Sat.’s Devo - The Fall of Solomon

Read: 1 Kings 11:1-12:19; Acts 9:1-25; Psalm 131:1-3; Proverbs 17:4-5 Solomon disobeyed the Lord’s command not to marry women who were not from Israel. He married the daughter of the Pharaoh of Egypt, and women from the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites. They turned his heart away from the Lord and had him worship and build temples to their gods. *** The Lord became very angry with Solomon and told him that since he had not stayed true to the Lord, He would tear the kingdom from him and given it to one of his servants. God would not do it in his lifetime for David’s sake. He will save one tribe to follow his son, but the rest of Israel will be ruled by one of his servants. *** God also raised up three adversaries against Israel. One was Hadad the Edomite who had fled to Egypt when Israel’s army killed all the male in Edom. Hadad prospered in Egypt and when he heard that Solomon had died, he came back to Israel to cause trouble. *** The second adversary was Rezon who had fled from his master Hadadezer king of Zobah. He had many men who followed him to Damascus where he became king of Syria. He also hated Israel and wanted to do it harm. *** Jereboam was the third adversary. He had proved to Solomon that he was a great leader and a very hard worker when Solomon was building the Millo. Solomon promoted him to be in charge over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph. One day, when Jereboam left Jerusalem he was met by Ahijah the prophet. Ahijah took his robe he was wearing and ripped it into 12 parts and told Jereboam to take 10 of the pieces. He would rule 10 tribes of Israel because Solomon had gone after strange gods and stopped walking in his ways. He would leave one tribe for Solomon’s son to rule. If Jereboam would listen to the Lord and walk in his ways and do what is right, God would establish his name and his posterity. God would afflict the offspring of David, but not forever. *** Solomon must have heard of the prophecy because he sought to kill Jereboam who flee to Egypt until Solomon died. *** Solomon died and was buried in the city of David and Rehoboam, his son reigned in his place. He went to Shechem to be crowned the king. Jereboam heard about it and came to the celebration. *** Jereboam led a bunch of men to ask Rehoboam what kind of king would he be. Would he be a hard taskmaster like his father was or would he remove his yoke from the people. Rehoboam told him he would give them an answer in three days. *** Rehoboam went to his father’s counselors and asked them how he should answer them. They advised him to be a servant to the people and they would love and serve him forever. Great advice! *** Then Rehobaom went to his peers and asked them what he should do. They told him to tell the people that he would be even harder on them than his father was. *** Three days later, Rehoboam forsake the counsel of his elders and chose the counsel of his peers. He told them he would be harder than his father was and discipline them with scorpions. Needless to say, they abandoned him and the house of David. Rehoboam sent his taskmaster over his forced labor to get them in order, but they stoned him. Now it was King Rehoboam who fled. He went back to Jerusalem. *** In Acts, Saul was out arresting anyone he could find who followed the Way. He came to Damascus and was stopped by a light from heaven. He fell to the ground and heard the Lord asking him why he was persecuting him. Saul asked him who he was. He answered that he was Jesus, the one he was persecuting. Jesus told him to get up and go into the city and he would tell him what to do. The men with him heard the same thing. Saul was left blind with his eyes open. They had to lead him by the hand to Damascus where he couldn’t see for three days. Neither did he eat anything. *** Ananias, a follower of Christ lived in Damascus and the Lord gave him a vision where he told him to go the street called Straight and find Judas’ house. There was a man from Tarsus named Saul. He would find him praying. *** Ananias had heard about Saul and tried to argue with the Lord, but God told him that Saul was chosen by him to carry his name to the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. He will suffer much for his sake. So Ananias obeyed and found Saul. He laid his hands on him and told him that the Lord Jesus who had appeared to him on the road had sent him to pray that he would regain his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately the scales fell from Saul’s eyes and he could see. He was baptized and ate. *** Saul stayed with the disciples for days and went to the synagogue and proclaimed that Jesus was the Son of God. Everyone was amazed because they knew who he was. Some didn’t trust him, but as Saul grew in the Lord he proved to many that Jesus was the Christ. *** Jews who didn’t confess Christ, planned to kill Saul, but he found out and escaped through an opening in the wall of the city at night. *** The change in Saul was immediate and powerful. We are about to witness many who will have just as powerful of conversions. God is going to shake the heavens and the earth. It will be glorious. *** Lord, may we not be afraid when we see the death of the wicked and the shaking of the earth. May we rejoice to see your hand moving on the earth in power. May we have an answer to the hope we have.