When I was a young preacher and still working a summer job in a warehouse, I slipped on a pallet and sprained my ankle. As I limped to my car, I asked the Lord what attitudes and actions He wanted to be changed.
The week or so of a sore ankle was a reminder that God wanted my full devotion. Did God place a broken pallet in my pathway, or was it just an incidental accident? Whether God put it there or not, the result was the same. I still remember the fall and repentance 50+ years later.
Solomon didn’t have to wonder if his troubles stemmed from God or customary Middle Eastern conflicts. He knew the Lord was behind his trouble as judgment on his sins.
The first adversary against Solomon was Hadad the Edomite (1 Kings 11:14). While Hadad produced conflict from the south, Rezon caused trouble from the north (1 Kings 11:23-25).
Jeroboam’s Rebellion
Solomon’s biggest concern arose from the 10 tribes of Israel that lay to the north of Judah.
Jeroboam was formerly a supervisor for Solomon’s building projects, especially making the king’s forced labor projects successful (1 Kings 11:26-28).
His rebellion was not a matter of personal grievance, but ordained by God. The Lord sent Jeroboam a prophet to declare His will.
About that time, when Jeroboam was leaving Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Ahijah had clothed himself with a new garment.
The two of them were alone in the open country when Ahijah laid hold of the new garment he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces.
He then said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: See, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon and will give you ten tribes.
One tribe will remain his, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel” (1 Kings 11:29-32).
Ahijah prophesied a great reversal of the fortunes of the reign of Solomon. At one time, his kingdom was so magnificent that rulers from the region came to witness his wisdom and wealth.
The result of God’s judgment would be that the tribe of Judah would be impoverished, while the northern kingdom, Ephraim, would prosper.
Solomon’s idolatry was the reason for God’s judgment.
Ahijah told Jeroboam, “This is because he has forsaken me, worshiped Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites, and has not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, as his father David did” (1 Kings 11:33).
There are two major reasons why God severely judges His people for idolatry.
(1) God’s people have been given the privilege and responsibility of representing His nature to the surrounding world. We fail in our obligation to God if we blend worship with Him and the idols of culture.
One of the reasons why blending Christian faith with politics, materialism, and other cultural idols is that God’s nature and character is diminished by such actions.
(2) We become like the God or gods we serve. The pagan practices that Solomon endorsed involved temple prostitution and the sacrifice of children.
What if we used the Sermon on the Mount and 1 Corinthians 13 as our guide? What if the teaching in these passages directed what we deemed worthy of our worship and service?
On the other hand, what happens when Christians worship money, power, and self-will alongside of Jesus? What happens to our behavior?
I think the choice is clear. Jesus put it well as He ended the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7). If we follow Jesus’ teaching, it will be like building our house on the rock.
If we hear His message and turn away in self-will, our house will be constructed on the sand.
What happened to Solomon’s kingdom resembles a house built on the sand. The same can be said of humans, businesses, and nations who blend the worship of Jesus with that of the world’s idols.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross and I discussed this passage on YouTube today.
Real Voices 