https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/get-more-from-the-bible-this-year

00:00 Meat Reading, Rosaria Butterfield

00:21 Six Marks of Meat Reading

02:15 The Importance of Daily Bible Reading

03:01 Solomon and the Queen of Sheba

04:34 Solomon's Wealth and Wisdom

07:19 Solomon's Downfall

12:06 The Consequences of Solomon's Actions

14:14 Final Reflections and Prayer

14:58 Closing Remarks

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

Rosaria Butterfield wrote an article that you should know it's

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called How to Get More Out of the

Bible this year, and in it she details

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six marks of meat reading, MEAT.

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She's trying to identify the difference

between meat readers and milk readers.

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That is a mature Christians

read in these ways.

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First, she says that milk readers

read short biblical phrases

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or sentences using Bible light

translations meet readers, however.

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Feast on the word and

the feast is a big meal.

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She says she suggests six

chapters a day or more.

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I think we typically hit somewhere

around that time around that marker.

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Anyway, number two, humble reading.

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She says, meet readers use a good

study Bible access Bible helps seek

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counsel from their elders, et cetera.

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They don't just rely on their

own intuition or understanding.

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They seek help from reputable sources.

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Number three, meet readers are

covenantal readers, which is to

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say the whole Bible, she says,

is a unified biblical revelation.

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And therefore, meet readers read the Bible

accompanied by note taking memorization.

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That helps 'em see how the

details fit into the overarching

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big picture, so they're not just

reading one little section and

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saying, how does this apply to me?

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They're trying to understand the

whole, the totality of scripture.

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Number four, meet readers

read in a profitable way.

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She says this, meet readers,

however, notice that the Bible

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that Bible reading leads them to

deep repentance and humility, not

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to pride and criticism of others.

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As a result, they are genuinely

growing in humility, repentance, grace,

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endurance, and in Christ's likeness,

profitable reading as she describes

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it, is reading that affects the person,

changes the inner person, and not

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looking at other people and saying, how

can I change them based on what I read?

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Number five, she talks about

congregational reading.

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She says, meet readers read as a member of

a visible and biblically faithful church.

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She's talking about reading

in a corporate context.

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And finally, number six it

is God-centered reading.

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She says, meet readers, read the

Bible as a god-centered book.

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These six things in what she suggests, how

you can get more from the Bible this year

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are so good and so helpful and so wise.

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I can't hardly commend this to you more.

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You can find the article

on desiring god.org,

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or you could just reread or

re-listen to what I just said.

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And these are helpful tools, and this

is why our church is so adamant that

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we be a Bible believing church, that

we be in it every day and not just

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every other day, or not even most days.

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We're trying to, as much as we're able

to make this a habit that is daily,

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because we daily need God's help.

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There's never a day where we

could say, I'm topped off God.

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Thank you very much for your

help, but I'm good to go.

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There are times we won't be able to get

into God's word for a variety of reasons,

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circumstances beyond your control, but

insofar as it is under your control,

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what a good way to spend your Saturday.

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So with that, well done

opening your Bible today.

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If you in fact have done that and well

done joining me on the podcast, I'm

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honored to have you as a guest and

I hope I can provide a few insights

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as we work through today's reading,

which is First Kings Chapters 10

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and 11 and second Chronicles nine.

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Gonna cover them together because

they really do overlap quite a bit.

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Now this is a sad section of scripture,

but before we get there, let's start with

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the good part First Kings chapter 10.

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This is the visit with the Queen

of Sheba, who's probably from

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a, around modern day Yemen.

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So if you're familiar with that map you'll

notice that's just below Saudi Arabia.

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You're looking at several

hundred miles away from Israel.

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So the point is this lady

came from a far distance.

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She's a, she came with a large ue.

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She's got lots of

expensive stuff with her.

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She's got people and resources,

and she came to test Solomon.

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She'd heard about his wisdom

and his reputation, and so she

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came and she offered every hard

question she could throw at him.

