Learning from 1 Kings

Recently, my pastor was preaching from 1 Kings 10-11 and Deuteronomy 17:14-20.

Here are some things from that....
In Deuteronomy God tells Israel, long before they have a king, 4 things the king is not to do.

A king is not to:
1 Multiply horses v.16
2. Cause people to go to Egypt for trade v.16
3. Multiply wives v.17
4. Multiply gold and silver v.17

In 1 Kings we learn that Solomon did each of these 4 things that God said not to do.

1. He gathered horses and chariots (had cities for chariots) i kings 10:26

2. Horses, linen chariots were brough from Egypt. 1 Kings 10:28-29

3. He multiplied wives 1 Kings 1:1, 3

4. And gathered silver and gold 1 Kings 10: 14, 21, 27

Th reasons these things were bad to for a king to have:

1. Horses... In warfare the nations that had horses and chariots had the advantage, and invoked fear in their enemy. Israel was to TRUST in GOD, not in horses. Psalm 20:7 "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the LORD or God."

God has promised to fight for Israel. Deuteronomy 1:30 says "The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes." )Aslo Deut 3:22, 20:4, Judges 7:2)

Gathering horses and chariots showed the people that the king was not trusting in GOD.

2.God said for Israel not to return to Egypt. Egypt was a house of bondage to Israel. Deuteronomy 6:12. Egypt is a picture of the world. Israel was not to return to the world, but to depend on God.

3. God said the kings were not to multiply wives. In 1 Kings 11:4, God gives the reason for this, ... that his heart not turn away." Solomon's heart was turned to false gods through his wives. 1 Kings 11:7 tells us that Solomon even built high places for other gods to please his wives. Yet in doing this, he displeased the one true God.

Solomon brought about the start of his nation's dowfall by allowing these other gods in to the land. Israel was told not to marry from other nations in Deuteronomy 7:1-3

In like manner the Christian is told not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers in 2 Corinthians 6:14

4. God and Silver Solomon had so much gold that the Bible says, "It was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon." And of silver, "the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones." God said not to multiply silver and gold. Again this was because man would think more of himself than he should, and it would put confidence in man, and not in God.