Elijah and the Widow (Elijah Part 1)

When we last left off, Israel had been split into two nations. Judah and Israel, where Judah is the nation ruled by the descendants of David, but is also by far the smaller of the two kingdoms. After the split they both have a series of bad kings occasionally punctuated by a good king, which means the two nations are mostly at war.

We’re picking up today and it’s been generations since David and Solomon’s reigns as kings. In that time, Israel has strayed from God—due to the influence of their kings and the other nations around them. Many people in Israel have started worshiping other gods.

So we’re picking up with a story in the kingdom of Israel and a new king coming into power. The story we’re going to discuss today is a super famous sequence in the Bible, with some super famous names you may recognize. The most famous one is Elijah who is our topic of today.

We’re going to study Elijah’s story and why he’s so important here, but one of the reasons why Elijah, in the Christian Bible is so important, is because of how he relates to Jesus. So before we dive into the Old Testament, I would like you guys to turn to the New Testament. Grab your Bibles and turn to Matthew 16:13-16.

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 

When Jesus came people thought he was Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But this comparison to Elijah is one that comes up over and over again in the New Testament. Why? Because Elijah, like Moses, is a foundational figure in the Old Testament. And Jesus is so much greater than Elijah, but the people of his time had no other comparisons. The greatest prophets they could think of were Elijah and Moses—and Jesus is even more than that! Which the New Testament likes to show over and over again, by referencing back to these old stories.

That’s one of the reasons why I think it’s important for us to study these Old Testament stories. It helps us understand how amazing and miraculous Jesus is. So in our study today as we look at Elijah, we’re going to study Elijah’s story but also look forward to Jesus and the correlations and contrast.

So go grab your Bibles and please open up to 1 Kings 16:29-33.

29 In the thirty-eighth year of King Asa of Judah, Ahab son of Omri began to reign over Israel; Ahab son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. 30 Ahab son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.

31 And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he took as his wife Jezebel daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him. 32 He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. 33 Ahab also made a sacred pole.[a] Ahab did more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than had all the kings of Israel who were before him.

 So Ahab becomes king of Israel, the northern kingdom, while a guy named Asa is king of Judah. Now Asa is actually a really cool person who follows god, but the same cannot be said for Ahab. Ahab married a woman named Jezebel who came from a foreign kingdom—as kings often due to secure alliances—but then because she came from somewhere else she worshiped different gods, most notably the god Baal, but also the goddess Asherah. So Ahab built her a temple for Baal and a sacred pole for Asherah, places where she could worship these other gods. But Ahab didn’t just build them for her to worship, he also too worshiped these foreign gods. And if you’ll remember, not having any other gods before the one true God is literally the first commandment. We are not to worship other gods. There is a fancy word for this sin, “idolatry.” We are not to have other idols before god. You’ll remember this is the same error Solomon made: worshiping foreign gods. And because of that sin God broke up Israel into two pieces. So God is not happy that Ahab is repeating these old sins.

So God does what he often does in these situations—he raises up a prophet to go talk to Ahab. Read 1 Kings 17:1-7.

Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe[a] in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” 2 The word of the Lord came to him, saying, 3 “Go from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 4 You shall drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” 5 So he went and did according to the word of the Lord; he went and lived by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the wadi. 7 But after a while the wadi dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

God sends a man named Elijah to talk to Ahab. And Elijah is sent to tell Ahab that basically there will be a drought until Elijah says otherwise--which would be when Ahab repents and turns back to God. This also shows that God has a lot of trust in Elijah. It’s not the drought will end when God says—though God can obviously do that. It’s the drought will end when Elijah says—God trusts Elijah not to abuse this authority and to know when the time will be appropriate. He is trusting Elijah to be his representative on the earth, more so than a lot of prophets.

God and Elijah have a relationship that a lot of prophets don’t, God trusts Elijah with a lot of power—like ending the drought.

Now Ahab isn’t happy with this, and so basically Elijah has to hide from the king—the implication that the king probably wants to kill him. So God tells Elijah where to go and hide. He sends him the Wadi Cherith—this is thought to be a river east of the Jordan river. So Elijah can drink from the water of this river to survive and then God says he will send ravens to feed Elijah—not that Elijah will eat ravens, but that the ravens will bring him food to eat. And that’s exactly what happen. God provides for Elijah in hiding—water from the river and food brought to him by ravens.

This is similar to how the Israelites received manna from heaven, except instead of good just appearing God is giving Elijah food delivered by ravens!

But because there is a drought, the river dries up.

Now Elijah has the power to end the drought, and he could end it and provide more water for himself. But that’s not what he does. Let’s see what happens next. Someone please read 1 Kings 17:8-12.

8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 9 “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” 10 So he set out and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the town, a widow was there gathering sticks; he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, so that I may drink.” 11 As she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” 12 But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jug; I am now gathering a couple of sticks, so that I may go home and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

God provides for Elijah. He sends him to a town where God says Elijah will meet a widow who will feed him. Now we’ve talked about this before, but the lowest of the low in society during that time would be widows and orphans. Because of the patriarchy of the time, basically only men were able to earn wealth. Women often worked in their husbands businesses, but it was extremely unusual for a woman to be able to have a business or work without a husband. So if your husband died, you couldn’t provide for yourself. You had to rely on your extended family to take you in—or if they didn’t, on the charity of society. So widows were often extremely poor and struggling to survive. You would expect God to send Elijah to someone rich to take care of him, but that’s not what God does. He sends him to the poorest of the poor.

When Elijah approaches this women that God chose, she has no idea God has sent Elijah to her and she is shocked and surprised, because all she has left is a handful of meal—basically flour and a little oil. So she was planning to go home and basically make a little pancake for her and her son to eat and she anticipates this is the last food they will ever have and after this they will die.

She can’t provide for herself and her son, how can God be expecting her to prepare for Elijah?

Someone read 1 Kings 17:13-16.

13 Elijah said to her, “Do not be afraid; go and do as you have said; but first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make something for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the Lord the God of Israel: The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain on the earth.” 15 She went and did as Elijah said, so that she as well as he and her household ate for many days. 16 The jar of meal was not emptied, neither did the jug of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

This widow just told Elijah that she has nothing left and she and her son are going to die of starvation and Elijah is like, “Nope, that’s totally not what’s going to happen. Go make your little pancake and bring it to me, and if you do that, your flour and oil will never empty.”

This is a huge leap of faith for this widow. Does she know who Elijah is? We don’t know. But we do know that she has nothing left, and as a mother she’s going to super concerned about her child. The idea of taking the food that is meant for her starving child and giving it to this possibly crazy man would probably be repulsive to her. How can she deny her child the little bit of food she has for this man who claims to speak for God?

But she trusts, she has faith. This is an immense amount of faith. People often overlook it, but this widow literally thinks she and her child are going to die, and she decides to trust Elijah, risk not just her life but also the life of her son, on the chance that he is God’s man and what he says is going to happen. So she goes home and make this little cake—that is literally just basically fried flour and brings it back to him.

And Elijah’s promise comes to path. She uses the last of her meal and the last of her oil, and yet…the jars that contain them are not empty. There is more meal and oil left, and always will be as a reward for her faith. God will not let her die to sustain Elijah.

This miracle, where the meal and the oil never end…can you guys think of another similar food related miracle that maybe Jesus did? [Let them answer.]

The feeding of the five thousand. Elijah’s miracle was that he made a jar of oil and meal not end so it could feed three people. Jesus once fed five thousand people. Let’s flip to the New Testament and look at that story. Please turn to John 6:5-14. Before you read, the “he” first mentioned in the verse is Jesus.

5 When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages[a] would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?” 10 Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they[b] sat down, about five thousand in all. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” 13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.”

This is a story where Jesus is basically preaching to a bunch of people and realizes they are far away from food, but to buy that much food would be way more money than Jesus and the disciples have. But one boy in the crowd has a small lunch, probably packed for him by his mom, which has five small barley loaves and a couple of fish. That’s the only food in the entire group. And Jesus takes that food and breaks it apart, and it just….never ends. He breaks it up to pass out and just keeps breaking and passing, breaking and passing, and there is so much food not only does he feed thousands of people but there is leftover!

This is what I mean when I say the Gospels compare Jesus to Elijah and then exceed it. Elijah had the power—through God—to make two small jars never end. But Jesus had the power to be able to feed thousands of people and still have excess.

Now back to Elijah and his story: someone now read 1 Kings 17:17-24.

17 After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill; his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 She then said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!” 19 But he said to her, “Give me your son.” He took him from her bosom, carried him up into the upper chamber where he was lodging, and laid him on his own bed. 20 He cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?” 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.” 22 The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. 23 Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother; then Elijah said, “See, your son is alive.” 24 So the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.”

The widow and her son were starving before Elijah came on the scene, and starvation is not something that can be fixed with a meal or two. So it’s not surprising that despite Elijah now providing them food, the son still died. And when he dies, the woman blames Elijah and God. She has done everything that is asked of her, and still her son died.

This happens. Sometimes you can do everything God wants you to do and bad things still happen—like Joseph getting thrown into jail or the widow’s son dying. But in this case, Elijah wants to do something about this. He doesn’t want this boy to be dead. So he petitions God, he cries and prays and begs God to bring the boy back to life.

And God does bring the boy back to life. And the woman is amazed and I’m sure ecstatically happy and she’s like “Surely you must be a man of God.”

Jesus also raised a widow’s son from the dead. Please flip to Luke 7:11-17. The he in the first verse is Jesus.

11 Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. 12 As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. 13 When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” 15 The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus[b] gave him to his mother. 16 Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has looked favorably on his people!” 17 This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

In this case, Jesus approaches a town and sees basically a funeral. A man is dead—a young man—and he was his mother’s only son. Why is that important? Well because he would be the only one who could provide for his mother, since she has no husband. Remember women need sons in this time period in order to even retain their property sometimes. So when Jesus sees her, he is filled with compassion and he tells the young man to get up! And the young man does.

You may notice a difference between this and the Elijah story. When Elijah raised the boy from the dead, he didn’t say “Get up!” Instead he begged God to raise the boy from the dead. Because only God has the power to raise someone from the dead. But did Jesus ask God?

No! Because Jesus doesn’t need to ask God, because Jesus is God.

That’s what this story is comparing to Elijah. Elijah was great and powerful, but not powerful enough to raise someone from the dead. Only God has that power. Jesus isn’t just a prophet like Elijah, Jesus is God.

This is what I mean when I say the Gospels compare Jesus Elijah in order to show how great Jesus is. Because Elijah and Moses are the greatest most powerful prophets that people of Jesus’s time could think of, and Jesus exceeded them in every way. Because Jesus wasn’t just a prophet. Jesus was God.

This is not the end of Elijah’s story, but this is where we’re going to stop for today. And we’ll finish up Elijah’s story next week.

Summer Memorization Projects

Before we dive back into studying the people of the Bible, I wanted to take a small break to introduce our memorization projects for this summer! In the summer, since we have a couple of months and you’re not in school, I like us to work on a doing some Bible related memorization! Last summer we worked on memorizing the Books of the Bible for all grades, because understanding where things are in the Bible is really important, and it’s really helpful for you guys who are entering Confirmation Class to know where everything is so you can keep up in Confirmation Class.

For those of you who are rising eighth graders, we are doing the books of the Bible again this year! So if you remembered it from last year, you’re ahead of the game! However, this year for each grade level we’re going to do a different memorization project. Today we’re going to go over each assignment, look into a little background on them and why they’re important and why I chose them for the memorization project!

We’ll start with the sixth graders! So go grab your Bibles!

Does anyone know what the word Christian means?

[Let them answer.]

The word Christian literally means follower of Christ, that is follower of Jesus. Following Jesus is the point of everything that we as Christians do. Right now we’re studying the Old Testament, so we haven’t talked about Jesus too much, but since he is the point of everything, there are two verses about Jesus that I personally think are two of the most important verses for understanding God and Jesus, and those are the verses I would like you to memorize.

Please flip to John 3:16-21. And I’m not going to make you memorize this whole section, just one verse in it so don’t freak out! I just want you to read a greater portion for context. Alright someone read John 3:16-21.

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

 In this story, Jesus is talking to a man name Nicodemus, who is a religious leader of the time. Nicodemus came to see Jesus at night because he was afraid to be seen talking to him, but he wanted to hear Jesus’s teaching and wisdom because Nicodemus believed that Jesus was sent from God—though he didn’t necessarily believe Jesus was God—which is what we believe.

So Jesus is trying to explain to Nicodemus for what purpose God sent Jesus. So he tells Nicodemus that God loves the word, he loves the word and everyone in it, and that’s why he sent Jesus—his only Son—so that Jesus can save everyone.

