as 12:18 much of the world as he could have and trust in the things of 12:21 the world and still have a relationship with God because 12:24 he said after all I'm the wisest man who ever lived. But he ended 12:28 up becoming the wisest fool in the world because he didn't 12:32 listen to what the Bible said. So now let's look at how the 12:36 history was fulfilled. You go to I Kings chapter 10 verse 28. 12:41 We see he started to trust in earthly armor. And Solomon had 12:46 horses imported from Egypt and Keveh. The kings merchants 12:51 bought them in Keveh. He began to do the very thing Moses said 12:56 don't do. He sent his merchants down there. Of course they had 13:00 interstates going from Solomon's kingdom to all the major 13:04 kingdoms and caravans going back and forth and ships going back 13:07 and forth. And he said, you know I want the best horses in the 13:11 world and the best trained chariot horses are the horses 13:15 of Egypt. And the reason they wanted those is because that was 13:19 back then like a nuclear weapon. I've been to Egypt and I've seen 13:24 the chariots there. They've excavated even the chariot of 13:28 Tutankhamun. You've probably seen Ben Hur before. And they 13:32 had these chariots and they would put almost like knives on 13:37 the chariot wheels and these Egyptian horses were like 13:41 Clydesdales. They weren't quite like the Arabian horses today. 13:44 They were a little more fleet and skittish and they'd go 13:48 charging through battle. Have any of you ever been up close 13:52 next to a Clydesdale? I knew you'd say yes, raise your hand. 13:55 I have too. And I remember one time three or four kids trying 13:59 to put a bridle on a Clydesdale and he lifted up his head and he 14:02 lifted them all off the ground. I mean, they are monsters. 14:05 And you put a chariot behind one of those and you go charging 14:08 through ground troops. It just mows them down. And so 14:13 whichever king had chariots. You notice in the battle when 14:17 Barak and Deborah went against Sisera and his forces, 14:19 it made a big deal 14:20 about the iron chariots. And they would put this armor on the 14:25 horses and they were like tanks. And so it was trusting in 14:30 earthly strength. Trusting in the weapons of the world. 14:34 Now we do need weapons as Christians but what kind of 14:38 weapons? The armor of God. And Solomon began to trust in the 14:43 armor of man. I mean when David went against Goliath. Solomon 14:47 knew David. Oh yeah, that was Dad. He went up against this man 14:51 who would talk about all his earthly armor and his father 14:55 brought him down with a rock and trust in the Lord. And God 14:59 was trying to remind his kings, I am your weapon. He wasn't 15:02 against having horses. He wasn't against having chariots. He said 15:05 don't put your trust in those things. Solomon began to do that 15:09 I've been to Israel and up by Megiddo they've got the... 15:13 excavated the stables of Solomon. Some of you maybe have 15:17 heard about this or you've been there. It's a common stop in the 15:20 trips when you go through the land of Israel. They just found 15:24 rows and rows and he treated his horses good. You know it 15:28 doesn't tell of any major battle of Solomon. I think it's okay to 15:34 have some weapons as a prevention. Maybe that's what 15:36 he was after. But he started putting his trust in it. I mean 15:39 we've got nuclear weapons still, we've knocked off 90 percent of 15:43 them, but both the Soviet and the U.S., we still have nuclear 15:46 weapons even though they've been greatly reduced. And we say it's 15:50 a deterrent. Well that's what he was thinking. You know, if I can 15:54 have enough of these chariots and horses, but God said don't 15:58 go down to Egypt. He started buying them from the enemy. 16:03 Don't put your trust in these. God was to be their trust. 16:08 This was our scripture reading. Thus says the Lord, let not the 16:12 wise man glory in his wisdom. Let not the mighty man glory in 16:16 his might nor let the rich man glory in his riches. But let him 16:20 who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, 16:23 that I am the Lord exercising loving kindness, judgment and 16:27 righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight says 16:32 the Lord. Well then it also said Solomon had been warned by Moses 16:37 not to multiply silver and gold. You read in II Chronicles 1:15, 16:42 he began to trust in earthly riches. Also the king made gold 16:48 and silver as common in Jerusalem as stones and he made 16:52 the cedars as abundant as the sycamores that are in the 16:56 lowlands. This represented wealth. The cedar and the logs 17:01 were used for the exotic homes. It always talks about, David 17:05 said I dwell in a house of cedar Solomon built a cedar house 17:09 and lived in it. Cedar was considered the timber for the 17:12 fine wood for the palaces. So it was silver and gold and earthly 17:18 homes. Is your trust in the bank account and the house? Is that 17:23 where your security is. We're finding out in this country that 17:27 people can lose their bank account and their house over 17:30 night. So did Solomon fall from Moses' counsel in that area? 17:35 Exactly. It says your kings shall not multiply silver and 17:40 gold and that's exactly what he did. Paul says, I Timothy 6:17: 17:45 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be 17:50 haughty or to trust in uncertain riches. We've learned how 17:55 uncertain they are. But in the living God who gives us richly 18:00 all things to enjoy. You know God is good and he's