The First Three Kings of Israel

The First Three Kings of Israel

Mark R. Perkins, Pastor

Front Range Bible Church

I) Introduction.

A) The first three kings of Israel are famous for their position, intelligence, leadership, and wisdom.

B) However, the purpose of this study is to consider their flaws and to gain insight into the present condition of our nation.

C) Of special importance will be insight into the nature of our responsibility as Christian citizens of this nation.

II) The Degenerate Time Before the Kings of Israel.

A) Judges 17:6, “In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.” This phrase is repeated exactly in Judges 21:25 and, in part, in Judges 18:1 and 19:1.

1) This is a comment of the writer and it is set forth as a bad thing. The people had judges, but they wanted a king.

2) Since this was the time of the Judges, there has to be a clear distinction between the essence of a judge and the essence of a king.

B) The purpose of the judges is outlined in Judges 2:16-19, “(16) Then the Lord raised up judges who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them. (17) Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed themselves down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do as their fathers. (18) When the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them. (19) But it came about when the judge died, that they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them; they did not abandon their practices or their stubborn ways.”

1) You can see for yourselves that the judge is not much more than a military general.

2) The purpose of the judge was to deliver Israel from the plundering tribes that targeted them.

3) Whenever a raiding group of gentiles would come into the land, the judge would organize a military defense, and then God would stand behind him.

4) The result was consistently victorious defense for Israel, but the raiding did not cease because of the Israelites’ hardness of heart.

5) The time of the judges was a time of awful idol worship for Israel. God was certainly not their king, although He should have been.

C) This distinction becomes a little more clear in 1 Samuel 8:1-9: “(1) And it came about when Samuel was old that he appointed his sons judges over Israel. (2) Now the name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judging in Beersheba. (3) His sons, however, did not walk in his ways, but turned aside after dishonest gain and took bribes and perverted justice. (4) Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah; (5) and they said to him, ‘Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.’ (6) But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, ‘Give us a king to judge us.’ And Samuel prayed to the Lord. (7) The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them. (8) Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this day - in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods - so they are doing to you also. (9) Now then, listen to their voice; however, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them.’”

1) The people of Israel believed that the function of the king was to judge his people; to administer justice on their behalf.

2) The Jews desired a king according to the evil desires of their hearts. This is not unlike the desire of apostate congregations to accumulate apostate teachers in accordance with their evil desires. Paul talked of this phenomenon in 2 Timothy 4:3.

3) Undisciplined people who are slaves to their own sinful natures will look for leadership that will give them slack so that they can maintain their lifestyles.

4) The king they looked for would be more than a military ruler, he would judge them in all their disputes.

5) Verse seven is the backbreaker; it reveals the desire of God to be king over Israel; here was the offer of divine rulership, long before there was ever a Messiah.

6) It is also important to perceive the wonderful nature of the Messiah in the God-man Jesus Christ, because He is the one who is both God and man as the king of Israel. He meets both the desire of God and the desire of the people.

7) It is especially heinous, therefore, that the people of Israel rejected their perfect Messiah.

8) Finally, God grants the Israelites’ desire for a king, but the king would not be exactly what they wanted. Samuel was to warn them in solemn fashion concerning the true nature of this king.

D) The degeneracy of Gibeah:

1) Gibeah came to characterize the degeneracy of Israel under the Judges, and the Israelites’ need for greater restraint under a king. Judges 19-21 recounts a event that was paramount in degeneracy.

2) At that time, a traveler came to Gibeah and was spending the night. Certain demon-possessed homosexual men came to the house where he was staying, and demanded that he come out to the town square and have a homosexual orgy with them.

3) Instead, the traveler and his host threw their women out to the homos in order to appease them.

4) The traveler's concubine (mistress) was raped and tortured all night by the demon homosexuals, and she died as she tried to claw her way back into the house.

5) The man then cut this woman's body into twelve pieces and sent them to the twelve tribes of Israel. He lied and exonerated his guilt, and as a result, 400,000 soldiers mustered at nearby Mizpah. They came from all the tribes.

