The
Book of Kings recounts how great life was under King Solomon:
The people of Judah
and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore; they ate, they drank
and they were happy. And Solomon ruled
over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines, as
far as the border of Egypt. These
countries brought tribute and were Solomon’s subjects
all his life.
(1
Kings, chapter 4, verses 20-21)
The
Book of Kings continues:
During Solomon’s
lifetime Judah and Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, lived in safety, everyone
under their own vine and under their own fig tree. Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he
had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the
chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem.
The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as
plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills.
(1 Kings, chapter 4,
verse 25, and 1 Kings chapter 10, verses 26-27)
God gave Solomon
wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as
the sand on the seashore.
Solomon’s wisdom was
greater than the wisdom of all the people of the East, and greater than all the
wisdom of Egypt.
And his fame spread
to all the surrounding nations. From all nations people came to listen to
Solomon’s wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his
wisdom.
(1 Kings, chapter 4,
verses 29-30, 31b, 34)
The
Book of Chronicles also describes King Solomon’s reign:
Solomon son of David
established himself firmly over his kingdom, for the Lord his God was with him
and made him exceedingly great.
(2 Chronicles,
chapter 1, verse 1)
King Solomon was greater
in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth.
(2 Chronicles,
chapter 9, verse 22)
Solomon
spent seven years building the Temple in Jerusalem and 13 years building an
ornate palace for himself.
The
Queen of Sheba visited Solomon and testified of his greatness.
The
Book of Kings recounts:
When the queen of
Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord, she
came to test Solomon with hard questions.
Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to
explain to her. When the queen of Sheba
saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, the food on his
table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his
cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, she was
overwhelmed.
She said to the king,
“The report I heard
in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. But I did
not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not
even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I
heard. How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually
stand before you and hear your wisdom! Praise
be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne
of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal
love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness.”
(1 Kings, chapter 1,
verses 1 and 3-9)
1,000 years after Solomon lived, and 600
years after Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, Jesus Christ
comes on the scene. Unlike Solomon,
Jesus did not live in a palace – he did not even own a hut or a tent. Solomon’s fame was so great in Jesus’ time
that He referred to the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon in His condemnation
of the people of His day:
“The Queen of the
South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she
came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now
something greater than Solomon is here.”
(Gospel of Matthew,
chapter 12, verse 42 and Gospel of Luke, chapter 11, verse 31)
However,
Solomon’s greatness and his wisdom are not the end of the story. For King Solomon had a downfall.
The
Book of Kings recounts:
King Solomon,
however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites,
Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites.
They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You
must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after
their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held
fast to them in love. He had seven
hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led
him astray.
As Solomon grew old,
his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully
devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the
Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he
did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.
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.
(1 Kings, chapter 11,
verses 1 to 6)
And God
raised up adversaries against Solomon.
What
can we learn from King Solomon and all the wisdom that God gave him?
The
Book of Proverbs, written by Solomon, documents:
The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
(Book of Proverbs,
chapter 1, verse 7)
The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
(Book of Proverbs,
chapter 9, verse 10)
Trust
in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
(Book
of Proverbs, chapter 3, verse 5)
The
Book of Ecclesiastes, written by Solomon, advises:
“Meaningless!
Meaningless!” says the Teacher.
“Utterly
meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
What
do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?
Generations
come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
(Ecclesiastes
chapter 1, verses 2-4)
I
(Solomon) undertook great projects:
I
built houses for myself and planted vineyards.
I
made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
I
made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.
I bought male and
female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house.
I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.
I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.
I
amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces.
I
acquired male and female singers, and a harem as well—
the
delights of a man’s heart.
I
became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me.
In
all this my wisdom stayed with me.
I
denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.
My
heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil.
Yet
when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was
meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. So I hated life, because the work that is
done under the sun was grievous to me. All
of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
(Book of
Ecclesiastes, chapter 2, verses 4-11 and 17)
Surely the fate of
human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both:
As
one dies, so dies the other.
All
have the same breath;
humans
have no advantage over animals.
Everything
is meaningless.
All
go to the same place;
all
come from dust,
and
to dust all return.
(Book of
Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, verses 19 to 20)
Everyone
comes naked from their mother’s womb,
and
as everyone comes, so they depart.
They
take nothing from their toil that they can carry in their hands.
Indeed,
there is no one on earth who is righteous,
no
one who does what is right and never sins.
God
created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes.”
(Book
of Ecclesiastes, chapter 5, verse 15 and chapter 7, verses 20 and 29)
“Meaningless!
Meaningless!” says the Teacher.
“Everything
is meaningless!”
Now
all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear
God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.
For
God will bring every deed into judgment,
including
every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
(Book
of Ecclesiastes, chapter 12, verses 8, 13, and 14)
We can
learn from King Solomon. Don’t waste your life like he wasted his.
