When You Have All The World Can Offer
Sermon Notes
Solomon had it all — wisdom, money, power and success. But he fell into idolatry and sin as a result. What can we learn from his mistakes?
Some people have calculated what Solomon’s net worth would have been in dollars today. Solomon would be worth 1.5-2 Trillion dollars! He dwarfs them all! Solomon was richer than eight Elons! He was nearly 20 Zuckerbergs rich.
Now, most of us look at this and cannot even imagine that kind of wealth and success. We would be thrilled with just half of a percent of that.
And what did that level of wealth and success do for the wisest man in the world? It made him a fool.
1 Kings 10:14 tells us about the absurd wealth Solomon had.
1 Kings 10:14-15 says, “14 Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, 15 besides that which came from the explorers and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of the west and from the governors of the land.”
21 All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver; silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. 22 For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.
23 Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. 24 And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. 25 Every one of them brought his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, myrrh, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year.
Just a few verses later, we come to 1 Kings 11 and we see his downfall:
1 Kings 11 says, Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2 from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. 3 He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.
Solomon wrote this Proverb and didn’t follow it! Proverbs 13:20: Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.
Solomon knew this, he advised people against it, and did it anyway.
1 Kings 11
4 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
6 So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done. 7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. 8 And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.
He knew the right information, and he knew the right thing to do. And he didn’t do it.
As the story continues in 1 Kings 11:9-11, we read: 9 And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice 10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the LORD commanded.
11 Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. 12 Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.”
I want to end with one of the most famous Proverbs of Solomon. Many people have memorized Proverbs 3:5-6, but few know verse 7.
Proverbs 3:5-7 says, “5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. 7 Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.”