Solomon turns away from God
key words
biblical reference
1 Kings 11 & 12
lesson objective
That the children will understand that even smart people can make mistakes and forget God, giving in to the bad influences He warns us about
memory verse
“It is the Lord your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him” (Deuteronomy 13:4, NIV*).
prepare yourself to teach
Solomon was doing very well. God had chosen him beforehand to rule Israel. He blessed him with wisdom, riches, a peaceful kingdom, the admiration of the neighboring kings, and success in all his affairs.
But Solomon did not remain faithful to God. He thought it was politically beneficial to marry foreign women. The women brought with them their pagan beliefs, customs and idols. And to fulfill their desires, Solomon built places for them to worship their gods, and their worship of the true God became a simple ritual. Solomon’s life stands as a warning against bad relationships with unbelievers, which can destroy the spiritual life of believers. God allowed Solomon to fall because of his disobedience.
Then Jeroboam came as a servant. He became the king’s favorite, and soon was given great responsibilities. Jeroboam had a meeting with the prophet Ahijah, who cut his cloak into twelve pieces and gave ten to him. Those pieces represented the ten tribes that Jeroboam would one day govern. The other two tribes would be given to Solomon’s son, just to keep God’s promise to David.
Jeroboam was like David. God chose him to replace a disobedient king. Immediately, he tried to provoke an uproar to begin to reign. When that happened, Solomon tried to kill him, but Jeroboam escaped to Egypt and did not return until Solomon died.
What causes the separation between a person and God? People move away from God, little by little, almost without noticing it. We must strive to live as Deuteronomy 13:4 says, “The Lord, your God, you will follow ...” and take seriously the warning of Proverbs 28:20: “The faithful man will receive many blessings, but he who wants to get rich in haste will not be free from guilt.”
For a Christian, it is nice to remember the moment when he or she accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. Some did so when they were children, others in adolescence and others as adults. But it is sad to hear someone say, “I accepted the Lord Jesus when I was young, but I turned away from him, and even came to think that God would never accept me again.”
Pre-adolescent children are in a stage of spiritual development, and need to be taught the need to accept Christ as their personal Savior. They must learn that disobedience separates them from God, but that this is not the end. They can restore that relationship if they repent of the sin they have done. They also need to learn how to make wise decisions with God’s help to avoid the dangers of what can separate them from him.
introduce the lesson
Danger ahead!
Distribute Student Activity Sheet #300-A. Ask, “What in the drawing may present a danger to the boat?” (Give them time to be able to identify them and discuss the damage this would cause.) “What could keep us from God?” (Let them write the answers on the rocks and in the waves.) Some of the dangers would be to stop reading the Bible, to not attend church, to allow friendships to influence us to do bad things, disobedience, etc.
Distribute Student Activity Sheet #300-B and #300-C.
teach the lesson
Problems in the palace
Let us see what happened in the life of Solomon:
“Is it true what we have heard from Solomon?” asked many people. “Is he as wise and rich as they say?”
From all parts of the world, people came to visit King Solomon: kings, queens, important people ... they all sought his advice, and he answered questions no one else could. But after he became very famous, he began to forget God’s commands. He married foreign women, not caring that his heart started leaning towards their foreign gods. Solomon was not obedient to God. He made deals with foreign kings, and he agreed to marry their daughters. He ended up doing so with seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines (lesser wives who did not belong to royalty or have great titles). When Solomon was old, his wives convinced him to worship pagan gods. In order to please his wives, he ordered places to be built to offer sacrifices to those gods. Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord. Unlike his father David, he was not obedient to God. The Lord was angry because Solomon’s heart had departed from Him.
On two occasions, the Lord appeared to him to tell him not to worship other gods, but he was disobedient and ignored God’s warnings.
And God said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and have not kept my covenant, and the statutes which I commanded you, I’ll take away the kingdom, and will give it to your servant. However, I wo not do it while you are alive. For your father David’s sake, I’ll take it out of your son’s hand.”
The peace that prevailed among the people no longer existed. Other nations began to oppose Solomon. Even his own men turned against him, and one of them was Jeroboam.
