As we saw in last week’s message compromise is the first sign that character erosion is taking place. Solomon’s story is quite tragic as it shows the dangers of compromise and disobedience. When you take one step in the wrong direction—a direction that you know is unwise—it can lead to ungodly actions and ultimately destruction. Of course, the enemy’s lie to you is: “A little bit of that is not going to hurt you. You can handle it.” Concessions usually begin in small, insignificant ways, so it’s easy to underestimate their potential for damage. Compromise isn’t usually a huge act of disobedience; more often, it starts as a minor slip in your thinking or behavior toward God. The slope becomes slippery, and each subsequent act of disobedience is easier to rationalize. Every little accommodation weakens your conscience and makes it more difficult to reverse the downhill trend. We need to realize that whenever we compromise in our lives we are walking dangerously close to the edge of a cliff, where one carless step can send our lives spiraling out of control. Everyone lives their life according to a certain set of principles but the question is which of these principles are open for negotiation and which are not. When it comes to moral values and other principles spelled out in God’s Word there is no room for negotiation. God warned Solomon against alliances with Egypt, but he bypassed the Lord’s instruction to buy horses. Eventually, Solomon found himself agreeing to an alliance with Egypt and marrying Pharaoh’s daughter. It wasn’t long before King Solomon took more wives who worshiped pagan gods. The result was that by the time Solomon was old his wives turned his heart away from the Lord. Today I want us to take a good look at the danger of compromise and how it can send our lives spiraling out of control.
I. The greater Solomon became the less important God was in his life.
A. God gave Solomon incredible wealth and fame.
1. Solomon’s yearly income averaged 666 talents (twenty-five tons) in gold from all sources, including commerce and taxes.
2. In addition there was an unspecified amount of income from tolls or tariffs from the various merchants and business agents that traveled through the land, as well as tribute from conquered kings.
3. The ceremonial shields that Solomon kept in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon. "These shields, like all the shields of the ancients, were made of wood or basket-work, but were different in the fact they were covered with gold plate instead of leather".
4. The ivory throne, overlaid with finest gold, was a large and imposing object, in keeping with the symbolism of the seat of justice and ruler-ship of a great kingdom. The armrests were flanked by lions, as were each of the six steps
5. The trading ships are literally "ships of Tarshish." Most likely this name referred to large merchant ships designed to carry ore. They were seaworthy enough to travel long distances under difficult weather conditions. These ships came to be used for other types of cargo as well.
B. God gave Solomon almost unlimited power.
1. The countries that David had conquered remained subject to Solomon and brought him tribute throughout his reign. This was one of the noteworthy signs of God’s blessing in keeping with the Davidic covenant.
2. The usual experience of ancient empire builders was that when the old king died, the subject nations would withhold tribute and challenge the new king in rebellion.
3. This necessitated repeated punitive expeditions to reinforce the former king’s terms and to prove the ability of the new king to enforce his will. The Lord so blessed Solomon that he did not have to do this.
4. Solomon’s kingdom was a peaceful and prosperous one. With control over all the kingdoms west of the Euphrates, Solomon was able to provide peace and security for his people.
C. God’s blessings enabled Solomon to enjoy the finest pleasures of life.
1. Solomon turned to sensual pleasures, such as the enjoyment of drink, which so easily becomes the folly of overindulgence.
2. Yet he still kept a hold of himself so that he could analyze his experiences and see whether they proved to be the answer to all human desires.
3. Solomon decided to use his wealth in a variety of ways to pursue and purchase any pleasure that his heart desired.
4. In the end Solomon discovered that money and the pleasures it can buy do not lift us out of the realm of earthbound frustration.
II. Solomon’s main problem was that he was slowly losing his sensitivity toward God.
A. Solomon failed to take God seriously and would not allow himself to be accountable to Him.
1. Solomon disregarded the command Moses gave in regard to marrying foreign women because they would turn the king’s heart away from the Lord.
2. Solomon has evidently fallen into the emotional trap of wanting to be like pagan kings. Moses counsels kings to remain as close to the people as possible. Kings who become too wealthy desire possessions and women more than they desire to serve God and the people
3. All of Moses’ dire predictions come true in Solomon’s case. His wives do lure him into idolatry. Solomon, however, is responsible for his own actions. He knows better but does not act on this knowledge.
4. Solomon came to the point that he believed that he was too strong to fall into any of these traps but he was fooling himself. He fell and ultimately broke the covenant that he had made with God in the beginning.
B. When one considers the strength of Solomon’s spiritual commitment and the great wisdom granted him by God, it seems impossible that he could have been so foolish as to succumb to idolatry. Yet it did happen, not overnight, but by slow degrees.
1. Solomon allowed idolatry to be tolerated in his home which would eventually lead to him becoming more comfortable with it.
2. Once Solomon became more accustomed to his wives’ idolatry and more comfortable with its existence the door was opened for Solomon to dabble in it a little bit.
3. Solomon never fully turned his back on the Lord but his dabbling in idolatry led to a divided allegiance.
4. The combination of different beliefs and philosophies that he began to display was a curse that plagued Israel through the years and ultimately led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and to the exile of the people.
C. God had visited Solomon on three separate occasions but Solomon’s relationship with Him still deteriorated.
1. Solomon was raised surrounded by spiritual things which led them to become common place and taken for granted.
2. All of Solomon’s wealth and pleasurable pursuits came too easy which led to irresponsibility and to him forgetting the source of the blessings.
3. From birth it was known that Solomon was destined to be king. So he missed many of the growing pains and pleasures of climbing that ladder of success.
4. Despite two very positive previous encounters with God the third would be negative as God announces His judgment on Solomon’s sin.
III. Solomon’s failure resulted from violating almost every one of God’s stipulations.
A. Understanding the reasons behind God’s anger toward Solomon.
1. God gives Moses the job description of the king. When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, “Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,” be sure to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite. The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. (Deuteronomy 17:14-17—NIV)
2. The possible future institution of kingship comes not as a command. It does not rise out of the Lord’s immediate plan for government but out of a supposition that the people will want a king because the surrounding peoples had kings.
3. When one examines Solomon’s reign very closely you will find that Solomon willingly violated nearly every one of these stipulations.
B. Solomon’s actions bring God’s wrath down on him and the entire nation.
1. Solomon’s heart was not as devoted to God as his father David’s was.
2. Solomon did not follow God as completely and show as deep of devotion to God as David his father did.
3. Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord by building shrines to foreign gods.
4. God has given Solomon wisdom from above, along with both wealth and honor. Exercising free will, Solomon disregards the source of his many blessings and chooses his wives over the God of his father David and his people Israel.
5. Too little resistance, too much power and too little restraint sent Solomon’s life spiraling out of control.
A lady kept a raccoon as a pet and unknown to her they go through a glandular change at about 24 months. After that they often attack their owners. Since a 30-pound raccoon can be the same as a 100-pound dog in a fight her friend, who happened to be a zookeeper, felt compelled to tell her of the coming change. She listened politely and simply said, "It will be different for me, Bandit would never hurt me, he just wouldn’t." Three months later the lady underwent plastic surgery for facial lacerations sustained when her adult raccoon attacked her for no apparent reason.
Sin too often comes dressed in an adorable disguise, and as we play with it, how easy it is to say, "It will be different for me!"
