“Sin Is A Boomerang” 1 Kings 11:9-43 14 July 2019

It’s good to be back in the pulpit, good to be back in 1 Kings again, opening up God’s word with y’all. So open up your Bibles, or phones, to 1 Kings chapter 11. And while you’re doing that, let tell you that I had a marvelous vacation in Texas and Oklahoma. I took of a few of our kids and we visited family and I also got to eat the “Big Cat Sandwich” at Heim BBQ like I planned. It was glorious. In you’re ever in the DFW area, you need to visit this place. Actually, if you’re ever near Texas, you need to eat at Heim BBQ.

So, I’ve been gone, and maybe you’re new to Grace in the past few weeks. Maybe I haven’t met you yet. So please introduce yourself after the service. And if you are relatively new to Grace, let me extend a welcome to you, from this church family:

We extend a special welcome to those who are single, married, divorced, filthy rich, dirt poor, y no habla Ingles. We extend a special welcome to those who are crying newborns, skinny as a rail, or could afford to lose a few pounds. We welcome you if you can sing like Andrea Bocelli, or like our pastor, who can’t carry a note in a bucket. You’re welcome here if you’re “just browsing,” just woke up, or just got out of jail…

We extend a special welcome to those who are over sixty but not grown up yet, and to teenagers who are growing up too fast. We welcome soccer moms, NASCAR dads, starving artists, tree-huggers, latte- sippers, vegetarians, junk-food eaters. We welcome those who are in recovery or are still addicted. We welcome you if you’re having problems, or you’re down in the dumps, or if you don’t like “organized religion” (we’ve been there, too). If you blew all your offering money at the dog track, you’re welcome here…

We welcome those who are inked, pierced, or both. We offer a special welcome to those who could use a prayer right now, had religion shoved down your throat as a kid, or got lost in traffic and wound up here by mistake…

We welcome tourists, seekers, doubters, bleeding hearts… and you.

You are welcome here in this church. We hope that you find Grace to be a place where you can heal up if you’ve been beaten up by churches, if you’ve beaten up by religion. We want this church to be “green pastures” and “still waters” for you. A place of rest. We have prayed diligently for the Holy Spirit to help us create a Gospel culture of “Gospel + safety + time” here at Grace.

That’s what we’re aiming for here. We want this church to be a safe place for disciples who feel like failures. Where they hear good news every single week.

We’re going to be looking today at how Solomon totally messed up his life because of his sin. So do we hate sin? Yes! Absolutely! In this church family, do we take serious the Bible’s call to “put to death what is earthly in you” (Colossians 3:5)? Yes! Do we take serious Paul’s admonition to “Let not sin reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions” (Romans 6:12)? Yes!

But when we totally blow it like Solomon in 1 Kings 11, what we need is a safe place to hear the Gospel again and again. Not shame. Not guilt. We need the Gospel.

When the Gospel- which is good news for bad people- when it is the main focus of a church, it creates the Gospel culture that the church needs. It’s creates environment of freedom. When the Gospel is the main thing of all our ministries, it helps create this kind of culture where Jesus is worshipped and adored, where sins are confessed, where relationships are reconciled, where money is no longer king, where the races come together in unity, where laughter and dancing is normal. That’s what the Gospel does because the Gospel is the power of God. We want Grace to be a place where laughter and dancing is the norm. How ‘bout that?

In this kind of Gospel environment, people feel free and safe enough to admit their real problems. In a church like this, openness is normal. Forgiveness is normal.

And I hope you feel that here at Grace. You are welcome here.

And I don’t want any of us to mess up our lives. Who wants to mess up their life? Not me! And that’s why God has littered His word with warnings. And what we’ll see today as we look at Solomon, is this sobering reality about the nature of indwelling sin. And it’s this-

SIN IS A BOOMERANG.

That’s what Alec Motyer said. He said, “Sin itself is a boomerang… This is the way sin ‘works’: it has a boomerang quality as if it were a living agent in its own right.”

Sin is like a boomerang. It always comes back. It always comes back to haunt you. And it came back to Solomon. Big time.

LOOK AT VERSE 9… And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the LORD commanded. Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.”

You should hear the “shock” in the tone of verse 9: Solomon, a sinner, turned away from , who had been so good to Him. Yahweh- that’s God’s covenant name on the Hebrew language- Yahweh, this holy, different, infinite, “other” God appeared to Solomon not once, but twice! 2x God appeared to Solomon and had a conversation with him! Wow! I don’t know about you, but that has never happened to me once. The only time I have ever heard God speak to me was when I opened up the Bible to read His word.