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Not only does he answer her, he

does so in a way that shocks her.

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It says in at the end of verse five,

there was no more breath in her.

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And Second Chronicles nine

says something very similar.

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And of course, cue the song,

take My Breath Away by Berlin.

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I know Pastor PG and I were

talking about this last year, we

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couldn't get it out of our heads.

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And so it is again the day.

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In fact, before I started the podcast

and I was just looking at my notes here,

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looking at the text, I thought, I can't

not think about take my breath away.

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I don't even know what song or

what year that song came out,

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but I know that it stuck there.

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Hopefully now it's stuck in your head too.

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You're welcome.

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Okay.

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Her breath is taken away, Allah, Berlin,

and then she says, look, I've heard

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about all of your glory and honor,

but the half of it was not told to me,

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and so she glorifies the God of Israel

because of how Solomon has been blessed.

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There's a slight parallel to us.

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It's not quite the same, but people

should be able to look at our lives and

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say, man, whatever God you serve, that's

amazing because I see the difference

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that it makes in your life now.

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Solomon's difference was primarily.

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His kingdom glory.

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And of course he had great wisdom.

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So there's something

to be said about that.

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But as New Testament believers, we

have something better than Solomon.

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Jesus said Someone greater

than Solomon is here.

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The Queen of Sheba was delighted and

she responded, how much more ought

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to we respond we to respond to Jesus?

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He says referring to himself.

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And the difference between Solomon

and us is that we have the spirit.

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Jesus has sent his spirit to

dwell within us, and we now have

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something better than what he has.

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He had the riches and he had the glory,

but we have the New Testament spirit of

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God dwelling within us, which therefore

ought to create the kind of difference

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that people can notice, such that people

might say, man, take my breath away.

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I can't believe how different you are.

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Your forgiving spirit is unusual.

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The graciousness of your demeanor, the

fruit of the spirit that I see in your

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life, they may not use that terminology

of course, but they'll notice it.

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All of these things ought to

shock people as they see us.

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Jesus says that we are meant to be salt

and light, and this is what Solomon is

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doing here in an Old Testament sense.

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And so they begin a trade agreement.

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They exchange services

and lots of money here.

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Lots of money is exchanged.

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Lots of dollars and cents here.

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In fact, the 120 talents, I

looked this number up last year.

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This is over $300 million, give or take.

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Obviously it's hard to do a

one-to-one, and that was last year.

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I would imagine that gold

is more expensive this year.

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120 talents is what he

was received from her.

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But you'll notice in verse

14, there was one year that he

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brought in 600 or 66 talents.

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So we're talking about hundreds

upon hundreds of million.

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Millions of dollars.

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Solomon was likely the richest man

to ever walk the planet, period, even

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more than some of the richest that

we have today in America and beyond.

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So Solomon has been exceedingly wealthy.

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He has everything that he

could possibly hope for.

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He has great relationships

with people around him.

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And then in the next half

of First Kings, chapter 10.

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Scripture highlights his extravagance,

enormous and even ludicrous wealth.

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This guy has money upon money.

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He's he's gold plating everything.

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He's got these he's got throne

steps with lions on them.

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He's just got extravagance, gaudy wealth.

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And this is God's blessing, or is it?

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Here's what verse 23 says as we prepare

to make our way into chapter 11, but

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it says, thus King Solomon excelled

all the kings of the earth and riches

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and in wisdom and in the whole earth.

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Rather, and the whole earth sought

the presence of Solomon and hear his

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wisdom, which God had put into his mind.

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That's an important caveat there.

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The wisdom was not inherent to Solomon.

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It was God who gave him the wisdom.

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Verse 25, every one of them brought

his present articles of silver and

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gold garments, me, spices, horses

and mules, so much year by year.

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And Solomon gathered together

chariots and horsemen.

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He had 1400 chariots, 12,000 horsemen

whom he stationed in the chariot

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cities and with the kings in Jerusalem.

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Okay, so he's doing.

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A lot of business.

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He's making a lot of money.