6) What followed was a great battle, in which the people of Gibeah were destroyed.

7) But the people of Israel continued to make terrible misapplications and commit great acts of injustice against the people of the region of Benjamin. Benjamin suffered terribly because of the acts of a few and the lies of one.

E) At the same time, there was a city in the Transjordan, northeast of Jerusalem, called Jabesh-Gilead. During the degenerate time of Gibeah, the tribes of Israel sent out a muster to all the men of Israel so that they could destroy the criminal Benjaminites in Gibeah.

F) The men of Jabesh-Gilead refused to attend the muster at Mizpah, apparently for reasons of conscience, not because they were cowards, but because they did not believe that the destruction of the entire city was warranted.

G) The lynch mob of Gilead swore before God that they would kill any man of Israel who did not attend their muster, and the men of Jabesh-Gilead still would not comply (Judges 21:5).

H) Now there were about 600 surviving men from the tribe of Benjamin who had lost the battle of Gibeah before Israel, but there were no women survivors (Judges 20:48). The rest of the warriors broke out of the city and fled to the area just east of Bethel, where they holed up near the rock of Rimmon, about four miles outside of town.

I) The men of Israel then discovered the absence of the soldiers from Jabesh-Gilead, went there, and killed all the inhabitants of the town, save for 400 virgins. They had a purpose for these (Judges 21:8-12).

J) The men of Israel then felt sorry that they had cut off the inheritance of an entire tribe, so they gave the 400 virgins of Jabesh-Gilead to the 600-man remnant of Benjamin, and let them return to the land of their inheritance (Judges 21:13-24).

K) After the rehabitation of Jabesh-Gilead, about 1030 B.C. +/- 5 years, Nahash the King of Ammon came against the city and besieged it (1 Samuel 11:1).

L) The city was rescued by the intervention of king Saul, at least partly, because it was the hometown of his mother.

M) There were four stages to the making of Saul as king.

1) In 1 Samuel chapter eight, the elders of Israel demanded a king from Samuel, their great prophet. They were not specific as to who this king should be.

(1) Samuel balked at the idea, protesting that God should be the only king under a true theocracy.

(2) He also warned the people that a king would bring many abuses with him, taking people for manpower, and property for taxes.

(3) Nonetheless, God instructed Samuel to listen to the people and appoint them a king. God would give Israel a king after their own image.

(a) This is very important to observe!

(b) Since God had established the nation as His chosen institute, He had to honor the desire of His people toward a king.

(d) This is a principle: the king can never have an effect greater than the goodness of his people.

(e) A good leader brings out the potential of his people, but that potential represents goodness.

(f) A poor leader cannot ruin a good and godly people.

(g) People who live in fear are detrimental to authority. They do harm by infectious slander, suspicion, and paranoia.

(h) You must always be a person who is worthy of a good king. And, you must always be a good person who can endure a bad king, not one who participates in gossip, slander, and worse.

2) In 1 Samuel 9:15-21, God chooses Saul the Benjaminite through Samuel. Saul protests at first, but then, in chapter ten, verse one, Samuel anoints Saul privately. That anointing is the sign of God’s choice.

3) 1 Samuel 10:17-27 records the public choosing of Saul at a meeting of all the tribes. Saul showed great reluctance to become king, and he hid from the people. But then he came out, and he was a very tall man. Immediately, the people saw his potential as a leader, and proclaimed, “Long live the king!”

4) Immediately thereafter, a crisis came.

(1) Nahash the Ammonite came down from his capital in the Transjordan and assaulted the city of Jabesh-Gilead, the home of Saul’s mother.

(2) Saul rallied the army of Israel and went out and rescued the people of Jabesh-Gilead from the siege of Nahash.

(3) Samuel then gathered the people at Gilgal, the famous entry-place to the promised land. There, some 350 years before, the people of Israel had first entered Canaan. At this very place, they made Saul’s kingdom official.

N) But Saul was not a particularly virtuous man, and ultimately he became a reflection of the evil desires of the nation.

1) That Samuel found and privately anointed David points out the failure of Saul. God would not have initiated this anointment toward coronation had Saul been a good king.

2) He failed in cowardly fashion at the battle with Goliath’s Philistine army. At nearly seven feet tall, he should have been God’s champion to slay Goliath.

3) Then Saul became jealous at David’s success on the battlefield and showed consternation of God’s choice for his successor. This formed a murderous complex of sin; Saul had degenerated to an extreme.

4) And here is another important lesson: Even with the first king, there was to be no genetic dynasty! Royal succession would come on the basis of virtue and not on the basis of genetic line.

5) Despite the Israelites’ fascination with genealogies, there was certainly no compulsion from God to stay within the bounds of genetic succession.

6) Saul came from the choice of the people, and God commanded Samuel to let them have their king.

7) So now what has changed with David? Why now will they get their summer king, their great wonderful king that they have always desired?

8) It could only be that the people of Israel were prepared in their hearts to have such a great man at their head.

O) David had his chance to remove Saul from the throne, and chose not to.

1) In 1 Samuel 23-24, there is the account of Saul’s pursuit of David’s life.

(1) 1 Samuel 23:15-18 recounts the meeting between David and Jonathan, wherein Jonathan came out to the wilderness to encourage him in God. David knew that Saul sought his life, and he was in hiding.

(2) Verses 19-23 are the narrative of the Ziphite spies who came to Saul and told him of David’s whereabouts. Saul enlists them to continue their spying so that he can bring about his murderous intent.

(3) In verses 24-29, Saul and his men pursue David in the wilderness of Maon. They are just about to surround David when word comes of a Philistine incursion, and Saul has to break contact and meet the greater threat. It was a near thing nonetheless. David then shifted his hideout to the wilderness of Engedi.

(4) Then came the great opportunity of David’s life: Saul’s life was handed to him on a platter. See how David handles this.

(5) 1 Samuel 24:1-7 is one of the great passages of Scripture: (1) Now when Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, saying, ‘Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.’ (2) Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Wild Goats. (3) He came to the sheepfolds on the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the inner recesses of the cave. (4) The men of David said to him, ‘Behold; I am about to give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.’ Then David arose and cut off the edge of Saul’s robe secretly. (5) It came about afterward that David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul’s robe. (6) So he said to his men, ‘Far be it from me because of the Lord that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, since his is the Lord’s anointed.’ (7) David persuaded his men with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul arose, left the cave, and went on his way.”

(a) David took one indulgence here by exacting the tiniest bit of revenge on Saul.

(b) Remember the context: Saul is trying mightily to kill David out of jealous hatred. And David can now end it all, as Saul is in the ultimate of vulnerable positions: squatting in a dark cave.

(d) He cuts off the edge of the robe, which, being the king’s robe, had fine embroidery sewn into it. That embroidered edge distinguished Saul from all others and identified him as king.

(e) David is such a remarkable believer that he feels guilty about this deed before his men.

(f) He identifies Saul and Saul alone as the Lord’s anointed king. He has perfect humility before his king, in spite of the fact that Saul is trying to murder him.

(g) In analysis, we would certainly conclude that Saul is abusing power here, and that he has committed crimes through the illicit use of his office. Surely we would remove this man from office as Americans! Well, in this day, I am not so sure of that.

(6) David again has a great opportunity to take Saul’s life in 1 Samuel 26; again he declines to do so. Listen to the words of David in verses 10 and 11, “(10) David also said, ‘As the Lord lives, surely the Lord will strike him, or his day will come that he dies, or he will go down into battle and perish. (11) The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord’s anointed; but now please take the spear that is at his head and the jug of water, and let us go.’”

(7) In the end, God removed Saul from office. He intervened in the affairs of His nation Israel so that He removed Saul at just the right time and replaced him with David.

(a) In 1 Samuel 31, the Philistine army overtakes Saul and his sons, including Jonathan.

(b) The Philistines wipe them out, leaving no possibility of genetic dynasty. David is the natural king, but before he gets to the throne, he defends the honor of Saul’s throne with these words in 2 Samuel 1:19-27, “(19) Your beauty, O Israel, is slain on your high places! How have the mighty fallen! (20) Tell it not in Gath, proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon, or the daughters of the Philistines will rejoice, the daughters of the uncircumcised will exult. (21) O mountains of Gilboa, Let not dew or rain be on you, nor fields of offerings; for there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, not anointed with oil. (22) From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not turn back, and the sword of Saul did not return empty. (23) Saul and Jonathan, beloved and pleasant in their life, and in their death they were not parted; they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. (24) O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you luxuriously in scarlet, who put ornaments of gold on your apparel. (25) How have the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan is slain on your high places. (26) I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; you have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was more wonderful than the love of women. (27) How have the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!”

(c) And the men of Jabesh-Gilead buried Saul. Here are David’s words to these men in 2 Samuel 2:5-7, “(5) May you be blessed of the Lord because you have shown this kindness to Saul your lord, and have buried him. (6) Now may the Lord show lovingkindness and truth to you; and I also will show this goodness to you, because you have done this thing. (7) Now therefore, let your hands be strong and be valiant; for Saul your lord is dead, and also the house of Judah has anointed me king over them.”

(8) This prompts a question. As devout believers, the framers of our constitution would have known of these Scriptural instances of humility.

(a) But in the end they did an exceedingly clever thing.

(b) They divided power in the government, in order to delay abuse of power for as long as possible.

(c) They realized that the temptation to abuse the great power of government was tremendous, and more than that, they knew the nature of the time of the judges, and the disastrous reigns of the kings of Israel.

(d) They also realized that they had the forge of government right in their own hands, and that what they made would have to be obeyed by God-fearing people.

(e) Ultimately, they must have known that no constitution is better than the people it serves, but they made a government that would be ruled by law, by God’s law. As a result, as long as Americans agreed to abide by this law, they would be under the rule of God.

(f) As long as the American people agree to abide by the constitution, we are under the protection of God.

(g) This is why it is so important that we abide by the constitution in the current matters of state. It represents the rule of God over our nation.

III)David.

A) There can be little doubt about the greatness of David as king. He was a great and wise believer who had a vital relationship with God.

B) Israel flourished during the golden time of David’s reign. They took most of what was to be their promised land, and gained fame among all the nations.

C) But then came David’s downfall in the frame of a woman and David’s subsequent vicious inferiority complex.

D) 2 Samuel 11:1-5, “Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, ‘is this not Bathsheba, the daughter Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite:’ And David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, and said, ‘I am pregnant.’”

E) The time is one year after the death of Nahash, king of the Ammonites. David became incensed because the sons of Nahash had rejected his offer of consolation and abused his emissaries, and so he made war against them (2 Samuel 10).

F) Remember that Joab is David's nephew, and actually a grandson of Nahash by Zeruiah, David's sister.

G) “Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle...” Although David had commanded his army to many victories, and was still a relatively young man, he refused to personally lead his army against the Ammonites. The reason is simple: he knew his revenge motivation against this nation was wrong, and that to destroy them for a personal vendetta was even worse.

H) David lacked the courage of his convictions, and worse, he sent a man to make war against his own grandfather.

1) This in itself points to the appropriate nature of Absalom's revolt.

2) God's discipline is always perfectly appropriate: because of David's sin here, Absalom, his own son, revolted against him.

I) Seeking to destroy his own biological family through warfare, and having done so from illicit motives, David nervously paces his roof and from there sees a beautiful woman in the act of bathing.

1) What better way to pass the time than a conquest of his own?

2) When David discovers that this woman is the Jewish wife of a Gentile warrior, his revenge motivation becomes even greater. David does not want this woman because of her beauty, but because she represents everything that David ever hated, including his own mother.

3) So David chooses to sin the identical sin of his biological father in order to satisfy the lust for revenge in his soul. While his troops fight the war at the front, David fights the war at home, exacting—to his mind—appropriate revenge.

J) The woman conceives and tells David of the problem.

1) David has the perfect solution: he plans to hide his sin by bringing her husband back home. Any soldier knows that this will result in an amorous reunion (vv.6-8).

2) But Uriah is a true leader of men and will not take time with his wife while his men are still fighting in the field (vv.9-13).

3) So David has to silence the man so he can perpetrate his lie and cover his adulterous affair.

4) David arranges for Uriah's death in battle, and Uriah is indeed killed by the Ammonites (vv.14-25).

5) David then marries Bathsheba after her period of mourning, and the child is born and then dies. David's discipline has only begun.

K) Joab finally wins victory in the siege of Rabbah, the capital of Ammon, and holds off until David can arrive to apply the coup de grace and thus take credit for the victory. David brings with him all the people of Israel. All the people.

1) David dashes to Rabbah and does the deed like the evil man he has become. 2 Samuel 12:29-30 is worth our time, “So David gathered all the people and went to Rabbah, fought against it, and captured it. Then he took the crown of their king from his head; and its weight was a talent of gold, and in it was a precious stone; and it was place on David's head. And he brought out the spoil of the city in great amounts.”

2) David ends his revenge by enslaving the captives of Rabbah, an unprecedented act of sin that is recorded in verse 31: “He also brought out the people who were in it, and set them under saws, sharp iron instruments, and iron axes, and made them pass through the brick kiln. And thus he did to all the cities of the sons of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.”

L) And there were those who fervently believed that David had invalidated his throne, his own son Absalom among them.

1) Indeed, David was on the run for a good while, during a lengthy period of Absalom’s success.

2) The degeneracy of David had certainly split the nation into warring factions. It would be a bloody time in the history of Israel, but after a while there was an uneasy peace.

M) But Nathan is the one to watch; he knows about David’s sin. Watch Nathan and you will know what to do.

1) The parable of the rich and the poor men, 2 Samuel 12:1-4, “(1) Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him and said, ‘There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. (2) The rich man had a great many flocks and herds. (3) But the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb which he bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and his children. It would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom, and was like a daughter to him. (4) Now a traveler came to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd, to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him; rather he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.’”

(1) The Lord sent Nathan.

(a) Nathan is in fellowship and under the guidance of the Lord.

(b) He is not in rebellion against David, even though he knows the nature of David’s sin.

(d) But Nathan is not lobbying for David’s removal. God’s priority is to save David, and Nathan is the man God will use to do so.

(2) Nathan’s parable is right on.

(a) The ewe lamb is Bathsheba; and the poor man is Uriah.

(b) Uriah has but one lamb, and she is beloved to him.

(d) And although the Scriptural account of the parable ends without recording it, the rich man apparently murdered the poor man, else, in David’s outrage, he would not have included capital punishment.

(e) This is a perfect set up to test David’s sense of justice.

2) David’s response to the parable, vv.5-6, “(5) Then David’s anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, ‘As the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die. (6) He must make restitution for the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and had no compassion.’”

(1) David’s sense of justice is intact. His first emotional reaction is outrage. He would be willing to punish the lamb-taking rich man with death. This, of course, would be incorrect according to the Mosaic Law, which only requires double restitution for the sin of theft.

(2) After David cools down a bit and backs off the proclamation of capital punishment, he gets it right. Fourfold restitution in the case of the theft and slaughter of the stolen sheep is perfect. David surely knows his Law.

(3) But he is blind, and does not see the relevance of the parable to his own life. He has been set up perfectly by Nathan.

3) Nathan’s interpretation of the parable, vv.7-10, “(7) Nathan then said to David, ‘You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘It is I who anointed you king over Israel and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. (8) I also gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these! (9) Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. (10) Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’”

(1) This is the pronouncement of guilt and discipline upon David.

