Solomon's Wealth and Women

First Kings chapter 10 If you have your Bible, hopefully you do You should First Kings chapter 10 into First Kings chapter 11, looking at Solomon's wealth, Solomon's women, and our warning Those are the three points that we're going to cover with you this evening We began looking at Solomon 15 weeks ago, looking at the King's splendor, looking at the King's success Tonight we will see not just his setbacks, but we'll see his sin and his shame as it all comes crumbling down

And the question comes, how does this happen? How does the most influential man that ever lived, the wisest man who ever lived, probably the most important man who ever lived, fall so far from the Lord? He truly was the most privileged man who ever lived It's hard to find an equal to one like Solomon And yet we can learn so much from his life by looking at our lesson tonight, by simply observing his wealth and his women and our warning First Kings chapter 10, verse number 14 Now the weight of gold, which came into Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold or 25 tons

Besides that from the traders and the wares of the merchants and all the Kings of the Arabs and the governors of the country, King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold using 600 shekels of gold on each large shield He made 300 shields of beaten gold using three minas of gold on each shield And the King put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon Moreover, the King made a great throne of ivory and lay overlaid it with refined gold

There were six steps to the throne and around top to the throne at its rear and arms on each side of the seat and two lions standing beside the arms. 12 lions were standing there on the six steps on the one side and on the other, nothing like it was made for any other kingdom All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold And all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were pure gold None was of silver It was not considered valuable in the days of Solomon, but the King had a sea, the King had at sea, the ships of Tarshish with the ships of Haram

Once every three years, the ships of Tarshish came bringing gold and silver ivory and apes and peacocks So King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom All the earth was seeking the presence of Solomon to hear the wisdom, which God had put in his heart They brought every man, his gift articles of silver and gold garments, weapons, spices, horses, and mules so much year by year Now Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen, and he had 1400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen

And he stationed them in the chariot cities and with the King in Jerusalem, the King made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem And he made cedars as plentiful as sycamore trees that are in the lowland And Solomon's import of horses was from Egypt and Kuwait, and the King's merchants procured them from Kuwait for a price The chariot was imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver, and the horse for 150 And by the same means, they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of the Arameans

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women 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 He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, and his wives turned his heart away

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 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done Then Solomon built a high place for Chemish, the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Moloch, the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon

Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods We'll stop right there

How does a man raised in royalty, raised in prosperity, raised in nobility, result in futility, tragedy, and misery? How does that actually happen? How does the king of Israel, who wrote the book of Proverbs, telling his son what to do, all of a sudden stop doing what he's told his son to do? How does that happen? How does the most influential man in the history of the world turn his back on the God who allowed him to be in the place that he was? How, why does that happen? How is it that this king, this king Solomon, being the wisest man who ever lived, the wealthiest man who's ever lived, the man who truly had a position given to him, all of a sudden turn his back on the Lord? It didn't happen all at once

It's a sudden erosion of the soul It's a slow deterioration of the heart It's like somebody who has an affair Somebody doesn't wake up one day and say, I think I have an affair today No, there's this slow erosion in the heart that's taking place Nobody just wakes up and suddenly gets divorced No, there's been an erosion in the marriage over a long period of time Buildings just don't fall over They erode slowly Children just don't rebel overnight There is this slow erosion that takes place constantly so that it finally falls away That's what happened in the life of Solomon

His quest for wealth replaced his quest for wisdom His appetite for women supplanted his appetite for the Word His desire for success would supersede his desire for spiritual maturity And it took place over a period of time There would be a slight concession which would lead to many more concessions, which would eventually lead to compromise, which eventually would lead to the corruption of the man's inner soul Unless you cultivate the inner man regularly, daily, you're in danger of following in the footsteps of Solomon You must constantly cultivate the soul You must constantly guard the heart

You most constantly must always be on guard against whatever temptation comes your way For any slight concession in any area of your life will eventually lead to compromise in larger areas in your life And that compromise will eventually corrupt your testimony, your life, your marriage, your family But what happened? What led Solomon down this road? Well, let's look, number one, at his wealth, okay? Because God promised him that he would be wealthy, right? God gave him wealth

In fact, when he prayed and asked for wisdom, God says he was so pleased with Solomon that he not only granted him wisdom, he granted him riches That's what God did for Solomon And when you read about his wealth, it says in verse 23 of chapter 10, King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom He was so wealthy, he was so wise, he was greater than any king that ever existed And yet, he would fall away from the Lord How wealthy was he? Well, verse 14 tells us that he made 666 talents a year

