Failure;
Consequences. 1 Kings 11:1-8
Failure in Solomon’s life
occurred over a period of time. When God lowers the boom on Solomon it is not
because he stumbled once, it is not because he had one major failure, but this
was a pattern of rebellion against God that began some time in his later years,
and it tells us that Solomon was older at this time. It was after the time that
he had built the temple and had finished most of his building projects—the
temple was built when he was approximately 40 years old, he died when he was
about 60, so it was at some time in those latter years—and it was extended over
a great period of time.
1 Kings 11:1 NASB
“Now King Solomon loved many foreign women …” This becomes the source of the
problem and it was really a power lust problem. The women that he married would
strengthen his alliances with the surrounding countries. The problem that it
shows is that rather than trusting God to provide security for the nation
1 Kings
1 Kings 9:5 NASB
“then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over
1 Kings 11:5 NASB
“For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the
detestable idol [abomination] of the Ammonites.” This is so politically
incorrect but since it is God the Holy Spirit articulating this; it is a very
clear pattern for how to address idolatry. The Jews in their history kept on
assimilating to these religious systems around them and to syncretise with them,
which means to absorb the ideas and practices within these pagan religions into
the worship of Yahweh. That is why
they will be punished. As we go through the rest of Kings this is what we see
again and again: this cyclical pattern of turning against God and turning to
these other gods. The other thing to point out here that breaks open the whole
passage is that Yahweh is the
covenant God of Israel, but He is not simply the God of Israel, He is the God
who created the heavens and the earth, and the seas and all that is in them. He
is the true God in heaven above. That becomes the challenge that we see again
and again, and it culminates in the prophetic ministries of Elijah and Elisha, and especially with Elijah’s grand confrontation
with the prophets of Baal at
What we should note is
that each of these gods and goddesses that are mentioned are identified with
these particular nations. So what Solomon is doing is entering into these
alliances, with his wives, with these other nations, and there is a religious
element that goes with that. As these wives come to take up residence in Israel
they are bringing their gods and goddesses with them and when Solomon validates
their gods and goddesses and builds altars for them what he is getting involved
in is really a form of internationalism. That is what this sin is all about. It
is not a sin that is primarily about sex, it is a sin that is about being a
traitor in a political sense to God because God is the ultimate King of Israel.
It is a denial of the unique national status of
Who were these gods and goddesses?
The first mentioned is the Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians.
The term itself is a plural term and the ‘eth” refers to a grouping of goddesses
and their various manifestations. In this passage she is mentioned as the
goddess of the Sidonians but she was also very famous
and very central in the pantheon of the Egyptians and the Babylonians. Another
thing that is interesting to note about her name is that the normal way in
which a feminine noun is pluralised in Hebrew is by adding an ‘ot’ at the end. But her name is pluralised by adding ‘et’
at the end, and this was a deliberate attempt in the Hebrew language to offer
her name in such a way that they created a pun. They put the vowels into her
name that came from the Hebrew word which means “shame.” This was done in order
to emphasise the shame of the worship of Ashter. She
was the chief goddess among the Phoenicians. She is also called the goddess of
holiness. Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of
the Sidonians, and the term “went after” has certain
sexual overtones because that is inherent within that worship, and that
vocabulary stands out in contrast to the vocabulary of verse 7 NASB “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”—but for Ashtoreth he “went after.” Milcom
and Molech are just different manifestations of the
same god. Molech is the abomination of the people of
Ammon and Milcom is the abomination Ammonites in v.
5. They are basically the same god and Molech was
considered the deity who was honoured by the sacrifice of children.
Leviticus 20:2 NASB
“You shall also say to the sons of Israel: ‘Any man from the sons
of Israel or from the aliens sojourning in Israel who gives any of his
offspring to Molech, shall surely be put to death;
the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
1 Kings 11:6 NASB
“Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as
David his father {had done.}” In the context of 1 Kings 11, what is evil? Evil
is establishing idolatry. We will see this pattern again and again and we need
to pay attention to that. The root of evil is worshipping anything other than
God as the creator. It can involve morality, all kinds of self-righteous
religious activities. Evil is not necessarily what we tend to think of as
something that is horrific. [7] “Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of
What could Solomon have
done to avoid his failure? Let’s break this down in terms of the soul fortress.