not against 18:04 our having some riches. He just says don't trust in those things 18:10 and I also want to remind you that Jesus did say, it's harder 18:15 for a rich man to enter the kingdom than for a camel to 18:18 go through the eye of a needle. Because we have a tendency when 18:22 we think about security, instead of looking up, we look at the 18:25 bank statement and that security needs to come from God. 18:30 You know the Bible talks about people who lost everything in 18:34 one day like Job. But Job kept trusting the Lord. He got it all 18:39 back. And the Lord can feed a nation in the wilderness with 18:45 nothing. God knows how to provide doesn't he? He knows 18:48 how to open the windows and pour out a blessing. God can 18:50 take care of us. And I think you need to be prudent. You know as 18:53 a Christian he wants us to be responsible. He wants us to be 18:56 frugal. I like that Methodists principle of you ought to try 19:00 and earn all you can. Don't be lazy. You ought to save all you 19:04 can and you ought to give all you can. The Bible has a lot to 19:08 say about being practical and responsible with earthly 19:13 blessings, but don't put your trust in those things. Now I 19:18 don't want to take that too far. It seems like good material for 19:21 another sermon. Then God also warned him, he shall not 19:28 multiply wives to himself. Now Solomon, he had an Achilles heel 19:34 in this area. First of all David was his father and David was a 19:38 romantic. Solomon was something of a romantic. The most romantic 19:43 book in the Bible was written by Solomon. What's it called? 19:45 Song of Solomon. It's a beautiful inspired love story 19:49 that tells about the love of Christ for his church and it's 19:55 written in a poem that was to be sung at a wedding. The Song 19:59 of Solomon has got a lot of prophetic information. I don't 20:03 have enough time to go into it, but it's something that Solomon 20:06 wrote. Matter of fact, it talks about the Shunammite. Many times 20:10 in the Song of Solomon, it talks about the Shunammite. And some 20:13 Bible scholars have speculated, and I'm a little romantic myself 20:18 and I think maybe it's true that David had a young lady named 20:24 Abishag that took care of him, a virgin in his last sickness, 20:28 and he never slept with her. Her name was Abishag and sought for 20:32 one of the most beautiful women in the kingdom when they found 20:36 her. And her job was just to keep David warm because he had 20:39 congestive heart failure and he was constantly shaking and cold. 20:43 And it is possible that Solomon fell in love with her and that 20:49 he married Abishag. So you find this beautiful story about the 20:53 Shunammite and that could be what it's talking about. But 20:59 that weakness he had for pretty girls became his downfall 21:04 because he began to multiply wives. Now in the beginning God 21:11 made one wife for one man. That's his plan. The Bible told 21:16 Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. God wanted Adam to 21:21 multiply with Eve, not to multiply Eves. There's a 21:29 difference. And evidently somewhere along the way some 21:32 man, matter of fact, even before the flood you find out about 21:35 this man, I think his name was Lamech, one of the sons of Cain. 21:39 There was also a son of Seth named Lamech, but this is the bad one. He said to 21:43 his wives. That tells you right there they started practicing 21:47 polygamy way back even before the time of the flood. And he 21:51 said well you know I'm supposed to be fruitful and multiply. 21:54 The more wives I have, I mean after all, one buck, many does, 21:58 one bull, many cows, that must be God's plan. They were all 22:01 shepherds back then and they started thinking that way. 22:03 And especially a king. If you can afford them why not? Helps 22:07 you multiply. We're doing what God said. You can rationalize 22:11 almost anything, right? Another thing a king wanted, he wanted 22:17 to make sure to guarantee the monarchy, guarantee the dynasty. 22:21 If you had plenty of royal seed the better the chance if someone 22:26 tried to annihilate them one would survive because that 22:29 happened several times even before Solomon. Remember they 22:31 tried to annihilate all of the descendants of Gideon. And after 22:37 Solomon Athaliah tried to annihilate all of the 22:40 descendants of David and Joash survived, you remember? So he 22:44 thought the more I have the better my odds. And then when 22:48 you're picking king you know you can pick the best of the litter. 22:50 Solomon was not the oldest but David looked at him and God said 22:53 that's the best one. So he multiplied wives. They also did 22:57 this because it created international alliances for 23:02 trade, for peace. They used to do this in Europe. All the 23:06 different monarchs would intermarry trying to weld 23:08 together the old Roman Empire. It says they'll not cleave one 23:11 to another. So he had plenty of wives. The Bible says, 23:18 I Kings 11 verse 3, he had 700 wives (princesses) and 300 23:24 concubines. That's a grand total of how much, quick. A thousand!? 23:28 How many men will admit you're married and you've got your 23:35 hands full making one happy. Can you imagine a thousand? 23:43 He probably had about 500 therapists, too. I remember 23:52 hearing one kid read this before and he said, Why did Solomon 23:55 have 700 wives and 300 porcupines? (Laughter) 24:00 Concubines, they're just sort of you know breeders and you might 24:05 be thinking I don't that I'd want to be. Can you imagine all 24:09 the weddings he had to have to keep up with all the wives that 24:13 he multiplied. But you might think I wouldn't want to be part 24:17 of Solomon's harem. Keep in mind back in Bible times they did not 24:21 have social security and if a woman did not get married then 24:26 her future sustenance was really in question. But if you were a 24:30 woman who married Solomon, even if you didn't get much personal 24:36 attention, you were guaranteed that you would be taken care of. 24:39 You would be clothed. You would have the best food, the best 24:42 clothing, the best house. Your children would have the best 24:46 education and they would have their college funds paid for 24:49 the rest of their lives. So even though you didn't get much of 24:53 your husband's personal time, it meant security for these wives. 24:57 I'm just trying to give you perspective of what was going 24:59 on back then. A lot of men died off in battle, especially during 25:04 the days of David, and you can read where it says, in that day 25:08 seven women will take hold of one man. That's Isaiah chapter 4 25:12 verse 1. Saying we'll eat our own bread, we'll wear our own 25:16 apparel, only let us be called by thy name to take away our 25:20 reproach. And so they were looking for the security of a 25:23 name. You could say I'm married to Solomon along with 999 other 25:27 girls, but I'm married to Solomon. It gave you some 25:30 status back then in the kingdom. That's hard for us to comprehend 25:35 friends, I know. But that became his downfall. These other things 25:39 he did before were all a problem but this is where it tells us it 25:42 took a turn down. I Kings 11 verse 1: But King Solomon loved 25:49 many foreign women as well as the daughter of Pharaoh, first 25:54 wife, queen number one, was the daughter of Pharaoh. He needed 25:59 to give her that priority just like Ahasuerus had many wives, 26:04 Esther ended up becoming the number one wife, the queen. 26:09 You could only have one queen. Women of the Moabites who 26:13 worshipped a different god and the Ammonites who worshipped a 26:16 different god and the Edomites who worshipped a different god 26:19 the Zidonians who worshipped a different god and the Hittites. 26:22 They were supposed to destroy that nation when they came in. 26:25 And from the nations whom the Lord had said to the children of 26:29 Israel you shall not intermarry with them nor shall they with 26:34 you. Surely they will turn your heart away after their gods. 26:40 Solomon clung to these in love. You know, you become like who 26:46 you love. That's a law of life. That's why it's so important 26:50 for us to love the Lord. You become like the one you love. 26:55 And, I've said this many times before but there are always 26:59 people listening for the first time. I just want to go on the 27:02 record and say it again. The Bible says as Christians we've 27:06 got very clear guidelines not to be unequally yoked together. 27:11 And people will frequently write me and they reprove me and they 27:15 chastise me and they say Pastor Doug, you shouldn't be so strict 27:19 on this point. I was married to someone and they were a 27:22 Christian and they just treated me terrible. Then I found a 27:25 person in the worldly work place but they're such a gentleman. 27:28 They're Christians in their heart, so we got married and 27:30 they're so nice to me. So what? That doesn't justify it. Is your 27:35 happiness the criteria for life or is obeying God's word the 27:40 criteria. We don't live to be happy. We live to glorify him. 27:44 Our job is to obey God and if God says don't do it, don't get 27:49 married at all. If you don't think you can pick a good 27:52 Christian then don't pick anybody. But I know somebody, 27:56 they married a nonbeliever and then they brought them to the 27:58 Lord. God is merciful, praise God. That sometimes happens. 28:02 That still does not justify it. We are given very clear 28:07 guidance and you know the day used to be in our church manual 28:12 along with the manual of every Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian 28:17 minister. Those ministers were told you will not conduct a 28:20 marriage between a member of your church and a member of 28:24 another church or no church. Even the Catholics believe that. 28:28 It's such a clear teaching in the Bible. It goes way back 28:31 before Solomon. You shall not take wives of unbelievers 28:37 because they will draw your heart away. And he thought, I'm 28:42 too smart for that. Solomon should have known the strongest 28:46 man in the world, Samson. Did he get in trouble on that? 28:49 It doesn't matter how strong you are, it doesn't matter how 28:52 smart you are. His own father got in trouble in that area. 28:56 Seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Even 29:00 in your earthly relationships as close as marriage should not 29:04 take precedent over your love for God and obeying him. Now I 29:08 don't know exactly what was said but they started to work on him. 29:14 These daughters of pagan kings that he married are sort of 29:19 synonymous with the daughters of Babylon that drew the heart 29:24 of the king away and as goes the king so go the people. 29:27 You'll often find in a church as goes the pastor so go the people 29:31 You follow it and see if I'm not right. Look at the history of 29:35 Israel. When the king started to compromise the whole nation 29:39 started to compromise. That's why he's a king. He's a leader. 