That equates in today's economy somewhere between 10 and 20 billion dollars a year Not million, billion Somewhere between 10 and 20 billion dollars a year was Solomon's income And that's how rich he truly was First Kings 3, verse number 13, the Lord said, there shall not be any king like unto you, Solomon, in wisdom and in wealth And that was true And yet, when you read about what's going on in Solomon's life, you can't help but think that his heart has been drawn into materialism There becomes this lust of the eye, this pride of life that overwhelms Solomon The more he had, the more he wanted

The more he wanted, the more he received, which motivated him to want even all the more He set his heart to become the richest king that ever lived His focus was no longer heavenly, it was earthly He wanted to become great Now, wealth is not a bad thing Abraham was extremely wealthy You can read about it in Genesis chapter 24 He was very, very wealthy So, having an abundance of things, being rich financially is not a sin Money is amoral It's your love for money that makes your pursuit wrong, makes it sinful

And so, Solomon, yes, there was a lot of wealth going on, but he would say these words in the book of Ecclesiastes, the fifth chapter Remember, Solomon wrote Proverbs early on in his life He wrote the Song of Solomon early on in his life We'll talk about that in a minute But he wrote the book of Ecclesiastes at the end of his life, because he recognized that everything he had pursued was futile He says in Ecclesiastes 5, verse number 10, he who loves money will not be satisfied with money Really? Really? Some of you say, boy, I wish I had money so I could experience that

Solomon tells you he had it all He says, those who have or love money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income This too is vanity Hear it for the words of a man who had everything, who said this earlier in the book of Ecclesiastes, second chapter He said, I said to myself, have you ever talked to yourself, by the way? I guess if you're a man of wisdom, you can talk to yourself. I said to myself, come now, I will test you with pleasure So enjoy yourself And behold, it too was futility

Solomon says, I'm going to embark on a journey of pleasure. I'm going to get all that I can And yet it was futility. I said of laughter, it is madness And of pleasure, what does it accomplish? I explored with my mind, how to stimulate my body with wine While my mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of folly until I could see what good there is for the sons of men to do under heaven, the few years of their lives. I enlarged my works. I built houses for myself. I planted vineyards for myself. I made gardens and parks for myself And I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees

Notice it's all about himself It's not about the glory of the Lord It's all about himself. I made ponds of water for myself, from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and I had home born slaves Also, I possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem Also, I collected for myself silver and gold, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I provided for myself male and female singers, and the pleasures of men, many concubines He didn't even have to use iTunes He had singers He could purchase them to come in and sing for him

Then I became great, and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem My wisdom also stood by me All that my eyes desired, I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor And this was my reward for all my labor Thus I considered all my activities, which my hands had done, and the labor which I had exerted And behold, all was vanity and striving after the wind, and there was no profit under the sun That's Solomon's testimony as to his pursuits in life

If I wanted music, I bought singers. I wanted fruit, I planted my own vineyards. I wanted gold Gold just came to me from merchants from afar If I wanted this, I did this He could do anything he wanted He was the king He had the money He had the gold, the silver He had all the goods He could do anything he wanted He could go anywhere he wanted He could be anything he wanted to be And when it was all said and done, he lived his life After 40 years of being a king, he realized all of it was futile, empty, empty pursuits under the sun That's his testimony

And when you read this in 1 Kings 10, and all the ships that came his way, and all the merchants that came his way, and all the goods he received from different ones who came to glean wisdom from Solomon, you begin to think that materialism overwhelmed him The eyes saw And whatever he saw, whatever he wanted, he could obtain Only to realize when it was all said and done, having gained it all, he truly was empty on the inside And that's simply because he had turned away from the Lord You know, think about this way

Whenever you desire the world and the things of the world, you will be deceived by the wealth and women of the world And if you desire the things of the world, thus being deceived by the wealth and women of the world, you will eventually disregard the warnings from God about the world And if you disregard the warnings from God about the world, you will defy the word of the Lord That was Solomon The more he saw the things of the world, the more he desired those things And the more he desired, and the more he was deceived by them

And the more he was deceived by them, the more he disregarded every warning that God gave, thus defying the word of the Lord That downward spiral, that cycle, that unending cycle of depression came his way, realizing that everything he pursued ended up meaning nothing in the end How tragic He made shields out of gold He made drinking vessels out of gold He made his utensils out of gold. I was reading this last night with Avery, and she says, why don't you do that, Daddy? Well, I don't have gold, number one Okay And if I did, I'm not sure I would want to eat off my gold But that's what he did

