THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

The Books Of Kings: The Kings Of Israel And Judah From Solomon To The Babylonian Captivity

I. The United Kingdom, 1 Kings 1:1-11:43

G. Heeding Scripture NOW To Avoid FUTURE Predicaments

(1 Kings 9:10-28)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

In the realms of ethics and morals, nothing in today's world seems to be improving, but only getting worse:

(1) R. N. Collins of Plantsville had a letter in the Republican-American, January 22, 2018, p. 6A, expressing concern over the problems we face in today's society, noting that in contrast to 40 years ago, "(c)hildren . . . often . . . lack respect for others and, indeed, for life itself," that "abortions . . . number in the hundreds of thousands every year and are considered family planning," that "(t)he use of illegal drugs has exploded, reaching our schools," that "living off others was" once "an embarrassment," but that "(t)oday, it is considered only fair," that "(v)iolent demonstrations today are common in our cities," that "(r)ace relations have not shown the improvement we had hoped for," that "(t)oo often, children are brought up in daycare rather than at home with a parent," that "(p)romiscuity is common," that (t)here are no absolutes; the only thing that is wrong is murder, fetuses excluded" and that "we have become the 'me generation' -- less moral, less ethical, clearly more self-indulgent, and more inclined to avoid responsibililty."

(2) It occurs in evangelical realms: John H. Armstrong ("How Shall We Wage Our Warfare?" in John H. Armstrong, gen ed., The Coming Evangelical Crisis, 1996, p. 227) claimed of "the evangelical church" that "a crisis of immense consequences looms. Believers are confused. Churches chase after techniques for growth and ministry, while Christian leaders rooted and grounded in the classic truths of Scripture seem harder and harder to find."

Need: So, we ask, "With so much in the moral and ethical realms only getting worse, how should we live?!"

I. As we previously learned, Solomon began his reign violating five Scriptural directives for Israel's kings:

A. He had married a pagan Egyptian princess (1 Kings 3:1; 7:8b) in violation of Deuteronomy 17:17a and 7:1-4.

B. He had multiplied wealth to himself in violation of Deuteronomy 17:17b by building a palace four times the size of God's temple (1 Kings 6:2-3; 7:1-2) though Tyre's king Hiram had already donated funds, materials and workers to build a fine palace for David that Solomon had then inherited from his father, 2 Samuel 5:11.

C. Solomon had violated Deuteronomy 17:20a by lifting his heart up above his countrymen, excessively using them as slaves to build his large palace versus being content with the palace he inherited, 1 Kings 12:1-4.

D. He had violated Deuteronomy 17:16a in multiplying horses to himself (1 Kings 4:26).

E. Deuteronomy 17:18-20 reveals these four violations were the result of Solomon' failure to read Scripture daily as that passage commanded, what also then constituted a fifth violation of the Word of God!

II. These Scripture violations led Solomon to get entangled in even more troubles, complicating his reign:

A. 1 Kings 9:10-14 reveals that besides Hiram's supply of timber and stones for which Solomon reimbursed him with wheat and olive oil (1 Kings 5:8-11), Hiram loaned Solomon 120 talents of gold to finance and decorate his buildings. (The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, 1971, p. 320) This gold was about 144,000 ounces (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to 1 Kings 9:10-14), what today would equal around $170 million!

B. "Solomon's treasury being depleted, he gave Hiram 20 cities in northern Galilee" to pay him for the gold, but when Hiram saw them, they displeased him, so Solomon had to reimburse Hiram some other way, Ibid.

C. Now, Solomon's treasury had not been depleted by his building of the temple, for 1 Chronicles 22:7-16 reveals that his father David had amply supplied him with gold, silver, brass, iron, timber and stones for that project. No, Hiram's supply of gold to Solomon was for his other projects, including his huge palace with its house for Pharaoh's daughter, the Jerusalem city wall, etc. Solomon's sin of marrying Pharaoh's daughter who required a big palace from him and his sin of accumulating much wealth had led to his unsettling debt to Hiram!

D. In addition, Solomon viewed Hiram's comment about the cities he had given to him as a potential threat to Israel: Hiram as king of Tyre traded by sea with many nations, so if he spread word about the poor state of Israel's cities, it could tempt other kings to invade Israel, a reputably easy target with inadequate fortifications!

III. Solomon REACTED to these PREDICAMENTS by committing MORE SINS, leaving himself open for even MORE FUTURE, unwanted PREDICAMENTS:

A. 1 Kings 9:10-14 creates a strong literary tension, for it tells of Solomon's $170 million debt to Hiram that his gift of 20 cities did not suffice and of the threat of the spread of the news by Hiram to other kings that Israel was not well fortified and thus vulnerable for invading! 1 Kings 9:15a must then release this literary tension!