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He's got lots of services, lots

of horses, lots of chariots.

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I hope this is ringing a bell

because what this is doing is

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showcasing us subtly that Solomon is

actually violating Deuteronomy 17.

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Now, if you have a minute, I would

encourage you, pause the podcast.

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Go read chapter 17.

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Starting around verses 17 and following,

you're gonna see what Moses says about

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how the king should conduct himself.

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And you're gonna see some

warnings against the.

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Accumulation of wealth, and in particular

horses and chariots because God knows

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that the heart of man tends to want to

trust in these things and not himself.

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And so God warns against these

things, and Solomon is being

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shown to have his heart subtly and

slowly drifting in that direction.

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And Chapter 11 sadly confirms that

it says here in Chapter 11 verse one.

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Now, Solomon loved many foreign

women along with the daughter

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of Pharaoh, Moabite Amite.

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Mite Sian Hitite, women from the nations

concerning, which the Lord had said

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to the people of Israel, you shall not

enter into marriage with them neither

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shall they with you for surely they will

turn your heart away after other gods.

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It says here, Solomon

clung to these in love.

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And you know the story.

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Solomon married many of them.

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Many of them became concubines.

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I'll let you explain that to your kids

and when Solomon was old, verse four.

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His wives turned away, his

heart after other gods.

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It seems like age presents a particular

challenge to allow convictions that

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were once strong to drift, and I'm

not sure if that's part of what it is

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to get older and consequently to have

your heart drift or if it's tiredness

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or something else, whatever it is.

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Age presents opportunity, I guess

everything does, but age in particular.

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Maybe the fight isn't in

you as much as it once was.

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The energy to maintain rigorous devotion

to Christ was at one point strong

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when you were younger and healthier.

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But now age and time and ongoing health

issues have weakened your resolve here.

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Solomon's weakened resolve

was not due to those things.

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Remember, he had everything

that he could benefit from.

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It was the ladies who also had his heart.

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Make no mistake, there is no room for

contenders in the heart of the believer.

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There's only room for one God,

and it cannot be your spouse.

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Cannot be your kids, can't be your job,

can't be your house, can't be anything.

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God alone must sit on the throne

of your heart, lest the contenders

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remove him and God will not share.

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God will not share you.

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He wants you holy and

completely and make sure.

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Today, as you think about Solomon's

story and how he wants was a great

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king with a great reputation and

a great platform to glorify God.

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Suddenly it seems it's actually

over the course of time.

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Slowly but surely drifts away from him.

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Notice how quickly, rather how slowly

notice how slowly this thing changes.

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It's like turning the Titanic.

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If your life is going strongly toward

Christ right now, you need to know that

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it only takes a few degrees of change to

end at an entirely different destination.

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And this is what happens at King Solomon.

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His heart was divided.

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He was slowly but surely

changed over the course of time.

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Beware small sins.

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Because small sins, if not dealt with, if

not uprooted, can result in large sins.

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And as someone once said, sin takes

you further than you ever wanted.

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Sin doesn't sit

complacently in your heart.

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It actively metastasizes

and seeks to consume.

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You beware Christian well in response

to Solomon's apostasy and response

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to Solomon's rejection of the Lord.

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Which by the way, here's

what God said about this.

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Solomon did what was evil on the side

of the Lord and did not wholly follow

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the Lord as his father David had done.

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Solomon built high places for mosh

the abomination of Moab and for Mole,

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the abomination of the Ammonites on

the mountain east of Jerusalem, and

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he did so for his foreign wives who

made offerings and sacrifices to

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those Gods Mole is not a good guy.

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The other God isn't great either.

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Osh is not a good name, but

Molech in particular, this God

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is known for baby sacrifice.

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I'll just leave it at that.

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This is a bad situation.

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God notices here in verse nine.

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The Lord was angry with Solomon

because his heart had turned away

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from the Lord, the God of Israel.

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And notice this who had

appeared to him twice.