It's outlandish what he did. I mean, he just thought of things he could do with gold Everything was outlaid in gold He had stairs of gold Everything was about the gold So people would come and see, they were like, wow, and ooh, over the beauty of all that he had built and all that he had done He became so self-absorbed That's why we read Ecclesiastes 2. I did this for myself, for myself It was all about himself It wasn't about the glory of the Lord and the beauty of his person It was all about Solomon And as he began to multiply goods, goods, he slowly but surely began to multiply horses

And as he multiplied horses, he multiplied women Everything was multiplied to an exorbitant amount And thus, as he was desiring the things of the world, thus deceived by the wealth and women of the world, he disregarded God's warning And God said it this way, and we've read this on several occasions He says, when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, I will set a king over me like the nations who are around me, you shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses

One from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves You may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself Nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, you shall never again return that way He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away, nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself And he did When you desire the things of the world, you are deceived by the things of the world In this case, wealth and women

And whenever you're deceived, you will disregard what God has said And God told Israel in Deuteronomy 7, in Exodus chapter 23, in Exodus chapter 34, in Joshua chapter 23, do not do this Do not marry foreign women Do not do that Do not worship their idols, their gods Do not do that But if the king does, the people will Because like priests, like people Nehemiah, believe it or not, would use Solomon as an illustration Nehemiah 13, in those days I also saw that the Jews had married women in Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab

As for their children, half spoke in the language of Ashdod, and none of them was able to speak the language of Judah, but the language of his own people So I contended with them, I cursed them, I struck some of them, and pulled out their hair and made them swear by God. I love Nehemiah He took him out behind the barn and just beat him silly That's what he did You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves

Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin regarding these things? Yet among the many nations, there was no king like him, and he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel Nevertheless, the foreign women caused even him to sin. 400 years later, after Solomon is already in the grave, Nehemiah will use Solomon as an illustration Look what God gave to Solomon Look what God did for Solomon

Did you not learn from your king that when you take foreign lives, you turn away from the Lord, and no matter how privileged you are, no matter how many awards you have, no matter how many accolades you achieve, no matter how many achievements you receive, if you turn your back on the Lord because you have disregarded his warnings, it will cost you Nehemiah uses Solomon as an illustration because Solomon would set the tone for Israel's worship of foreign gods And here was the man whom God was so pleased because he asked for wisdom His name was Jedediah, loved, beloved by God It's his name

We will soon see that the one who was loved by God was now going to feel the fierce anger of God when God chastises him because of a sin Let's move to his women There's a lot of those The Bible tells us that he married strange or foreign women, alien women from Egypt, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Phoenicia, the Hittites None of them were godly women They were foreign women They were Gentile women The Bible tells us in verse two of first Samuel, or excuse me, first Kings 11, you shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods

Next phrase, Solomon held fast to these in love God says, you shall not do this Solomon said, eh, I'm doing it anyway. I'm doing it anyway Interesting When you make one concession, first Kings three, verse number one, when he took the daughter of Pharaoh to be his wife, that was a small concession which led to him amassing a thousand women One small concession led to a huge, huge compromise. 700 wives Think about that Think about 700 wives If you married one wife a month, 12 a year, it would take you 58 years to marry that many women It only rained 40 years

So we know he didn't marry one a month, right? If he married two a month, then remember Jewish weddings lasted a week to 10 days So if he married two a month, that would be 24 a year, and that would take him 29 years to marry that many women And we know that the first 20 years were pretty successful in Solomon's life So it probably didn't happen in the first 20 years If he married one a week, that is marrying 52 a year, it would take him 13 and a half years to accomplish that feat And maybe that's what he did But he probably married groups of siblings

So if I'm a king and I have seven or eight daughters, he would marry all seven or eight at one time, bringing a whole new definition to sibling rivalry Think about it Who does he sleep with? When does he sleep with them? Does he sleep with them all? Does he sleep with none of them? Because he's overwhelmed by the emotions in the palace? How many rooms do they have? Do each have a room? Are there 700 rooms? And then another 300 rooms for the concubines? Do they sleep in a barracks in bunks? Just think of the overwhelming problems of this

And the Bible says you're to live with your wife in an understanding way Listen, I have trouble understanding my wife after 33 years of marriage How do you understand 700 wives? Women are complex people. I don't mean that in a bad way. I mean it in a good way So, you know, how did he do all this? Just try to wrap your brain around 700 wives and 300 concubines Why? Yeah, granted, there's the alliance that takes place between nations and kings and countries And maybe at first when he married Pharaoh's daughter, that was the purpose in which he did this

