When Wisdom Becomes Foolishness

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[0:00] continue in 1 Kings in chapter 11. And this is our sermon text for today. Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh's daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from among the Hittites. The Lord had clearly instructed the people of Israel, you must not marry them because they will turn your hearts to their gods. Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway. He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord. In Solomon's old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the Lord his God as his father. David had been. Solomon worshipped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites. In this way, Solomon did what was evil in the Lord's sight. He refused to follow the Lord completely as his father David had done. On the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, he even built a pagan shrine for Chemosh, the detestable god of Moab. And another for Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites. Solomon built such shrines for all his foreign wives to use for burning incense and sacrificing to their gods. The Lord was very angry with Solomon,

[1:41] for his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. He had warned Solomon specifically about worshiping other gods. But Solomon did not listen. He did not listen to the Lord. He did not listen to the Lord. He did not listen to the Lord's command. So now the Lord said to him, Since you have not kept my covenant and have disobeyed my decrees, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants. But for the sake of your father David, I will not do this while you are still alive. I will take the kingdom away from your son. And even so, I will not take away the entire kingdom. I will let him be king of one tribe. For the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, my chosen city. Let's pray.

[2:34] God, we thank you for your word this day. God, we ask that you speak to our hearts, that you speak to our minds. Help us to understand the words that you have for us today. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

[2:54] So it all actually started really well for Solomon. He was obedient to his father, and his heart seemed to be really in the right place. His father was called a man after God's own heart, and Solomon had that example all his life. He seemed to have a good head on his shoulders, and the beginning chapters of his story seemed to show us that he would be a king with great promise.

[3:24] The whole entire world marveled at his wisdom. In fact, God himself said, you will be a king like no other. Other kings marveled at his wisdom. And yet that would be his downfall. His worldly wisdom became foolishness in God's sight. But he was so wrapped up in it, and so wrapped up in his earthly glory, that he couldn't escape. But he was so wrapped up in it, and so wrapped up in his earthly glory, that he couldn't escape. He was the Bible's wisest fool. He was a man who tried to give his heart to two masters, and ended up being the failing of a nation.

[4:06] And it did start out well. We can summarize the story from the first ten chapters of 1 Kings. He was chosen by King David to be the successor of the throne. His mother had favor with King David because of a wrong that King David had done to her. And so Solomon was meant to be king to right that wrong. And King David adhered to that promise.

[4:33] Solomon, it seemed, was a good and loyal son. He upheld his father's ideals. The beginning of his kingship was spent carrying out some of his father's final requests. And not just that, he truly had a deep heart for the temple. He had looked around at his palace and he said, why? Why is it that I, who am lowly, can stay in this beautiful palace, but the God most high, there's no place, no permanent place for him? And so he really put his heart into building the temple.

[5:14] And as for his rule, he did try to rule with fairness. His older brother had tried to overpower him. He tried to overthrow him before King David even died. And feared for his life when Solomon became made king. But Solomon said, you know what? As long as you live in peace with me, I will live in peace with you and I won't ask for your death. But Solomon's older brother did not live in peace with him. And so Solomon did ask for his death. But it was not because of any cruelty inside of Solomon.

[5:56] In fact, Solomon really was a fair king and he ruled the kingdom just like his father before him had. He sought God's direction and God met him and blessed him in his leadership. So much of Solomon's story is about the planning and building and dedication of the temple to the Lord. And that does show that at one point, Solomon at least tried to have a heart for God.

[6:24] But by chapter 11, we see that Solomon's heart was no longer for God. In Hebrews 12, 1, it says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

[6:49] Solomon had a great heart. He had a great start. He had a great cloud of witnesses early in life. He was surrounded by high priests and advisors and his father's faith. And the beginning of his race looked so promising. But there was something hindering his progress.

[7:08] And it caught up to him. Sin entangles and traps and takes on a domino effect in all of our lives. It tears our hearts away from God. This is not a unique problem to Solomon. It can really easily happen in anybody's life. And I'd venture to say that at some point or another, it does happen in everybody's life. We get distracted. We try to serve two masters. We substitute the wisdom of the world for God's wisdom. And before we know it, our own heart is straying further and further from God's. And sometimes we catch it. And it was just a short blip on our journey. But sometimes it takes over in our lives. Maybe we notice it. Maybe we don't.