So we’re supposed to feel the shock in verse 9. God spoke to Solomon 2x! He appeared to Solomon 2x! And Yahweh didn’t just speak to Solomon- He warned him. He warned him about not worshipping other gods. He warned him about letting his heart drift. And sadly, that is exactly what happened to Solomon. He let his heart drift, and as we saw a few weeks ago in vv. 1-8, he worshipped other gods- the gods of his many wives.

And now we have Yahweh appearing to Solomon to speak with him a 3rd time! But this time, it is not good news. This time, Yahweh shows up with a few consequences in His hands. And here’s why: those sobering words that Yahweh speaks in verse 11-

“Since this has been your practice…”

It wasn’t that Solomon “church shopped” these altars of false gods. He built them! And he worshipped at them! He worshipped these gods through sacred prostitution. He worshipped these gods through child sacrifice. He built Planned Parenthood buildings for his wives so that they could offer children as a sacrifice to their gods. And this was Solomon’s practice. He was a faithful “church member” at these false shrines and altars. He was actively involved.

Put simply, Solomon didn’t keep the First Commandment. He didn’t worship Yahweh exclusively. So this is just First Commandment business… which is everything. “You shall have no other gods before me” is not a suggestion for us. Jesus means it.

We live in a world where even Christians believe that the First Commandment is optional. We live in a world where even Christians think that they don’t have to obey the 10 Commandments. A world where people want to “unhitch” the church from the Old Testament.

Listen, God has no patience for this kind of stuff. God is not willing to negotiate in this. He won’t negotiate on this. Don’t be tricked by any pastor or author who tells you that obeying the 10 Commandments is optional. That’s what Solomon thought. And we’re about to find out where it got him.

Sure, you can choose to worship the god of your own creativity. You can fashion him all you want. You can cater him to be all that you want him to be. You can say that you don’t want to be hitched to such outdated, ancient ideas about Jesus. But it won’t be the god of the Bible that you worship. You can build all the shrines and altars that you want, you can come up with your own ideas about God, but you might end up damning your family for generations.

Let me say that again: You can build all the shrines and altars that you want, you can come up with your own ideas about God, but you might end up damning your family for generations.

You can end up like Solomon. He exasperated the Lord. He tested the Lord’s patience.

And yet, we see that word “yet” in verse 12. “Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days…” The “yet” in verse 12 shows us just how merciful Jesus is! For the sake of David, Solomon’s father, the tearing away of the kingdom would happen with one of Solomon’s sons. But, and the “but” follows the “yet”- but Solomon still has consequences to his sins. The Lord raises up adversaries against Solomon. 3 of them, in fact. Let’s briefly look at each one in order. First up is .

LOOK AT VERSE 14… And the LORD raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite. He was of the royal house in Edom. For when David was in Edom, and Joab the commander of the army went up to bury the slain, he struck down every male in Edom (for Joab and all Israel remained there six months, until he had cut off every male in Edom). But Hadad fled to Egypt, together with certain Edomites of his father's servants, Hadad still being a little child. They set out from Midian and came to Paran and took men with them from Paran and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave him a house and assigned him an allowance of food and gave him land. And Hadad found great favor in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him in marriage the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen. And the sister of Tahpenes bore him Genubath his son, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh's house. And Genubath was in Pharaoh's house among the sons of Pharaoh. But when Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers and that Joab the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, “Let me depart, that I may go to my own country.” But Pharaoh said to him, “What have you lacked with me that you are now seeking to go to your own country?” And he said to him, “Only let me depart.”

Hadad had been on the run and was hiding out in Egypt. When David’s right hand man, Joab, started killing all the Edomites, Hadad was rushed off into hiding. And he eventually ended up in Egypt and found favor in Pharaoh’s eyes, even marrying Pharaoh’s sister-in-law. But when Hadad heard that David had died, he wanted to go back home to Edom.

And as he was unpacking the moving van, the Lord raised him up to be an adversary to King Solomon. As Hadad was settling into his new home, getting to know his new neighbors, the Lord handpicked him to be a thorn in Solomon’s side. God picked a pagan man, Pharaoh’s brother-in-law, to be a thorn in Solomon’s side, because Solomon had turned away from the Lord. God did this. God. Did. This.

So the Lord is not all warm and fuzzy like we want to make Him out to be. The text tells us that the Lord raised up Hadad as an adversary against Solomon. The modern man reads this and thinks, “Who does Yahweh think He is? Raising up an adversary against Solomon? I thought Jesus was a soft push-over? That’s not very loving Jesus! I don’t think I like you now, Jesus. Please give me back my toys. I’m going home.”

