VERSES: 1 Kings 11:1-43
MEMORY VERSE: Revelation 2:10 "...be thou faithful until death and I will give thee a crown of life."
BOOK TO REMEMBER: Nehemiah. Write "Nehemiah" on small slips of paper and hand out at the end of class.
PRAYER: Pray that we will ever treasure God's Word and always live close to him, obeying His commandments, and loving Him always.
SPECIAL SONG: Read, Read Every Day (see February - Songs We Sing In Bible Class #1 on this blog), The Family In God's Plan (see March - Songs We Sing In Bible Class #4 on this blog)
VISUAL AID: A large Activity (see Activity below)
LESSON POINTS:
- The Bible is a wonderful book that has many lessons for those who take the time to read His Word. God wants us to read these Old Testament stories, so that we can learn from them (Rom. 15:4; Gal. 3:24) and, by living the way that pleases Him, we may live an easier life. We don't need to only learn from our own mistakes, but we can also learn from others' mistakes. Like Solomon's mistakes.
- In this great book, God not only tells us the good things that men do, He also tells us of the bad. We have sad news in our lesson today. King Solomon had everything good in life. He had riches, peace, fame, honor, and wisdom, yet he did a terrible thing when he was very old.
- Over the past few months, we have studied many times about marriage and how God wanted one man and one woman to love each other for their entire lives. God never said to marry more than one wife, yet some men did. (Acts 17:30). That is what Solomon did. Solomon had 700 wives and princesses and 300 concubines, which was definitely more than one!! And his wives turned his heart away from God. A person would think that Solomon, with all his wisdom, his dedication to the building the temple, and his strong will, would never have strayed away from God, but he did. The Bible says in 1 Kings 13:6 that Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD and did not do as his father David did.
- Solomon should have known better, but he made special places to worship IDOLS!! God did not tolerate idolatry. Solomon made the places for his wives to worship and God was angry about it. He was angry because they had turned Solomon's heart away from God and God had commanded him to stay close to Him and walk in His ways and there would be rewards for obeying. When giving the law to Moses, God said that He was a jealous God and God always says what He means. He is still a jealous God, even today. And remember? God said that he would have a long life and that his son would continue to reign on his throne if Solomon remained true to God. BUT if Solomon strayed from God, then there would be consequences. The consequence was that God would take away Solomon's throne and He would give it to Solomon's servant instead. However, as a compassionate God, God said that He would not take the throne away in Solomon's time, but in his son's time and He would not tear away all of the kingdom, but for David's sake and Jerusalem's sake, He would let Solomon's son keep one part of the kingdom.
- Then the LORD stirred up a few of Solomon's enemies, a prince in Edom named Hadad, a man named Rezon, and Solomon's own servant, Jeroboam. They all caused Solomon much grief and strife. Jeroboam was the servant to whom the LORD gave the kingdom. God made the same conditional promise to Jeroboam that he made to Solomon. He said through a prophet named Ahijah that IF Jeroboam would listen to God and walk in His ways and do that which was right in God's sight, then God would be with him and would build him a sure house as he built for David and would give Israel to Jeroboam.
- When King Solomon heard these things, he was going to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam ran away to Egypt and stayed there until Solomon died.
- Solomon reigned forty years and died and was buried in the city of David. His son, Rehoboam, reigned in his place.
- As we begin studying the different kings that ruled Israel, we find that the kings were always compared to David. Here, 1 Kings 13:6 says that Solomon "went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father." Let's watch for this as we study.
- We need to learn a lesson from this story. King Solomon stayed close to God all of his life, but right at the very end, he turned to idolatry instead of staying close to God. Rev. 2:10 tells us that if we are faithful until death, then we will receive a crown of life. If we obey God all of our lives and give up at the end, then we have lost it all.
Materials needed: 9" x 12" blue construction paper, scraps of other colors, especially red, marker, glue, scissors, crayons.
- Hand out blue paper.
- Write "Solomon's Sin" and "1 Kings 11" at the top of the paper.
- Draw a line across the paper under "Solomon's Sin."
- In large numbers, write "1", "2", and "3" down the left side of the blue paper.
- Color the word "sin" in red.
- Cut three hearts out of the red scrap of paper.
- Glue each heart down the middle of the paper (see picture above).
- Cut two scraps of paper of the same color into 2" x 4" rectangles.
- On one scrap write "Solomon" and on the other scrap, write "Solomon's."
- Glue "Solomon" beside the number 1.
- Glue "Solomon's" beside the number 3.
- On a different color scrap of paper, cut two 2" x 4" rectangles.
- On one scrap of paper, write "his wives" and on the other scrap of paper, write "Solomon's wives."
- Glue "his wives" on the right side of the #1 heart.
- Glue "Solomon's wives" on the left side of #2 heart.
- On a different color of scrap of paper, write "IDOLS."
- Glue "IDOLS" on the right side of #2 heart.
- On a different color of scrap of paper, write "turned from God."
- Glue "turned from God" on the right side of #3 heart.
- Discuss the paper before leaving class so the students understand that because of Solomon's wives and their love of idolatry, Solomon sinned a terrible sin.
