Solomon Word to the Wise, Part 2

The thing about gifts is that they depend as much on the receiver as on the giver. They can be refused or forgotten, even gifts from God.

In his life, Solomon married 700 women from all kinds of religious backgrounds. It was something that the Lord had forbidden not only His people (Deuteronomy 7:1–4) but expressly the king of Israel from doing (17:17). But Solomon did it anyway. The Bible tells us that “Solomon clung to [his wives] in love” (1 Kings 11:2), not willing to give them up for anything. As he did so, his gift of wisdom began to gather dust, forgotten in a dark corner.

He began to love not only these women but also the things that they loved, their idols, their religious rites (vv. 4, 5). The man who once famously returned a harlot’s babe to its mother now condoned the ritual of child sacrifice to gods of wood and stone. He even built the altars upon which the children were burned (vv. 7, 8). At the end of his reign, his subjects were overworked and overtaxed (12:4). They had witnessed the tragic decline of their once wise and merciful king, and they were no longer the happy nation of the past.

Solomon himself was unhappy as well. Following his own heart had brought nothing but misery, dissatisfaction, and decay to him: “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind” (Ecclesiastes 2:11).

Worst of all, it had taken him far from the God whom he once cherished. Now an old man, he realized the destruction he had brought upon his descendants and subjects and the devastation inflicted upon his own witness. As a last effort to right his wrongs, he penned the Book of Ecclesiastes, a warning and guide to all who would walk this earth. After all his experiences, with what wisdom did King Solomon leave us? “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all” (12:13).

Reflect: At the end of his days, Solomon saw the error of his ways and counseled others to devote their lives to obeying the will of God. What mistakes have you made in your faith that you would most caution others against doing?

Key Bible Texts

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. (Ecclesiastes 12:13 KJV)