Solomon had put him in charge of the workers who worked on the project to repair the walls around the city. One day as Jeroboam came out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah found him on the road. He was covered with a new cloak, and they were alone in the field. The prophet took the cloak, cut it into twelve pieces, and said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for you, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘I’ll tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hands and give you ten tribes. He will keep a tribe for my servant David’s sake and for Jerusalem’s sake. I do this because he has left me and worshiped other gods, and has not walked in my ways to do what is right in front of my eyes and my statutes. You will be king of Israel if you listen to all that I command you, walking in my ways and doing what is right before my eyes, keeping my statutes, as my servant David did. I’ll be with you.’”
When Solomon heard what had happened, he tried to kill Jeroboam, but he fled to Egypt and remained there until Solomon’s death. Then Jeroboam returned to Israel.
When the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they proclaimed him their king. Only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained faithful to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. Rehoboam gathered a great army of Judah to fight against Jeroboam, because he wanted to recover the territory that had belonged to his father Solomon and which Jeroboam now ruled.
And the Yahweh spoke to Shemaiah the man of God, saying, “Speak to Rehoboam, and say to him, ‘This is what the LORD says. Do not go out to fight against your brothers, the children of Israel. Everyone should return to their own house, because this is my work.’ ” When they heard the words of God, everyone returned to his house according to what the Lord had said to them.
The reign of Solomon ended after forty years. His kingdom was divided and they did not enjoy peace. Now his son Rehoboam did not have a great kingdom to lead. If only Solomon had remembered the proverb, he wrote, “The faithful man will receive many blessings.” (Proverbs 28:20)
connect the lesson
Ask: “Does it cause you pain to have friends who are not Christians?” (Let the children make their comments.) Then say: “The Bible tells us about friendship with unbelievers. Look at 2 Corinthians 6:14; Proverbs 1:10-16 and Proverbs 4:14-16.” (Invite a child to read.) Say: “The Bible warns us about what happens to us by having close friendships with non-Christians.” Then ask: “How can we stay close to God?” (Reading the Bible, attending church, asking God for wisdom, having friends who are Christians.) Have someone read Deuteronomy 13:4. Then explain: “If we do as this verse tells us, we’ll remain close to God. We will not turn away from God as Solomon did.”
Do not ignore God’s warnings
Margaret received Jesus as her Savior when she was in her third of school. She read her Bible, prayed, went to church and used her talents for God.
When she reached her sixth year of school, her new neighbor Michael moved next door. She thought that if she tried to become his friend, she could talk about the Bible, church activities and Jesus. But Margaret began to listen to Michael’s ideas, telling her that church was only for adults, and she began to believe this. She stopped praying, and read her Bible only when she went to church. And she began to do all the bad things Michael advised her.
Ask: “What happened to Margaret and why?” (allow responses)
Ask: “What do you think of what she did?” (allow responses)
Michael became more important for her than God. Even when she attended church on Sundays, she did not worship or love the Lord. When the time came to attend high school, Margaret and Michael ended up going to different schools.
In English class, Margaret saw some of the classmates she had met in church camp as a child; they were Christians. One afternoon, they invited her to hang out with them and she agreed to go with them. She noticed how they treated each other and her. She thought how different they turned out to be.
Ask: “How did her new friends make her feel?” (allow responses)
Ask: “Why were they different from Margaret?” (allow responses)
practice the memory verse
Student Activity Sheet #300-D entitled “Don’t ignore God’s warnings.” Help the students understand why we must hold fast to God.
Review the text several times with your children. Organize a learning game by forming a circle. The first person will say the first word of the text, the second will say the first and second words, and so they will continue to add one word per participant, but repeating everything from the beginning.
If you have encouraged the students to continue being members of the Verse of the Month Club, you will need the cards in Student Activity Sheet #296-D that have the scripture verses printed on them. Put a star on the verse for the children who have memorized the verse.
wrap-up
Pray
At the end of the session, pray with the group and thank God for giving them good friends.
Encourage
Show appreciation for the students’ attendance and encourage them not to forget what they learned.
Invite
Announce something about the next session beginning a new unit of lessons to increase the group’s interest. Remind them that this is a good time to invite new group members.
* Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™