Remember David, King David, had eight wives named in Scripture Okay, he had many other wives based on what Samuel says. I think it's in 2 Samuel chapter 5. I could be mistaken there But he had many other wives, but we know of eight of them named in Scripture, three of them prominent, Milchah, which was Saul's daughter And then there was Abigail and Bathsheba Those three were prominently named And then he had five other ones, and then many more after that But he didn't have 700 of them So whatever we as parents do in moderation, our children always do in excess

And Solomon takes it to a whole new dimension when it comes to silver and gold and riches and women Just think about that He had lost all self-control, all discipline When he would write in Proverbs chapter 12 that a man's most precious possession is his diligence, is his discipline But he lost all that When he began to marry all these different women, they turned his heart away from the Lord He told his son, Proverbs 4, guard your heart, son Guard your heart But Solomon did not do that He exhorted his son to, but he didn't cultivate the inner man He did not cultivate the soul

And as he got older in life, he began to be more lax, more slack in his personal diligence and discipline in the study of the scriptures Because remember, his desire for women would supplant his desire for the word of the Lord And so what he told the nation to do in first Kings chapter eight, verse number 61, in his prayer, he said, let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to the Lord, your God, to walk in the statues and to keep his commandments as at this day, said the dedication of the temple Let your heart be fully devoted to the Lord

He is standing up in front of a nation, exhorting them to make sure their hearts are fully committed to the Lord God of Israel Yet his own heart was not being guarded And his own heart was not fully devoted by virtue of what the text says His heart was not totally devoted to the Lord His heart had turned away from the Lord Wow How sad is that? The King of splendor, the King of success became the King of sin and the King of shame simply because he did not do what he preached to a nation

He did not do what he preached to his son, the height of hypocrisy in the most influential, wisest, richest, prestigious man, the most privileged man who ever lived How sad is that? And so it says twice that his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord, his God, as the heart of David, his father Twice it says that That's because when David sinned, he repented He begged for mercy He begged for forgiveness Solomon did not It doesn't mean he didn't repent. I think the book of Ecclesiastes is his book of repentance But the text tells us that he was not like his father David

Did David fail? Yes, he did He wasn't perfect No man is, right? And the Bible just happens to lay out for us the frailty of kings and men in Scripture Aren't you glad that all of your sin is not posted in the pages of Scripture for everybody to read about? David was a man after God's own heart because he sought repentance when he sinned He did evil Verse six, text tells us, says, Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord It was just 20 plus years earlier when God said, ask of me what you wish and I will grant it to you. I just want wisdom And God was so pleased So pleased

Now, he's doing evil in the sight of the Lord Notice this Solomon built a high place for Chemish, the testable idol of Moab, verse number seven, and for Mullet, the testable idol of the sons of Ammon Thus also he did for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods You see, if you do it for one wife, you have to do it for another wife If you do it for two, you got to do it for four Do it for four, you got to do it for six, eight, ten, twenty, fifty Can't just do it for one because then you show partiality to your 700 wives Can't show partiality

So if I build one altar for your God, I got to build one altar for your God And then I got to build one altar for your God Here's the principle Listen, listen carefully When you tolerate evil, toleration always leads to participation Participation always leads to construction, and construction leads to corruption You see, he tolerated evil He did evil in the sight of the Lord because he stopped worshiping his God and would begin to participate in the idol worship of his wives because they would deceive him and draw him in They turned his heart away from God

And so because there was toleration on Solomon's part, there then came participation on Solomon's part That led to construction of more and more idols, which led to the corruption of an entire nation Listen, whenever you tolerate sin, you will end up participating in that sin Parents, do not tolerate sin in your home Don't do that If you tolerate it, you will participate in some way or another in that sin Solomon is that illustration Don't let that happen And it led to one sin And where did they build them? They built them on the hill east of Jerusalem

What hill is that? It's the Mount of Olives The Mount of Olives He had built this beautiful temple in the name of the Lord And that temple and all of its gold, when the sun would come up over that, the Mount of Olives and the sun would shine on that golden temple, it would be like a brilliant light that would shine everywhere And in front of that place where the presence of God would dwell, Solomon built all of these shrines to pagan gods It became the Hill of Offense, the Hill of Corruption, the Mount of Corruption There they were

