[6-11] Don’t You Know That Idolatry Is Heresy? (1 Kings 10:1-29)

(1 Kings 10:1-29)
“Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels that bore spices, very much gold, and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was in her heart. So Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing so difficult for the king that he could not explain it to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel, his cupbearers, and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the LORD, there was no more spirit in her. Then she said to the king: ‘It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. However I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes; and indeed the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard. Happy are your men and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom! Blessed be the LORD your God, who delighted in you, setting you on the throne of Israel! Because the LORD has loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness.’ Then she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, spices in great quantity, and precious stones. There never again came such abundance of spices as the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. Also, the ships of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought great quantities of almug wood and precious stones from Ophir. And the king made steps of the almug wood for the house of the LORD and for the king’s house, also harps and stringed instruments for singers. There never again came such almug wood, nor has the like been seen to this day. Now King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired, whatever she asked, besides what Solomon had given her according to the royal generosity. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants. The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, besides that from the traveling merchants, from the income of traders, from all the kings of Arabia, and from the governors of the country. And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield. He also made three hundred shields of hammered gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold. The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round at the back; there were armrests on either side of the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the armrests. Twelve lions stood there, one on each side of the six steps; nothing like this had been made for any other kingdom. All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Not one was silver, for this was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon. For the king had merchant ships at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the merchant ships came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys. So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. Now all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. Each man brought his present: articles of silver and gold, garments, armor, spices, horses, and mules, at a set rate year by year. And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen; he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar trees as abundant as the sycamores which are in the lowland. Also Solomon had horses imported from Egypt and Keveh; the king’s merchants bought them in Keveh at the current price. Now a chariot that was imported from Egypt cost six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse one hundred and fifty; and thus, through their agents, they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria.”


Lately, I have had this desire to teach our coworkers abroad, as well as many other souls, who it is that belong to heresy. So if there is anyone who has fallen into heresy, I would like to help him escape from it. It’s with this intention that I am now speaking about heresy from the viewpoint of the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, and I believe that such faith and knowledge is completely indispensable for everyone.


How Was Solomon’s Course of Life?

Today, we read 1 Kings chapter ten. God had given King Solomon much wisdom. So as a result, many people revered Solomon highly. On account of his amazing wisdom, Solomon’s fame reached far beyond into distant countries. So even the queen of Sheba, a country far away in southern Arabia, heard about King Solomon and came to verify his wisdom and glory for herself. She brought along hard questions and tried to test him with these questions. But there was not a single question that Solomon could not answer. The queen of Sheba also saw the magnificent palace that Solomon had built, his institutions of governance, and his administrative organization. And impressed by them, she praised Solomon, saying, “It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. However I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes; and indeed the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard” (1 Kings 10:6-7). Like this, King Solomon lived his entire life as a man of the flesh, boasting his wisdom and enjoying his wealth. But he did not know that his famed wisdom would eventually ruin him.
Solomon made his throne out of ivory, and he covered it with pure gold. What I would like to point out to you here is that because Solomon’s heart left Jehovah God and lived only for his flesh in such extravagance, ultimately, he ended up turning his kingdom into a nation of idolatry. Although he was a king with a great deal of carnal wisdom given by God, he was a dismal man who used this wisdom only to boast of his own righteousness and serve idols. Even though Solomon had received God’s overflowing love and blessings, his spiritual state was terribly low. 
Some people, upon hearing my harsh assessment of Solomon, may object and say, “Rev. Paul C. Jong, I know you are a servant of God, but how can you so easily dismiss King Solomon, whose walk is written in the Bible?” But still, I do not hesitate to rebuke Solomon harshly for his spiritual corruption. And I believe that God had Solomon’s course of life written down as a lesson for us, to warn us not to worship idols and turn into heretics like Solomon. God had this passage written so that we would not serve idols. It’s not because I am somehow smarter or more intelligent than Solomon that I am criticizing and rebuking him here, but I am trying to admonish you all not to commit the same foolish act of worshiping idols as your own deity before God, as Solomon had done.
Solomon achieved very few things once he became king. All that he did after assuming the throne was construction. After he built the Temple for 7 years, he spent 13 more years to build his palace. For a total of 20 years, he worked on nothing but construction, and he only fostered idolatry among his own people in his time. In other words, all that he did as the king of Israel was to build houses and serve idols. This man was a carnal man to his bones. Even though his father was David, and even though the God that he believed in was Jehovah God, he still served idols instead of God, causing untold grief for himself. Solomon must have been mad, begging to be cursed by God.
“Yahweh,” the name of God, means “He who exists by Himself” or “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14). This Jehovah God is the Absolute God for all of us. So God had given Solomon His Word of warning, saying to him, “Do not worship idols,” but Solomon ignored this warning and served idols anyway, taking countless foreign women as his wives, including Pharaoh’s daughter. What a spiritually foolish and carnal man Solomon was! Even though he was a wise king in carnal affairs, as far as spiritual wisdom is concerned, he scored zero.