B. However, that verse releases this tension only if we refuse the NIV, ESV and NASB rendering of the Hebrew noun dabar as "account" and instead take the KJV's reading of "reason," a credible meaning for dabar that is even suggested here by the standard Hebrew lexicon, B. D. B., A Heb. & Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 182-184.

C. Accordingly, the author of 1 Kings explained in 1 Kings 9:15a that it was for this reason -- i. e., Solomon's large debt to Hiram and Hiram's complaint about the poor state of some cities in Israel, the spread of which claim about Israel's cities could threaten Israel's national security -- that Solomon mobilized his only other viable royal resource of slave labor to bail him out of such 1 Kings 9:10-14 predicaments, 1 Kings 9:15-28!

D. Yet, in trying to get out of his 1 Kings 9:10-14 predicaments this way, Solomon committed more sins:

1. Trying to offset the threat of Hiram's spreading word that Israel's cities were weak, Solomon used slaves to build not only the temple, his palace and the Jerusalem city wall fortress ("Millo," 1 Kings 9:15b; Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to 1 Kings 9:24) but to fortify cities from far north to southwestern Israel (1 Kings 9:15c-18), to build cities for food storage against seiges (1 Kings 9:19a) and to house his chariot army (1 Kings 9:19b) in violation of Deuteronomy 17:16a that forbade him from building up his army versus trusting God and in violation of Deuteronomy 17:20 by lifting his heart above his men in using them for so much slave labor!

2. Solomon actually used pagan Canaanites that Israel had sinfully failed to exterminate in taking the land to do the heavy slave labor (1 Kings 9:20-21) where Israel's men oversaw them (1 Kings 9:22-23), but the labor on even Israel's men was so great, they later complained about it to Solomon's son, 1 Kings 12:1-4.

3. When Pharaoh's daughter moved up from the City of David into the palace complex, Solomon felt obliged to build the Millo wall fortress better to protect her, using more slaves (1 Kings 9:24), and he sacrificed three times a year as required of God, financing it out of his now depleted royal reserves, 1 Kings 9:25.

4. Turning his attention to his depleted financial reserves and his big debt in gold to Hiram, Solomon built ships on the coast of the Gulf of Aqaba to send slaves to Ophir to mine gold, 1 Kings 9:26. However, he needed the expertise of Hiram's Phoenician sailors to help his men sail there, so he hired them to help with the operation, requiring he acquire 500 million dollars worth of gold in the venture (450 talents) to pay back Hiram, to finance his gold mining venture and to replenish his financial reserves, 1 Kings 9:27-28!

IV. However, had Solomon heeded Deuteronomy 17:14-20 from the START, he would have been content with his inherited palace, he would not have married the pagan Egyptian princess so that he would not have gone into debt to Hiram so that he would not have tried to pay back Hiram who then would not have complained about Israel's cities and he would have trusted God for his national security needs versus building up cities and a chariot army besides trusting God for gold income and not overworking his men in slave labor in all of these functions! Obeying God could have saved him lots of predicaments!

Lesson: By violating Scripture, Solomon created future predicaments for himself, and his efforts to get himself out of those predicaments only led him to disobey Scripture more, what could only lead to more future predicaments!

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ for salvation, John 3:16. (2) May we realize that disobeying Scripture only leads to future problems so that we heed Scripture NOW to avoid FUTURE resulting predicaments of trouble.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

I have taken a stand against counseling that does not rely on Scripture alone, but that integrates alleged "good" elements of secular psychology with Scripture to produce "Christian counseling"! The Scriptural basis for this stand was 2 Timothy 3:15-4:2 that claims Scripture is sufficient for every good work for the believer until Christ returns.

This stand was recently supported: at our last Church Board meeting, one of our deacons claimed the current issue of The Berean Call confirmed it, so I looked up this reputable newsletter's feature article online and cite from it here: "Psychotherapy, i. e., psychological counseling or clinical psychology . . . opens the door to . . . replacing and/or adding unproven, unscientific opinions of men to the Word of God, thus taking away from absolute confidence in the biblical truth about God . . . Psychotherapy is based on theories of personality that are simply unproved opinions originating from atheists, agnostics, and other non-Christians . . . They're simply collections of unscientific, secular, and, in many cases, anti-Christian beliefs that often contradict one another . . . (T)here is an accumulation of about 500 separate psychotherapeutic systems, each claiming superiority," what "should discourage anyone from thinking that so many diverse opinions could be scientific or even factual . . ." (T. A. McMahon, Martin & Deidre Bobgan, "Psychology and Psychotherapy (part 1)," The Berean Call, Jan., 2018; https://www.thebereancall.org/print/47485)

Right now, I'm so glad we before took a stand against such counseling! It has kept us out of trouble.

May we trust in Christ for salvation. Then, may we heed Scripture NOW to avoid FUTURE problems.