(2) The discipline is appropriate to the nature of David’s crime after a sense, but it is not the capital punishment that he richly deserves.

(3) David had an abundance of prosperity, but there was no reason at all for him to have another wife, and certainly no rationale for him to take one from one of his generals.

4) The Lord’s prophetic utterance continued, vv.11-12, “(11) Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. (12) Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun.’”

(1) There is even more discipline here, this time related to David’s wives.

(2) They will be taken from David by God and given to David’s companion.

(3) There will be brazen adultery as an embarrassment to David.

(4) But this is contingent discipline which assumes David’s continued rejection of God.

5) David’s confession and Nathan’s reply, vv.13-15, “(13) Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’ And Nathan said to David, ‘The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die. (14) However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.’ (15) So Nathan went to his house.”

(1) David does confess that he has sinned against the Lord. He has an excellent moment of self-honesty toward the parable, and admits his wrong.

(2) There is a shift of discipline. Instead of perpetual warfare, David will only endure the personal discipline of the loss of his son.

6) Through all of this, Nathan is only an agent of reconciliation to God. There is no thought of removal or rebellion.

7) But there is a rebellion, thanks to David’s favorite son Absalom, and on account of this rebellion, David even loses the throne for a time, until Absalom is killed.

8) But this discipline was for the subjugation of Ammon, a separate offense from the adultery of Bathsheba and death of Uriah.

IV)Solomon.

A) A great demonstration of Solomon’s wisdom comes from his prayer at the time he ascended to the throne of Israel. 1 Kings 3:6-9, “(6) You have shown great lovingkindness to Your servant David my father, according as he walked before You in truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart toward You; and You have reserved for him this great lovingkindness, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. (7) Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. (8) Your servant is in the midst of Your people which You have chosen, a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted. (9) So give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”

1) If anyone asks for wisdom, God is faithful, and God was faithful indeed to give it to Solomon.

2) Solomon ruled wisely and gave Israel fantastic prosperity. His prayer for the dedication of the temple in 1 Kings 8:22-53 is a model that has seldom been eclipsed.

3) But Solomon fell. Listen to 1 Kings 11:1-8, “(1) Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomites, Sidonian, and Hittite Women, (2) from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, ‘You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.’ Solomon held fast to these in love. (3) He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. (4) For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. (5) For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. (6) Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done. (7) Then Solomon built a high place of 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.”

B) In 1 Kings 12, there is the chronicle of the division of the nation of Israel.

1) Jeroboam had rebelled against Solomon because when Solomon rebuilt the Millo, a crucial kink in the armor of Jerusalem, the forced labor was considered too hard.

2) Solomon had observed that Jeroboam was an industrious type, and he appointed him foreman over the work, but Jeroboam left.

3) As he left, he encountered the prophet Ahijah, who foretold of his rule over the ten northern tribes.

4) Israel had left Yahweh for the gods of Gentile nations, and part of Israel’s discipline would be the division of the nation.

5) The southern tribe of Judah would be left (with Jerusalem) as God’s expression of faithfulness to the Davidic covenant, while the rest of the nation would go with Jeroboam.

6) There was also the promise of an enduring house like David’s if Jeroboam and his division remained faithful. Solomon sought the life of Jeroboam for his threat to the unified kingdom. Solomon died before he succeeded in this endeavor.

7) The twelfth chapter contains high drama. Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, gathers the nation at Shechem for what he expects will be his coronation.

8) Here is a narrative of verses four through fifteen: the people request of Rehoboam relief from their heavy labors in the reconstruction of the Jerusalem wall; they make their service to him conditional - relief or rebellion; Rehoboam tells them to return in three days, and in the mean time takes counsel. The elders of the counsel take the conciliatory view, and advise Rehoboam to settle with his people. Unfortunately, his fiery young peers take the opposite view and advise the king to add weight to the already heavy yoke. He accepts their view and answers harshly:

9) “My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” The word of the prophet Ahijah had been established.