I KINGS 11-15 OBSERVATIONS

CHAPTER 11

THE BEGINNING OF SOLOMONS DOWNFALL

A DIVIDED HEART—Here, multiplying women:

• Solomon loved many foreign women as well as the daughter of Pharaoh

o This was forbidden by God earlier in Deut:

§ Deuteronomy 17:14 - 17 (NASB) ¹⁴“When you … say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ ^{… 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.

o Further, he married women from the nations, namely:

§ Ammonites,

§ Edomites

§ Sidonians

§ Hittites

o But God had said

§ Exodus 34:10 - 17 (NASB) ¹⁰Then God said, “Behold, I am going to make a covenant. … ¹¹“Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day: behold, I am going to drive out the … Hittite, …. ¹²“Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. ^{… 14}—for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God— ¹⁵otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice, ¹⁶and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods. ¹⁷“You shall make for yourself no molten gods.

o Not only did he marry them, HE CLUNG TO THEM IN LOVE.

• § Note: this is probably the proper thing to do for a married man, married to a godly woman…but these weren’t godly women.

• 700 wives; 300 concubines

• Wives turned his heart away from God—and his heart was not LOYAL to God

o Prayer: God help me never to let any family member take a higher priority than you in my life….give me the strength to always remain loyal to you foremost…but God, for my family…would you give me the wisdom in knowing how to lead them and point them to You…instead of them pointing me away to other things besides You. Work in my family to make sure they are all in the circle with You in the end.

• 1 Kings 11:6 (NASB) ⁶Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done.

o Saul had no heart for God

o David had a whole heart for God

o Solomon had half a heart for God

o Prayer: God give me a heart that is wholly devoted to you…not half-hearted like Solomon

• 1 Kings 11:9 (NASB) ⁹Now the LORD was angry with Solomon (Why? Because…) his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,

• Result:

o 1 Kings 11:11 (NASB) ^… “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.

• Lord then raised up adversaries to Solomon

• JEROBOAM: Solomon’s servant rebelled against him

o Why?

o Ahijah the prophet had told him God was going to give him 10 tribes, but keep two for David and Jerusalem.

o God:

§ If you heed … walk … and do right

§ Then I will be with you … build for you an enduring house … will give Israel to you … and afflict the descendants of David…but not forever.

• Solomon attempted to kill Jeroboam
• Solomon died

CHAPTER 12

THE KINGDOM IS DIVIDED

• Jeroboam flees to Egypt
• Meanwhile people were trying to make Rehoboam king
• When Jeroboam heard about this he came to Rehoboam and

o 1 Kings 12:4 (NASB) ⁴“Your father made our yoke hard; now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.”

• But Rehoboam consulted with the young men and then took the young men’s advice instead of the elder’s advice, saying

o 1 Kings 12:14 - 15 (NASB) ¹⁴and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” ¹⁵So the king did not listen to the people; for it was a turn of events from the LORD, that He might establish His word, which the LORD spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

• OBSERVATIONS:

• It was good that Rehoboam listened to both the elders and young me
• It was bad that he rejected the advice of the elders and the people
• But note: God was in all this to fulfill His word through Ahijah

• RESULT

o Israel has been in rebellion until this day against the house of David.

o Kingdom is now divided.

o 1 Kings 12:24 (NASB) ²⁴‘Thus says the LORD (to Rehoboam), “You must not go up and fight against your relatives the sons of Israel; return every man to his house, for this thing has come from Me.”’”

• JEROBOAM BECOMES KING

o He starts building cities and trying to protect against the kingdom going back to David’s house.

o He ordains feasts that were not ordained by God.

CHAPTER 13

MESSAGE FROM MAN OF GOD TO JEROBOAM

o 1 Kings 13:2 - 3 (NASB) ^… “…, thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’”

o NOTE: This prophecy was 270-322 years before Josiah became king!!

o King wanted to kill prophet

o King’s hand withered

o Altar was split apart as a sign the prophet said this would come to pass

o King requests his hand be healed

o Prophet prays for him and hand is healed

o King then offers him dinner

o Prophet refuses…because God had commanded him

§ 1 Kings 13:9 (NASB) ⁹“For so it was commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘You shall eat no bread, nor drink water, nor return by the way which you came.’”

• MAN OF GOD DIES

o Another old prophet from Bethel hears about what this man of God had done and invited him home for dinner.

o Man of God: No! Because God has commanded me not to eat…

o Other prophet (lying) says: I too am a prophet and an angel told me to tell you to come to my house and eat and drink.

o The Man of God assented and went to his home to eat/drink.

o Word of Lord came to the other prophet and told him.

§ 1 Kings 13:21 - 22 (NASB) ²¹and he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have disobeyed the command of the LORD, and have not observed the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you, ²²but have returned and eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which He said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water”; your body shall not come to the grave of your fathers.’”

o Later as the man of God was leaving, a lion came and devoured him.

o When the prophet heard about this he said:

§ 1 Kings 13:26 (NASB) ²⁶Now when the prophet who brought him back from the way heard it, he said, “It is the man of God, who disobeyed the command of the LORD; therefore the LORD has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke to him.”

JEROBOAM DOES NOT TURN AWAY FROM EVIL

o 1 Kings 13:33 - 34 (NASB) ³³After this event Jeroboam did not return from his evil way, but again he made priests of the high places from among all the people; any who would, he ordained, to be priests of the high places. ³⁴This event became sin to the house of Jeroboam, even to blot it out and destroy it from off the face of the earth.

o OBSERVE:

§ God takes serious that fact that it is HE who selects priests, not the king.

§ God is serious about the roles he gives people to play…it stirs His anger when they don’t play those roles as He designed, but rather as they design.

CHAPTER 14

Jeroboam’s House Judged

• Jeroboam’s son gets sick
• Jeroboam’s wife goes to Ahijah (the prophet) to get him healed
• God tells Ahijah she will pretend to be another woman
• Ahijah then tells her:

o I exhalted you – gave you the kingdom

o But you have not had a whole heart like David

o You’ve gone and made idols, gods, images and provoked me to anger

o I will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel

o The child will die—because he is the only one that has good in him of the house of Jeroboam.

o God will raise up a new king and cut off the house of Jeroboam

o God will strike Israel

o God will scatter them beyond the River

o WHY?

§ They made wooden images

§ Provoked the Lord to anger

§ Jeroboam sinned and made Israel sin.

• Jeroboam dies

Rehoboam Reigns in Judah

• Rehoboam was Solomon’s son
• Reigned in Judah
• 41 years old when he started
• Reigned 17 year
• Judah did evil in the sight of God

o Including perverted persons in the land

CHAPTER 15

Abijam Reigns in Judah

• Reigned 3 years in Judah/Jerusalem
• He walked in sins of his father
• Heart was not loyal to the Lord his God
• Yet God left a lamp for David’s sake

Asa Reigns in Judah

• King over Judah
• Reigned 41 years
• He did what was right in sight of God like David
• He banished the perverted people
• Removed idols
• Removed his grandmother, Maachah, from being queen because she had made an obscene image
• BUT he didn’t remove the high places (of idol worship)
• NEVERTHELESS: his heart was loyal to the Lord all his days.

Nadab Reigns in Israel

• Son of Jeroboam
• King over Israel
• 2 years
• Did evil

Baasha Reigns in Israel

• Son of Ahijah
• King over Israel
• Reigned 24 years
• Did evil