The Smartest Dumb Guy

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The story is told of a prosperous young investment banker who was driving a new BMW sedan on a mountain road during a snowstorm. As he veered around one sharp turn, he lost control and began sliding off the road toward a deep precipice. At the last moment, he unbuckled his seat belt, flung open his door, and leaped from the car, which then tumbled down the ravine and burst into a ball of flames. Although he had escaped with his life, the man suffered a ghastly injury. Somehow, his arm had been caught near the hinge of the door as he jumped and had been torn off at the shoulder. A trucker saw the accident in his rearview mirror. He pulled his rig to a halt and ran to see if he could help. He found the banker standing at the roadside, looking down at the BMW burning in the ravine below. “My BMW! My new BMW!” the banker moaned, oblivious to his injury. The trucker pointed at the banker’s shoulder and said, “You’ve got bigger problems than that car. We’ve got to find your arm. Maybe the surgeons can sew it back on!” The banker looked where his arm had been, paused a moment, and groaned, “Oh, no! My Rolex! My new Rolex.”

In 1 Kings, Solomon became King of Israel and he is named as one of the wisest kings that Israel ever had. Before he rose to power David had some words with him. David before his death, warned Solomon that he needed to follow God’s Commandments. I Kings 2:3- “Keep the charge of the Lord your god: to walk in His ways, to keep His statues, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do wherever you turn.” It was wise words to be given to Solomon, since David realized that he strayed away from God’s presence. David was trying to give some last words to Solomon because David knew that Solomon was going to be the next king. He wanted to give him some advice as a Father, but also kingship advice. David knew what it was like wearing that crown, and he didn’t want Solomon to falter like he did.

It was after Solomon cleaned out the Kings court by killing all who betrayed the King and after the purge there was rest in the lands. In 1 Kings Joab finally made a name for himself as a threat to the crown. David tells Solomon that Joab shouldn’t die in peace and that the sins that he has committed against the family should be punished. So Solomon kills him and it was after this purge through the King’s court there was a moment of silence. During this silence Solomon went to the hilltops and began worshiping the Lord. It was during this act of worship that the Lord came to him in a dream and asked him what he most desired. Solomon responded with an “understanding heart to judge your people and that he may discern good and evil” God was pleased with this request and not other things that Solomon could have ask. God gifted Solomon with unknown wisdom that hasn’t been seen in the lands. Also, because of Solomon’s request came from a simple heart to seek God’s wisdom, God gave Solomon power, wealth and the blessing to lead Israel.

With the gift of Wisdom King Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs, which is touted as a book of wisdom. Solomon had great gifts and divine insight on multiple problems. He was given peace with all the neighbor countries and even developed a treaty with Egypt. That hasn’t been done since Moses, so after hundreds of years Solomon’s kingdom rested from war. It was a time to rebuild and restore the infrastructures of Israel. With years of war, it was time that Israel took a break and began strengthening its walls. He built the great temple that the Jews worshipped at and it was so beautiful that God came and rested in the temple. I want to spend a quick moment on this event. When the temple was completed, it was the first time the Ark of the Covenant had a hard structured home. The Israelites have been carry thing the Ark for the past 400 years wherever they went and it was symbolized as the heart of Israel. The Jews guarded this Ark with their lives throughout the military campaign of Joshua, the rise and fall of the judges, and has already been with two generations of Kings. This was the first time that it had a resting place and it was just a big event for Israel. You see this was the first time that the Israelites built a temple for God. They have built altars throughout their journey, but this was the first hard structured church in the history of all Jewish and Christian history. This was the first time that God allowed the Israelites to rest in the land flowing with Milk and Honey. This was the land that God had promised them hundreds of years ago. They didn’t have to wander anymore and didn’t have to fight for their kingdom. It was a time of rest for God and Jews. This was where Solomon began the great rise of his reputation.