29:45 He said be faithful to the Lord. Nehemiah chapter 13. You didn't 29:50 know I was going to go there. Nehemiah 13:26, listen to what 29:55 this prophet says on the subject. Speaking to the 29:59 children of Israel when they began to intermarry with the 30:03 surrounding nations, Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by 30:07 these things. Yet among the nations there was no king like 30:10 him who was beloved of his God and God made him king over all 30:15 Israel. Nevertheless, even him did outlandish women cause to 30:19 sin. I don't know exactly what he means by outlandish women 30:23 but we know they were pagans. Maybe outlandish also meant that 30:28 they were haughty and pushy and they began to manipulate the 30:32 king. You notice it also happened it says, but king 30:36 Solomon, when he was old... Did you catch that? So it was so 30:42 when Solomon was old... I'm back in I Kings 11, when he was old 30:47 his wives turned away his heart. You know his resolve, he started 30:53 getting tired of arguing with them and standing up and they 30:57 said you know Solomon, they called him some endearing term. 31:00 You know you've got your temple and I miss my homeland and we 31:04 grew up worshipping this god and can't I worship your God and my 31:07 home god because it really bothers my family that I don't 31:10 get to worship the Ashtoreth and Dagon and these other gods of Ra 31:14 and Egypt and can't I have just one little idol. It's just not 31:17 fair. And he says, Ah all right. Just make a little one you know. 31:21 And so they make a little one. And so she's got one, can't I 31:24 have one. All right, all right, you can have one. And I want 31:27 one. And pretty soon they all started making their idols and 31:31 he began to accommodate them and he lost his backbone. You know 31:35 men are to be the priest leaders in their families and you're to 31:39 also say we're going to follow the Lord. And sometimes you've 31:44 got to stand up in your family and have some backbone and say 31:47 we're going to seek first God's kingdom. I believe women should 31:51 do it but I believe especially men in the family should do it. 31:54 And Solomon for a while he did it. But when he was old his 32:00 backbone got some osteoporosis and he began to bend and he 32:05 began to accommodate them and it got so bad that he allowed his 32:10 pagan wives to put up idols in the temple of the Lord. And it 32:14 started with... He probably thought everything was fine for 32:18 years and he was able to keep the nation focused on Jehovah 32:22 for years. But they began to wear him down. He started 32:29 shifting his love. You know I thought it was interesting that 32:33 when Solomon began his kingdom it only two times says Solomon 32:38 loved anything. You read in I Kings 3 and Solomon loved the 32:43 Lord walking in the statutes of his father David. When he loved 32:47 the Lord supremely the nation went towards God. But then you 32:52 get to chapter 11, it says King Solomon loved many foreign women 32:56 He began to shift his love away from God as the priority and 33:01 little by little he started thinking about making his harem 33:04 happy instead of making his heavenly Father happy and things 33:08 began to turn. You know why the flood came and destroyed the 33:13 world? The sons of God, Genesis chapter 6 verse 3 saw the 33:18 daughters of men that they were fair. Now in case you don't know 33:22 the sons of God were the descendants of Seth that still 33:26 worshipped God. The daughters of men were the daughters of the 33:30 Cainites from the descendants of Cain that had turned their 33:33 back on God. They were of the world. And as long as there was 33:36 a distinction the sons of God were true to God. But as they 33:40 went to the market place and they had to come into the 33:42 valleys and shop every now and then, they would buy stuff from 33:45 the descendants of Cain and they said boy Cain's got some good 33:49 looking granddaughters and great granddaughters. You know what, 33:53 we'll marry them and we'll teach them about God. 33:57 But instead they married the daughters of Cain, the daughters 34:01 of men, and they began to compromise. You know what the 34:04 result was? Instead of the sons of God lifting the daughters of 34:08 men up to the worship of Jehovah the majority of them drew them 34:13 down. What's easier to fall up or to fall down? Any of you ever 34:18 fall up before? So the natural tendency if you take a wrong 34:23 step is to go down. I recognize there are exceptions and I 34:27 praise God. I know people I could cite they made a mistake 34:31 they married someone out of the faith and by the grace of God 34:33 they prayed them in over the years. Those same people will 34:37 generally say it was a mistake and we suffered for years with 34:41 split worship in our home. After the sons of God saw the 34:46 daughters of men and began to marry them, it says then the 34:50 thoughts of men's hearts were only evil continually and God 34:55 was grieved that he made man and he sent a flood and 34:58 destroyed the world. When that peculiar distinction was lost 35:03 destruction came. Wickedness came and then destruction came. 35:07 That's what happened in Sodom. Lot went down there and what 35:11 happened? His daughters started to marry the boys in Sodom and 35:14 he couldn't get them out could he? Remember not only did he 35:17 take his two unmarried daughters he tried to get his other 35:20 daughters and he went to his sons-in-law and said flee from 35:24 the wrath to come. And they mocked him. He lost them because 35:27 they compromised in their marriages. It's very important. 