Sermon Notes
Pastor Jeff Stanfill

"Solomon's Follies "
and Communion
September 3rd, 2006 - AM Service

SOLOMON'S FOLLIES
TEXT: 1 KINGS 11:1-3; 10:23-27; 4:29-33
INTRO:
Riches, fame, wisdom, gold and silver. All of these come to mind when someone mentions Solomon. Especially the wisdom part.

The story of the youth king asking God only for wisdom to govern the people of God is known in most every culture. And rightfully Solomon was a timeless and world-class figure.

1. His greatness. He was the first great commercial king of Israel. "He took full advantage of peculiarly favorable conditions both by land and by sea for trade expansion. The widespread domestication of the Arabian camel from the twelfth century B.C. onward, as Albright has noted (From the Stone Age to Christianity [1940], pp. 120 f.), effected a remarkable increase in nomadic mobility. It was now possible for desert caravans to venture two or three days' journey from a water supply. Ample archaeological evidence shows that there was extensive caravan trade between the Fertile Crescent and S Arabia in the Solomonic era. Solomon monopolized the entire caravan trade between Arabia and Mesopotamia and from the Red Sea to Palmyra ("Tadmor," 2 Chron 8:4), an oasis 140 miles NE of Damascus, which he built (1 Kings 9:18). Exercising control over the trade routes both to the E and W of the Jordan, the Israelite monarch was enabled to collect enormous revenue from merchants seeking passage through his territories (1 Kings 10:15). Solomon also exploited the incipient iron industry, as a result of David's breaking the Philistine monopoly on iron (1 Sam 13:19-20).
(from The New Unger's Bible Dictionary. Originally published by Moody Press of Chicago, Illinois. Copyright (c) 1988.) Scripture simply says "1 Kings 10:14."

2. His wisdom. 1 Kings 4:29-31. God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. 30 Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the men of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 He was wiser than any other man, including Ethan the Ezrahite-wiser than Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol. And his fame spread to all the surrounding nations. From displaying the beginning of wisdom by asking God for the good judgment to govern the people to the story of settling the disputed maternity of a baby between two prostitutes, Solomon's wisdom was famed.

3. His accomplishments. Solomon was an urban planner establishing and revitalizing cities and villages, an architectural genius building public and private edifices of famed beauty, and a man of letters. 1 Kings 4:31-34. He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five. 33 He described plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish. 34 Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon's wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom.

Now, does it seem out of place to preach about Solomon's follies? It is because Solomon was such a great, wise, and accomplished man, the facts of his follies speak so much more loudly than those of most other men and women.

I. FOLLY #1, HE MARRIED FOR THE WRONG REASONS (11:1,3)
1. Solomon married for international political gain. That is still a popular reason that people marry in some cultures. One is pre-disposed not to attack his father-in-law! While we may consider Solomon's reasons as so primitive and uncouth, people in our world and culture marry for reasons just as wrong. Even among some families people marry for political gain still; or some may marry for financial stability; or some marry for sex. Today our society is being pressed to redefine the reasons for marriage.

2. But there are some right reasons to marry.
· Marry to love someone exclusively. ILLU: "Dog" the bounty hunter announced his marriage to his common law wife this month. He said that it really was different it that one could feel a sense of belonging to one another. That isn't ownership but it is exclusivity.
· Marry to further the good of the other person. If I marry for the good of me then if I ever think that she is no good for me, the marriage is over. But if I marry for the good of her, then I will do all that is necessary to see that I am able to further her good.
· Marry to fulfill God's will in your life.
· Marry to enable the human race to be fruitful and blessed.

II. FOLLY #2, HE ALLOWED HIS AFFECTIONS TO BE UNGUARDED (11:2).
1. A directive was given in the form of a prohibition. The people of God were to marry only those who were also of the people of God. And the king was to be in the forefront of this directive. The intimacies and intricacies of the marriage relationship make it the most influential relationship one can have with a person. Marriage affects the heart in deeper ways than the obvious flutter of first love. The heart is the deep set affections of a person. It is the strong inclinations of the soul from which come our thinking, feeling, and acting. Out from these deep inclinations or affections flow our priorities, our pleasures, our wills and desires, and even decisions.

2. Our affections can be holy or unholy. Holy affections include a love for God and others, hatred of sin, a hunger for God and divine things, joy, and gratitude to God. Unholy affections can be hatred for God and others, love of sin, disgust for or indifference to God and divine things, cynicism, and bitterness toward God. Solomon allowed his affections to go unguarded. He did not keep away from people or types of relationships that would encourage unholy affections within him. He allowed ungodly wives to instill within him a love for other gods. Neither did he guard the holy affections he once had. He did not marry women that would encourage faithfulness to the Lord.