Solomon Had a Thousand Wives

It is written in the Bible that King Solomon “had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.” In other words, Solomon had no less than a thousand wives. With so many wives, Solomon probably couldn’t even remember them all. When the wives greeted him, “Your majesty,” he probably said on more than one occasion, “Hmm… I think I’ve met you before, but what was your name again?” From the wives’ perspective, who bore and raised his own children, it must have been rather unpleasant to see their husband unable to remember even their names. Solomon had built his palace for 13 years, but all this work was to provide a room to each of his wives. After all, his wives were queens of a nation, and so they all had to have at least a decent room for each. Solomon probably also built several gardens and ponds for them. Moreover, since many of these royal wives were foreign women, they had brought their own idols and worshiped them, and so Solomon also built shrines for these idols. If I had lived in that age, I would have rebuked Solomon and said to him, “Solomon, what use is all your wisdom? It’s better to be ignorant and fear God!”
Yet despite this, so many Christians today still revere King Solomon and envy his wisdom and wealth. During his early reign, when Solomon just assumed the throne, he offered a thousand burnt offerings at Gibeon. But for how long did this man really fear God? When we can see that he feared God only while he was building the Temple of God and his palace, for after this, he was busy serving idols. In other words, once the construction of the Temple and the palace was complete, Solomon no longer feared Jehovah God. As his royal authority was consolidated and he came to enjoy wealth and material prosperity, his heart stopped trusting in God, and ended up falling into idolatry. He was indeed a foolish and wretched king. Had he served Jehovah God by faith, he would have received many blessings from God in both body and spirit, and his descendants and his people would have all have been blessed by God. But he failed at this, and instead lived his life foolishly. 
If Solomon had any spiritual wisdom at all, he would not have dedicated all his energy to just seek his carnal gratification. For example, Solomon made his throne out of ivory and covered it with pure gold. But would a throne covered with gold somehow increase his royal authority? In other words, rather than manifesting God’s glory and His righteousness, Solomon poured his heart into manifesting his own glory and righteousness. 
However, as this world seeks only carnal values, Solomon’s wisdom was praised even in foreign countries, and countless people brought gifts seeking his audience. Yet, from a spiritual perspective, Solomon’s life itself was a shameful life of the flesh. He was even commended by the king of Egypt, the very archenemy of Israel, and heard him praise him, “You are a magnificent king, and your wisdom knows no bounds!” And the neighboring kings gave their daughters to Solomon to try to make peace with him, and shipped gold and wood to him when he built the Temple. It’s because Solomon had too much wisdom of the flesh that rather than fighting against his enemy countries, that he made peace with them and served the idols that they believed in. Whereas Solomon’s wisdom may be worthy of respect from man’s point of view, for the king of Israel, God’s chosen nation, to make peace with His enemies was to turn himself into an enemy of God. It was a grievous, abominable sin before God for Solomon to make peace with the kings that had stood against God, take their daughters in as his wives, build his palace with their tributes, and accept their idols. 
King Solomon was an extremely flawed man, for he had served idols before God. He was a man of failure before God, who had lived only for his own flesh. God wrote this passage in the Bible so that we would learn an important spiritual lesson here, and not allow ourselves to live only for our flesh. Even the born-again who now believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit may end up like Solomon, if they follow only the desires of the flesh. And that’s why God gave us this spiritual lesson, so that we wouldn’t live like him. 