We talked about before that God’s plan is the restoration of all creation and that includes us—the humans who are made in his image. God sending Jesus is part of this restoration—is part of making us right with God. God didn’t send Jesus to condemn us—he didn’t send Jesus to punish us—he sent Jesus to save and restore the world, all of creation, and most importantly us.

But some people aren’t going to believe in Jesus—and Jesus acknowledges that here. Jesus is the light that has been sent into the world. But some people don’t like that—some people don’t like the light. Because when you light a room—it exposes everything that’s happening in the room, and some people just want to hide in darkness so their bad deeds are covered and not seen. It’s like roaches, when you turn a light on, they scurry away, afraid of the light and want to hide under furniture. Or buglers who only want to rob a house under the cover of darkness, but if the lights come on they run away. They’re afraid of the light is what Jesus is saying.

But people who do good, when the light is turned on their goodness is exposed and everyone sees their goodness. And those who want to do good are attracted to the light! And they realize that all the good they have been doing has been for God.

So why are we looking at all this? Why is it important? Because God sent Jesus because he loves us. Sometimes some people can twist the message of Christianity and it can seem like God is wrathful and doesn’t love people at all and just wants people to die. But that’s not the case! God loves us! And he sent Jesus not to hurt us, not to condemn us, but to restore us! It’s amazing, it’s a miracle!

Why is it a miracle?

Because Jesus is God. He is the human incarnation of God. God loved us so much that he chose to limit himself in human form and walk amongst us. God could have just stayed in heaven, and not dirtied himself down here on earth. But instead he chose to come here to have a relationship with us, to be like us, so he can restore us! And the next verse is also related to this!

Please turn to Hebrews 4:14-16.

14 Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested[a] as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

This verse is talking directly about the miracle of incarnation, that is the miracle of God choosing to become fully human. What the writer of Hebrews is saying, what is unique about Christianity, is that our highest of the high—the Hebrews calls him a High Priest but he means Jesus he means God—our God, the creator of everything—didn’t stay in a white tower, pristine and separate from us, judging us from this spotless tower for being muddy because we live in a world that has mud! No! Instead our God came and chose to be among us, to be one of us, because Jesus was fully man and fully God. And every temptation we experience? He experienced. We have a God who knows what it’s like to have siblings—and probably to argue with them.

We have a God who knows what it’s like to have a mother who yells at him—there are at least two different stories in the Bible where Mary gets mad at Jesus, when he gets left behind at the Temple when he’s 13 and when he’s a grown adult and Mary is mad at him for not bringing enough wine to the party! The next time your parents yell at you, you can remind yourself, hey…God has experienced this exact same thing—and he responded correctly, without wrong, and without sin, and so can I!

Jesus survived every temptation you might ever experience. Temptations of family, peer pressure, sexual temptations, all of that—he experienced.

Our God knows what it’s like for us to live in the mud because he once lived in the mud with us.

It’s amazing and miraculous and something is inherently unique to Christianity. Jesus was born, held by his mother, fell and skinned his knees, fought with siblings, fought with his parents, had friends who both loved him and betrayed him, had friends who died, and then later died himself. Jesus experienced all of that. And that is amazing. He experienced all of that and remained perfect, and always chose the right course of action, and through him we can choose the right course of action too.

So that is why I want you guys to memorize John 3:16 and Hebrews 4:15. Let’s say John 3:16 together:

 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

And now Hebrews 4:15.

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. 

These verses are about Jesus and critical to our understanding of who Jesus is. That’s why I want the rising sixth graders to memorize these two verses.

Okay next us is what I want the rising seventh graders to memorize. It’s called the Lords Prayer. Does anyone here already know the Lord’s Prayer? [Let them answer/raise their hands]

[Let someone recite it, but if no one can, recite it yourself]:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Does anyone know where the Lord’s prayer comes from? Or why we recite it? [Let them answer.]

Well let’s turn to where it comes from. Please turn to Matthew 6:5-15.

5 “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6 But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.[a]

7 “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9 “Pray then in this way:

Our Father in heaven,
    hallowed be your name.
10     Your kingdom come.
    Your will be done,
        on earth as it is in heaven.
11     Give us this day our daily bread.
12     And forgive us our debts,
        as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13     And do not bring us to the time of trial,
        but rescue us from the evil one.

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; 15 but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

This section of Matthew is Jesus teaching people about prayer and how to pray. He’s saying that when we pray, we shouldn’t pray for the purpose of reward or to be seen. Prayer is for us and for God, so we when we pray we should pray in private, for it to be between us and God.

Jesus also says in the next section that when you’re praying don’t use a bunch of flowery words for no reason. Just…speak to God like you would normally speak. You don’t need those flowery words to talk to God. God hears your meaning, and he knows what you need even before you ask, so even if your words aren’t pretty, he knows what you mean.

And then he gives us a recommended prayer. This can be used both as a prayer in itself but also a formula for a prayer.

Our Father in heaven—address your prayer to God, is what he’s saying.

Hallowed be your name—recognize that God is awesome.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven—recognize God’s will is ultimately what’s important.

Give us this day our daily bread.—Basically it’s okay to ask God for things we need. He understands, and won’t be angry at us for asking him. We need food to survive, and if you have needs or even wants, God wants to hear them and provide them for you if he can.

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors—We should ask God for forgiveness when we do things wrong, but because God forgives us we should forgive the people who wrong us.

And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one. The version your memorizing translates it as: lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Which is basically asking God to keep us away from things that might tempt us, but when it does happen help us make right choices, and help keep us away from evil.

Now the version your memorizing ends this prayer in For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Basically us recognizing that God’s power and glory is forever, and everything is his.

We call this the Lord’s prayer. You can literally just pray this, like we do in church every Sunday, or you can use it as a format for a prayer. Or you can pray however you want because God doesn’t need flowering words, he just wants you to talk to him.

This prayer is how Jesus taught us to pray and that’s why it’s important. And it’s something we do corporately as a church. If you go to service, every week we recite this together as a church, together we pray this to God. And it’s a beautiful thing.

It’s important for us to know it because it’s how Jesus taught us to pray. And it’s also nice for us to know it because it’s something we do together across denominations as a church. So that is why I would like you guys to memorize it. And I would like you to memorize the version that we recite together in church each Sunday.

Let’s recite it together now.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

So that is the projects for the seventh graders.

For the eighth graders, we are focusing on memorizing the books of the Bible. You guys know that I strongly believe in Bible literacy and familiarity. This is why in Middle School Sunday School I don’t usually give page numbers for the sections we turn to. Instead I make you guys find it—you can use the table of contents or as you get more familiar with the order of the books of the Bible you’ll be able to flip directly there.

Knowing how the Bible is arranged and knowing how to flip your way through it is an important skill for Bible study.

So let’s talk about the books of the Bible. Does anyone know how the books of the Bible are ordered? Why they’re ordered the way they are? [Let them answer.]

The books of the Bible are arranged by genre. Genre is basically how we classify books—a books genre tells you what kind of book it is. For example, Harry Potter is of the Fantasy genre. This tells you it’s a book about magic. Science Fiction is a genre that’s about the future—sometimes space but sometimes near future with cool technology. The books of the Bible also have genres. Some books are of the historical type, other books are the poetry type, some books are the prophecy type, and some books are a more commentary/philosophy type. A lot of the books we have been studying—the stories we’ve been studying in 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings are the history type of book. When we studied Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, those are the poetry type!

Different people order the Bible in different ways. We’ve talked about before how in the Jewish Bible 1&2 Chronicles it at the very end but in the Protestant version of the Bible, which we use, 1&2 Chronicles is right after 1&2 Kings. That’s because the Protestant version of the Bible is ordered by genre.

This means the Bible is not in chronological order—which is why sometimes we jump around a bit. But it also means that if you know what type of book of the Bible something is then you know generally where it belongs!

So here on the white board I’ve written how the books of the Bible are ordered and how they’re divided up. You can see the general order of the Old Testament big level is The Torah also known as the Law, then History, then Poetry & Wisdom, then Major Prophets, and then Minor Prophets. All the books of the old Testament fit into one of these divisions. And if you can remember something is Minor Prophet as opposed to a major prophet you will know it’s at the end of the Old Testament!

The new Testament is even easier. It’s Gospels, then the Letters of Paul, then the letters of other people, and then all by itself is Revelation.

Of course if you can just straight up memorize the order of the books of the Bible, that’s even easier. You don’t even have to remember what sort of genre it is, though knowing a book of the Bible’s genre is good because it helps you know what to expect from that book. But for the eighth graders, all I’m really requiring is that you know the order.

If you know the order, you won’t have to flip to the Table of Contents every time you want to find something. You can just open the Bible and based on what book you flip open to you know how to turn and find the book you’re looking for!

Another way to help with Bible familiarity is something called Bible Drill! Which is a game! This game is basically who can find a Bible verse fastest! So we’re going to end by playing this game for a little bit. And if you find the book of the Bible first then you get a piece of candy.

But before we start that, recap. Sixth graders I want you to memorize John 3:16 and Hebrews 4:15. Seventh Graders I want you to memorize the Lord’s Prayer, particularly the version we use in Church every Sunday which is written here on the board. And Eighth Graders I want you to memorize the books of the Bible. This will also all be an email from Halecia to your parents.

Alright Bible Drill! Everyone close your Bibles. Closed all the way. Then I’m going to call out a verse. After I say the verse you may immediately start looking for it—you can use the Table of Contents that’s fine. And whoever finds it first, raise your hand. And then when I call on you you’ll have to read it out loud to prove you found the right verse. And if it’s right, you get a piece of candy. Okay you guys ready?

Alright let’s start!

• Psalm 19:14
  •  Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
•  Matthew 21:22
  • Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.”
• 1 Chronicles 16:8
  •  O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known his deeds among the peoples.
• 1 John 4:19
  • We love because he first loved us.
• Micah 6:8
  • He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
• Philippians 4:13
  • I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Overview of Ecclesiastes

So for the past few weeks we’ve been taking high level looks at the more poetical books of the Bible. We’ve discussed Psalms which is basically a book of poems. We’ve discussed Proverbs, which is a book of wisdom. Now we’re going to look at Ecclesiastes which is somewhere between those two—poetry and wisdom.

Unlike Proverbs and Psalms, Ecclesiastes is basically set up as the writings of one particular man, his ramblings and musings about life and God. In Jewish tradition, this writer is called “Koheleth.” In most English translations it’s translated as something like “Teacher” or “Rabbi” or “Preacher.” It is generally accepted that Solomon wrote this book—since in the very first chapter it called this teacher a son of David and king of Israel. However, it’s also possible this book was compiled later and attributed to Solomon—which was a pretty common thing to do back then. Why did people do that? Well it’s basically a writing/story telling technique. By making people think of Solomon you’re making them think of wisdom and that’s what the author wants you to get from this book: wisdom. Whether it’s written by Solomon or not, the wisdom in this book is what matters and what the writer is trying to get across.

So please open your Bibles and turn to Ecclesiastes. Which is just past Psalms and Proverbs. We’re only going to look at some famous sections and not all twelve chapters!

Can someone read Ecc. 1:1-11? It may seem like a lot but this section is in poem form so it’s actually pretty short.

The words of the Teacher,[a] the son of David, king in Jerusalem.

2 Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher,[b]
    vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
3 What do people gain from all the toil
    at which they toil under the sun?
4 A generation goes, and a generation comes,
    but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun goes down,
    and hurries to the place where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south,
    and goes around to the north;
round and round goes the wind,
    and on its circuits the wind returns.
7 All streams run to the sea,
    but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
    there they continue to flow.
8 All things[c] are wearisome;
    more than one can express;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
    or the ear filled with hearing.
9 What has been is what will be,
    and what has been done is what will be done;
    there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there a thing of which it is said,
    “See, this is new”?
It has already been,
    in the ages before us.
11 The people of long ago are not remembered,
    nor will there be any remembrance
of people yet to come
    by those who come after them.

This section introduces us to one of the major themes of Ecclesiastes and why Ecclesiastes is sometimes viewed as a bit of a depressing book. “Vanity of vanities!” verse 2 says and this is something that is repeated a lot in this book. Now when you think vanity, you may think like…being obsessed with looks. A vain person is someone who is obsessed with how they look and vanity is just another form of that word. But that’s not the only meaning of the word and that’s not what this author means. What he means here is “futility.”

If you like Star Trek you may have heard that work before from the Borg, “Resistance is Futile” meaning resistance is pointless. That is the meaning the author has here. Vanity here means worthless or futile or pointless. My Jewish translation of the Bible translates verse 2 as:

“Utter futility!—said Koheleth—Utter futility! All is futile!”