[7:59] We tend to look at the highlight of Solomon's life as the moment when God decided to grant him anything he asked for. And out of anything he could have asked for in this world and out of this world, he asked for what? He asked for wisdom to lead God's people well. That was in chapter 3. And we tend to believe that he didn't start his downward spiral until well after that. But actually, it was earlier in that chapter that it says that he showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given to him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places. So before God granted him wisdom, before that entire interaction, he was already struggling with a divided heart for other deities.

[9:01] Most of his heart burned for the God of Israel. Maybe out of honor for his father. Maybe out of faithfulness that he had himself. We don't know. But a little portion of his heart from even that time was already spent elsewhere.

[9:25] And maybe he thought he was covering his bases by gaining the favor of as many gods as possible. The world would have looked on that and said, well, that's good leadership because you want the favor of as many gods over your leadership as possible. These gods will give you riches. These gods will give you glory. These gods will give you good leadership. These gods are the key to your journey.

[9:53] But not with the God of Israel, who is the one true God. And so that little act of worship for other gods was the one small opening in the door that allowed his heart to eventually be opened up to so many different sins.

[10:12] He failed to take God seriously. Or at least he failed to make God the only God in his life. And on several separate occasions, God specifically told him, if I am the only God in your life, then your leadership will prosper. Now it got worse as time went on. Solomon's worldly wisdom said that he ought to make treaties and alliances by marrying the women of foreign leaders. He had 700 wives of royal birth. That's 700 treaties and alliances that he very deliberately made. And 300 concubines. And it was all in the name of foreign peace.

[10:59] He was a great worldly king because of this. Leaders looked at him and they said, that's a great idea. Look at how smart he is. He's doing great things. And I'm sure other world leaders did the same thing. Or other world leaders would have looked on this as incredible kingship. He gained the respect of those kings and foreign leaders all over.

[11:30] But his wisdom was foolish in God's sight. God had specifically instructed Israel not to marry foreigners who brought in women of foreign birth. Right? Right? Right? not just with his wife, but with these foreign entities. And then all 1,000 of them would ask for the same thing. And because he wanted to keep the peace with these foreign entities, he would give them the same. But then they would go one step further, and they were asking him to honor them and honor their home country and honor their gods by sacrificing and worshiping to their gods. And he would do so.

[12:38] Verses 3 through 6 say, And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord. In Solomon's old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the Lord his God as his father David had been.

[12:56] Solomon worshipped Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites. In this way, Solomon did what was evil in the Lord's sight. And he had been warned about that. It wasn't an accident. He refused to follow the Lord completely as his father David had done. And that was his final downfall. He wasn't even pretending anymore that his heart belonged to God. He had completely gone astray. Now what caused this demise in Solomon's life?

[13:31] It was his pride. That's what caused this demise in all of us eventually is our pride, our thought that we can do it ourself, or we're worthy. We're the number one, or we have to take care of ourself first. It's our pride that gets us. And it was Solomon's pride which led to his compromise. His heart was divided, and that was the actual sin. But it was divided because of his pride. Maybe he felt compelled to be as great a king as his father was, or greater.

[14:03] Maybe his heart really was always in the right place, and he wanted to lead the people well. Or maybe he thought that, he had something to prove as a king, but whatever it was, in his prideful quest to be this great worldly king, he abandoned the idea that Israel was always meant to be a theocracy.

[14:24] That is led by God first. And he took it upon himself to be a king whose heart was divided between the ways of God and the ways of the world. The ways of the world told him that the best chance of being this beloved worldly king would be to be a king who was a great king. And that would be to worship multiple gods. And would be to have multiple wives.

[14:47] Whether to gain the favor of the gods themselves over his leadership, or to gain favor of the foreign entities by worshiping their idols. But before he knew it, his heart was given over in actual worship to them. And he had compromised God's way for the world's way.

[15:08] Now we think of compromise as being the best way to live. The best of both worlds. And that's probably what he thought it would be. But instead of his heart being filled with the best of both worlds, his heart was simply left compromised and empty.

[15:24] He compromised God's idea of wisdom. God had blessed him with the greatest wisdom ever known to man. We benefit from that wisdom even today. As Solomon was the writer, or at least the collector, of much of the world's wisdom. He read much of the wisdom literature in the Bible. And for some amount of time he used that wisdom in a good and beneficial way. Here's what the Bible says about his wisdom in 1 Kings 4. God gave Solomon very great wisdom and understanding, and knowledge as vast as the sands of the seashore. In fact, his wisdom exceeded that of all the wise men of the East and the wise men of Egypt. He was wiser than anyone else. Including Ethan the Ezraite and the sons of Mahol, Heman, Chalcol, and Darda. His fame spread throughout the surrounding nations. He composed some 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1,005 songs. He could speak with authority about all kinds of plants, from the great cedar of Lebanon to the tiny hyssop that grows from the cracks in a wall. He could also speak about animals, birds, small creatures, and fish. And kings from every nation sent their ambassadors to listen to the wisdom of Solomon.