It was after the temple was build that Solomon received another vision from God. God promised Solomon that his Name will reside in the temple forever. That his presence will live in Israel and that he will stay with the Jews for all time IF…….1 Kings 9:4 “ 4 As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, with a heart of integrity and in what is right, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and ordinances, 5 I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.6 If you or your sons turn away from following Me and do not keep My commands—My statutes that I have set before you—and if you go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 I will cut off Israel from the land I gave them, and I will reject[a] the temple I have sanctified for My name.” It was like God knew something was going to happen right? How explicit was this warning…”you go and serve other gods and worship them” It seemed like two individuals warned Solomon of not straying away from God and to keeping God close to his heart….But it can’t be that bad with all that wisdom that he was given from God right?

See Solomon received all that he could have ever wished for plus more… He received wisdom from God, he stay obedient with building the temple according to God’s wishes. He stayed obedient to David his father with purging the Court. He was the first person to have God live in a permanent structure in the history of the world. It was a sign that God wanted to be with his people for all eternity. After this act of service toward God, Solomon received wealth, power, and fame. God blessed Solomon beyond his riches. I mean he had more resources than he needed, he ate more food than he could ever wish for, and his people were happy. He had the perfect kingdom more than what his father had, more than the great Joshua had, he able to do anything he wanted…But what did he ultimately want to do? If you had all the money in the world, but the stipulation was that you have to stay according to biblical standards what would you do? We would all do the same thing, because everyone that has received the blessings from God has showed us that there is one thing that is consistent with mankind. We all have a sinful nature and that no matter what we will fall to sin.

See Solomon was gifted with this unknown wisdom that began to attract attention. He started to become famous with all the wisdom that he was bestowed. Well that is something different that all the kingdoms around them wanted. They wanted this something else, this something strange, this something not known. They wanted a piece of this divine gift. You see it may have been nervousness that the kings created treaties with Solomon, or I wonder if they thought they could lure Solomon to have a close relationship with their kingdom then they would receive some of these blessings. No matter what the thinking was, it began the end for Solomon. Many theologians believe that the end of Solomon started with the treaties of foreign countries, some think it’s because of the women, or for whatever reason. However, during my study of the Law that Solomon was supposed to keep and not break was Leviticus. Specifically, Leviticus 17, which talks about when Israel appoints a king over all of them. It lays out some ground rules that the King should follow. Verse 16 “16 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.” Now some of you might think…ok chaplain going to buy horses is a bad thing? It’s been 480 years since the Exodus. But let’s look at 1 Kings 10:26-28” 26 Solomon accumulated 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen and stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. 27 The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar as abundant as sycamore in the Judean foothills. 28 Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Kue.[j] The king’s traders bought them from Kue at the going price. 29 A chariot was imported from Egypt for 15 pounds[k] of silver, and a horse for about four pounds.[l] In the same way, they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of Aram through their agents”

Since Solomon married the Pharaoh’s daughter, he became a major import/exporter to the country that kept them as slaves. He was beginning to lower his guard. He is becoming familiar with the enemies of God and the countries that hate God. He is starting to call them friendly and allowing them to come to the holy lands that God has given the Jews. Remember that it has taken almost 500 years for the Jews to have peace and fight for what they already have. They have lost thousands of people that have given their lives to what little piece of land they have currently. Then Solomon begins to lower his guard. It’s like someone just preached on this last week. If you weren’t here, it was me, I preached on it. He began not seeing any adversaries and he began lowering his guard. Theres not written proof of when Solomon started lowering his guard, but I think it was over the course of several years. No one gets 700 wife's and 300 concubines over night. 1 kings 11:1-

Let me explain this for a bit. In those days a sign of treaty and trust is that they marry off family members to other countries. That way the foreign country knows that there will be no invasion. The foreign families know that the King will produce an heir and that the King won’t destroy their heirs lineage. It a calming effect, but this wasn’t according to God’s design. God knew that the intermarriages would eventually change Israels heart. He knew that their loyalty would fall and that they would start wanting other things that weren’t for them. So when Solomon began making these treaties with other countries he began marring all these women. Don’t get me wrong, I bet that these women didn’t look that bad and Solomon had some eye candy. But it wasn’t for Israel. ****look up laws preventing intermarrying******