Basically “life is pointless!” is what the author is exclaiming and the next few verses go on to expand why he is feeling this sort of existential crisis. He says people work hard, they toil under the sun, every generation comes and goes and works hard and tries to build something…but they come and go and the earth remains. The sun rises and sets, not even caring about the humanity beneath it. The wind blows and blows with no point. Streams and rivers go to the sea, but it’s not like they can fill it up so what’s the point? All these things are pointless!

And then perhaps the most famous part right here is when he says basically whatever you do whatever has been there is nothing new under the sun. You’ve probably heard that phrase before “Nothing new under the sun.”

Basically this whole section is the author being like “What is the point of existence. We live so we can die and no one is ever going to remember us.”

That’s….super depressing. Like I said this is one of the more depressing books of the Bible. But this emotion that the author is expressing here, is something people feel a lot. We feel like we work hard and nothing changes. We fight for justice and against poverty, but still there is injustice in the world and still there are people starving to death. We fight to change the world to make things better, and then it seems like in another generation everything reverts back. We work hard and who will remember us in the end? That we even existed?

This is a common human emotion, and the author here is human and he’s expressing that. And this is what I mean when I say every emotion you may ever have you can find something in the Bible that correlates to it, even this level of existential crisis where you’re wondering what the purpose of life even is.

The author’s feelings here are summarized in Ecc. 2:17. Can someone read that?

17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

The message translates this as “I hate life. As far as I can see, what happens on earth is bad business .It’s smoke—and spitting into the wind.” Basically, another refrain of “what is the point?”

There is one other super famous section of Ecclesiastes. Someone please read Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.

3 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

This is up there as one of the most famous verses in the Bible, the sort of thing that’s quoted a lot even by people who don’t believe in the Bible. For everything there is a season. It’s pretty straight forward, there is a time for everything—birth, death, laugh, cry, be sad, be happy—there will be times in your life where you feel or experience all of these things. They are like seasons. You’re not experiencing death or sadness or famine or war because you did anything wrong (most likely). Just like no one causes Winter to come. It just does. It’s just a season. And without winter, we wouldn’t appreciate spring. We all go through seasons of life, but they’re just seasons. And they too will pass. So if you’re in a season of sadness or war, a season of peace and laughter is coming! There is hope in that.

There’s a modern saying I’ve heard, “This too shall pass. It may pass like a kidney stone, but it’ll pass.” Basically meaning that everything is temporary, and it may hurt like all get out while it’s here—because kidney stones are super painful—but in the end it will be over, and you’ll survive it.

So you can see even though the author is feeling like everything is pointless, there is a hope in this. Because this feeling of futility? It’s just a season. And it will pass and soon he will feel like he has a purpose again.

Someone please read Ecclesiastes 3:16-22.

16 Moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, wickedness was there, and in the place of righteousness, wickedness was there as well. 17 I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time for every matter, and for every work. 18 I said in my heart with regard to human beings that God is testing them to show that they are but animals. 19 For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals; for all is vanity. 20 All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. 21 Who knows whether the human spirit goes upward and the spirit of animals goes downward to the earth? 22 So I saw that there is nothing better than that all should enjoy their work, for that is their lot; who can bring them to see what will be after them?

The author starts out this section by saying that things there are bad people everywhere it seems. Where there should be justice, instead there is injustice. Where there should be goodness, there is badness. He sees corruption everywhere he looks—people who are supposed to be good and just and fair are instead wicked and not doing what they’re supposed to be doing. And it can seem like there is no justice on the earth and the same fate is in everyone’s future (death), but in the end God will judge and there will be justice for the good and the bad.

“All are from the dust and all turn to dust again.” This is also a famous verse that as we’ve already talked about is often quoted at Lent and on Ash Wednesday. God made us from dust and in the end we will die and go back to dust.

Also I just think this section is interesting because he’s like “who knows if humans go to heaven and have afterlife’s and animal’s don’t! For all I know animals are in heaven too” is basically what he’s saying. So next time someone tells you your dog isn’t in heaven, just quote this section of Ecclesiastes and be like “you can’t know what happens to animals when they die.”

And then the very last section is another theme of this book, “Enjoy your work because that is your lot.” You’re on this earth and you have to work so you might as well enjoy it!

So what is the point? This author seems really depressed like there is no point to life except death. Now there are a couple of things here for us to keep in mind as Christians. We’ve talked about before, but ancient Jewish people had no concept of heaven and hell. They thought when you died everyone went to this place called Sheol, which was pretty much just a place of sleep. We as Christians believe in heaven, basically that Jesus came so we may have *eternal life*. Because of Jesus we can live forever, but in heaven where there is no toil or strife. Jesus describes heaven as a feast, as a house with many rooms. In Revelation John says Jesus “will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” So yes this author is stuck in the order and cycle of life and death where there is a season for everything, even death. But Jesus came to abolish death and we will live in a world one day with a new order where the only seasons will be life and laughter and joy.

We’re not there yet, but it’s coming.

This author of this book however was way before Jesus so he didn’t have a concept of this joy and hope Jesus is bringing.

That said, the author still comes to the idea that maybe the point of life is just…obey God and enjoy life the best you can. Someone read Ecclesiastes 9:7-10.

7 Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has long ago approved what you do. 8 Let your garments always be white; do not let oil be lacking on your head. 9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that are given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

Enjoy life! The author says, because that’s what God wants you to do. God wants us to enjoy life.

Sometimes even as Christians we can get stuck in this idea that that’s not true. That God put all these rules on us and sucks all the fun out of life. But that’s not true. God wants you to have joy and true freedom. In 2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul says “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” In Galations 5:13 Paul says, “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.” Peter says in 1 Peter, “Act as free men.”

In John 8:36 Jesus says, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Jesus came to set us free. Free from sin. Free from death. We are no longer bound. We are free. And God wants us to enjoy that freedom, to enjoy this life we have!

It can be hard to remember this, because humans like rules. We like to make rules and like to say if you don’t follow rule X, Y, Z you are not a Christian. But that’s not true. There is no set of rules you can follow that will get you into heaven. The only thing we are called to do is love—and that’s not a limitation. We’re called to do something to love God and love others. And as long as we are doing that, as long as we’re loving God, then we’re naturally going to want to please him. Not because there is some rule, but because we love him and want to do what he would find good. If you’re truly loving your neighbor, you don’t need rules about what you have to do in regards to your neighbor, because when you love them you would never hurt them.

It’s freedom.

Love life! Live with freedom and joy! That is what it means to be a Christian, and ultimately it is following God and Jesus that is the purpose of this life.

But if at times life seems futile, that’s okay. That’s a natural human emotion, just like is expressed by the author here. And you can go back to Ecclesiastes and know you are not alone in how you feel. But remember that feeling of futility is just a season, and it to shall pass and you shall feel the purpose and freedom of God again.

Overview of Proverbs

A couple of weeks ago we talked about Solomon. When God told Solomon he could ask for anything he wanted, does anyone remember what Solomon asked for? [Let them answer.]

Wisdom.

We talked about how wisdom and knowledge are different. Knowledge is knowing things and facts. Wisdom is having the ability to discern between a right choice or a wrong choice, or even an okay choice and a better choice. Decisions aren’t all, after all, black and white or right and wrong. If you’re deciding what college to go to, rarely is there a wrong or sinful choice. It’s about making a wise choice—looking at the options and making the choice that is best for your career goals, financial situation, and personal life.

Solomon was known throughout the land for his wisdom—so much so that even foreign leaders came to visit him to learn from him. And Solomon decided that it wasn’t the wise choice to keep all of his wisdom to himself, so he compiled the book of Proverbs.

I saw compiled because some of these sayings in the book are older than Solomon. But Solomon found it wise to take all of the wisdom known to the people of his time plus his own wisdom and make this book: which is a collection of proverbs.

What is a proverb? Well a proverb is a short saying that conveys a life truth or piece of advice or for lack of a better word wisdom. A modern example of this that you may have heard is the saying, “A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.” Have you guys ever heard that saying before? [Let them answer.]

Does anyone know what it means? “A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush?” [Let them answer.]

Well it means if you have a bird already, you caught a bird—for whatever reason you were bird hunting or you want a pet bird, whatever it is. And you caught a live bird. But there are two other birds you would rather have in a bush. If you attempt to get one of those two other birds, you’re probably going to lose the live bird you’re already holding. So it’s better to just keep the bird you have, then to lose what you have in the hope of getting something else.

Basically what you have in your possession is better than taking the chance of losing it to attain something else you don’t have.

Now this is just an English proverb that from my googling has been around since the 15th century. This is not a Biblical proverb. But it’s an example of the sort of thing that the proverbs are.

Today we’re going to look at a selection of Biblical Proverbs.

So please open your Bible to the book of Proverbs. It’s right after Psalms. If you’ll remember the trick to finding Psalms is just to open right in the middle of your Bible and then to get to Proverbs you’re just going to flip over to the next book.

[Give them a minute to get to the book of Proverbs. I highly suggest not giving them page numbers in the Bible. We’re trying to encourage Biblically literacy. It may take them several minutes to get to the right place depending on who is in the class.]

[For reading verses I generally start on one side of the room, pick the student immediately to my left, and then have them go around reading. So one student reads the first selection and then the next reads the next, etc]

Read Proverbs 1:1-7.

1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:

2 For learning about wisdom and instruction,
    for understanding words of insight,
3 for gaining instruction in wise dealing,
    righteousness, justice, and equity;
4 to teach shrewdness to the simple,
    knowledge and prudence to the young—
5 let the wise also hear and gain in learning,
    and the discerning acquire skill,
6 to understand a proverb and a figure,
    the words of the wise and their riddles.

7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge;
    fools despise wisdom and instruction.

This section is basically explaining why Solomon compiled the proverbs. He writes that he did it for a couple of reasons. First for learning and instruction. Solomon had wisdom and he wanted to pass down that wisdom to others, so that others could be wise. He then says the instruction is for wise dealing, for righteousness, for justice, and for equity—so that means instruction on how to do right, how to be just, and how to be fair.

He then goes on to say who the audience of the book is. It says for the simple—so basically to teach wisdom to people who aren’t very wise. Also for the young—that’s you guys!—and it uses the words knowledge and prudence. We’ve talked about before that the big difference between a teenager and an adult is wisdom. Sometimes teens even know more facts and pieces of information than their elders. But what older people have that teenagers don’t is life experience and wisdom. Solomon is saying that by compiling this book he’s basically helping jump start young people so they know that wisdom older people already have! But Solomon goes on to say that this book isn’t just for people without much knowledge or life experience, he’s saying that there is also something here for the wise to learn from. There is something for everyone at every walk of life to learn from the book of Proverbs.

And then the very first piece of wisdom that Solomon shares is verse 7. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Fearing God is not something we often talk about these days, but in this context fearing God just means respecting God and understanding his authority. Respecting God and knowing that he is the ultimate authority is the beginning of wisdom! That’s the first step. So if you already have that down then that’s like half the battle of becoming wise right there!

Let’s read the next two verses. Read Proverbs 1:8-9.

Hear, my child, your father’s instruction,
    and do not reject your mother’s teaching;
9 for they are a fair garland for your head,
    and pendants for your neck.

This sort of teaching is repeated a lot through the proverbs. That its very important to remember and learn from the teachings of your parents. We’ve talked about this before in this class, but remember most parents have your best interests at heart. They want you to be the best you can be. They know that as kids you don’t have a lot of life experience—but they do. Your parents, believe it or not, were kids before. They’ve literally been in your shoes. And when they tell you not to do something or advise you towards a certain course of action, it’s because they don’t want you to make the mistakes they made. They know the pitfalls and issues that are on the path before you—because they’ve walked that path. They’re trying to teach you the wisdom and life experience they either learned from their parents or learned the hard way! That’s why it’s so important for us to listen to our parents—even when you’re adult! Your parents have walked the path before you and they teach you to help you.

Now that’s not to say that parents are always right or that every parent is a perfect parent. Sometimes parents make mistakes because they’re human to! But generally speaking your parents know what’s up and what they’re about.

Of course, this isn’t taking into account abusive parents. Solomon is talking in generalities here—he’s speaking about the average parent who loves their children and wants what’s best for them. Abusive parents are not wise and they’re not teaching their children wisdom, so that’s an entirely different subset that Solomon is not speaking to here.