[16:47] That's how wise he was. The equivalent to several PhDs. And not just PhDs, but people, the greatest people from all over the world, sought out his wisdom. To be that wise is incomprehensible. And of course we know that his wisdom was used to directly rule over his people. We hear about how he settled the dispute of two widows who had one living child remaining.

[17:18] Much of his day was spent settling disputes or troubles of his people. And these are godly uses of his wisdom. And he was honored for that. But soon his wisdom got the best of him. He exchanged godly wisdom for the wisdom around him. And the world told him to strengthen his reign. And so he did. And this is how his heart is. His heart turned away. If he had remained grounded in God's wisdom instead of compromising for the wisdom of the world, he would have been known as a great king in the Bible.

[17:52] His kingdom would not have been divided after his rule. But when he compromised on God's wisdom, he also compromised his own kingdom. 1 Corinthians 15.33 says, Do not be deceived. Bad company corrupts good morals. Taking wisdom from unhealthy sources will compromise your heart. And this is a huge warning sign for us. We are inundated with messages from the people around us and from the world around us all day every day. But God calls us to a higher standard. We need to surround ourselves with healthy, godly wisdom that comes from a variety of sources so we can discern how God wants us to act. It has to be intentional.

[18:45] I think where Solomon went wrong is he was no longer intentional. God told him the way it needed to be and he disregarded that. Our quest for God's wisdom has to be deliberate. Because worldly wisdom comes at us from all directions all the time. And some of it is really sneaky, too. But God's wisdom has to be deliberately sought after. And when we say don't compromise your heart with worldly wisdom over godly wisdom, that means you need to put actual effort into seeking godly wisdom over your life.

[19:25] Be ever in God's word. That's the first step. So much can be gained by simply taking the time to deliberately seek out God's word daily. Also surround yourselves with a variety of godly friends who have different opinions. Not just people who have the same opinions with you, but if someone has a different opinion from you and they are godly people, seek that person out deliberately. Because they have something to offer you. When it comes to wisdom. Gaining wisdom comes from a lot of different sources.

[20:11] Invest yourself in God's love and in being a just and compassionate person. And of course, never underestimate the power of a solid prayer life. So these things seem really, they sound like they're really easy when you list them out like that. But it's not easy to keep those up. You have to be deliberate. You have to try. You have to say to yourself, I'm going to do this. And then carve out time and do it.

[20:40] Sometimes you have to have someone hold you accountable to that. And that's not to say that if you blink your eyes or lose focus for just a second, your heart's going to be compromised and all your life will be taken away by sin. That's not right. Solomon knew what was right and wrong. And he specifically chose to go the wrong direction.

[21:02] At first, Solomon had a close walk with God. He sought his father's God. He dedicated the temple to God with this stunning, beautiful prayer that had to have come from the heart. And he knew what he needed to do to continue his walk because God specifically told him. He just simply didn't do it. And to be honest, he was a very good king. He was successful by world standards. But ultimately, he led his people away. Away from worshiping God. And he himself turned his heart away. He straight up rebelled against what God was telling him. God showed him how to receive blessings over his life and kingdom. But Solomon rejected it. We do not live for worldly success. We do not live for the accolades of people around us. We live for something greater. We live for heaven. And worldly success can't buy us a place in heaven. Luke 12, 15 says, Beware. Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.

[22:15] So instead, we should seek the kingdom of heaven. And not just our future place there. But God's kingdom touching every person's life. God's glory for all of creation. And of course, in order to do that, we need to let our hearts be led by Christ.

[22:32] I'm not sure of the original source of this. But I'm going to finish with this brief prayer here. It says, Help me, Lord, to not only start the race, but finish it well. Help me not to compromise my faith and love for you. Instead, keep me close to the cross and the Christ who died for me there.

[22:53] Christ will fill our empty hearts with untold and countless blessings when we intentionally do so. And we trust him. Let's pray. God, help us to turn our whole hearts to you. Help us to be intentional in our walks. That we would not get distracted from running the race.

[23:15] That we would not be put off of the race. But that we would continue to finish the race for you. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.