35:30 I think I've said enough. Well maybe. I think I've got a couple 35:35 more points on this. Now don't think for a minute that during 35:40 this time Solomon ever said I no longer believe in Jehovah. 35:45 What got him in trouble was he tried to accommodate both. 35:49 He said I'm going to keep worshipping Jehovah but you know 35:53 we need to be loving and respectful of other people's 35:56 views. We need to make compromises. We need to be 35:59 tolerant. Have you ever heard that word before. We need to be 36:03 loving and tolerant. And so, you know, if people want to set up 36:07 an idle to the god of Egypt or the god, Dagon, of the 36:13 Philistines or Ashtoreth or one of these other nations, you know 36:18 they need to be free to do that. Well in their country Israel 36:22 would let them do it but not in the Holy Land. At first it was 36:25 just in their country. And he'd tell his wives, look if you want 36:28 to worship your God, you've got to go back to Egypt. You can 36:31 worship your god, but in Israel we don't worship Ra. Pretty soon 36:35 his wife said you know that's a long trip. Can I just have a 36:39 little idol? I'll just keep it in my bedroom. All right don't 36:43 say anything. And pretty soon she said can I have one in the 36:47 hall. I'd like other people to know. I don't want to be 36:49 ashamed of what I believe. All right, all right. This constant 36:53 nagging happened here. You know Solomon wrote about nagging? 36:56 Solomon had a lot to say about marriage. He talks about 37:03 contentious wives. I can't help but believe, friends, and I'll 37:05 probably catch it for this and some of you might like me less 37:10 but it's in the Bible so take it up with God. Proverbs 21:19: 37:14 He said, better to dwell in the wilderness than with a 37:18 contentious and angry woman. Proverbs 27:15 and 16: A 37:22 continual dripping, this was what was happening, on a very 37:26 rainy day and a contentious woman are alike. Whoever 37:30 restrains her restrains the wind and grasps oil in his right hand 37:34 Did you ever try and shovel wind? Did you ever try and take 37:38 a handful of oil? And so what Solomon was going through during 37:42 this time is just this relentless badgering 37:45 of a thousand wives, most of them pagans, until it started 37:50 out by letting them maybe wear just a little amulet to their 37:54 god and then they put up a little statuette figurine on the 37:57 dashboard in their chariot. And then he let them put one up in 38:01 their bedroom and then pretty soon, you keep reading, it says 38:05 they set them up in the temple of God. Once you let the camel 38:09 get his nose in the tent. And that's what happened. Little by 38:13 little. It didn't happen overnight. Does that dynamic 38:15 still happen with the church today? Now I also want to hasten 38:20 to add, not only does Solomon write about wives that were 38:25 nagging and contending with him Solomon has more to say about a 38:28 glorious wife than any other Bible writer. You read what he 38:32 writes in Proverbs 31 about this beautiful, ideal wife that he 38:36 describes. This is really a picture of the church. I wish I 38:39 had time to read that whole chapter. I don't know if that 38:42 was one that he was married to or if that is the one that he 38:46 kept hoping for, but he's the one that wrote that. And so you 38:49 know that's one of the best descriptions of that beautiful 38:52 wife that I personally think is sort of an allegory of the 38:57 church that he writes about. So little by little he began to 39:01 compromise and it started to take him down. Now God had given 39:06 the antidote for this apostasy. He never needed to fall in this 39:10 area. Would you like to avoid backsliding? Not just in this 39:14 area but any area whether it's the multiplying horses, 39:18 trusting in earthly protection. Is it you alarm system or your 39:23 Sonitrol your trusting in? Is it your bank account? Is it in your 39:29 relationships on earth? What are we really to trust in? It's in 39:34 God. Here's the antidote. Deuteronomy 17. Moses said, 39:39 verse 19 speaking of when a king sat on the throne. He was to 39:44 read from the word of God daily and it shall be with him and he 39:49 shall read it all the days of his life that he might learn to 39:53 fear the Lord his God and be careful to observe all the words 39:57 of this law and these statutes that his heart may not be lifted 40:01 up above his brethren that he may not turn aside from the 40:04 commandment to the right hand or to the left that he might 40:08 prolong his days in his kingdom and his children in the midst of 40:12 Israel. Moses had said if the king wants to be blessed, if the 40:16 king wants to prosper here's what he needs to do. Read the 40:21 word not weekly, every day, he was to have a scribe. I believe 40:25 King David in his court for a while every day had somebody 40:29 reading the books of Moses to him. He probably didn't read 40:32 through the whole thing every day but he would have time every 40:36 day where he was reminded of the word of God. Maybe in one month 40:38 he would have gone through it all. The scribe would take a few 40:41 minutes every day and read it to him and it kept him on the 40:44 right track. And I have a funny feeling that when he fell with 40:47 Bathsheba he'd started to slip off on his Bible reading scribe. 