Third Presbyterian Sunday Morning Bible Study - October 10, 2021

Below is the Bible Study written by Jim Rudiger for his Sunday School Class which meets at Third Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia. It's based on 1 Kings 11:1-13.

How do you boil a frog? Easy answer: Boil the water and throw in the frog. If you boil the water and throw the frog in, what will happen? He hops back out and blows on his feet. So how do we boil this frog without him jumping out of the pot? What you do is to put the frog into a pot of lukewarm water. Then you put the lid on the pot and put the pot over a low flame on the stove. The water will slowly warm up. Now the dumb frog thinks that he is in a Jacuzzi. He is laying there doing the back stroke as the water gets hotter and hotter. The frog actually is enjoying the feeling as the pot gets even hotter. Soon the pot boils and so does the frog.

You know what? That is the way it is with sin. At first we just slip into sin at a comfortable level. Splash around a bit enjoying the warm sensation. Before we realize it, we are in too far to get out. We are literally in over our heads.

There was a man who worked for a big company and one day he needed $25 right then and he didn’t have a cent on him, but, there was way more than $25 in the till. He’ll just borrow it and tomorrow when he brings his wallet with him, he’ll pay it back. Tomorrow comes and the resolve to pay it back gets pushed to the back burner. Another emergency arises and this time it takes $100. So he rationalizes that he will borrow the money just one more time and bring in the $125 dollars tomorrow. the next day the till wasn't paid. It was so easy. As time goes on more and more is borrowed and the rationalizes that he really deserved more money and this is just payment for all that he has done for the company. You see, in order to square it with your conscience, you have to present arguments to your self that what you are doing is really justified.

Before long, his debt far exceeded his ability to ever repay what he had borrowed. Finally, the auditors discovered the missing funds and he was caught. That is the way Satan drags us in. Not with a big desire, but, with a little need. A need so small that we don’t see us moving in the wrong direction. Finally, when our sin is exposed, we look back and see just how far we have come. This gradual slide into sin is what happens to Solomon in our study today.

When you hear "King Solomon" what's the first thing that pops into your mind. King Solomon was a wise man. He had the ability to make the right decisions. Maybe it was because he came from good stock, His Dad, David, was an icon of the Old Testament. Everybody knew of David. After David's death, Solomon became king and the people were overjoyed to have such a wise man for king. One of his first acts was to finish the temple David started. David had also given him a list of people David had listed for special treatment and he did what his Dad had told him to do.

Solomon had started to demonstrate the wisdom that he had asked God to give him. The country was at peace and the stock market was up. God had promised that this would continue if Solomon walked righteously before God. One simple little job. As smart as Solomon was, this should have been a piece of cake.

Israel had always been an agricultural country with added income coming in as a trading nation located in the middle of the major trade route of the day. Solomon sees that Israel could be even greater if it had a fleet of merchant ships to haul the country's produce all over the Middle East and not have to pay another country shipping fees.

Tyre was known for it’s shipyards and seamanship. Solomon gets in touch with his buddy Hiram, the king of Tyre. Hiram agrees to build the ships for Solomon and provide sailors to train the Israelites. It wasn’t long before Israel’s ships were bringing in goods from Africa and the far east. Israel moved from a local trading nation to a world trader. This enhanced their ability to meet the needs of the trade caravans. Israel and Solomon were making a name for themselves in the Middle East. Their reputation for making money and making wise decisions made them the envy of the surrounding kingdoms.

Reports of Solomon’s wisdom and business ability reached the kingdom of Sheba. O,Oh. Whose living in Sheba? Right and Sheba was ruled by a queen. Many times we look at those days and see that women didn’t have much political power but in Sheba this wasn’t the case. The queen had heard about Solomon and wanted to meet this wise business man. She sets out with a lot of gold and fine gifts, determined to find out for herself if all the stories about his wisdom were true. She walks into the palace and announces, “Who wants to be a millionaire?” Since the only guy sitting in the room was Solomon, so, he raised his hand. The queen asked him all the "Jeopardy" questions she could think of and he answered every one without asking for help. The queen was impressed and she gave him all the gifts she had brought with her. She sends word out to all the other monarchs ad tells that Solomon was the real thing. He was everything that they had heard and more.

Solomon had become very rich. He was earning about $20,000,000 a year. He could afford the latest modeled camel, the ones equipped with compasses on their rear view mirror and a GPS. While the other rulers had to settle for camels with one hump, Solomon’s camels had two. But, with all of this money and power, the kingdom began to revolve around Solomon and not God and that where we pick up our study.

1 Kings 11:1 King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharoah: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite women, 2 from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the Israelites, "You shall not enter into a marriage with them, neither shall they with you; for they will surely incline your heart to follow their gods"; Solomon clung to these in love. 3 Among his wives were seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.

Up to this time, the writer of 1 Kings has been very complimentary of Solomon. He describes every thing that Solomon did to increase the prestige and wealth of Israel and it was all very good. Now the praises stop. The writer says that there is no secrete why the Lord is angry with Solomon. What was the reason God was angry? Solomon loved a lot of foreign women. In fact, Solomon’s first wife was the daughter of the Pharaoh. When he built his house, he had one built for her, too. But she wasn’t his only wife. He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. Can you imagine trying to get into the bathroom in his house. This guy seems to be the king of the womanizers from these numbers, but, that might not be the case. It was customary to make alliances with other nations by marrying into the royal family. The idea was that in-laws wouldn’t declare war on each other. So a lot of these wives were princesses who were probably married more out of diplomacy than love. So these bureaucratic marriages were really a form of treaties between nations.

Through these marriages, Solomon was able to protect the borders of Israel. The problem is that the scriptures strictly prohibited the marriage between a Jew and the very nations represented by Solomon’s wives. This wasn’t an arbitrary command of God. He wasn’t trying to close down the immigration office after the people swam across the Rio Grande. He wasn’t a bigot hating all foreigners. What He knows is the hearts of men and he knew that if a Jew married outside of the faith, he would end up doing what his wife wanted. You see, guys, even God knows that we are putty in the hands of our wives. “Lift that bail. Tote that barge.” “Yes, dear. How far do want me to do the lifting and toting?” It wouldn’t be long before the Jewish husband was pressured to give into their wives and let them worship their gods. A little more pressure and they would join their wives in the worship. Even today, women seem to be more sensitive to religion than men.

Scripture tells us that Solomon clung to these women in love. I’m sure that his advisors warned him that he was getting into trouble with the religious leaders and to back off. But Solomon looked at his riches and prestige among the nations. To give up these women may cause him to look weak and would surely weaken the defenses of Israel. Rationalization - I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing it for Israel.

1 Kings 11: 4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. 5 For Solomon followed Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; and did not completely follow the Lord as his father David had done.

Solomon has a heart problem - his wives have turned his heart away from God. Solomon is old and his wives take advantage of him. He rationalizes, "All they want is a shrine so that they can worship their god. Is that too much to ask? They aren’t really Jews so what difference can that make? One little alter and then they will shut up and I can get back to counting my money." Also, Solomon is an intellectual and to keep in the club, he has to be tolerant of all religions. After all there are many roads to God. It would be presumptuous to insist that our way is the only way. Why, if Solomon took this position, Whoopie Goldberg would never invite him to be on The View. One little gesture for the ecumenical movement can’t hurt. Stick in your finger and see if the pot is heating up.

Like all compromises with the word of God, it won’t stop with just letting others sin. That is what Solomon did by being so understanding and broad minded - he was an accomplice in some one else’s sin. It wouldn’t be long before one of his wives asked him to join her at the alter. Can’t you hear her saying, “If you really love me, you’ll go to my church at least one time so my friends can meet you. What I am saying is you don’t have to join my church, just give me some support. I’ve been to your temple and I didn’t complain.” Finally, Solomon figures that it will be only one time and the Lord knows that he isn’t really worshiping this false god. OK. He will go, but only this one time. Ooo. The pot is feeling nice and warm now.

The wives would not be satisfied with Solomon just showing up and sleeping through the service. If he really loved her then he would share her religious experience with her. After all, if he didn’t want her there, he could have refused building the alter for her. Would it hurt so much if he just lit the sacrifice and went through the motions? It didn’t mean that he really believed in the god, he was just sharing in some prized family time with his wife. So Solomon takes the matches and lights the fire under the sacrifice swearing that this will be last time. Now his heart was being turned from God and the pot is starting to boil.

The gods that he was sacrificing to were considered some of the worst pagan gods in the region. Astarte was a goddess from Lebanon associated with the sea. Milcom was the Ammonite form of the god Baal considered to be the god of fertility and storms. How sad that such a great leader and wise man like Solomon should slide down the slippery path of sin. Here was a man who God had offered to support not only him, but his heirs forever. Solomon had crossed over the line and now was no longer in God’s favor. The water is boiling over the top of the pot.

1 Kings 11: 7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination pf the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. 8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrificed to their gods.