Alright let’s continue looking at some of these Proverbs. Read Proverbs 3:5-7.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not rely on your own insight.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
    fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight.” This is a very famous verse though in its most famous translation the second half says “and lean not on your own understanding.” As Solomon says in his introduction, the most important and wisest thing you can do is trust God. Your parents have your best interest at heart and give you the experience of their wisdom. God is like the uber-parent, the perfect parent. You think your parents love you? God loves you even more than that, and he wants you to know his wisdom and be able to flourish. That’s what Solomon is saying here, and that is the foundation of wisdom.

Now another famous one, read Proverbs 6:6-8.

Go to the ant, you lazybones;
    consider its ways, and be wise.
7 Without having any chief
    or officer or ruler,
8 it prepares its food in summer,
    and gathers its sustenance in harvest.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? Maybe not the verses but the concept of the hard worker ant who prepares food for the summer? There is a fable about this right? The ant and grasshopper. Which is what the movie “A Bug’s Life” is based on. The ant works hard to sustain itself. While there is a queen ant it’s not like she’s a queen like a human queen. She doesn’t give direct orders. Ants work together for the betterment of the hive—without direction to do so. They collect food and provide because it’s necessary to survive, not because some boss is bossing them around.

That’s how we should work—at whatever our job or craft is. We should work diligently without having to have bosses or parents or leaders yell at us. We work hard at our jobs because it’s the right thing to do, but also because we need to do so to earn money so we can live and provide a home for our families and food for our tables. God says this sort of diligent work is good and wise.

Now someone read Proverbs 10:12.

Hatred stirs up strife,
    but love covers all offenses.

What does this mean? The Message version of the Bible interprets this verse as, “Hatred starts fights, but love pulls a quilt over the bickering.” Basically, it means that hating someone or something or acting in hatred is never the solution, it just makes things worse. But love, love can calm things down and build bridges. It’s sort of like Star Wars right—Hate leads to the dark side. But as we’ve discussed many times in this class, love is the answer, love is what Jesus commanded us to do. And love can calm things and sometimes even heal wounds. But hatred just leads to more hurt. That’s why Jesus tells us to love our enemies, and not to hate them. Hating our enemies just leads to an endless cycle of hatred—we hate them so they hate us so we hate them. But if we love, we end that cycle.

Read Proverbs 10:17.

Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life,
    but one who rejects a rebuke goes astray.

This verse basically says we need to be able to handle taking instructions, criticism, and correction. That’s what rebuke means—we need to be able to handle people telling us we’re wrong. This is literally a life skill, one that is hard. It’s hard to accept criticism! It’s hard to listen to people tell us we’re wrong. But we’re all only human and sometimes we’re wrong. This is important at home, and at school, and at work. At home your parents correct you. At school your teachers do. And someday when you have a job you’ll have employee reviews where your bosses will tell you what you’re doing good and what you’re doing not so good, not to hurt you by pointing out what you’re doing wrong, but to help you so you can fix it and do better.

That’s why it’s important to be able to handle criticism. People correct us because they want us to do better, to be better. Your teacher doesn’t give you a bad grade because she hates you. She gives you a bad grade because your answers were wrong and she wants you to learn the right ones! Life is a learning process, and if we can’t accept those corrections, we’re never going to learn and we’re never going to become better people.

Someone read Proverbs 13:20.

Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise,
    but the companion of fools suffers harm.

The moral of this verse is that peer pressure is a very real things. If your friends are wise, they will give you wise advice and help you to stay on a wise path. Good friends prop each other up and lead each other to be better. But bad friends? Bad friends can lead you astray. This is why parents are often so concerned about who your friends are. They are worried that bad friends will take you down a bad path. It’s not because they hate you or hate your friends. It’s because they’re worried. If a friend is pressuring you to do wrong, your more likely to do the wrong thing then if you had friends who think doing that wrong thing is silly.

Now read Proverbs 14:29.

Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding,
    but one who has a hasty temper exalts folly.

This verse is pretty straightforward. It’s important to be slow to anger. A quick temper can result in a lot of bad things—it makes everyone around you defensive and upset. But staying calm—even in the face of other people losing their tempers—that helps keep things calm and if you maintain your cool you can talk to the person who is upset and learn what they’re truly upset about, and come to understand them better and maybe even address their issue.

Read Proverbs 14:31.

Those who oppress the poor insult their Maker,
    but those who are kind to the needy honor him.

Another one that seems pretty straightforward. Being kind and helping the poor honors God, while oppressing them is an insult to God. Really straightforward, and yet many people struggle with this. Oppression is alive and real in our world, something that happens all the time, and a lot of time it is rich people taking advantage of poor people.  If you ever find yourself in a position of power, as a Christian it’s our job to help the poor, to remember them, and not to make their situation worse.

Read Proverbs 16:2.

All one’s ways may be pure in one’s own eyes,
    but the Lord weighs the spirit.

Have you guys ever heard the phrase that “everyone is the hero of their own story?” Basically, it means that even bad guys, even evil people, often think of themselves as in the right—as the hero. They think everything they’re doing is right, even when it’s not. That’s sort of what this verse is talking about. People—we can rationalize almost anything and any behavior. We can say we’re doing this wrong thing for the right reasons or doing this right thing—but it’s for the wrong reasons. What this verse is saying is it doesn’t matter what lies people tell themselves to convince themselves what they’re doing is right and good—even when it isn’t. God looks inside of us and at our spirit and he sees the truth, he sees our intent and he sees our true motivations. For good and for bad.

Okay now this next verse is really famous. Someone read Proverbs 16:18.

Pride goes before destruction,
    and a haughty spirit before a fall.

You’ll most commonly here people shorten this verse to “Pride comes before a fall.” Have you guys ever heard that before? Anyone have an idea what it means?

No matter how much you know, you’ll never know everything. And you’ll certainly never know more than God. When we get to the level of pride where we only trust in ourselves—and not God or others—and when we think we know everything and start refusing to listen to anyone else or ask advice or for help—that sort of pride often leads to us messing up big time, aka a fall. Because we are only humans. No matter how expert you get in your field, you will never know *everything.* In fact Albert Einstein said “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.” Albert Einstein was one of the smartest men in the last 100 years, and even he wasn’t prideful enough to say he knew everything.

Pride is addictive, we humans like to think we’re the best and that we know everything, but as we already read we’re not to lean on our own understanding. We’re to lean on God. And we need to keep that in perspective or else we can get ourselves in big trouble.

Another famous verse, someone read Proverbs 17:17.

A friend loves at all times,
    and kinsfolk are born to share adversity.

A friend loves at all times. All times. Not just the good times, but also the really bad and horrible times. If you’re only someone’s friend when their life is good, you’re not really their friend. A friend is someone who will be with you through thick and thin, and will stick with you even when the going gets tough.

The second half of the verse uses some old-timey language and the Message translate it to, “families stick together in all kinds of trouble.” Basically, it’s the job of a family to stick with each other through hard times and prop each other up. To share each other’s pain and suffering. To life each other’s burdens so no one person gets overwhelmed.

This is a handful of verses we just looked at here, some of the more famous ones but certainly not all the famous ones or even a fraction of the wisdom Proverbs has to offer. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs and we’ve barely skimmed the surface. The purpose of this lesson is not to be a deep dive into all of Proverbs but so you guys can be familiar with it and know what it has to offer. This is ancient wisdom, wisdom from like three thousand (ish) years ago, and it’s still applicable to our lives. Because times may have changed, but a lot of things about people haven’t.

We still have friends. We still have families. Children are still young and inexperienced. There is still poverty in our midst. There are still foolish people. And there are still rich people who refuse to help those beneath them. None of this has changed in the 3,000 years since this wisdom was compiled.

And that’s why we’re looking at it now. Because this is good wise stuff that can help you. Lean on God. Be slow to anger. Be there for your friends and family. Listen to your parents. This is still good advice.

And that’s Proverbs. A book of good advice. 

Translating the Bible

As you guys know we’ve been studying people of the Bible. However, there are a couple of books of the Bible in the middle of the Old Testament that have no people to showcase, because they are not books that describe the lives of people. They are poetry and wisdom books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs—also known as Song of Solomon. I think it’s important to stop at this point in our people of the Bible discussion because large portions of some of these books are thought to be written by David and Solomon—who we’ve spent a lot of the last year discussing.

So for the next little while we’re going to look at one of these books a week with the exception of Job. We’re actually going to come back to Job at some point and spend quite a bit of time there, but I think we’ll actually do that as our last book of the Old Testament—because I think the book of Job has a lot to tell us about God and I think we want to have it on our minds when we talk about Jesus. So for the next few weeks we’re going to look at Psalms, then we’ll look at Proverbs, and then the week after we’ll focus on Ecclesiastes.

But this week before we discuss these books of poetry we need to discuss something very important and that is the idea that the Bible is translated. So today we’re going to talk about Bible translations—what’s important, what’s not, why we prefer translations over others, and perhaps some warning signs that someone is using a translation wrong.

Does anyone know what language the Old Testament was written in? [Let them answer.]

Hebrew. Hebrew is the language of the Israelite people, and the language that the oldest surviving manuscripts of the Old Testament are written in. The New Testament on the other hand is written in Greek. If you’ll remember the Old and New Testaments were written at very different times. When the Old Testament was written is was for the Israelite people, so it used their language. When the New Testament was written, the writers used what was a more common tongue for the known world at that time—because they were trying to speak not just to Jewish people but also to people from other cultures. Greek was the most common language in that area of the world, which is why they used Greek.

Does anyone in this class speak Hebrew or Greek?

I don’t either. And even if you did speak modern Greek, Biblical Greek is a different dialectic, which basically means a slightly different version. So it would be hard for Modern Greek speakers to read Biblical Greek without taking a class to learn about Biblical Greek.

For a long time in human history, you had to know Hebrew or Greek to read certain parts of the scripture. In Jesus’ time, everyone who studied the Torah—that is the first five books of the Old Testament—would have been studying it in Hebrew. And even today modern Rabbis study Hebrew and learn to read the Old Testament in Hebrew. Our pastors also have often studied Hebrew and Greek so that they may better understand the original language of the Bible.

But you and me? We’re not Biblical scholars. We’re just average Christians who want to know what the Bible says! So we rely on English translations of the Bible.

In today’s modern age, there are a ridiculous number of English translations of the Bible. It’s amazing, but that wasn’t always the case. For a really long time, like I said you either had to know Greek or Hebrew, or Latin. Now the Bible wasn’t written in Latin, but in around 300 AD, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, and the Romans spoke Latin. So the Roman Emperor had the Bible translated into Latin. For a really long time, that Latin version of the Bible was considered the only official version of the Bible and you were not allowed to translated it into any other language. So if you were German, you would go to church on Sunday and hear the local priest read from the Bible in Latin, and you may not understand what he’s saying at all.

These were the Middle Ages, and things were very different back then.

Eventually a priest named Martin Luther in the 1500s said, “that doesn’t really make sense. I’m German! I want to read the Bible in German!” As a priest he knew how to read the Bible in Latin and what it meant, so he created a translation of the Bible into his local German (in history classes they’ll call this “venacular” to translate something into the vernacular is to translate it into your local language.)

Does anyone in the class speak two languages or have you ever studied another language? [Let them answer]

You may have noticed that it’s really hard to directly translate things between languages. Sometimes direct translations simply don’t convey the same meaning. So translating isn’t as simple a task as finding the same word in the dictionary and directly translating it over. A silly example is: what do you say after someone sneezes?

In English we say “God bless you.” Sometimes you might hear someone use the German word, gesundheit. Gesundheit does not mean “God bless you.” It means “health.” Because you’re basically wishing the person who just sneezed good health. In French you say “a tes souhaits,” (pronounce: ah te sway”) which means basically “as you wish.”

If I were a French translator, translating a book from French to English and someone in the book sneezed and someone responded “a tes souhaits,” I would not translate that as “as you wish” even though that is the direct translation of the word. Because an English reader wouldn’t read that and say, “that’s just a standard response to sneezing.” They would read “As you wish” and say “huh, that’s weird. Why did the character just say that?” So a good translator would actually translate “a tes souhaits” to “God bless you” even though that’s not what it means.

Translating between languages is really weird like that. It’s not just about directly translating words. You’re trying to translate meanings. Therefore any translation actually introduces a bit of interpretation, and as we’ve talked about before interpretation can be subjective.

How can interpretation be subjective? Well let’s take another easy example. The sentence: He said he didn’t steal it.

How do you interpret this sentence? What does it mean? [Let them answer.]

Now what if I said “He said he didn’t steal it.”

Now what does it mean? [Let them answer] Basically it would mean this guy is saying it was stolen but he wasn’t the one who stole it.

What about “He said he didn’t steal it.” What does that mean? [Let them answer.] Yeah! He’s saying he didn’t steal that item, but the probably stole something else.

That’s one seemingly straightforward sentence that depending on how I said it had different meaning. Representing it in modern writing, you can capture this emphasis with italics or bold or underline, but Biblical writers didn’t have concepts like italics or underlining! They just wrote words and hoped the way they wrote them conveyed what they meant!

This is why there is so much in the Bible that can be taken as a matter of interpretation. Even if we’re all looking at the exact same translation we might disagree on what the words mean!

Now back to this idea of translation: Because the Bible is not written in English, every version of the Bible that you can read is going to be a translation. The translation we use regularly in this class is the New Revised Standard Version. This is actually the version used in a lot of academic settings. The NRSV translation is made by a committee of thirty Biblical scholars—men and women--from Protestant, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Jewish backgrounds. This is why it’s so widely respected. Having such a diverse group who all greatly respect the authority of the Bible and want to make sure they are true in their translation means we’re less likely to introduce bias or inaccuracies in how it’s translated.

Another version of the Bible that occasionally gets brought up in this class is the King James Version—because we have a couple of copies. This is the version that has all the “thee’s” and “thou’s” in it and reads to us modern readers more like Shakespeare and is harder for us to make heads or tails of. The King James Version is important because for a long time it was the only version of the Bible available in English. Unfortunately, since it was translated in 1611, there are some poor translation choices. Some of that is just because scholars in 1611 didn’t know as much as scholars today. Some of it is just how the English language has changed—so though a turn of phrase would have made perfect since in 1611 it no longer makes sense now. However, the King James Version did do one thing right, and that is that it made things that are poetic sounds poetic. Sometimes in our more modern translations we lose a bit of the poetry.

This is why some people when it comes to Psalms, actually prefer to memorize the King James Version of the Psalm, because to our modern ears it just sounds more poetical, even if it’s sometimes a little harder to understand than the NRSV.

These are not the only two English translations of the Bible. Far from it. Growing up, my churches mostly use the New International Version (NIV). For more personal study I like the New American Standard Bible (NASB). I’m also fond of the English Standard Version (ESV). I think all together I have nine English translations of the Bible and one French one.

One version of the Bible that I have that we’re going to reference in the next couple of weeks that we don’t normally use in this class is called “The Message.” This version of the Bible isn’t really considered a translation so much as an interpretation. A modern pastor thought the Bible was sometimes a little too hard to read for all the people he led and so he broke it down into more modern language. This Bible is less for the purpose of academic study and more for the purpose of breaking things down.  A lot of modern Bibles like to pretend that they’re pure translations with no interpretation—which as we’ve discussed is literally impossible, the act of translation introduces interpretation. However, the Message is very clear that it is an interpretation, it’s trying to interpret the Bible into modern language. Sometimes when we read the New Testament—especially the letters by Paul, it’s all run on sentences and confusing vocabulary and philosophy that’s sometimes hard for scholars to understand. The Message breaks it all down into easy to read sentences and uses the Message’s interpretation to break down the meaning into what the writer of the Message thinks Paul is trying to say. This is why it’s not necessarily recommended for academic study, because the writer of the Message could have gotten his interpretation wrong, but it is a very useful tool for if you’re stumped at even how to read the sentence!

The Bible was written a really long time ago and therefore the grammar used by the writers is completely different from what we use today. For example, there was no such thing as punctuation back then! No periods to tell you when the sentence was over! Which is why today it all reads like run on sentences. The Message version of the Bible tries to eliminate that confusion by making everything as close to modern English as the writer can while still getting across what the writer of the Message thinks is the meaning of the text.

Let’s look at some differences between these versions of the Bible! Someone grab one of the King James Versions. Let’s turn to a verse we should all know in this class: John 3:16.

Someone please read the King James Version:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life

Okay now someone read the NRSV.  

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Alright and now I’ll read the Message version:

This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.

You can see that generally all these verses have the same gist. God loved the world so he gave us Jesus so no one would die but everyone would live! It’s just they use slightly different words like “only begotten Son” versus “only Son” versus just “his Son.” Or using “perish” versus “destroy.” These words for the most part mean the same thing and reading this we should all be like “Yeah that seems pretty solid. We understanding the meaning of this verse.”

Okay now let’s try the same thing, still in John, but a little more complicated. Someone read John 14:16 in the NRSV:

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,[a] to be with you forever. 

Okay the word I want you to pay attention to here is Advocate. Can someone tell me what Advocate means? [Let them answer.]

When I looked it up google said it means “a person who pleads on someone else’s behalf” or “a pleader in a court of law, a lawyer.” So you can think of an Advocate like a lawyer.

Now do you guys see the little letter g in the your NRSV Bibles next to the word “Advocate?” That means there is a footnote. So you can look at the bottom of the page, where there is little writing, and see what it reads next to the g. Can someone read that?

g Or Helper.

What this footnote is saying is that this version of the Bible chose to translate whatever Greek word the Greek text used as Advocate but that Helper would also be a good definition of the world. Do Helper and Lawyer mean the same thing?

Sort of I guess in the sense that your lawyer should be helping you. But a Helper verses a lawyer have very different connotations. An Advocate makes people think of someone powerful who helps you, who argues on your behalf powerfully to get your out of trouble, where the connotation of a helper is more like…someone who just helps out on occasion.

Let’s see what word the King James Version uses. Someone please read John 14:16 in the KJV Bible:

16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

What word is used here? Comforter!

A comforter is a person who gives you comfort in hard times. That doesn’t make you think of a lawyer defending you in court or someone helping you out. That makes you think of someone patting you on the back saying “there, there.”

Comforter, Advocate, Helper…these words all seem to be different. So what is Jesus saying? What he is actually saying God is going to give us here?

Let’s see what the Message says.

“I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you.”

So now we have Advocate, Helper, Comforter, and Friend. So what is Jesus actually saying?

Well I didn’t really give you guys a lot of context here, we didn’t read the verses around it, but Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit. You guys may recall that we believe God exists in three parts: God the Father, the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. This section of the Bible is Jesus telling the disciples not to worry because after Jesus dies, they will not be left alone. They will get the Holy Spirit.

The Greek word being used here is “Parakletos” or “paraclete.” The truth is that this is a hard word to translate. What makes this word hard? Well it’s not like people made English to ancient Greek dictionaries back in the day, mostly because English didn’t exist when the Bible was written. When modern translators don’t know what a word means they try to find other ancient texts from the same time period that use the same word, so that they can use context clues to determine it’s meaning. There are a couple of other texts from the time, one from a Greek orator named Demosthenes that uses the same word. And I think this is a case where Advocate and Helper are probably the closest meaning, and “Comforter” is a bit farther off.

But the truth is all of these words can be used to describe the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the part of God that is still here active in us and active on this earth. It is our Advocate—interceding on our behalf in circumstances and events. It is our Helper—helping us when times get hard or when we don’t feel strong enough. It is our Comforter—comforting us in the darkness to let us know God is with us and we’re not alone. And it is our Friend—just as Jesus was the Friend of the twelve disciples. Using all of these words, all of these translations, gives us a fuller understanding of what the Holy Spirit is.

What is the point of all of this? Why is this important?

I think the lesson and the warning here, is that if anyone ever gives a sermon or a lesson or an interpretation that hinges on the meaning of one specific word in English and claim that is the only meaning of the word, you should be skeptical and look into it yourself. Because the Bible was not written in English. Advocate, Helper, Comforter, these are all legitimate translations of paraclete, so if someone gives a whole sermon on how the Holy Spirit is only a comforter, they are wrong.

There is a good historical example of this. I say historical, but this is something being used even now to subjugate women around this world. Can the person with the King James Bible read Genesis 2:18:

18 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

God looked at man and said it’s not good for him to be alone, let me make him a “help meet”—that is woman. What does help meet mean?

Someone read the NRSV version.

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”

Helper, okay that makes a little more sense to us. Let me make man a helper.

Helper is actually what most Bible translations use. This word has been used over the centuries to tell women that they are lesser to men. Only, merely a helper. This term “help-meet” has been used to say that women are merely meant to exist in subordinate or helping roles to their husbands.

I’m going to read a quote now from a theologian named Rachel Held Evans that explains more what the actual Hebrew word is here.

The phrase “helper suitable,” rendered “help meet” in the King James Version, comes from a combination of the words ezer and kenegdo. Far from connoting subjugation, the Hebrew term ezer, or “helper,” is employed elsewhere in Scripture to describe God, the consummate intervener—the helper of the fatherless (Psalm 10:14), King David’s helper and deliverer (Psalm 70:5), Israel’s shield and helper (Deuteronomy 33:29). Ezer appears twenty-one times in the Old Testament—twice in reference to the first woman, three times in reference to nations to whom Israel appealed for military support, and sixteen times in reference to God as the helper of Israel.

So “ezer” is used to describe God, so God is described as Israel’s helper and David’s helper, does that mean God is subordinate to Israel or David? No. God is far greater than Israel or David. Now I’m not saying women are greater than men because when you combined “ezer” with “kenegdo” you get “helper of the same nature.” Basically “helper on the same level” or…in modern lexicon….basically a partner.

A partner is your equal, but you and your partner—whether that’s your best friend, our a group project or a business partner—you’re both invested in helping each other to be the best you can be, invested in your group project or your business or your relationship to make it the best it can be.

Man and woman are both made in the image of God, made as equals, but made to work together as partners.

Because the word “helper” has been used to translate this Hebrew phrase of “ezer kenedgo,” though, theologians have historically used it as an excuse to tell women they are less.

This is why it’s important to remember that everything is a translation influenced by interpretation and perspectives. In the hands of a biased person trying to prove the point, a translation can be tweaked through word choices and phrase choices to make a theological point the original text may not intend.

No one expects every Christian to be a theological scholar. Heck, there is no test on the Bible when you die to see if you’re theology is correct so you can go into heaven. There is no such thing. Christians were Christians even when they were illiterate with no access to the Bible. I just want you guys to be aware of these things so when you’re studying the Bible and confused by a word choice, you know there are other translations and resources you can go to in order to help you figure out what it means. Because humans translated the Bible and in the hands of some humans, those English word choices can become weapons against people.

Never trust a theologian or pastor—someone who is supposed to be an expert on these things—whose entire interpretation hinges on one English word without going back to the Hebrew or Greek.

Do feel comfortable enough to question things and seek out answers for yourself.

And also know it’s okay to not be a Bible expert. Because all it takes to be a Christian is to follow Jesus.  And what did Jesus say the greatest commandment was? The most important thing. The thing that ultimate it takes to consider yourself a follower of Jesus and God?

We keep going back to these verses and that’s because it’s important. Someone read Matthew 22:36-40.

36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Love God. Love your neighbor.

That’s it. Love God. Love people. Be love in the world. That’s all it takes to be a Christian. You don’t have to be a Bible scholar. You just have to be love in the world.

I teach you these things about Bible translations and sometimes church history not because it’s necessary for you to call yourself a Christian, but because this is Sunday School and I’m trying to prepare you for the world and the sorts of questions you may have one day—or now—that cause you to question your faith. It’s always okay to ask questions and seek answers.

But it’s also okay to just sit back and say “you know, I don’t know the answer. But I do know I’m supposed to love people.”

And really that’s all that matters.

Jeroboam, Rehoboam, and a Divided Israel

It’s been a while since we’ve done one of our people of the Bible lessons, where we’re studying the lives of people in the Bible as a method to walk us through the Bible. Last we left off, Solomon—the son of David—was king of Israel. And for a long time he was a wise and good king, whose wisdom made him famous and whose kingdom was so prosperous that he was able to build an amazing Temple to God. However, when Solomon became an old man, he started letting his foreign wives—who worshipped other gods—influence him and he started also worshiping those gods.

As you know, “Have no other gods before God” is literally the first commandment, so needless to say God wasn’t happy with Solomon. God told Solomon that he would not punish Solomon during his life—out of respect to his father David—but after Solomon died, God would divide Israel, so that most of Israel went to another royal line, and only one tribe would be left to the child of Solomon to rule.

Today we’re going to pick up right after Solomon’s sin but right before Solomon dies. So please open your Bibles to 1 Kings 11:26-28.

26 Jeroboam son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, a servant of Solomon, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow, rebelled against the king. 27 The following was the reason he rebelled against the king. Solomon built the Millo, and closed up the gap in the wall[a] of the city of his father David. 28 The man Jeroboam was very able, and when Solomon saw that the young man was industrious he gave him charge over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph.

Here we are introduced to Jeroboam. We’re told several things here at our introduction to him. He’s an Ephraimite, which means he is an Israelite of the house of Ephraim—one of the landed twelve tribes of Israel. Ephraim’s name may not be familiar to you from the list of the names of Jacob’s sons, and that’s because Ephraim was a son of Joseph. Because Joseph as so awesome, his two sons basically each have a tribe named after them. Which is why later it says he’s put in charge of the house of Joseph. Ephraim and Joseph, for our purposes here are the same thing. We’re also told right off the bat that he rebelled against Solomon, and the following verses are going to be the story of that rebellion. However, in contrast to that rebellion we’re told that he was a capable and industrious young man, which is why Solomon trusted him and put him in charge of things, and I imagine what put him in such a good place to rebel. It takes a good leader to get a nearly successful rebellion off the ground—as we saw with David.

Alright so let’s read Jeroboam’s story and see how he rebelled. Someone please read 1 Kings 11:29-40.

29 About that time, when Jeroboam was leaving Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Ahijah had clothed himself with a new garment. The two of them were alone in the open country 30 when Ahijah laid hold of the new garment he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. 31 He then said to Jeroboam: Take for yourself ten pieces; for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “See, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and will give you ten tribes. 32 One tribe will remain his, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. 33 This is because he has[a] forsaken me, worshiped Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites, and has[b] not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, as his father David did. 34 Nevertheless I will not take the whole kingdom away from him but will make him ruler all the days of his life, for the sake of my servant David whom I chose and who did keep my commandments and my statutes; 35 but I will take the kingdom away from his son and give it to you—that is, the ten tribes. 36 Yet to his son I will give one tribe, so that my servant David may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put my name. 37 I will take you, and you shall reign over all that your soul desires; you shall be king over Israel. 38 If you will listen to all that I command you, walk in my ways, and do what is right in my sight by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, I will be with you, and will build you an enduring house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you. 39 For this reason I will punish the descendants of David, but not forever.” 40 Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam; but Jeroboam promptly fled to Egypt, to King Shishak of Egypt, and remained in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

There is a lot in here and some of it is repetitive of what we already know, but let’s break it down. Jeroboam was leaving Jerusalem one day—probably minding his own business—when a prophet of the Lord tracked him down. This prophet is named Ahijad. They’re in the middle of nowhere when Ahijad tears off a part of his robe and tears it into twelve pieces. He gives ten to Jeroboam. And then for clarity, he tells Jeroboam exactly why he’s doing this and what it means.

God is taking the kingdom out of Solomon’s family’s hands. He is giving ten tribes to Jeroboam and leaving Solomon one as punishment for Solomon’s sin. Now a couple of things here: why are only eleven tribes being accounted for here? Jeroboam gets ten and Solomon gets one doesn’t add up to twelve. That’s because the tribe of Levi is not a landed tribe that any king rules. They are a tribe of priests and the priests would continue to serve both sides. The second thing is…why is God leaving Solomon anything after such a great sin? Well Ahijad explains it—God made a promise to David, a promise that his house would rule forever. If he takes away all the tribes from Solomon literally one generation after David’s death that makes it sort of seem like God is backing out of his promise. So because God made this promise to David, Solomon’s line would continue but it would continue in a weakened and less powerful state—ruling only one tribe of Israel. This is for David’s benefit—not Solomon’s.

Jeroboam will be king of the rest of Israel. And if he walks with God, his house will endure—not necessarily forever, this isn’t the same level of promise God gave David, but it will succeed.

Though God also makes it clear that this punishment for the descendants of David is not forever, so there is hope that Israel could be reunited under an heir of David.

In this section the author is writing things in way that would make a close reader of the text remember David and how very similar David and Jeroboam are in these situations. David was the rebel against the established king Saul. Jeroboam is the rebel against the established king Solomon. And in both cases, the established king wants to kill the new king.

What I find interesting is that the beginning of the section called this a Rebellion, and we don’t actually see Jeroboam inciting any rebellion in this section. However, claiming to be a new king would be viewed as rebellious and it’s no wonder that Solomon—the current king would want to kill him.

So Jeroboam flees to Egypt, where he remains until Solomon dies.

As we know Solomon does die. So what happens next? His son would expect to be king of everything after him right? But we know God has made this promise to Jeroboam. So how are things going to fall out? Is Jeroboam going to wage war against Solomon’s son—whose name happens to be Rehoboam? Are we going to have another civil war on our hands? Well let’s see. Someone please read 1 Kings 12:1-5.

12 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. 2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard of it (for he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from[a] Egypt. 3 And they sent and called him; and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam, 4 “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke that he placed on us, and we will serve you.” 5 He said to them, “Go away for three days, then come again to me.” So the people went away.

So Rehoboam is the son of Solomon and the person who should be king after Solomon. He goes to this city called Shechem to be made king, and like everyone from Israel comes there to see. Even Jeroboam, who had been living in Egypt up to this point, comes to Shechem. While this gathering is taking place, the people bring an issue to their new king. They say, “Hey, while Solomon was king, he put a lot of taxes on us. If you could lighten that, we would be so grateful and would serve you happily.”

This just goes to show that humans have been complaining about taxes for as long as their have been governments taxing people!

Anyway, Rehoboam is like, “Hmm, I need to think about this request. Can I have three days?”

And everyone is like, “That seems completely reasonable.” After all, it’s wise for a king to think on things before making a decision.

Now someone please read 1 Kings 12:6-11.

6 Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the older men who had attended his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” 7 They answered him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.” 8 But he disregarded the advice that the older men gave him, and consulted with the young men who had grown up with him and now attended him. 9 He said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?” 10 The young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus you should say to this people who spoke to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must lighten it for us’; thus you should say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. 11 Now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”

So Rehoboam goes back and asks two sets of advisors what he should. The first group he asks are some older men who advise his father, Solomon. They say to him that if he lightens the people’s taxes and burdens now, they will view him favorably and be loyal to him forever. Rehoboam then goes to a group of men his own age and asks and they’re like, “Dude, you’re king and they’re your subjects. They have to do what you say. You should be like, “You thought my father was tough! I’m tougher! I’m going to be the toughest guy you have ever known!”

Now a few things on this, as a king it is a good idea to get advise from multiple parties and take in many points of views. In a modern democracy, it’s good to get perspectives of all your constituents—old and young and way that make a decision, because everyone has equal rights under the law if you’re an adult—whether you’re 18 or 100. But as we’ve talked about before, the main difference between young people and older people is life experience and wisdom. These former advisors of Solomon had served under an incredibly wise king and had a lot of experience dealing with the Israelites. These new young advisors on the other hand were mostly concerned with seeming tough—for some reason that’s what they thought a king should be—tough.

Out of these two choices, which one do you think Rehoboam should have chosen? [Let them answer.]

Well let’s see what he picks. Someone please read 1 Kings 12:12-15.

12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had said, “Come to me again the third day.” 13 The king answered the people harshly. He disregarded the advice that the older men had given him 14 and spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” 15 So the king did not listen to the people, because it was a turn of affairs brought about by the Lord that he might fulfill his word, which the Lord had spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

After three days everyone comes back to listen and hear what the king has decided. And Rehoboam decides to go with the advice of his young friends over the advice of the older and wiser advisors. Rehoboam tells the people he is going to be tougher and harder than his father before them.

And the writer of Kings foreshadows in the next section how the people are going to handle this—because he says that the reason Rehoboam chose poorly was so that God’s words could be fulfilled and Israel could be split so that Jeroboam could be king of ten tribes.

That seems to indicate things aren’t going to go well.

Someone please read 1 Kings 12:16-19.

16 When all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king,

“What share do we have in David?
    We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.
To your tents, O Israel!
    Look now to your own house, O David.”

So Israel went away to their tents. 17 But Rehoboam reigned over the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah. 18 When King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam then hurriedly mounted his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

The people are distressed by Rehoboam’s refusal to listen to them. They feel like the house of David has betrayed them. So when Rehoboam sends out his tax collecter—well the people aren’t happen with him and they kill him.

A few things on this section—it says that Adoram was in charge of forced labor. Forced labor was one of the ways people paid taxes back then. Instead of paying money, you would have to come and work on basically national projects for a while. So if you were normally a carpenter who charged money for your work, every once in a while the king would come and basically say “You need to serve me for free for a while.”

This is basically how Solomon got the Temple and Palace built, which is why I imagine people thought things were really hard under him—because of all the work they had to do.

So when it came time for this guy Adoram to round the people up, the people said no, and they killed him by a method called stoning. Stoning is basically when you throw rocks at a person until they die. And I don’t mean little pebbles. I mean like big rocks. That was a pretty common communal method of killing someone back then.

Killing an agent of the king like this is basically full-on rebellion.

It’s a fine line kings and rulers walk, because sometimes you have to make people do things they don’t want to do for the common good, but if you push people too far they will fight back. We see this all over history. It’s one of the reasons why the French Revolution happened—common people were literally starving to death while the nobility were having lavish decadent parties. If a ruler pushes people to hard, they will revolt.

And that’s what happens to Rehoboam here.

Someone please read 1 Kings 12:20-24.

 20 When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. There was no one who followed the house of David, except the tribe of Judah alone.

21 When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, one hundred eighty thousand chosen troops to fight against the house of Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon. 22 But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God: 23 Say to King Rehoboam of Judah, son of Solomon, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, 24 “Thus says the Lord, You shall not go up or fight against your kindred the people of Israel. Let everyone go home, for this thing is from me.” So they heeded the word of the Lord and went home again, according to the word of the Lord.

So all these people are really dissatisfied and unhappy with Rehoboam. And when they hear Jeroboam is back in town, they basically all just say “To heck with Rehoboam, Jeroboam is our king now.”

Rehoboam is not happy about this. He gathers all of the men of Judah and Benjamin to go fight against Jeroboam—which is literally like the rest of Israel—way more men. But then God sends a messenger to Rehoboam and is like, “No. You’re not going to war with this guy. This was my decision. Israel will be split now. And that’s just the way it’s going to be.”

And Rehoboam listens and there is no war between the two leaders of this new split Israel.

From now going forward in the Bible there are going to be two kingdoms: the Northern Kingdom, often known as just Israel, and the Southern kingdom, often known as just Judah. Most of Israel is in the Northern Kingdom, and the Southern Kingdom is all of Judah and some of Benjamin. We will never see a united Israel, containing all of the tribes, that is self-ruled ever again.

Israel is split forever more, and the glory days of David and Solomon are gone. From this story forth these two kingdoms are separated, and at the mercy of some good kings and a lot of bad kings, and even further on we’ll see Israel wiped off the map by invaders, and the how Hebrew identity called into question as these people are exiled from the land they believe God promised them.

It’s a rough road ahead.

Solomon Makes Mistakes

Last week we began a discussion on Solomon. If you’ll remember Solomon was David’s son who became king after him. And when Solomon became king, God gave him a chance to ask for anything he wanted and Solomon asked for wisdom.

Word of Solomon’s wisdom spread everywhere, and Solomon became famous for his wisdom. Even a foreign queen came to see him and test his wisdom, and she left impressed.

But the purpose of Solomon’s wisdom wasn’t to make Solomon famous. It was to bring glory to God. And Solomon hadn’t lost sight of that. Let’s open our Bibles and flip to 2 Chronicles.

Someone please read 2 Chronicles 2:1-2.

2 [a] Solomon decided to build a temple for the name of the Lord, and a royal palace for himself. 2 [b] Solomon conscripted seventy thousand laborers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hill country, with three thousand six hundred to oversee them.

Solomon decided to build a temple. If you’ll remember, at this point in the Bible, there is no temple for God. Instead there is the Tabernacle, which is basically like a tent version of the temple.

Now David had wanted to build a temple for God. But God told him no that he couldn’t. Instead his son would do so. And that’s exactly what is happening here. Solomon, David’s son, is building a temple to God.

Someone read 2 Chronicles 2:3-6.

3 Solomon sent word to King Huram of Tyre: “Once you dealt with my father David and sent him cedar to build himself a house to live in. 4 I am now about to build a house for the name of the Lord my God and dedicate it to him for offering fragrant incense before him, and for the regular offering of the rows of bread, and for burnt offerings morning and evening, on the sabbaths and the new moons and the appointed festivals of the Lord our God, as ordained forever for Israel. 5 The house that I am about to build will be great, for our God is greater than other gods. 6 But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him?

Solomon wants to build a temple for God not because it makes him great or Israel great but to show how great God is. You have to understand that back then, people built all sorts of buildings and temples to their gods. And here were the Hebrews, claiming their God was the best of all the gods, and yet…there God only had a tent? That sort of thing would definitely make people of other cultures question the awesomeness of the Hebrew God. Why would a God who is so awesome allow his people to worship him in a tent?

We know it’s because that is how God planned it, that the tent was so that the people had a place to worship while they wandered in the wilderness. But now that Israel is a secure solid nation, it was time for Solomon to build a permanent, not moving Temple in the promised land, a place where they can keep the Ark of the Covenant and offer sacrifices to God.

If the Hebrews are God’s chosen people, and Israel the land God gave them, it’s about time—in their minds—that God would have his own great house in Israel.

Solomon recognizes that anything they build on earth cannot compare to heaven and while it will be viewed as God’s house, it cannot actually contain God. He knows that he cannot built anything beautiful and wonderful enough to actually do justice to God. But he sure can try. So he hires all the best workers and artisans, the best carpenters and metal workers who are famous for their abilities and art. And they will help him make the Temple the most people place in the world.

Solomon put so much effort and care into building the temple that it takes him twenty-years to build it. Twenty-years! It was a massive construction effort and obviously they didn’t have all the technology we have to make it easy. They would have had to do everything by hand. Which is why it took so long.

Can someone please read 2 Chronicles 5:1-10?

5 Thus all the work that Solomon did for the house of the Lord was finished. Solomon brought in the things that his father David had dedicated, and stored the silver, the gold, and all the vessels in the treasuries of the house of God.

2 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the ancestral houses of the people of Israel, in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion. 3 And all the Israelites assembled before the king at the festival that is in the seventh month. 4 And all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites carried the ark. 5 So they brought up the ark, the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the tent; the priests and the Levites brought them up. 6 King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be numbered or counted. 7 Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place, in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the most holy place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. 8 For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim made a covering above the ark and its poles. 9 The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside; they are there to this day. 10 There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses put there at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant[a] with the people of Israel after they came out of Egypt.

So the temple is finally done and Solomon gathers all the leaders of Israel: the elders and the heads of the tribe to the city so that they can be there for the Ark of the Covenant to be brought into the Temple. This is a big deal. Because the Ark of the Covenant symbolizes God’s presence and the Temple is supposed to be God’s house, so it’s important that the thing that symbolizes God actually live in God’s house. But as we’ve already studied moving the Ark of the Covenant about is not an easy task. Only certain people can touch it or move it. So they sacrifice many animals as they do this movement. And finally the ark is placed in the heart of the temple, the area called the holy of holies, where no one can go except the high priests.

When the ark is inside, Solomon dedicates the temple by speaking to everyone gathered. Let’s see what Solomon says. Someone please read 2 Chronicles 6:1-11.

6 Then Solomon said, “The Lord has said that he would reside in thick darkness. 2 I have built you an exalted house, a place for you to reside in forever.”

3 Then the king turned around and blessed all the assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel stood. 4 And he said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who with his hand has fulfilled what he promised with his mouth to my father David, saying, 5 ‘Since the day that I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a city from any of the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, so that my name might be there, and I chose no one as ruler over my people Israel; 6 but I have chosen Jerusalem in order that my name may be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.’ 7 My father David had it in mind to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. 8 But the Lord said to my father David, ‘You did well to consider building a house for my name; 9 nevertheless you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house for my name.’ 10 Now the Lord has fulfilled his promise that he made; for I have succeeded my father David, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. 11 There I have set the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with the people of Israel.”

Solomon praises God before all the people and reminds them of the history that has brought them here. That God chose David to rule them and chose Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. And that David had been the one who wanted to build the house, but God said it would be David’s son who would do it.

The next thing Solomon does is pray before everyone, praising God for his awesomeness and his faithfulness to Israel. He points out that even when Israel hasn’t been faithful to God, God has been there for them. Someone please read 2 Chronicles 6:41-42.

“Now rise up, O Lord God, and go to your resting place,
    you and the ark of your might.
Let your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation,
    and let your faithful rejoice in your goodness.
42 O Lord God, do not reject your anointed one.
    Remember your steadfast love for your servant David.”

This is how Solomon ends his prayer, by basically invited God into the temple to live and to not reject them but rather remember his love for David and the promise he has made David.

And God it seems likes Solomon’s prayer because he appears to Solomon again! Someone read 2 Chronicles 7:12-22.

12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. 16 For now I have chosen and consecrated this house so that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time. 17 As for you, if you walk before me, as your father David walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, 18 then I will establish your royal throne, as I made covenant with your father David saying, ‘You shall never lack a successor to rule over Israel.’ 19 “But if you[a] turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will pluck you[b] up from the land that I have given you;[c] and this house, which I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 21 And regarding this house, now exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished, and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this house?’ 22 Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord the God of their ancestors who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore he has brought all this calamity upon them.’”

Basically God starts out by telling Solomon that he accepts the invitation to make the temple his. He also tells them that as long as the people of the land are faithful, as long as the people of Israel follow God and pray and seek him, he will hear and forgive them.

He also reminds Solomon that his faithfulness is also important. That if like David, he follows God, then Solomon need not worry about being dethroned. And he reminds him of the covenant he made with David, that Israel will always have a king of the line of David.

And God doesn’t just end there. He decides Solomon needs a more firm warning. He basically warns him that if Solomon turns away from God, if he worships other Gods, that he will punish Solomon and it will be seen by the temple, that people will only speak of the temple in whispers and warnings.

Remember 2 Chronicles was written after the exile and Solomon’s temple was destroyed, so this section is alluding to that. It’s basically alluding to the idea that if Israel and the temple are destroyed, people will be shocked and wonder why God allowed it. But the answer is God allowed it because they turned away from him and worshiped other gods.

And this issue of worshiping foreign gods, is actually going to be an issue soon. Because Solomon has a weakness, and that weakness is his wives.

Alright everyone let’s turn back to 1 Kings. Someone please read 1 Kings 11:1-4.

11 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 Israelites, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you; for they will surely incline your heart to follow their gods”; Solomon clung to these in love. 3 Among his wives were seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. 4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.

We talked about last week how Solomon married pharaoh’s daughter. And that wasn’t the only foreign woman he married.

Marrying foreign women is a problem not because the people group they come from, but because they don’t worship God—they would have their own religions. This law against marrying foreign women is actually in the Torah, the Law. Someone flip to Deuteronomy 7:3-5 and please read that verse.

3 Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 5 But this is how you must deal with them: break down their altars, smash their pillars, hew down their sacred poles,[a] and burn their idols with fire.

This law forbids the Israelites from marrying foreigners, but we’ve already seen that that’s not always followed. Rahab and Ruth, both of these women were foreigners. But what this verse is particularly concerned about is not so much marrying foreign people but marrying people who serve different gods. Rahab and Ruth both recognized the authority of God and turned to God, essentially converting. The concern of this law is that the people of God would turn away from him because of the influence of spouses can have over each other. If your spouse worships a foreign god, you might be tempted to as well.

A quick aside here: as I’ve said the issue here isn’t really marrying foreign people, it’s marrying people who worship other gods. So here’s a question. Does this rule still apply to us today? As Christians? Should Christians marry non-Christians?

Well legally in America obviously you can. You can marry almost anyone you want legally. But what does the New Testament say about this? Turns out, Paul—who wrote many books of the New Testament—had an opinion on this very topic! So someone please read 2 Corinthians 6:14-18.

14 Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship is there between light and darkness? 15 What agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we[b] are the temple of the living God; as God said,

“I will live in them and walk among them,
    and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.
17 Therefore come out from them,
    and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch nothing unclean;
    then I will welcome you,
18 and I will be your father,
    and you shall be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”

“Do not be mismatched with unbelievers.” The more common way you may here this is “don’t be unequally yoked.” So what is Paul saying here. He’s saying that if you are a believer and follower of God and you marry someone who isn’t, you’re mismatched. Because you can’t and won’t be able to share everything with them.

A non-Christian won’t want to come to church with you. A non-Christian might think when you pray that it’s silly. A non-Christian won’t encourage you to follow God. And this makes a relationship hard. Marriage can be hard enough without adding in a religious mismatch in the mix!

But Paul also reminds us here that there is no temple like the one Solomon built anymore, now we—Christians—are the temple of God. And if we’re a temple of God, we should keep ourselves holy and that involves keeping ourselves separate.

That said, Paul does say in another section of the Bible that if you happen to be married, and your spouse is not a believer, that is not a reason to get divorced.

So if you marry outside the faith that is between you and God, but remember that when it comes to picking a future spouse it’s very important that you guys have similar values and beliefs.

Back to Solomon: Solomon marrying foreign wives is a good political move because it binds him more closely to his neighboring countries, makes them allies instead of enemies. However, it’s simultaneously a good political move and an iffy spiritual move. But since the intent of this law is that he not start worshiping other gods. So if Solomon married these women but continued to worship God unhindered it wouldn’t really be a problem.

And Solomon falls prey to this. As he ages and gets older, his heart starts turning away from God and towards these gods that his young cute wives worship.

I’d also like to point out it says he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. So as we’ve discussed before a concubine is just like a lower class wife. So in total, Solomon had 1000 women at his beck and call. That is a lot of wives. And while some of them I’m sure were only for political reasons, it shows that Solomon has a weakness for women and the fact that his heart starts turning away from God, shows he’s letting these women influence him in ways he shouldn’t.

Someone please read 1 Kings 11:5-8.

5 For Solomon followed Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not completely follow the Lord, as his father David 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 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrificed to their gods.

These verses point out the foreign gods Solomon starts worshiping. He even builds a few of these foreign gods their own little alters in the hills. It says he basically builds an alter for a god for each of his wives’ gods! That’s a lot of gods. So yes Solomon had built a Temple to God and that is a great and remarkable act, but he also started building alters for other gods! That goes directly against the first commandment, not to worship any other gods other than God.

Also a slight aside. You’ll notice it never says Solomon starts disbelieving in God while he’s also worshiping these other gods. Nowadays that’s kind of a crazy idea. Most people believe their gods are true and no one else’s are. But people didn’t believe that back then. Your average Israelite thought everyone else’s gods were real too. It was just that the Hebrew God was the greatest God there was, more powerful and awesome than all the other gods. This is called “monolatry” which means the worship of one god without the denial of the existence of other gods.

That idea is kind of foreign to us now. We believe our God is true and real, and that there are no other gods. But people didn’t have that concept back then. Which is why Solomon didn’t have a problem with worshiping these foreign gods. To him they were real.

The problem with it is that worshiping other gods is directly forbidden by the Hebrew God. That’s literally the first and probably most important commandment. Don’t worship any other gods! And here Solomon is breaking it. Do you guys think God will be happy about this?

Nope. Definitely not. Someone please read 1 Kings 11:9-13.

9 Then 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 matter, that he should not follow other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord commanded. 11 Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant. 12 Yet for the sake of your father David I will not do it in your lifetime; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 13 I will not, however, tear away the entire kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”

God is angry with Solomon for worshiping other gods. Solomon is failing to keep David’s covenant with God, that as long as David’s descendants worship God then things will be fine in Israel. And God isn’t quite about it. He tells Solomon that because his heart has turned away from God, Israel will be torn apart. He says the only reason why it won’t happen in Solomon’s lifetime is because of David. But after Solomon dies God will tear Israel apart, and Solomon’s son will only have one of the twelve tribes of Israel to rule over. The rest of the tribes will be left to their own devices. This is ominous, and we’re going to see that after Solomon dies the kingdom gets split into two: Judah and Israel. And Solomon’s son is the king of Judah but not Israel.

The mighty nation that Solomon was king of will be no more. Torn apart. Because of Solomon’s sin.

Alright someone please read 1 Kings 11:41-43.

41 Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, all that he did as well as his wisdom, are they not written in the Book of the Acts of Solomon? 42 The time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. 43 Solomon slept with his ancestors and was buried in the city of his father David; and his son Rehoboam succeeded him.

Solomon rules for 40 years and then dies an old man. And that’s the end of the story of the Solomon. He was an extremely wise man, who compiled three books of the Bible, and made Israel wealthy and grand. But in his old age he turned from God, and so Solomon’s legacy will be mixed. A legacy of wisdom tainted by his sin that will tear Israel apart.

Solomon the Wise

Icebreaker question: If you could ask God for anything—anything!—and know he would grant it, what would it be?

When we last left off, David had died and Solomon, his son with Bathsheba was made King of Israel. When David became king it was a kingdom in turmoil, one that was coming fresh off a civil war. But David spent his entire time as king making a united Israel, and he succeeded! So when Solomon became king it was the king of an already united and prosperous Israel.

Today we’re going to study Solomon and the success and failure of his time as king. So go get your Bibles and open them up to 1 Kings.

Someone please read 1 Kings 3:1-2.