40:50 How else could you justify what was going on? Adultery and 40:54 murder. I think that David had slipped. He got busy with wars 40:57 and had been out of town and had been busy. Tell the scribe I'm 41:01 tired today. I don't want him to read to me today. You remember 41:07 when they brought the scroll of Moses into Josiah, the young 41:12 king and they read it to him and there was a great revival in the 41:16 kingdom because they were reading the word of God to the 41:19 king. It brought a revival to the whole kingdom. Solomon was 41:23 that in reverse. He neglected it and he fell. So do you have to 41:28 be a king of a nation in order for this to be an antidote for 41:32 apostasy? Reading the word of God. Thy word I have hid in my 41:36 heart that I might not sin. I've been especially talking about 41:39 this the first of the year. It's a good time to have a revival 41:44 in your personal Bible reading program. So that's the antidote. 41:49 God had told Solomon when he first installed him 41:54 II Chronicles 7:17: As for you, if you walk before me as your 42:00 father David walked and do according to all that I 42:03 have commanded you and if you keep my statutes and my 42:07 judgments, then I... God says you do this... then I will 42:10 establish the throne of your kingdom as I covenanted with 42:14 David your father saying it shall not fail, you shall not 42:17 fail to have a man as a ruler in Israel. But if you turn away 42:21 and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I set 42:23 before you and you go and serve other gods and worship them 42:27 then I will uproot them from my land that I have given them and 42:30 this house that I have sanctified for my name 42:33 I will cast out of my sight and make it a proverb and a byword 42:37 among all the nations. Did that happen? Solomon slipped away. 42:42 Did he lose the kingdom. After the death of Solomon, 10 of the 42:46 tribes slipped off and there was another kingdom and the kingdom 42:50 of northern Israel fought for years among a kaleidoscope of 42:55 other minor kings. Sons of David were still given the tribe of 42:59 Judah, mostly Levi and Benjamin, but principally became the tribe 43:04 of Judah. By the way that's where you get the word Jews. 43:07 Not all Hebrews are Jews. Jews were supposed to be from the 43:12 tribe of Judah. We often use that word generically. But he 43:17 slipped away. Now praise God he came back. We talked a little 43:21 bit about the Song of Solomon. We talked about Proverbs. 43:25 Go with me now to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 2. If you 43:29 want to hear in Solomon's own words what happened you can read 43:34 about it. It wasn't just the wives. Ecclesiastes 2 verse 1: 43:41 I said in my heart, come now I will test you with mirth (with 43:47 pleasure, with joy, party). Therefore enjoy pleasure but 43:50 surely this also was a vanity. I said of laughter, it is madness. 43:55 And of mirth, what does it accomplish? I searched in my 43:58 heart to know how to gratify my flesh. Don't live for the flesh. 44:03 If you live for the flesh you cannot be alive in the spirit. 44:07 Solomon admits it. To gratify my flesh with wine while guiding my 44:12 heart with wisdom (can I do both?) and how to lay hold on 44:15 folly till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do 44:18 under the heaven all the days of their life. I'm going to 44:21 experiment with the world and with the pleasures of sin 44:23 because I'm doing a test. My life I'm going to spend a little 44:27 time do a survey for a few years I'm going to try a little bit of 44:30 everything. How many young people do you know that are 44:34 raised in the church and they say, you know before I really 44:38 commit my life to ministry and service for God, I want to find 44:41 out what's out there. You know I'll be careful. I'm going to 44:45 use my wisdom and I can stay out of trouble and... The greatest 44:48 part of young people by the time they graduate either high school 44:52 or get into college, raised in Christian homes, the largest 44:56 percentage leave the faith, if not in the hearts, in their 45:00 practice. A small percentage come back. It is very dangerous 45:04 to say I'll experiment with the world to find out what's going 45:08 What's the best thing for the sons of men to do? I've got to 45:11 try it. I mean how else am I going to know. That's what 45:14 Solomon's saying. You're listening to the wisest fool in 45:18 in the world. You can't embrace fire and not be burned and 45:22 that's what he tried to do. I made great works for myself. 45:26 I built myself houses. I'm in verse 4 of Ecclesiastes 2. 45:30 I planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards 45:34 and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself 45:38 water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. 45:41 I acquired male and female servants and I had servants born 45:45 in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions and herds and flocks 45:48 than all who were with me in Jerusalem before me. I also 45:53 gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures 45:57 of the kings of the provinces and all the gold and silver and 46:01 the tariffs that came. I acquired male and female 46:04 singers. He had his own private singers and orchestra. Today 46:08 it's a good stereo system. And delights in the sons of men and 46:12 musical instruments of all kinds So I became great and excelled 46:17 more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom 46:21 remained with me. He said I still seemed to have my wisdom 46:24 but now it has become an earthly central type of wisdom. 46:28 He tried to satisfy himself with the lusts of the flesh and the 46:32 lusts of the eyes and the pride of life. And I want to reiterate 46:35 something I just read. He got mixed up in the music of the 46:38 world and he mentions that in two or three verses. 