Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How Self-Aware Are You? | The Life of Solomon | 1 Kings 11

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. And I'm Patrick Miller. I hope that you enjoyed our series on favorite verses. One of our favorite speakers in that series was Tanya Wilmot. In fact, we liked her talk so much that we've invited her to come on and co-host with us at 10-minute Bible Talk. So if you start hearing a new voice, which you will hear today, that is Tanya. Just a quick reminder of who she is.

Starting point is 00:00:34 Tanya is a mom, a former English teacher, and she's also a Bible teacher. And I think that you are really going to enjoy learning from her. She's got a different style and amazing insights that I don't think Keith or I could bring to the table. So enjoy listening to her today and from that point forward. How self-aware are you? The Harvard Business Review tells us that 85 to 90% of us believe we are incredibly self-aware. but actually only 10 to 15% of us really are. So maybe there's your answer.

Starting point is 00:01:12 The more self-aware you believe you are, the less likely you probably are to be correct. We all want to become more self-aware, or at least I assume this is the case. So we share the common ground statistically on not being super adept at it, but wanting to grow in it. For some of us, it may be a bit harder than others. There's a term coined CEO disease. This means the higher you are in any organization,

Starting point is 00:01:40 the less likely you are to receive real and honest feedback. There's a number of reasons that's the case, but the very success you've had to get you to that level actually works against you once you get there. Whether we're in charge of our households, fraternities, not-for-profit boards, or major companies, most of us have places in our lives where this can be the case. Maybe the most dangerous then is when those places are at the very core of our identity. This is where I start to feel a little bit of compassion for Solomon. As king, he probably knew a thing or two about CEO disease, especially when swords were the tools of choice for things a king didn't want to hear.

Starting point is 00:02:23 But was that really Solomon's problem? And is success really our problem? When we take a look at the turning point in Solomon's life, I think we can go a little deeper to find a root cause of something the business world is trying to explain. So let's let Solomon be our guide, and at the same time be thankful that our personal failures aren't recorded in scripture, although that might be good for our self-awareness. First Kings 11 opens with the word now. If you've been following along with our series, you wonder.

Starting point is 00:02:59 understand this word carries all the hints and implications that all is not well with Solomon's heart. Chapter 11 begins. Now, King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh. Then scripture lists all the foreign women he loved, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sedunians, and Hittites, and reminds us again about God's very clear instruction. from Exodus 3416 and again here in 1st Kings 11 2. You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you. For surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Some have gotten this wrong and manipulated this passage to argue against interracial marriage.

Starting point is 00:03:47 But the Bible commands us to love across racial and cultural differences. This is not a chapter about racial purity. This is a chapter about the heart of a man God loved and what happened to it. This is about God's loving instruction and warning to keep a heart pure for him. This is about God, our creator, knowing that when we love other things more than him, they will lead us down a path of unfulfilled desire and need. We see it firsthand in Solomon. He started with one wife from Egypt and moved along to 700 wives and 3,000.

Starting point is 00:04:24 concubines from foreign countries. Did he truly love them? Or did he love accumulating them? Either way, the scripture tells us in the following verse that he clung to them in love. This was a willful violation of God's command. With each new woman, surely those words from the Lord whispered somewhere inside Solomon's memory. Surely he had an opportunity to turn back to the Lord at any point, even though it would

Starting point is 00:04:54 have been messy and hard. Instead, though, the rest of the chapter lets us know that what God warned about had come to pass. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord His God, as was the heart of his father, David. In Psalm 130, David is overwhelmed with a sense of failure and disappointment. He says in verse 1 and 2, out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Oh, Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy. David recognizes a deep need for God and cries out for his deliverance.

Starting point is 00:05:38 His Psalm goes on to end like this, O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. But Solomon's story tracks on a different path. 1 Kings 116 So Solomon did what was evil in the side of the Lord And did not wholly follow the Lord As David his father had done

Starting point is 00:06:03 Then Solomon built a high place For Shimash the abomination of Moab And for Molek the abomination of the Ammonites On the mountain east of Jerusalem And so he did for all his foreign wives who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods. The man commissioned to build the holy temple for the one true God, used his gifts and skills and resources to build temples for the many gods of his many wives.

Starting point is 00:06:37 Instead of a turn back to God, his life seems to be turning more and more away from God. Solomon was incredibly wise in many areas, but he was foolish to the vulnerability of his own heart. He probably assumed he could love God holy and love these women who worshipped other gods at the same time. We should also assume that we lack heart awareness. There are places hidden to us but known by God.

Starting point is 00:07:07 He knows our true desires more intimately than we know them ourselves and loves us anyway. This is not original to me, but it resonates so much that I'll share it with you. I find it helpful to tell God what's true about what I want. Sometimes when my sin is exposed, I truly just don't want to do anything about it. I know I'm supposed to pray for forgiveness, but I also know I'll just keep doing it because I enjoy it or because it works, at least in the moment. so I ask God to change what I want, so I will do what he wants.

Starting point is 00:07:50 Or sometimes I just say, Lord, I truly don't want to turn away from this, so please change my desires. Just as he knew the true condition of Solomon's heart from the beginning to the end, so he knows ours. He knows and he loves. He knows and he restores. Our real life is safe in him. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily.

Starting point is 00:08:26 Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to a friend or a family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations. Thank you.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How Self-Aware Are You? | The Life of Solomon | 1 Kings 11

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