That’s how our culture views Jesus once they realize that He’s serious about the First Commandment and that He might be so serious about it that He raises up adversaries against you. The God of the Bible simply won’t be boxed in by cultural preferences. Sorry, not sorry.

Our culture cannot figure out why Jesus demands exclusive worship. They can’t figure out why Jesus gets worked up over idolatry. They have no category for a God like this. And these days, it’s even crept into the church. Be very careful of any preacher or teacher who says that Jesus turns a blind eye to your sin. He certainly didn’t turn a blind eye to Solomon’s sin.

Solomon is learning through Hadad that-

SIN IS A BOOMERANG.

Solomon is learning that sin itself is a boomerang. It comes back to haunt you. Solomon is learning that this is the way sin ‘works.’ He’s learning that sin has a boomerang quality as if it were a living agent in its own right.

And as we’ll see next, Solomon will have another boomerang come into his life when the Lord also raises up Rezon.

LOOK AT VERSE 23… God also raised up as an adversary to him, Rezon the son of Eliada, who had fled from his master Hadadezer king of Zobah. And he gathered men about him and became leader of a marauding band, after the killing by David. And they went to Damascus and lived there and made him king in Damascus. He was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon, doing harm as Hadad did. And he loathed Israel and reigned over .

Wow! The audacity of Yahweh! How dare He do what verse 23 says He did! “God raised up as an adversary…” Those words have shattered many an opinion of Jesus. Everyone loves Jesus until He raises up an adversary! Everyone loves Jesus until he allows a marauding band to do you harm. Everyone loves Jesus until He raises up an adversary who loathes you all the days of your life.

Let’s pause and remember who the original audience of 1 Kings is. God’s people were in exile in Babylon, living as slaves because of their sin, because they turned away, just like Solomon, and worshipped other gods. Would they read this text and not see where their sin had led them? Would they read this story of Solomon and not be led to repentance? Would you hear this text today and be led to repentance? That’s why it’s in the Bible.

Well, Jesus is gonna make more people mad, because He’s not done with all this “raising up adversaries” business. He’s got one more coming Solomon’s way.

LOOK AT VERSE 26… Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, a servant of Solomon, whose mother's name was Zeruah, a widow, also lifted up his hand against the king. And this was the reason why he lifted up his hand against the king. Solomon built the Millo, and closed up the breach of the city of David his father. 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. And at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Now Ahijah had dressed himself in a new garment, and the two of them were alone in the open country. Then Ahijah laid hold of the new garment that was on him, and tore it into twelve pieces. And he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon and will give you ten tribes (but he shall have one tribe, 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), because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the Ammonites, and they have not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight and keeping my statutes and my rules, as David his father did. Nevertheless, I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him ruler all the days of his life, for the sake of David my servant whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my statutes. But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand and will give it to you, ten tribes. Yet to his son I will give one tribe, that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put my name. And I will take you, and you shall reign over all that your soul desires, and you shall be king over Israel. And if you will listen to all that I command you, and will walk in my ways, and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, I will be with you and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you. And I will afflict the offspring of David because of this, but not forever.’” Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled into Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the Book of the Acts of Solomon? And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. And Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.

So Solomon has a good employee named Jeroboam. And one day Jeroboam is out walking in the field and the prophet Ahijah shows up wearing some new clothes. And suddenly, Ahijah just starts go all Hulk Hogan on his robe and he starts rippin’ his new clothes into 12 pieces. Then Ahijah tells Jeroboam to take 10 strips of his clothes. And Ahijah tells Jeroboam that the Lord is going to give him 10 tribes of Israel that he will rule over as king. And just like Solomon, the Lord warned Jeroboam against walking away and serving other gods like Solomon did.

And then, once word got out on Facebook that Jeroboam was going to get 10 tribes to rule over, Solomon put a hit out on Jeroboam. Solomon tried to have Jeroboam killed, but Jeroboam escaped to Egypt.

But why did the Lord create this start up company called “Adversary Raisers”? 1) Because He loved Solomon 2) Because Solomon can’t escape consequences. 3) Because the theology of Revelation chapter 3 is the theology of 1 Kings 11-

Revelation 3:19-20 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Listen, you can choose your sin, but you can’t choose your consequences. God will still love you, but you can’t choose the consequences that come into your life because of your sin.

That’s just reality. Of course, we can be and we are forgiven of our sins. Thank God! We are forgiven, no matter how heinous our sins. The sins that we can’t seem to forget, Jesus can’t remember! That’s the Gospel! But that doesn’t mean that there are no consequences to forgiven sins.

