Advanced Level, Block 7—Idolatry and Division
Week 63
Solomon—Not Being Restricted
Point to Emphasize: Learn to be restricted by your parent’s rules; this will keep you.
Reference Reading: 1 Kings 4:20-24; 5:6-18; 9: 1-24; 10:14-29; 11:9-11, 40; 12:4, footnote 41
Memory Verse: Know therefore that it is Jehovah your God who is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and lovingkindness to the thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments. (Deuteronomy 7:9)
Story Sample
After Solomon had finished building the house of Jehovah and the king’s house, Jehovah appeared to him a second time. Jehovah promised to establish his kingdom as long as he would be upright in heart, doing according to all that Jehovah had commanded him. Jehovah gave Solomon a solemn warning. Let’s read 1 Kings 9:6-9. It says, “But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me and do not keep My commandments and My statutes, which I have put before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, Then I will cut Israel off from the face of the land which I have given them, and the house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all the peoples. And this house will become heaps, and everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss and say, Why has Jehovah done this to this land and to this house? And they will say, Because they forsook Jehovah their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold of other gods and worshipped them and served them; therefore Jehovah brought all this evil upon them.” This is indeed a solemn word.
In the first part of his reign, Solomon kept all of God’s commandments. He surpassed all the kings of the earth in wealth and in human wisdom. Solomon’s fame became known and people from all over the earth came to hear his wisdom and they brought him gifts to show their gratitude year by year. They came because they wanted to see the greatness of his kingdom and to hear his wisdom.
In order to understand the greatness of Solomon’s kingdom, here are a few facts. Each year he received 666 talents of gold. Just one talent of gold is worth over one million dollars today. Not only that, but he also had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, and 40,000 horses. He had so much silver in his possession that it was as plentiful as stones in Jerusalem. He built a navy fleet of ships. He ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River unto the land of the Philistines and unto the border of Egypt. All of this and more was during the first half of his reign.
With all this wealth and fame, Solomon’s heart turned away from Jehovah. He no longer paid attention to the solemn warning that Jehovah had given him. He would not be restricted by God’s law. He openly broke God’s commandments. And his living became shameful in that He did not keep God’s law concerning having one wife. And he worshipped idols! Oh, what a shameful living! And all of Israel followed him in this shameful living, worshipping idols. Because of Solomon’s doing, Jehovah carried out His solemn warning.
Solomon could have spared himself and Israel such ruin if he had considered Jehovah’s solemn word to him. If in every year of his reign Solomon were to repeat the solemn warning given to him by Jehovah, I think it would have rescued him from such a shameful ending of his kingdom.
Why do you think Jehovah gave such a word to Solomon? [Again, lead the children in a discussion which showed that Jehovah loved Solomon and wanted him to be one who was restricted by God’s commandments. God knew the good life Solomon and Israel could have had if they were to follow Him. God’s heart was good toward Solomon. And He wanted to warn him about the awful things that would occur if he did not follow God’s law.]
I remember the solemn word my parents gave us about the train tracks in our area. They wanted us to know that we must never play on the railroad tracks because there was a lot of train traffic on them. They also told us that it was against the law to put anything on the tracks because something on the track could cause a train to derail causing an awful accident.
Playing on the tracks never interested me because they were dirty, grimy, and oily. But as for my older brother who was then a teenager, he and his friends were attracted to those train tracks. And my brother was not willing to be restricted by my parent’s warning. He wanted to put coins and bottle caps on the tracks and see what would happen to them when the trains ran over them. I remember the evening when two police officers came knocking on our door and they had my brother with them. He was caught putting things on the train tracks and now he had to learn from the harsh consequences of not being restricted by my parent’s word. [Storyteller, use your own story, holding the same principle of the danger of not taking solemn warnings.]
You see, my parents understood the seriousness of playing on the train tracks and their speaking a warning to us was to keep us out of harm’s way and for us to keep the law. They told us this because they loved us and only wanted the best for us. I’m sure your parents have spoken “solemn” words to you, too. Maybe it is about the books, movies, video games you want to watch, read, or play. Are you willing to be “restricted” by their word or do you let your heart turn away from that word and do things behind their back? I hope you are feeling quite uncomfortable now. I hope this will cause you to go to your parents and talk to them about how uncomfortable you are with my question. And I truly hope that by doing so you will be more willing to be restricted by your parents’ word in what you do, in what you wear and in what activities you participate in. This will be a real help as you grow into your teenage years.