Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Difference Between David and Solomon | Historical Books | 1 Kings 11:9-43

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

Why does God punish Solomon? Are you confessing your sins? Are you like David or Solomon? In today's episode, Jensen shares how 1 Kings 11:9-43 encourages us to keep our hearts softened toward God. If you're listening on Spotify, tell us about yourself and where you're listening from! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Kings 11:9-43

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. There are certain movies growing up that most of my family loved to watch. Most, meaning everyone but my mom. She's not a movie hater. She just refuses to watch movies that don't have a happy ending. She won't watch The Gladiator because, spoiler, the hero dies. She wouldn't even watch The Sound of Music because she says,

the ending isn't a happy ending. She thought there's no way all those kids could survive in the mountains. We always make fun of her for it. One, because it is a happy ending, like it's based on a true story and the kids do survive. But also, because it's unrealistic to expect a happy ending every single time. Which she says is the point. There's enough sad stories in the real world. She doesn't want to subject herself to watching one if she doesn't have to, which I guess I inherited from her. in some ways. To this day, I've never finished the last few chapters of a multiple 400-page book series that I read in high school because of the main character died. I got super angry, and I just refused to subject myself to the emotional torture of reading any further. And if you're like me or like

my mom, and you've been holding out hope that maybe Solomon was going to get a happy ending, I'm sorry to have to disappoint you today. See, throughout the first half of First Kings, we've been wondering the question. Will Solomon remain faithful? Will the people of God uphold their end of the covenant? Will God? And the author is given as hints to the divided nature of Solomon's heart. The last time God spoke directly to Solomon in Chapter 9, he reminded him of what was at stake if he rejected God and followed idols instead. And in the first eight verses of Chapter 11 that we walked through yesterday, revealed that Solomon had finally given himself over to other gods, that he was not like David his father, but had fallen into apostasy. And so today, we hear God's

judgment as he speaks directly to Solomon in verse 9. The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel who had appeared to him twice. Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not. keep the Lord's command. So the Lord said to Solomon, since this is your attitude, and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David, my

servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. Now, I want to reiterate something that we talked about the last time God spoke to Solomon and reminded him of the terms of this covenant. The sin that is removing Solomon from the covenant that God has made with David is the rejection of God himself as God. Solomon has chosen to follow other gods. In the verses before these, and here in God's pronouncement of judgment, we hear God use David, his father, as an example of a faithful king. Now, David was not without sin. David was a murderer. David was at least an adulterer, but most likely a man who used his power to coerce Bathsheba into a sexual encounter. David failed to protect his daughter from rape, failed to step up and demand justice,

failed to be the king and father that God had called him to be on numerous occasions. But we will see from here on now in the book of first kings that David's name is going to be used, as a barometer of faithfulness when held up against the actions of the current king. Here in God's judgment, he even shows grace. He mitigates the punishment by allowing Solomon's descendants to maintain a small portion of the tribes of Israel and not enacting the punishment until after Solomon's death. And why does he do this? Well, for the sake of David, your father, my servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem which God has chosen. David, the adulter, David, the murderer? Is it because of his blamelessness? Well, clearly not.

Now, the difference between David and Solomon and most of the kings to come is their heart. See, when David sinned, when he failed, when he broke God's law, he cast himself at the feet of God. He repented. He humbly submitted himself to the Father. He didn't turn aside, reject God and worship other idols. He remained, however broken and sinful, reliant on the Lord for his salvation. In Psalm 51 following his sin against Bathsheba and her husband, Yariah, David laments saying, Have mercy on me, O God.

According to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me. from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me

a willing spirit to sustain me. You see, God isn't the militant tyrant in the sky waiting for you to falter and fall so he can strike you down. David knew that he had sinned. He knew he had fallen short and instead of ignoring his sin, justifying his sin, or blame shifting, he confesses. He casts himself on the mercy of God. He knew who God was and he did not want to live apart from God and his ways any longer. You can hear the longing for reconciliation, for forgiveness, for God to continue to be his God, to sustain him. David believed that God was God, that he was who he said he was. In Exodus 34, when God reveals himself and passes in front of Moses, he proclaims, The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,

maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. Yet, he does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation. So the Lord begins with grace. He is slow to anger. He is compassionate, abounding in love and faithfulness. He forgives rebellion and sin. But he is also just, and he cannot allow evil and rebellion to run rampant. What we're coming face to face with here in this passage is the justice of God. God has been slow to anger, but now we see that he is angry with Solomon. He has been rejected, and now he will enact punishment on the evil that has been allowed to flourish among his people. But he will also remain

faithful to his covenant, to David, to Jerusalem. He will not abandon his promises because of the faithfulness of David. What comes next is not Solomon's response to God's judgment. We don't know how Solomon responds. It doesn't tell us in First Kings. But the lack of response speaks to a lack of repentance. We saw in Psalm 51 how David responded when faced with his own sin. From his son, we get silence. Silence followed by 40 long verses describing the effects of Solomon's rejection of God. In 1 Kings chapter 5, Solomon says that in the midst of God's blessing, he has peace on all sides. And now for 40 verses straight, we learned that that peace was a thing of the past. His kingdom would not be ripped away until after his death, which we read happens in verse 43. But this kingdom would also no longer live under the

blessing of God. Adversaries arise from all sides and they close in. The final adversary, Jeroboam, is told by a prophet that he will be given 10 tribes of Israel to be king over. When Solomon learns that Jeroboam is to be the one the Lord will ordain to take the kingdom, verse 40 tells us that Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam, forcing him to flee, much like Saul, rejected by God, sought to destroy David. No repentance, no sorrow, just another king, grasping to undermine the authority and control of God. It's a sad ending to Solomon. The final judgment of a king who seemed so promising, so wise, is one of rejection and punishment. But we should not look away. We should not steer clear of the sad stories, the hard stories in Scripture, because they are here to teach us about who God is, about what he calls his people to, and they serve as a warning and in

In this case, they can offer us hope. The warning is a reminder that when God introduced himself to his people, he both reminded them that he is loving and he is just. The warning calls us to reflect, are we like David or Solomon? When we're faced with our sin, does it reveal a heart that casts itself humbly at the feet of its Savior, a heart that's aware of our weakness, our unworthiness, our need? Or does it reveal a heart that is hardened? silent to the judgment of God, calloused to his authority, seeking a way out of trouble in its own power, its own might. That is the warning that we have to wrestle with, sit with, and pray about. We will fall into sin. You will fail again and again. But as you walk the worn path of faith,

will you keep your heart softened to God, trained on him, reliant on him and his promises to you, Because that is where there is hope in this sad story. Yes, Solomon rejected God. Yes, God brought justice on Solomon for his idolatry, but even in judgment, God remains faithful to his covenant and makes a way for his plan for rescue to endure. He does not leave his people without hope. For the sake of David, for the sake of the faithful, for the sake of his love and compassion and mercy, God will provide salvation. He will uphold his covenant. In verse 39, he tells Jerobom that he will afflict David's descendants for their rebellion, but not forever. This sad story is not the final story. It is not forever. Salvation is coming. Even in the saddest of stories, in darkest of days,

you can cast yourself at the feet of the one who has promised to be faithful. He will deliver you, he will remain faithful to his covenant to resurrect the people of God and bring us into his kingdom for all of eternity.