The wives were not satisfied with just altars. Solomon had built a magnificent temple for his God but only gave them a small pile of stones for their god. It wasn’t fair. If he really loved them, he would at least give them a small temple where they could go and worship with some degree of dignity. So Solomon went outside of Jerusalem and built temples on hills for their gods. At first it was only for his Egyptian wife and a few selected others. But as word spread through the harem, all of his wives wanted temples for their gods. Can’t you see poor old Solomon sitting there with seven hundred wives all speaking at once asking for their own temple and throwing up to him that he was playing favorites by building temples for only a few wives? Finally, he puts his hands over his ears and say’s, “I’ll build you all a temple on the moon, if you will only shut up.” After all, it is outside of the city walls. What harm could it do? Such a little building, too. No body will notice. But someone did notice - God. Go get the thermometer. I think the frog and Solomon are both done.

Solomon built high places. These high places were shrines for the ritual sacrifices to the foreign gods. Two of the gods who had special temples were Chemosh and Molech. Chemosh was the national god of Moab and Molech was the god of the Ammonites. The worst of all of the gods was Molech. The worship of this god involved the sacrifice of babies. So not only were the pagan gods becoming accepted as equals to the true God but this equality associated the true God with the horrible practice of infant sacrifice. And Solomon went along with these gods. Later, Josiah would destroy these high places. As we sit here and watch how Solomon sinks further and further into sin, we want to shout back over the centuries to say, “Wake up and look how far you have fallen from the man God had intended you to be.” Now it is clear that God’s coming judgement of Solomon was justified.

1 Kings 11: 9 Then the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, 10 and has commanded him concerning this matter, that he should not follow other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord commanded. 11 Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, "Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant. 12 Yet for the sake of your father David I will not do it in your lifetime; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 I will not, however, tear away the entire kingdom: I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.

Solomon is condemned in these verses. His heart has turned from God. Even though God thought enough of Solomon to appear twice to him, Solomon couldn’t resist Satan’s pull on him. At each step of the way, Solomon had the opportunity to stop and repent, but, he continued on slowly moving further away from God. You see, God wasn’t forsaking Solomon. It was Solomon forgetting where he had come from. That is what sin does to you. It doesn’t let you look back and see how far you have slid. It only lets you glimpse a little way ahead and then through cloudy lens. Always promising that this will be as far as you have to go. If Solomon had have stopped and looked back at the promise of the beginning, then he may have had the power to resist the temptations no matter how much he tried to rationalize the benefits.

God still is faithful to David and doesn’t condemn Solomon in his lifetime. The retribution will occur after Solomon dies. The kingdom will be split and Solomon’s heir will end up with only one tribe out a total of twelve. Solomon’s son becomes king and proceeds to set golden calves to be worshiped and to enslave his people. There is a revolt and all but one tribe, the tribe of Benjamin, joins the other side.

Those who sin against God and against other people start small. After small starts, people generally work up to bigger and bigger things. Whether it is stealing from a businesses or breaking our commitments, they always seem so insignificant in the beginning. But eventually the pot boils.

That is what happened in Solomon’s life. At the beginning he compromised his ideals and beliefs just to get along with his wives. He thought he was finding the middle ground - that place where everybody is happy. The worshiping habits of his wives didn’t matter that much so let them have their fun. It is tragic that such a wise man as Solomon could loose his bearings and stray so far from God. But, he started down the wrong path by coming to the pot..

If a wise man like Solomon can make such a bad judgement call, what does that say about us? Every day we are tempted to test the water in the pot.. To compromise on our beliefs just to get along. Every day we are called on to be understanding of the culture of other people and to bend a little, to be tolerant. There is no word as offensive to our faith as “tolerant”. These tolerances are the foreign gods today. In the name of tolerance we are brow beaten into accepting the seated statue of a 4000 year wise man as a religion equal to our God. In the name of tolerance we are shamed into accepting people being reborn as animals. In the name of tolerance we are encouraged to accept the belief that a human who claimed to be a prophet of God 600 years after Christ can be anyone’s savior. You see the face of the sin has changed but the nature of sin hasn’t. It is still calculated to move us ever so slightly away from the true God.

Have you written down the recipe? OK then, how do you boil a frog? By gradually turning up the heat. And how do we sin? By gradually turning away from God. There you have it. Are you a Christian or a frog?

Prayer: Father, sin is packaged by Satan to appeal to us. Lead us to tear away the pretty packaging to see the ugliness of the sin, Amen.