And he did it right in front of the presence of the Lord, where the glory of the Lord was in the temple of God He did evil in the sight of the Lord How sad is that? It would be almost 300 years later under the reign of King Josiah, who became king at age eight And in the 16th year of his reign, read about it in the second Kings 23, he began to tear down all these altars that Solomon had erected They were there for over 300 years How sad is that? Solomon, his wealth, his wisdom, what's our warning? Let me give to you briefly Time is fleeting

Time goes by so fast, doesn't it? Maybe it's because I'm getting older or maybe it's because I want to preach longer. I'm not sure what it is But let me say it to you this way Oh, by the way, you know, when Solomon wrote the song of Solomon, I believe he was married to one woman And I believe that woman was Abishag, the woman that came in to King David to lay with him and keep him warm Because he wrote about one particular woman It could be one of the unknown women, but they were foreign wives They weren't Jewish women It could be the daughter of Pharaoh, but I don't think so

Because Abishag was from Shunam And Solomon talks about the Shunamite woman in the song of Solomon She also was from the fields And he uses a lot of analogy from the fields when he writes the song of Solomon And I think that she was his first wife The Bible didn't tell us how he amassed all these different women when he did it We don't know We have no idea Did it begin early on? Did it begin late? We have no idea. I would tend to think it was later in his kingship He reigned for 40 years But I believe that the song of Solomon was written about one woman that he truly loved dearly

And that was Abishag, the Shunamite woman They speak so highly of Oh, I'd love to go through the song of Solomon with you Maybe one day at a couple's retreat, we'll just do the song of Solomon and just open it up to you and let you see the great love story between Solomon and his bride before the other 999 came around or 699 came around All I have to say is this James 4.4 says, you adulteresses, you adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Solomon had become companioned with the world

That was evident with the Queen of Sheba, as we talked about last week, and with all these different kings that came And Israel was supposed to be a light to the Gentile nations They were to radiate the beauty of God And yet Solomon became so companioned with the world that he married foreign wives And so as a Gentile coming to the king in Jerusalem, I would see this beautiful palace that was built for the Lord God of Israel

And then I would see surrounding that palace on the hill of offense or the Mount of Corruption, the Mount of Olives, all these other different altars constructed in the name of other gods How confusing would that be? Solomon, I believe, is the author of the ecumenical movement because he just accepted every god for everyone And so instead of being a light to the Gentiles, they will become confused as to who do they worship And that's because Solomon became so companioned with the world Listen, if you become companioned with the world, you will be corrupted by that world

That's why James says, you adulterers, you adulteresses, do you not know that if you become companioned with the world, you become an enemy of God? Solomon did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord Right? God became angry with Solomon because he was companioned with the world Once you become companioned with the world, you become corrupted by the world James 1 27 says this, pure religion and undefiled before the Father in heaven is this, that you visit the widows and orphans in their affliction and you keep oneself unstained, unspotted by the things of the world

We need to be so far removed from the world that we can't afford to be companioned with it because if we are companioned with it, we will be corrupted by it If we are corrupted by it, we then thirdly become controlled by it. 1 John 2 says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life They're not of the Father, but they're of the world And if you are companioned with the world, you will eventually be corrupted by the world If corrupted by the world, you eventually will be controlled by that world

If you are controlled by that world, you then will be conformed to that world You will be conformed into the mold of the world You'll begin to look more and more like the world That's why the Bible says in Romans 12 too, and be ye not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind We cannot afford to be conformed to the world And the way you're not conformed to the world is to make sure that you are not controlled and corrupted by that world And the way that happens is that you don't become companioned with the things of the world

See that? Because then you become in danger of being condemned along with the world. 1 Corinthians 11 32 Why does God chastise us? During the Lord's table, you examine yourself to make sure you're not of the world And divine intervention keeps us from being condemned along with the world, but God chastises us And that's what happens to Solomon He's chastised by God Next week we'll read about God's anger towards Solomon and what God has to say to a man who began in splendor, lived in success, but engaged in sin and ended in shame Let me pray with you

Father, thank you, Lord, for tonight, a chance to be in your Word, to study together. I want to thank you for every man and woman in this room who has made the journey to be here this evening, to hear the Word of the Lord with the people of God Lord, keep us from sin Keep us from the desire to things of the world Keep us from being deceived by all that's in the world So we never disregard what you have to say and all your warnings Ended up defying the truth of your Word as Solomon did Lord, we know that it doesn't happen overnight

It's a slow process, eroding away at the soul and heart of a man, a woman Lord, may we keep close accounts with you May we not neglect the cultivation of the inner man That we may walk with Christ, serve Christ, be totally devoted to our Christ We pray in Jesus' name Amen.