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God uniquely visited Solomon, uniquely

blessed him and exposed himself to

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Solomon in ways that no one else had to

that point, except for maybe Abraham.

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God spoke to David, but

God appeared to Solomon.

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There's something special about this.

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Those are unique privileges that God

expects a unique responsibility from.

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And Solomon sadly rejects this.

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Consequently, verse 11, this is

important because this is gonna

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inform the rest of the book and

first kings and also second kings.

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He says, therefore, the Lord said to

Solomon, since you have been, since

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this has been your practice and you

have not kept my covenant and my

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statutes that I've commanded you,

I will surely tear the kingdom from

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you and give it to your servant.

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This is the introduction

of the divided kingdom.

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This is what changes everything.

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The reason for the change.

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Was Solomon's infidelity to the Lord.

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This is what divides Israel and Judah.

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Part of this is why God

raises up three enemies.

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The first enemy in verse

14 is, Hey dad, Edam might.

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We recently talked about.

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In Obediah how Edam was a brother

to Israel and yet was not brotherly.

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They actually did evil to Israel.

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And God doesn't forget that.

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But here, one of their enemies is,

Hey dad, Edem, might they have a

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history as you'll read there in

verse 23, God also raised up an

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adversary, a reason the Son of Elda.

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Thirdly, and this is the one that's

gonna make the most difference in the

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next chapter, and the chapters that are

follow, rather, is Jira and of neba.

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He's an e Aite of Zaida.

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He's a servant of Solomon, and so

his story is actually gonna be one

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that carries through the rest of the

book because he is the one that God

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anoints to be king of the 10 tribes.

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And that's what on verse 29 where

the prophet deja, the Shalon knight,

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finds him on the road and tells

him exactly what's gonna happen.

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He uses the garment analogy that

was also used with Saul, which says,

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I'm gonna tear the kingdom away

from this guy and give it to you.

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That's kinda what's happening here.

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And so God tells Jbo.

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And son of Neba, you're gonna be the guy.

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And Jira is a bad dude.

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We're gonna find out more

about him soon enough.

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But this is what precipitates

the change in the kingdom.

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It's a sad turn, and it's one that we

can predictably have foreseen given

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Solomon's leaky faithfulness to God.

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And I would pray that you don't have that.

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I'm praying that you would not be

leaky in your faithfulness and that

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you would plug the holes that you

would as Song of Solomon says that

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you would catch the little foxes.

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The things that seem to be rather

innocuous, but actually have a significant

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impact over the long course of time.

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So please deal with your sin for the

sake of your family, for the sake of

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your coworkers, for the sake of your

community, for the sake of your church.

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And of course, for the sake of your

God, please deal with your sin.

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Do not allow little sins to metastasize.

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Don't allow them to spread because

you have no idea the way that it'll

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impact you now and in the future.

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Let's all take a lesson from King

Solomon with that, please pray with me.

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And God, please help our church

to avoid living in any kind of

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sin, whether it be large or small.

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God, we are appropriately warned that

sin has reverberating consequences.

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Consequences that not only hurt us,

but hurt the people that we love.

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And of course, Lord, they hurt

you, the God that we love.

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Please guard us and protect us against

such evils and help us to walk upright.

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Help us to walk with a di, not a

divided heart, but a united heart, a

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heart that is fully dedicated to you.

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Lord, you alone can cause us to

do this, and so we rely on you.

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We depend upon you, and we beg you to

do this for our church, for your glory.

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We ask this in Jesus' name.

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Amen.

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Thank you again for joining me.

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I am honored that you decided to spend

time with me, and I pray that you'll

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come back tomorrow with a renewed,

reinvigorated heart to study God's word.

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Open it again and to see

what we can learn together.

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Alright guys, you have a great day.

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I'll see you again soon.

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Bye.

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PJ: thanks for listening to another

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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This is a ministry of Compass

Bible Church in north Texas.

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You can find out more information

about ourChurch@compassntx.org.

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We would love for you to leave a

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you against tomorrow for another

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