We have a base, which is the filling of the Holy Spirit. That doesn’t apply in
the Old Testament because they weren’t indwelt by the Spirit or filled with the
Spirit, but they did have a procedure of cleansing or confession through
sacrifice. Obviously Solomon quit going to the temple and confessing his sins.
The next stage is the faith-rest drill. How could Solomon have applied the faith-rest
drill? He had something that we don’t have: specific individual promises that
were given to him by God. He had promises that if he remained faithful God
would bless him, establish his throne, and the promise was that the seed would
come through him. All he had to do was claim that promise
that were inherent in the Mosaic covenant and the Davidic covenant and
in the promises to him. But he fails to claim those promises and to make them a
reality in his life.
The next problem-solving
device is grace orientation. Grace has to do with recognising that God’s
blessing us has nothing to do with who we are or what we have done, that in and
of ourselves we are nothing. Solomon depicted grace orientation in those early
years when he was king and when he was humble and dependent upon God. But as he
saw the grandeur of his kingdom and the wealth that he had accumulated, and
looked at all of his accomplishments and the results of his building programs,
he began to think that he had something to do with his prosperity. Yet it is
very clear from 1 Kings 3 that God said: “Because you asked for wisdom and didn’t
ask for wealth or power or military strength I am going to give you all of
these other things.” It was very clear to Solomon that everything that he had
was just based on the grace of God, but he forgot that. He lost his grace
orientation and began to think that what he had was the result of who he was
and what he had done in his own inherent wisdom and strength.
The next step is doctrinal
orientation: orienting our thinking to the plan of God. God had outlined His
plan to Solomon in the Mosaic covenant as well as the Davidic covenant, and the
promises He made to Solomon are all involved in the plan of God. So Solomon is
not orienting his thinking to the plan of God as it had been revealed to him. He
is not orienting his thinking to the mandates of God as revealed to him in
Deuteronomy and in Leviticus, and so he is violating
the Word of God and disobeying the Word of God in specific commands over a long
period of time. He lost his doctrinal orientation and he was worshipping other
gods. This divorces him from reality as he begins to buy into and live his life
on the basis of these fantasy constructs of these other religious systems.
The next problem-solving
device is a personal sense of eternal destiny but we can modify that for
Solomon and realise that God was offering him a specific destiny in terms of
being the progenitor for the line of the Messiah and that of he is obedient
then God would establish his throne forever as He had established David’s
throne forever. But he got his eyes off of the eternal plan of God and living
his life in light of God’s future destiny and he focused it on what was going
on in the present, in the here and now.
He failed in his personal
love for God. Deuteronomy states in numerous places: “If you love me you will
keep my commandments and my statutes and my ordinances.” So he lost his love
for God. Once grace orientation, doctrinal orientation and a personal sense of
destiny is lost then love for God is gone, and it is replaced with disobedience
and a disregard and disrespect for God.
If also affected his love
for other Jews: his impersonal love. He overtaxed the people, placed burdens
upon the people, and the blessing that they had enjoyed under him which was
related to his relationship with God caused a failure on their part. They experienced
the discipline that came as a direct result of his disobedience. They were
disciplined and hurt by association because of the disobedience of Solomon. So
there was no love for his fellow Jews. He disregards his neighbours—the other
Jews in the kingdom—by leading them into idolatry and validating idolatry.
Then we have occupation
with Christ which is not an Old Testament problem-solving device. But what they
had in the Old Testament was God, and a focus on God is the orientation of
their life, and they failed at that. Therefore there is misery in his life and
that is what he comes to when he tells his story in Ecclesiastes. He became absolutely
miserable when he tried to find meaning and happiness searching for it in
wisdom and accomplishments and riches and power. None of these things could
bring him what a relationship with God alone could bring him.
The result of this is 1
Kings 11:9 NASB “Now the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned
away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.”
That is brought out because so many people think that if they could just see a
miracle, just witness the resurrection, etc., then maybe I could believe. No,
they couldn’t. That is indicated not only in this passage but even more so in
the passage in Luke 16 related to the rich man and Lazarus. Signs and wonders
are not what convinces people of the truth of God’s Word.
That issue is a volitional issue and it is not a matter of proof in that
empirical sense. The concept of anger in v. 9 is really an anthropopathism
related to the expression of God’s justice. [11] “So the LORD said to
Solomon, ‘Because you have done this, and you have not kept My
covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the
kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant. [12] Nevertheless I will
not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, {but} I will tear it
out of the hand of your son.