Because of King Solomon, the Nation of Israel Collectively Fell into Heresy

It was during Solomon’s reign as its king that Israel turned into a nation of idolatry. All kinds of false gods and idols in the neighboring countries made their way into Israel and were revered. Where were they revered? They were revered in the very court of Israel. Foreign religion blossomed in the court of Israel. Solomon’s court was busy to serve all kinds of foreign idols. And throughout Israel, shrines were built to serve foreign gods. Since their own king and queens served idols, the people of Israel were also happy to serve them. There were idols in every direction, with the entire country turning into an exhibition hall for idols. Fewer and fewer people in Israel believed in Jehovah God, while idolaters eventually came to prevail over the nation as its mainstream. All that King Solomon did to serve Jehovah God was to gather his people together for a week for the rituals of Passover and the Day of Atonement, as if he were sponsoring a unity rally. And once the people returned home after offering their sacrifices to Jehovah God, they all resumed serving the idols that they each believed in.
It’s because of this man Solomon that Israel turned into a nation of heresy before God. When Solomon thus began to worship idols, God issued His first warning, saying to him, “Do not serve idols. If you do, I will cut Israel off from the land that I have given to it, and even this Temple that I have consecrated for My name, I will cast it out of My sight.” However, King Solomon did not listen to God’s Word. He must have thought that he was the real king, above God Himself. 
Among those who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior, there is no one who lives as his own king, if he has indeed been washed from his sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. The born-again cannot regard themselves as their own kings. Only our Lord Jesus Christ is our King—that is, if we indeed know and believe in the Savior who came to this earth by the water, the blood, and the Spirit (1 John 5:6-8). However, for Solomon, he himself was his own king. It didn’t matter how God had told him so much not to serve idols, nor did it matter how God’s servants had come to him to warn him; in the end, Solomon was his own king, and so he turned God’s chosen nation into a nation of idolatry.
Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, grew up while his father was worshiping idols. So Rehoboam also served idols just like his father. God then tore the ten tribes of Israel and gave them to Jeroboam (1 Kings 11:30-31), making him king of the northern kingdom, Israel. But Jeroboam served idols even more than Solomon. Out of his greed, and trying not to lose his power and protect his life, wealth, and fame, Jeroboam changed the sacrificial system that had been established by God, altered the Day of Atonement that God had set for the tenth day of the seventh month to the fifteenth day of the eighth month, appointed ordinary people to priesthood even though they were not Levites, and then even replaced God with the gold calves of his own making. Through all these things, Jeroboam turned the entire northern kingdom of Israel into a nation of idolatry (1 Kings 12:26-33). 
The northern kingdom, Israel, made two gold calves, placed one at each Bethel and Dan, and worshipped these idols. All the kings subsequent to Jeroboam would replace God with these gold calves and serve these idols. The kings of Israel were reduced to heads of a collective heresy. The southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel both turned into nations serving idols. Until the reign of Solomon lasted, God had not torn the nation apart even as the Israelites were serving idols. God had bestowed His mercy on them. However, once Solomon’s son Rehoboam assumed the throne, God tore the idolatrous nation of Israel into two, and Israel was cursed until the Lord came to this earth incarnated in the flesh.
The man responsible for bringing such curses was none other than Solomon. Because of one king’s idolatry, the entire people of Israel fell into collective heresy to serve idols all together. This Word provides a great lesson for you and me also. Solomon not only served idols before God, but he also showed this corrupt faith of idolatry to his sons and his people. It’s because his sons and his people saw the king’s idolatrous acts that they also came to serve idols without giving themselves any second thoughts. Even though King Solomon nominally claimed to serve God, his service was only at a ritualistic level, and he actually served idols rather than God.
As a result, the people of Israel thought to themselves, “Even though our king is serving idols, Israel is not punished by God but it’s only prospering. So we can also live like the king also.” Having thus learned to serve idols from their king, they, too, began to practice idolatry. From then on, they did not turn away from their idolatry, no matter who said what. Since King Solomon had served idols, so did his sons serve idols, as Jeroboam and his successors also continued to serve idols. There probably was no nation that worshiped foreign gods as much as Israel, for its kings and people alike. Although the Bible does not record all the idols that the people of Israel served, it does mention Asherah and Baal as the representative idols prevalent in Israel, but only because these two idols gained such a great influence in the nation. Like this, Israel turned into a nation of collective heresy worshiping idols.
Because of Jeroboam’s sins, Israel turned into a nation of collective heresy that could not be tolerated. That’s why when God condemned the subsequent kings who worshiped idols before Him, He said, “He committed the sins of Jeroboam,” or, “He walked in the way of Jeroboam.” That’s what God said whenever He was angry with the people of Israel and its king. Rather than saying, “He is a wicked man; he should be beaten to death,” God expressed his wrath by saying, “He walked in the way of Jeroboam,” or, “They followed the sins of Jeroboam.” Why did God say this? It was to tell us, “Do not be like Jeroboam.”
So the sins of Jeroboam were the greatest of all sins before God. You may try to understand Jeroboam from a human point of view, thinking, “Didn’t Jeroboam do these things to maintain his throne? After all, he was only a man.” However, if you now believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, then God must be your king; you should never allow yourself to serve foreign idols as your king. Given the fact that it is God who has saved us, how could we forsake Him, and allow ourselves to put false gods in His place to be controlled by Satan?

Given the Fact That the Lord Has Saved Us from All Our Sins by Giving Us the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit, It Makes No Sense for Us to Serve Idols

Therefore, When We Speak about Heresy, We Must Examine Ourselves First Before Anyone Else

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