3. Prohibitions, like the one here for Israelite marriage, are like the guardrails on a bridge. Do they prohibit something? Yes, they do. They prohibit me from driving off the bridge into a chasm or river to my death. Students, this is why the loving adults in your life are greatly interested in your friends because friends can be guards that protect your holy affections and shield you from unholy ones.

III. FOLLY #3, HE TRADED THE NATURE AND CHARACTER OF GOD TO ACCOMMODATE HIS LIFESTYLE (11:3-5).
1. As Solomon had married these women for the wrong reasons and his affections were unguarded so that his heart turned from the true God to other gods, he traded the nature and character of God to accommodate his lifestyle. This is subtle but clear in the text when we look at the false gods Solomon turned toward. I warn you now that this principle is very politically incorrect.

2. First, the false god Ashtoreth is a goddess, a feminine god. Ashtoreth was a fertility goddess of sex and sensuality. She was known by similar sounding names in Greece and Babylon. She symbolized Mother Earth and the worship of her involved ritualistic prostitution and symbolic acts that portrayed the seasons of nature. Second, Molech was the national deity of Ammon. Molech was revered to be a 'protecting father'. Get the iron here -- it was worshipped with child sacrifices. Children were caused to pass through or into fires. Archaeological surveys have found infant skeletons buried around ancient heathen shrines.

3. Do you see the trading of the nature of the true God? While God has no physical body, He has revealed Himself to us as masculine in nature. He records Himself with masculine pronouns, He reveals that He is a father a clearly masculine identity. But Ashtoreth is feminine. A trading of natures occurs in the worship of her. Today, we face the folly of trading God's revealed masculine nature as feminine. Many churches are deleting all masculine references to God and replacing them with feminine references.

4. Do you see the trading of character? While God reveals Himself as of a masculine nature even using the word 'father', He is a caring father, providing father, protecting father, an ideal father. But Molech is a cruel child sacrificing god. This is the exact opposite of what is revealed concerning the true God.

CONCL:
I want to apply this first in the context of our society and then in our personal lives. We today as a society are committing the same follies of Solomon.
1. We want to marry for the wrong reasons. For the entire history of humanity marriage has included more than the expression of love between one man and one woman. It has also included the bearing and rearing of children in the atmosphere of a man and a woman committed to one another emotionally, financially, sexually, psychologically, and every other way. But today with the push for same-sex marriage, we are attempting to marry only for the reason of two other adults personal desires and preferences. Under those terms a marriage has no future. Once the two parties die, if they make it that long, there is nothing there. (I am not saying that a childless marriage between a man and a woman is a marriage of the wrong reasons. God Himself opens and closes the womb. So if you today are a childless couple or know others who are, please do not misunderstand.) I am saying that our society is following the folly of Solomon when we remove this reason from marriage.

2. We want our affections to go unchecked. A few decades ago, the community good that guided much of our laws and legal judgments was replaced with the doctrine of individual rights. No long did a judge make decisions based upon the collective good of society. Decisions became based upon what did the individual standing before the judge have as a right to do regardless of others. That has removed from around our human affections the legal guards that protected not only society but the individual. Now pornography is unchecked and not the shameful brown-wrapped magazine in the mailbox or the cheap product flicker in a unclean, nearly condemned theater. It has made its way into advertising and insinuated its self into our highway billboards. This because of an individual's right of free speech over the community good. Pornography is an easy target but what about the less evident such as legalized greed in the form of gambling. We removed the guards of our affections and we now are steeped in our greed. Or

3. We want to trade the masculine nature of God and His kind character to accommodate our lifestyle. How ironic that Ahsteroth was a feminine god and Molech a cruel god, just the opposite of the true God. It is today's accusation that a masculine God incites oppression of women; that a kind God induces oppression. It is just the opposite! Ashteroth made woman objects and Molech inflicted pain on the innocent. Do you see the trade? This is a horrendous 1984 George Orwellian scenario. Let's call as evil what is good long enough and people will believe that good is evil and evil is good. If we say long enough and loud enough that Christianity's God has oppressed ethnic groups through white Europeans and that it has suppressed women through male dominance, then the folly of Solomon will be the wisdom of the age!

But what of you and me as individuals? It may not be marriage for the wrong reasons. It can be anything for the wrong reasons. Our hearts are so depraved that we can perform the greatest, highest deed with a selfish, self-seeking motivation. I'll be nice to the guy at work because he can help me get the promotion.

Are your affections allowed to be unguarded?

Have you traded something of God's nature and character to accommodate anything of your lifestyle? Do you think of God as something other than who He truly is so you can be more at ease with a habit or attitude?