What happens in Vegas doesn’t necessarily stay in Vegas. It may follow you home. What happens in Jerusalem doesn’t stay in Jerusalem. What happens at the shrines and altars of Ashtoreth, Molech, and Chemosh don’t stay at the shrines and altars of Ashtoreth, Molech, and Chemosh.

Don’t believe that lie about Las Vegas. 1 Kings 11 is in the Bible to remind you that that is a lie. 1 Kings 11 should be posted on billboards as you drive away from Vegas. Or, as you drive away from the altar of Molech.

Yes, the Gospel is true. For those of us who are trusting in Jesus alone, then His cross satisfied the condemning wrath of God against us and our sins. And now, as His children, we live in the perpetual favor and unabated delight of our Heavenly Father, forever. That is settled. It is finished. But Revelation 3 also reminds us that, precisely because we are God’s beloved children, He will discipline us. Our justification- that we are declared righteous- and our adoption as His children are not at stake. That was settled at the cross, once and for all. The sins that we can’t seem to forget, Jesus can’t remember!

But now, when God disciplines us, He is deepening us in our sanctification. He’s transforming us into His image, and sometimes that includes painful disciplines. Listen, if God never disciplined us, if He never let us experience consequences, could we even trust His heart? Good fathers and good mothers discipline their children and give them consequences. So when God does this with us, He is really connecting with us as our Father. He’s loving us in that moment. If He never let us experience consequences, could we even trust His heart?

Your Heavenly Father put 1 Kings 11 in your Bible to lovingly remind you of this universal truth-

SIN IS A BOOMERANG.

1 Kings 11 is in the Bible so that you would be reminded that sin itself is a boomerang, so that you and I would be reminded that this is the way sin ‘works.’ So that we would trust our Heavenly Father and believe again that sin has a boomerang quality, as if it were a living agent in its own right. So that we would learn that to despise the Lord’s commandments is to despise the Lord who gives the commandments!

And who wants to despise Jesus? Not me! Jesus has every right to make demands of me. He made me. And He’s been so good to me. He lived a perfect life for. For me. He died a perfect death for me. For me. He has been nothing but good to me! Nothing but good!

And when He makes demands of me, it’s all for my good. It’s not to make me miserable. In making demands of me, in making exclusive claims on my life, Jesus is trying to help me not ruin my life! He knows what is best for me. Not me. When Jesus makes demands of me, He does it to make me happy! He does it so that I will walk in freedom. He does it so that laughter and dancing will be the norm in my life.

Listen, Jesus loves us so much that He tells us what our life will be like if we despise Him and His word.

Jesus tells it like it is. You have to appreciate that about Him. He’s upfront about everything. He doesn’t leave us in the dark. He lays it all out on the table. He shows us all of His cards. We can know exactly where we stand with Him. No guessing. No wondering what His expectations are. He has laid it all out and given us a book that is full of verses that tell us what He’s like, how His world works, what He expects of us, and how we can seriously mess up our lives if we walk down the wrong path.

How kind of Him! Think about that! How kind of Jesus to be so upfront with us!

But Jesus tells us what He’s like and what He expects of us. No secrets. No guesswork. If we trust Him, He will save us, He bless us. But if we refuse him, He will discipline us. He would rather save and bless, by the way. He would rather bless our socks off! I hope you understanding of Jesus is that He would rather bless us. Like, His knee-jerk reaction is to bless people. But, He will discipline if need be.

Listen, God will not sit back and endorse our stupidity. I don’t know about you, but I love that about Jesus! He will not sit back and endorse our stupidity! If we are dumb enough to chase after other gods, He will not sit back and not get involved. He will faithfully chase after His unfaithful Bride.

And isn’t that what you want in God? Don’t you want a God who doesn’t leave you to yourself? Don’t you want a God who doesn’t support your stupidity? Don’t you want a God who goes looking for you when you have run away? That’s what He is doing with Solomon.

Jesus is upfront and tells us what danger lies ahead if we refuse Him. We see this all through the Bible. You can have all the money in the world, you can have the best career doing what you love and getting paid for it, you can have it all, but if you get it wrong concerning the First Commandment, you’ll ruin your life. And you might find yourself smelling like sulfur and smoke for all eternity. And I don’t want that for any of you.

If you don’t know Jesus, why not turn to Him today and fix your First Commandment problem? And if you are already a Christian, your salvation is not at stake, but you can really mess up your life by taking the First Commandment lightly.

