God Speaks
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Most of the OT deals with the history of a nation with its origin story rooted in deliverance from slavery and bondage.
A nation that despite its covenant relationship with God continually wandered from God
Yet, it is also a history of a loving, merciful, and gracious God… who time and time again warned and corrected His people so that they may not have to suffer....
But as history has shown they did not listen to the many many warnings given to them and thus were cast into exile...
Today, we read one of these warnings… and as we do let us remember that God is under no obligation to warn anyone of His coming justice… and let us understand that when God speaks, when God warns us of consequences, it is an act of divine grace… and we would be wise to listen...
Open to 1 Kings 9 verses 1-9…
In the past few weeks we’ve covered...
The building of the temple (chapters 5-7)
The dedication of the temple (chapter 8) - prayer, benediction, sacrifices
All leading to Solomon’s high point...
Now, we are on the backside of Solomon’s reign - roughly 24 years into it…
We’ll break the text up into three portions and talk about them as we go along… so let’s begin and tackled the first two verses. 1 Kings 9:1-2
1 As soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the Lord and the king’s house and all that Solomon desired to build, 2 the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.
God appears to Solomon a second time...
Sometime shortly after the twenty years it took to build the temple and palace (7 & 13 years respectively)
And in this instance God appeared to Solomon as He did at Gibeon… recall 1 Kings 3:5
5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.”
So, this time, like the time at Gibeon, God appeared to Solomon in a dream or vision…
Remember, God has spoken to Solomon another time as well… 1 Kings 6:11-13
In that instance the word of the Lord came to Solomon most likely via a prophet… and not the same way God appeared to Solomon at Gibeon or here in our text...
Now, in this particular moment, what does God say to Solomon?
Let’s find out by reading the first part of God’s message… 1 Kings 9:3-5
3 And the Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. 4 And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, 5 then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’
The Lord speaks
He has heard Solomon’s prayer made at the temple
He has made the house holy (3)
A house made by the hands of a man
A house made holy by the name of Yahweh
His eyes and His heart will be there forever
Seeks to bless Solomon by establishing his throne (5)
If certain conditions are met (4)
Solomon walks as his father David did
With integrity & uprightness
Obeying all that God has commanded
Then (5) Solomon’s throne will be established…
In accordance to God’s Word given to David
And this is where the train stops for most people… the idea that God offers blessings for obedience… but not consequences for disobedience… People sometimes think the only consequence one suffers for disobedience is the missing out of further blessing… as if faith is like a county fair… God gives you a ticket to enter and once inside you get to choose what rides to ride and what rides not to ride… without any consequence other than missing out on the experience...
Let us not be like most people… let us read and hear the whole word of God on the matter… let’s continue and read verses 6-9 1 Kings 9:6-9
6 But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8 And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ 9 Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the Lord has brought all this disaster on them.’ ”
But… Yahweh warns Solomon
If Solomon turns aside (6)
In disobedience
To worship and serve other gods
Israel, (7) will be cut off from the land (from the promised rest) Lev 26:27–39
27 “But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, 28 then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins. 29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. 30 And I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. 31 And I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing aromas. 32 And I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it. 33 And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. 34 “Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it. 36 And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall when none pursues. 37 They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though none pursues. And you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. 38 And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. 39 And those of you who are left shall rot away in your enemies’ lands because of their iniquity, and also because of the iniquities of their fathers they shall rot away like them.
The consecrated house (7) will be cast off
The house God said His name would be in forever… if Solomon obeyed… if his sons and Israel obeyed… with their hearts...
Ritual obedience… ritual treatment of the temple was not enough...
10 Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom! Give ear to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! 11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. 12 “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? 13 Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ 5 “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, 6 if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever. 8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. 12 Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.
Even in the days of Jesus, Israel was guilty of this… Mt 21:13
13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
Even today people are guilty of this… thinking their participation… their contribution to the church gives them protection from God’s wrath so they can sin and commit whatever transgression satisfies the desires of their hearts and flesh...
Matthew Henry comments that the house of God was designed to protect Israel in their allegiance to God, but not in their rebellion or disobedience.
How many of you come justify your sins by how much you donate to the church? Or by how often or how well you serve the church?
Or maybe you rarely come to church… you wrongly understand God’s grace… thinking you can reap righteousness while sowing iniquity...
Christ didn’t die on the cross to grant safety for our trespasses… but to deliver us from our trespasses… both the act and the consequence of sin...
(7) Israel will become a proverb, a byword Deut 28:36-37
36 “The Lord will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone. 37 And you shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away.
(8) The house will be a heap of ruins
(9) It will cause people to question why
The answer will bring to mind Israel’s sin of idolatry as evidenced in disobedience
Let us not think that this warning to Solomon, since it happened long ago, under another covenant... is not for us...
It most certainly is…
And let us not view such a warning with cynicism… and let’s not hiss at it… as if it’s too negative… too judgmental for a loving God to give...
These words by Yahweh are words of grace… to warn Solomon… to guide Solomon...
Even today, God warns us… He speaks to us through His Word… which includes the OT... Rom 15.4
4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
And His Word comes to us through His watchmen… and we better listen…
In the Old Testament, it was the prophets who were the watchmen… today it’s the shepherd’s…, the elders of God’s people.... who are responsible for warning people of God’s expectations…
1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, 3 and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.
This responsibility is the same for pastors today as well as those in the pew...
Especially, for those in the pew… here in America
God’s Word is like the surgeon general’s warning… it’s everywhere...
We are not an illiterate society, nor an impoverished society that lacks access to the His Word...
So, why do you keep ignoring God when He speaks?
We must resist the flesh and put off the old self when we hear God’s Word rebuke us or warn us of our behavior...
We must not resist it or get hung up on petty things like tone and the style of which the message was delivered… too much is at stake...
And it’s not only the warnings we must hear… but all the words of God we must hear and obey...
But the most important are perhaps these words of God… and others like it… John 3:36
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
And for those of you do believe… be sure to listen to His other words… such as...
You are forgiven...
You must believe it!
Or when God says upon the Cross, “It is finished”… believe it!
It’s not just with warnings we must listen and obey, it’s with the blessings too… let us not miss out on the holiness God calls us to by ignoring His Word when He speaks...
And in heeding His Word… let us prepare ourselves now to come to the Lord’s Table...
Professing our faith in Jesus Christ and the work that He has done on the cross...
Let us confess our sins and not be at animosity with any brother or sister in Christ… and let us walk up here and partake of God’s gift to us… so we may be encouraged and refreshed for the week ahead...
Let’s pray