46:43 That became a power that started pulling him down. I imagine, you 46:48 know, his wives not only wanted their idols. They said, you know 46:52 I don't like the music of Israel I sure miss the songs we used to 46:56 sing back home. Can I bring some of my musicians? All right, all 47:00 right. Just leave me alone. Just stop bothering me. Pretty soon 47:05 the palace and the harem were filled with Babylonian music. 47:12 Good musicians, wrong music. Talented. It goes on to say, I 47:17 gathered for, oh I'm sorry, verse 10. Whatever my eyes 47:22 desired I did not keep from them. The lust of the eyes. 47:26 I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure for my heart 47:29 rejoiced in all my labor and this was my reward in all my 47:33 labor. Then I looked and all the works that my hands had done 47:37 and all the labor that I toiled and indeed it was vanity and 47:42 grasping for wind. There was no profit under the sun. Then I 47:46 turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly for what 47:50 can one do that succeeds the king. Solomon says I tried 47:53 everything in the world, all the sins of the world. Only what he 47:58 has already done. Then I saw that wisdom exceeds folly as 48:01 light exceeds darkness. The wise man's eyes are in his head but 48:05 the fool walks in darkness yet I myself perceive that the same 48:09 event happens to them all. The wise, the fool, we're all dying. 48:13 Now I'm not going to read all of Ecclesiastes but the conclusion 48:17 of the book I will read, because this is the conclusion, this is 48:21 the final moral of what Solomon has to say. Go to Ecclesiastes 48:25 chapter 12. You can read verse 12. And further my son be 48:32 admonished by these of making many books there is no end. 48:39 And Solomon didn't even know about the internet. And much 48:44 study is a weariness to the flesh. So you can gather wisdom, 48:48 but there is a limit to how much wisdom a man can take in. 48:53 So, he wraps it all up. He says I will summarize for you 48:57 everything that I've learned in two verses now as the wisest man 49:02 who ever lived that tried everything you can try. 49:04 People think oh I could only be rich like Solomon, if I could 49:07 have, you know, my own harem. There are probably men out there 49:11 that have fantasized about that. The best music in the world, the 49:14 best food in the world, best vineyards and houses and lands 49:19 and army and power. He had it all. What's his conclusion? 49:23 Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the 49:29 whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment 49:34 with every secret thing. Solomon began to shudder about 49:37 all those things he did, all those secret things, all the 49:41 wasted years, the folly, the compromise with the pagan 49:45 deities. And he came to his senses. Matter of fact, 49:48 Ecclesiastes is something of a book where he reports his 49:51 repentance. You know, I'd like to read for you an inspired 49:55 passage from the book Prophets and Kings. This is page 78. I'd 49:59 invite you to read the whole chapter. It's about the 50:01 repentance of Solomon. After it describes his downward spiral 50:10 with the pagan wives and multiplying the horses and the 50:16 earthly treasures and getting off course, it says, Yet the 50:20 Lord forsook him not. Don't forget it had something to do 50:24 with the prayers of his father. Don't stop praying for your kids 50:29 By messages of reproof and by severe judgments the Lord sought 50:34 to arouse the king to a realization of the sinfulness 50:36 of his course. He removed his protecting care and permitted 50:40 adversaries to harass him and to weaken the kingdom. The Lord 50:44 stirred up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite, 50:46 and God stirred up against him another adversary Resan, captain 50:51 over a band abhorred and hated Israel. He reigned over 50:54 Syria. And Jeroboam, Solomon's servant a mighty man of valor 50:58 betrayed the king and he left. Even he lifted up his hand 51:01 against the king. So when he began to turn away from God, to 51:05 save him God allowed trials and adversaries to try to get him to 51:10 pray again, to see his need. At last the Lord through a prophet 51:14 delivered a message to Solomon with a startling message. 51:18 Forasmuch as this is done of thee that you have not kept 51:23 my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded thee, I will 51:26 surely rend the kingdom from thee and give it to your servant 51:31 Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy 51:34 father's sake but I'm going to rend it out of the hand of thy 51:39 son. And he did that. Rehoboam his son lost 10 out of 12 tribes 51:45 Awakened as from a dream by this sentence of judgment... Solomon 51:50 because of his bad behavior had lost the kingdom that his 51:53 Father David had worked so hard to build up and give him. 51:56 Awakened as from a dream by the sentence of judgment pronounced 52:00 against him and his house, Solomon, with quickened 52:03 conscience began to see his folly in it's true light. 52:06 Chastened in spirit with mind and body enfeebled, he turned 52:11 weary and thirsting from earth's broken cisterns... He tried 52:15 drinking from the pleasures of the world that were broken and 52:19 dry... to drink once more from the fountain of life. For him at 52:23 last the discipline of suffering had accomplished its work. 52:27 Long he had been harassed by the fear of utter ruin because 52:31 of the inability to turn from folly. He had all these people 52:35 around him including his wives pushing him off course and he 52:39 didn't know how to turn back. God had not utterly cast him off 52:42 but he stood ready to deliver him from a bondage more cruel 52:46 than the grave from which he had no power to free himself. 