Listen. Let me tell you something about you that might shock you: You are capable of failing in a way that is absolutely unthinkable to you right now. Let me repeat that: You are capable of failing in a way that is absolutely unthinkable to you right now. Jesus knows this. And that’s why He appeared to Jeroboam and warned him. That’s why he appeared to Solomon twice to warn Him. Solomon thought that there was no way he would walk away from the Lord. Every person who has ever walked away from Jesus, at some point in their walk, thought that they would never walk away from Him, never deny Him.

Ask yourself this morning: Am I on a slippery slope right now toward ruining my life because I have lost my first love? Not losing your salvation. We don’t believe that here at Grace. We don’t think that you can lose your salvation. But we do believe that you can seriously mess up your life if you walk away from the Lord and let your heart drift.

Ask yourself this morning: Am I on a slippery slope right now toward ruining my life because I have lost my first love? Again, not that God will pour His anger out on you, Christian. He won’t. He poured all of His wrath and anger out on Jesus on the cross for your sins. The penalty for your sin has been paid. But God does discipline His children…because He loves them!

So you can’t lose your salvation, but you sure can mess up and ruin your life, your marriage, your family, your job, etc if you let your heart slip, if you aren’t vigilant about guarding your heart.

If your heart is cold to the Lord this morning, please understand that He loves you so much. He’s calling out to you today through this sermon, and through His word, to stop what you’re doing and come back home. He doesn’t want you to ruin your life. So He’s calling out to you today. Don’t ruin your life. Don’t ruin your marriage. Don’t ruin your family. It’s easier to turn around right now than it is after you are drowning in the quicksand of consequences.

You might be just falling into the quicksand. You might be halfway in the quicksand this morning. Reach out to Jesus now. Repent. Come back to your first love. And hear these words from Iain Duguid as we close-

Let us bring this closer to home. For Israel is not the only one who has been gloriously loved by God and then proved spectacularly unfaithful…We have turned our backs on the God who gave us life and breath, choosing to pursue our idols instead… (but) The Lord does the same thing with us… that he did with Old Testament Israel. He pursues us out in the wilderness of our own making, where we end up cold, naked, isolated, and alone, drowning in shame, abandoned by the very things in which we put our trust. There, he calls us to come back to him. He wants you to know that even while your heart has been cold and hard toward him, his heart has remained dizzyingly, dazzlingly set on you. While you have been saying, “Wow! You are beautiful!” to all kinds of ugly substitutes, he still looks at you and says, “Wow! You are beautiful. You are a lily among the thorns. You are one of a kind, and I still love you.” Even while you are running away, his loving heart still pursues you wherever you go. (Song of Songs, p.37)

Jesus wants you to know today that even when your heart is cold and hard towards Him, His heart remains dizzyingly, dazzlingly set on you. Man, that’s good news! When our hearts grow cold and distant, Jesus’ heart remains set on us. Warm, tender affections remain. That makes repentance sweet. When you see Jesus as the faithful one who continues to love you when you are unfaithful, that makes repentance sweet.

What say we all repent today? That seems like an appropriate response to this passage in God’s word. Let’s do that now, shall we?

“Sin Is A Boomerang” 1 Kings 11:9-43 Sermon Study Questions

1. Do you feel like Grace has a Gospel culture of “Gospel + safety + time,” where you feel free to confess your sins and struggles? Has this been your church experience throughout your life?

2. Discuss this thought from the sermon:

The God of the Bible simply won’t be boxed in by cultural preferences. Sorry, not sorry. Our culture cannot figure out why Jesus demands exclusive worship. They can’t figure out why Jesus gets worked up over idolatry. They have no category for a God like this. And these days, it’s even crept into the church. Be very careful of any preacher or teacher who says that Jesus turns a blind eye to your sin. He certainly didn’t turn a blind eye to Solomon’s sin.

3. Discuss this thought from the sermon:

Let me tell you something about you that might shock you: You are capable of failing in a way that is absolutely unthinkable to you right now. Jesus knows this. And that’s why He appeared to Jeroboam and warned him. That’s why he appeared to Solomon twice to warn Him. Solomon thought that there was no way he would walk away from the Lord. Every person who has ever walked away from Jesus, at some point in their walk, thought that they would never walk away from Him, never deny Him.

Why is it important to have a Gospel culture at church where you can express your struggles? Would people be shocked by what you struggle with? Why is it important to be open with one another?

4. Discuss what Alec Motyer said: “Sin itself is a boomerang…This is the way sin ‘works’: it has a boomerang quality as if it were a living agent in its own right.”