3 Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt; he took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David, until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem. 2 The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the Lord.

This seems like really random two verses to start off the story of Solomon as king, but these verses show how amazing Israel has become, Egypt was the superpower of the ancient world. What does that mean: superpower? Well that word was developed during the Cold War to explain the amount of power that the United States and the Soviet Union had. Basically, the United States and the Soviet Union were the two most influential countries in the world, and their influence stretched into almost every country in the world. That was Egypt back in this time period. A huge united nation whose influence extended to every nation or people group on the Mediterranean.

For the Pharaoh of Egypt to make a marriage alliance with Israel, basically means that Egypt was recognizing Israel—not as an equal but as a somebody. Whereas before Israel was a nobody, not worthy of recognition on the international scale. Now Israel was worthy of making alliances with. So this was basically a sign that Israel was a player—not a powerful player, but a moderate player in this ancient world.

For now someone please read 1 Kings 3:3-9.

3 Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David; only, he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places. 4 The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask what I should give you.” 6 And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. 7 And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. 9 Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?”

At this point, Solomon is definitely not falling prey to idolatry—that is the worship of other gods—and he loves God and worships him and wants to be a good and godly man like his father David. Solomon goes to a holy place to worship and sacrifice and while he’s there, God appears to him! And then God says that Solomon can ask for whatever he wants, anything, and God will give it to him.

Imagine that! I asked you guys this at the beginning of the class, if you could ask God anything what would you ask for. When faced with a question like this, some people ask for stuff—like money or a house or some item they’ve wanted their whole lives. Some people ask for status, like fame or power. Some people ask for things like happiness and contentment and even faithfulness.

Solomon could ask for anything: the security of Israel, his own personal happiness, health, wealth, anything. And what does he ask for?

An understanding mind that is able to discern between good and evil. In simpler terms, he asks for wisdom.

It can be confusing to understanding what exactly wisdom is. Solomon calls it an understanding mind with the ability to discern between good and evil. From that we can see that wisdom is more than just knowing stuff. It’s the ability to discern.

There’s a saying that you may have heard: “Knowledge is knotting that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”

That’s what Solomon wants. He wants to make good choices, so he can be a better leader for his people. Frankly, the request for wisdom is an incredibly wise choice.

Someone please read 1 Kings 3:10-14.

10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11 God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12 I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. 13 I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you. 14 If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life.”

Solomon’s request for wisdom pleases God, because Solomon could have asked for any selfish thing he wanted—health, wealth, the death of his enemies, and instead he asks for something more esoteric—wisdom—but something that will help him both be a better king and a better follower of God. So God grants it to him.

Solomon’s wisdom is then almost immediately put to the test. Someone please read 1 Kings 3:16-22.

16 Later, two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 The one woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth while she was in the house. 18 Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were together; there was no one else with us in the house, only the two of us were in the house. 19 Then this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him. 20 She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant slept. She laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast. 21 When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, I saw that he was dead; but when I looked at him closely in the morning, clearly it was not the son I had borne.” 22 But the other woman said, “No, the living son is mine, and the dead son is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead son is yours, and the living son is mine.” So they argued before the king.

Two women come to the king for judgement. The Bible says they are prostitutes which is important to the situation for two reasons. (1) Their fight is over who should have custody of this baby. Since they are prostitutes, they have no husbands. So the baby is illegitimate and has no father to fight for the custody of the baby. But we’ve also talked about how women were not considered reliable witnesses during this time. So if one of them was a married woman with a husband making a claim against an unmarried woman? The married woman would probably just automatically win because her husband’s testimony would hold greater wait than the testimony of either woman. Which is terrible but the way it was back then. The second reason why this is important is because they were prostitutes working in the same house and gave birth at the same time. There were no hospitals back then. So if these women were part of standard families, they would have just given birth at home. This minimizes your switched at birth scenario, because you would probably be the only one giving birth in your home. Instead they gave birth in their home which also happens to be their place of work, where they both live and work.

So they both give birth on the same night. One woman’s child dies and the other lived. One woman claims her baby lived and the others died, but the other woman got up in the middle of the night and switched the living baby with the dead baby, essentially stealing the living baby.

The other woman says that didn’t happen, and the first woman is just suffering a delusion from her trauma of losing a baby.

This is a hard situation to figure it out. It’s not like they had genetic tests back then. And no one saw what happened. So how does this wise king decide which woman should get to keep this baby? Well let’s see, someone read 1 Kings 3:23-28.

23 Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; while the other says, ‘Not so! Your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’” 24 So the king said, “Bring me a sword,” and they brought a sword before the king. 25 The king said, “Divide the living boy in two; then give half to the one, and half to the other.” 26 But the woman whose son was alive said to the king—because compassion for her son burned within her—“Please, my lord, give her the living boy; certainly do not kill him!” The other said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it.” 27 Then the king responded: “Give the first woman the living boy; do not kill him. She is his mother.” 28 All Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered; and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him, to execute justice.

Basically Solomon is like “This is a she-said she-said situation!” With no extra witnesses there is no way to validate which woman is right. So he goes for a drastic method. He says he will cut the baby in two and give each woman half—basically killing the baby.

But the woman whose son it actually is doesn’t want her baby to die! So she says “No, give the other woman the baby, as long as he lives!” And the other woman is like “meh.” And Solomon says that it is obviously the woman who is willing to give up her son that he may live who is the mother, because she loved him so dearly she would give him up rather than he die. Whereas the other woman was like “whatever, just kill him.” Which seems really awful, but you have to remember this other woman already lost her baby. And she sees the first woman with a baby, a baby she wants, and she’s probably really upset and in a dark place and thinking awful thoughts like “Rather none of us have him than the other woman rub her happiness in my face.”

So Solomon wisely decides that the woman who offered to give up her baby is the true mother, and gives the baby to that woman.

And word of this decision spreads everywhere and people are amazed at the King’s ability to make these sort of really hard decisions.

Someone please read 1 Kings 4:20-28.

20 Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea; they ate and drank and were happy. 21 Solomon was sovereign over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines, even to the border of Egypt; they brought tribute and served Solomon all the days of his life.

22 Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty cors of choice flour, and sixty cors of meal, 23 ten fat oxen, and twenty pasture-fed cattle, one hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl. 24 For he had dominion over all the region west of the Euphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza, over all the kings west of the Euphrates; and he had peace on all sides. 25 During Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, all of them under their vines and fig trees. 26 Solomon also had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. 27 Those officials supplied provisions for King Solomon and for all who came to King Solomon’s table, each one in his month; they let nothing be lacking. 28 They also brought to the required place barley and straw for the horses and swift steeds, each according to his charge.

The whole point of this section is that Israel is doing extremely well under Solomon. Their population is increasing because they have food and are happy and for once aren’t worrying about being attacked by the Philistines or the Egyptians or anyone. This is a first for Israel, it really is. To be this prosperous and to live without fear and to flourish! It’s remarkable.

Someone please read 1 Kings 4:29-34.

29 God gave Solomon very great wisdom, discernment, and breadth of understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore, 30 so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 He was wiser than anyone else, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, children of Mahol; his fame spread throughout all the surrounding nations. 32 He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five. 33 He would speak of trees, from the cedar that is in the Lebanon to the hyssop that grows in the wall; he would speak of animals, and birds, and reptiles, and fish. 34 People came from all the nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon; they came from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

Solomon’s wisdom surpasses the wisdom of everyone else in the ancient world, and people come from far and wide to hear Solomon’s wisdom. In fact Solomon is so wise that tradition holds that Solomon either wrote or compiled the book of Proverbs, and the book of Ecclesiastes, and the book Song of Solomon. That’s at least three books of the Bible, which is really impressive.

Things are on the up and up for Solomon and Israel.

Now a little bit of a tangent, I’m about to need you guys to flip ahead away from Kings to 2 Chronicles. I want to have a little aside here about Samuel and Kings versus Chronicles.

1 and 2 Chronicles tells the same story as 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. Instead of covering it in four books of the Bible, it’s a little denser and covers it in two. But why? Do we really need a second set of books that describes Saul becoming King and then David and then Solomon and then all the chaos that follows? Why do we have these two different sequences that describe the same sequence of events?

Well, these books of the Bible were not written at the same time. Samuel and Kings were written a lot closer to the actual events that they’re describing. Chronicles was written much later. In fact, while in the Christian ordering of the Bible Chronicles comes right after Kings, the Jewish Bible actually places 1 and 2 Chronicles as the last two books. And I actually prefer the Jewish order. When Christians read the Bible they’re like “ugh, I have to read everything that just happened all over again? Lame.” But that’s not what’s happening here.

We’ve talked about how God promised David that his line would sit on Israel’s throne forever. We’ve talked about how that didn’t happen, at least it didn’t manifest in the way they thought it would. When Samuel and Kings were written, the idea of a son of David getting on the throne of Israel was still a reasonable thing. Israel could still come back and be a nation again with a Davidic King.

When Chronicles was written it was after the exile, a people who had no king anymore. A people who had been exiled and felt like God had left them.

Samuel/Kings and Chronicles are written from vastly different perspectives. And because they have different perspectives they emphasize different things.

It’s amazing how you can change a story’s meaning by emphasizing different things, by leaving some things out and stressing a particular section. You guys may have heard of “bad descriptions of movies.” This is a perfect example.

What movie am I describing? “A girl travels to a strange land, kills the first person she encounters and then gangs up with three strangers to kill her first victim’s sister.”

[Let them answer.]

The Wizard of Oz.

Nothing I said was untrue. Dorothy travels to a strange land, her house lands on the Wicked Witch of the East, killing her, and then she makes friends with the cowardly lion, the scarecrow, and the tin man. And then in the end she kills the Wicked Witch of the West. I described the same sequence of events, but with my word choice I made it more sinister.

For a more historical example, you can take the example of the American Revolution and the Founding fathers. There are a ridiculous amount of books and documentaries about the Founding Fathers, all based on the same facts. But depending on which one you read, you get a very different perspective. In the HBO documentary about John Adams, Alexander Hamilton is viewed as so unimportant he’s only ever shown as writing in the background at Washington’s secretary desk. Other than that he’s never addressed, because from John Adams perspective Hamilton was a pretender and didn’t deserve a single ounce of credit.

From the perspective of the musical Hamilton—and the biography it’s based on—Alexander Hamilton might as well have singlehandedly founded America.

These are the same sequence events. These are the same story. But told from different perspectives and emphasizing different aspects of it.

Chronicles was written for a different audience and a different purpose than Samuel and Kings. Samuel and Kings is talking about recent history to people who remember or know this recent history. Samuel and Kings are trying to explain why God’s people—after generations of ruling themselves and having kings, went into exile. Chronicles is trying to explain that there is still hope, that God hasn’t abandoned them, even though it seems like they will never go back to a Davidic kingdom ever again.

That’s actually why I think ending on Chronicles would be so powerful for Christians, instead of reading them right in order. Because then we are reminded right before we might Jesus of the promise God made David, and then we see immediately how God fulfills that promise through Jesus!

But for whatever reason the people who decided how to order the Bible decided they wanted all the histories right in a row, and putting Chronicles last didn’t fit with that.

But back to Solomon and his super duper impressive wisdom. Someone flip to 2 Chronicles 9:1-9.

9 When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions, having a very great retinue and camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she discussed with him all that was on her mind. 2 Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from Solomon that he could not explain to her. 3 When the queen of Sheba had observed the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, 4 the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, and their clothing, his valets, and their clothing, and his burnt offerings[a] that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit left in her.

 So she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your accomplishments and of your wisdom, 6 but I did not believe the[b] reports until I came and my own eyes saw it. Not even half of the greatness of your wisdom had been told to me; you far surpass the report that I had heard. 7 Happy are your people! Happy are these your servants, who continually attend you and hear your wisdom! 8 Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on his throne as king for the Lord your God. Because your God loved Israel and would establish them forever, he has made you king over them, that you may execute justice and righteousness.” 9 Then she gave the king one hundred twenty talents of gold, a very great quantity of spices, and precious stones: there were no spices such as those that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

Solomon is so famous for his wisdom that a foreign Queen comes to see him and test him with really hard questions. When she comes, Solomon is able to answer every question she has. And she is crazy impressed. She is so impressed that she gives him expensive gifts of gold, spices, and jewels.

But more than that she credits his wisdom to his God, and is basically like “your God must be amazing for you to be so amazing.”

So Solomon’s amazing wisdom is not just about magnifying himself and Israel, it’s about magnifying God.

Next week we’re going to continue discussing Solomon. We’re going to see how he further magnifies God by building him a temple, but also how Solomon lets his weaknesses get the best of him.