52:50 In gratitude Solomon acknowledged the power and the 52:53 power and the loving kindness of one who is higher than the 52:57 highest. That's a quote from Ecclesiastes 5:8. In penitence 53:00 he began to retrace his steps toward the exalted plane of 53:04 purity and holiness from which he had fallen so far. He could 53:08 never hope to escape the blasting results of sin. Even 53:11 though you repent of you sins, the thief on the cross repented 53:14 in the last hour like Solomon but he didn't come off the cross 53:19 did he? Solomon couldn't reverse all of the judgments and the 53:23 consequences. He could never free his mind from all the 53:26 remembrance of the self indulgent course he had been 53:30 pursuing but he would endeavor earnestly to dissuade others 53:33 from following after folly. That's why he wrote the book 53:37 Ecclesiastes. He would humbly confess the error of his ways 53:41 and lift his voice in warning both in word and in writing lest 53:45 others be irretrievably lost because of the influence for 53:49 evil that he had set in operation. And this, in effect, 53:52 talks about the repentance of Solomon. The Bible has very 53:55 little to say about it unless you read the book of 53:58 Ecclesiastes. But I'm so thankful for the mercy of God 54:01 that even though he fell in just about every way a person can 54:06 fall God had pity on him. But we can learn from this story of 54:11 Solomon that even though he had every blessing; raised in the 54:16 church, educated in the church by Nathan the prophet, blessed 54:20 financially, blessed with wisdom, blessed with health, 54:23 he had all these things. He then thought that he could use his 54:26 wisdom to still take the pleasures of the world and he 54:30 would be able to keep things under control. But you can't do 54:33 that. You wrestle with a boa constrictor, it's going to wrap 54:37 itself around your neck. And he finally realized the danger of 54:41 the course he was on, turned back to the Lord. It was the 54:44 word of God, by the way, that got his attention. Did you catch 54:47 that? A message from God's prophet that got his attention. 54:50 There might be some listening today that have neglected the 54:53 messages from God's prophet and are drifting away from the Lord. 54:57 Or being too many relationships in the world that are becoming 55:01 primary instead of the relationship with God that needs 55:05 to be the first thing that seek. If we think we're safe because 55:08 hey I can tamper with the world because I'm pretty smart and 55:13 I'll know how to stop. Solomon couldn't stop it. Samson fell. 55:18 You can't play with sin like that without being injured by it 55:22 and seriously damaged and the consequences never change. 55:26 When Solomon died the kingdom was lost. Eighty percent, no 55:31 ninety percent of the kingdom was lost. The temple some day in 55:35 the future was destroyed and you can trace all of this back to 55:39 the compromises that he made. You know if anything we can 55:42 learn from the story of Solomon, God's word never fails. You look 55:49 at what Moses said. Moses promised the children if Israel 55:53 all of these blessings if they obeyed him. Everything that 55:57 Moses said they'd receive, they received during the time of 56:00 Solomon. It was all fulfilled then. They were on top of the 56:04 world. And Moses also warned and if the king multiplies silver 56:08 and gold and multiplies chariots and multiplies wives and begins 56:12 trusting in the things of the world he's going to lose it all. 56:16 It's a very simple message for you and me. They were blessed 56:20 when they obeyed God. They were cursed when they turned away. 56:23 God wants to bless you and it comes from seeking first his 56:27 kingdom, from trusting in his word, not only being a hearer 56:30 but a doer of his word. Is that your desire; to seek first his 56:34 kingdom? 56:35 The escalation of terrorism, global instability, crime, 56:40 violence and natural disasters indicate our world is plummeting 56:43 toward its final hour with destiny. Who will survive the 56:47 final events of earth's history? Does the Bible give any 56:52 answers? Pull back the veil of uncertainty. Know the future 56:56 today. Join us as Amazing Facts presents bibleuniverse. com. 57:01 This stellar web site will guide you to places you've never been 57:05 before and answer many questions 57:07 you have about Bible prophecy. 57:09 Discover what the Bible says about the rapture, the mark of 57:13 the beast and Armageddon. Journey into the future and 57:16 explore the mind and will of God at BibleUniverse.com. Expand 57:22 your universe today. 57:33 Thank you for joining us for this broadcast. If you've missed 57:35 any of our Amazing Facts programs, visit our website at 57:38 AmazingFacts.org. There you'll find an archive of all our 57:41 television and radio programs including Amazing Facts Presents 57:45 Central Study Hour, Everlasting Gospel, Bible Answers Live and 57:49 Wonders in the Word. You'll also find a storehouse of biblical 57:52 resources geared to answering some of your most difficult 57:55 questions and our online Bible School is just a click away. 57:58 One location, so many possibilities. 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