This was a silent killer for the Israelites and here the King is proudly advertising this broken law. With all the wisdom in the world and he didn’t see it coming. He was the wisest king in all the lands and he wasn’t smart enough to see the sins he was letting into his palace. He was corrupting his own self for these women. This is the ironic part, as I mentioned previously Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs. In Proverbs, there are several warnings of lustrous women and women corrupting the men’s judgement. Proverbs 5 talks about man falling into the trap of an adulterious woman and after the fact men crying out how they wished they listened to the warnings, Proverbs 6 outlines seven things that the Lord hates and one of those things is “a person who sows discord in a family.” Proverbs 7 again outlines a woman lurking in the darkest waiting to catch a defenseless man. Now I’m not saying women are evil beings, but what I am say is that there is no doubt that the foreign kings has altered motives to marring off their daughters. There is also no doubt that the foreign kings talk to their daughters before they were sent off and I bet these talks somehow benefited the foreign kings. Solomon talks about never leaving your father’s advise and to wear the laws and commandments on your neck. He was the wisest man throughout all the lands and he wasn’t smart enough to see what he was doing to his kingdom, his family, and his relationship with God.

After about 40 years of reign, Solomon began worshipping other Gods and devoting to them. This is after he had not 1, but 2 visions from God, saw his presence in a form of a cloud, built a temple, was blessed and for the first time in Isreal’s history had peace. He had it all fame, wealth, and wisdom, but what did he choose to do. He chose to follow other gods and started following them. Why is this important, as I mentioned before, the King is the head of the Kingdom and Spiritual leader for all Israel. The was suppose to be the poster child for all Israelite and everyone looked up to him. He was suppose to be the image that everyone wanted to be and if he was seen sinning, what makes it wrong when other people do it?

This is the danger of his sins. James 3:1 “Not many should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive a stricter judgment,” The people who know the law and lead others are held to a stricter punishment. This is one of the scariest verses that I have seen in the Bible and it shocked me when I started to research this one verse. Since Solomon knew the law, he was suppose to practice the law, he was a teacher of the law. Because he had more wisdom than anyone around him he should have known better than to fall into the traps of foreign women, he had divine wisdom but he chose these paths. He knew the law, because that was tradition in the Jewish culture. In fact, it was common all Jewish families memorized the Torah. So he could of potentially quoted the scripture that dealt with this.

See Solomon was the smartest dumb guy. We can sit here and Monday morning quarter back his life, but the Israelites, David, Moses, Solomon, Abraham and us all have one thing in common. We all have old sinful nature. When Adam and Eve, sinned against God we all are an offspring of that sin. Sin was already imprinted on our hearts before we were born because we had lineage to Adam and Eve. So we are all children of Sin. This is where the Jews failed to realize. What they thought was having this strict law to push out the sin in our lives. But history tells us differently. We could have wrestled with God, been in the presence of God, been given unaccountable strength, good looks, a heart for God, or be the smartest guy in the known world, but the bible tells us that we desire sin. No matter what laws are placed on us, sin will creep into our hearts. Sin isn’t scared of breaking laws, sin isn’t scared of causing you grief, sin isn’t scared of you dying. Sin wants you as far away from God. The Jews thought the Law would fix it, but Romans 7:11 “For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.” Sin found a way to weaponize the Law and use it to create a discourse between God and us. The Jews thought the Law and traditions would be the way to salvation, but they found out that everyone sins. We can have all the special gifts God gives to us, but we will always find a way to sin against him. We needed someone without the sinful nature. We needed someone with all the spiritual gifts to be the perfect example and be the way to our salvation. Because without the salvation that Jesus has given us, we cannot fulfill the Law. In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 5:17 ““Don’t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” Jesus did not break the law and was the living example of what we are to do when living and having a relationship with God. We don’t need to be extra strong, we don’t need wealth, we don’t need power, we need Jesus. His blood had the power to cover our sins and bring us back into grace. It was his ultimate sacrifice that was worth more than all the animal sacrifices. It was his life that showed us that we as humankind cannot hold onto that relationship with God. It is only through the sacrifice of Jesus that brings us back into the paths of righteousness. Then knowing that once we believe in Jesus and begin having the renewing mind of God that we cannot fall out of his reach. It was the act of God reaching down and showing us His love that saved all of us. It was God that had to reach down and protect us even from ourselves. You can be the smartest guy in the whole world, but you will do some of the dumbest things to your lives. All you need is God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit