Solomon - Zane Zybach

Welcome to the official podcast of the Church

of Christ Wheeler area. We're so glad that you've

tuned in for today's message. Whether you're

on your morning commute or if you're relaxing

at home, we're here to share the strength and

truth of God's Word with our community. If you're

in the neighborhood, we'd love to meet you in

person. Come see us at 1500 South Allen L. Bean

Boulevard right here in Wheeler, Texas. We gather

every Sunday morning at 10 .30 a .m. and in the

afternoon at 2 .30 p .m. We meet again on Wednesdays

at 7 p .m. Right now let's open our Bibles together

and dive in to today's sermon. So this evening

we're going to study or start on what is going

to be a series of studies in the book of Ecclesiastes.

So I recently started reading through Ecclesiastes

kind of just chapter by chapter of course and

Just for whatever reason I started enjoying that

and so I thought we're gonna do a whole study

on Ecclesiastes and As I thought well, we'll

start in chapter one. I thought no we're gonna

start before chapter one We'll start with the

writer of Ecclesiastes being Solomon and so what

I thought we'd do tonight is just go through

somewhat verse by verse, and look at some of

the high points, some of the interesting things,

some of the important things that happen in the

life of Solomon. And so we're gonna go back and

we're gonna start before Solomon was even born

as we start our reading in the Old Testament.

In Ecclesiastes 1 and 1, it says, the words of

the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem,

vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity

of vanities, all is vanity. And that's kind of

the gist of at least the first several chapters

for really most of the book of Ecclesiastes.

And I think in order to really understand this

in the deepest way, we have to understand the

writer of the book. And we all know mostly the

story of Solomon. We know he was very wealthy.

We know that he was very wise. That kind of puts

it into perspective. But maybe if we take a slightly

deeper dive at Solomon, that will help us as

we go throughout the book in the future. And

so as we look at Solomon, I want to look at four

things tonight. And you can just identify them

as we go on. I'm not going to stop and say this

is what's happening. Number one, I want to look

at his start, how he came to be. where he came

from, who he belonged to, type of stuff. We're

going to talk about his rise to power. He didn't

have the typical, rise is not the word I'm looking

for there. He wasn't appointed as a king just

like anybody else would have been appointed as

a king. It happened in a little bit of a different

way because of the circumstances surrounding

the time. We're going to look then his wealth

and his power and his wisdom and what he, the

gifts that he was given. by God. And then finally,

I think we'd be remiss to not talk about Solomon's

utter failure, and we'll have to touch on that.

So we'll go from before he was born to when he

dies, or I guess technically after he dies. We'll

do that all tonight. If you want to grab your

Bible, most of these verses are in very close

order here in 2 Samuel 1 Kings or in one of the

Chronicles, and you can follow along. Originally,

I was going to make you do that through all these

verses and I chickened out this morning I put

all the verses in the PowerPoint if not most

of them and so If they're not on the PowerPoint,

I'm going to kind of just briefly Overview what

happened in those passages and you'll have to

take my word for it or go look go look in the

Bible for yourself All right So we got a lot

of verses to get through, so let's get going.

So in 2 Samuel, you're all very aware of this,

so that's why I decided you didn't need to see

these verses. In 2 Samuel chapter 11, in verse

2 Samuel 11 · chapter mention

number 2, David looks out and he sees Bathsheba.

And he sees her bathing on the roof, is what

it says, and he looks at her, and in these verses,

he calls, he sends for her, she comes to him,

and they conceive a child. all in like four verses

of time. And so they really just give you all

that information. Between there and the latter

part of that verse, as you probably well know,

and it's a little less known fact unless you've

gone through and read it, is that David... immediately

starts trying to cover that up, right? He doesn't

just send Uriah, which was Bathsheba's husband,

to the front lines of battle. We all know that.

We all remember that. But in between there, he

tries to cover it up. He tries to just bring

Uriah home from battle in an attempt so that

Uriah would end up thinking that it was Bathsheba

and his own child that she was going to have.

But that didn't work because... Uriah wouldn't

go and stay at home. He stayed outside because

he said his men had to be outside in battle.

He shouldn't just get to go home like that. And

so that didn't work. He thought, well, I'll just

send you to the front lines of battle. So David

sends Uriah to a position in battle that would

be considered certain death. And that turns out

to be the truth because Uriah dies. In verse

number 26, it says, when the wife of Uriah heard

that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she mourned

for her husband. And so Bathsheba learns that

Uriah got sent to the front lines, Uriah got

killed in battle, and she mourns for Uriah. And

now the very next verse, and when her mourning

was over, David sent and brought her to his house,

and she became his wife and bore him a son. But

the thing that David had done displeased the

Lord. And it's no wonder that David, what he

had done displeased the Lord. And we often, when

we think about this story, we look back and we

go, yeah, David committed adultery with Bathsheba.

Obviously, that's wrong. Obviously, God's displeased.

But it was all the things that surrounded that,

in addition just to committing adultery, that

obviously displeased the Lord. Trying to cover

that up by bringing your eye home. And then instead,

just essentially having him murdered by sending

him out to a place of certain death. Bathsheba

has a little time to mourn and as soon as she's

done mourning David takes her as his wife. And

so now Bathsheba and David are married and it

says they have the child finally. Okay now in

this next set of in this next chapter that child

that David and Bathsheba conceived He gets sick

once he's born and seven days after he's born,

this child dies because God was displeased with

him. God had that child get sick and die. Things

are going to move pretty quickly. In verse number

24, it says, then David comforted Bathsheba,

his wife, and went into her and lay with her.

So she bore a son and he called his name Solomon.

So that obviously passes over a year or so of

time, give or take. where they mourn the death

of this child, and then David and Bathsheba,

they conceive and they have another child. And

now this is our writer of Ecclesiastes, this

child. His name is Solomon. And it says immediately,

now the Lord loved him. The Lord loved him. And

he sent word by the hand of Nathan the prophet,

so he called his name Jedidiah. Because the Lord

and so now here Nathan the prophet comes in and

he gives him a name or a nickname or whatever

He says we're gonna I'm gonna call him Jedidiah

and You know the J kind of sounds like a Y a

lot of times and these words So it's probably

yet a dire or something and I only bring that

up because if we look at the Hebrew Definitions

in the Hebrew meanings for these names Solomon

it means peaceful the name that was given to

Solomon his it was it meant peaceful and that'll

come back around here in just a moment. The name

that Nathan gave them was Jedidiah, which means

beloved of Yah, which is just short for Yahweh,

beloved of God. Well, I'm not a Hebrew understander

or studier, but I can look pretty quick and it

says in the end of verse 24, now the Lord loved

him and it means Jedidiah means beloved of God.

Well, that works out pretty well. God loved him.

His name meant the beloved of God. That's pretty

simple. You're all Hebrew scholars now. Okay,

in 1 Chronicles chapter 22 and verse number eight,

1 Chronicles 22 · chapter mention

we see a little bit of why Solomon was loved

by God. In verse number eight, it says, but the

word of the Lord came to me saying, behold, and

this is David speaking, obviously God speaking

in, behold, a son shall be born to you who shall

be a man of rest. And I will give him rest from

all his enemies all around. His name shall be

Solomon. Now here's what God says to David about

Solomon. And we remember what the definition

for Jedidiah was, or what the meaning was. It

says, for I will give peace and quietness to

Israel in his days. Remember, Jedidiah, it meant,

well, Jedidiah meant beloved to God. Sorry, Solomon

meant peaceful. And now God says that in Solomon's

days and Solomon's reign he's going to give peace

and quietness to Israel And so I just I think

that's a little interesting point there to bring

out God says he shall build a house for my name

and he shall be my son and I will be his father

and I will establish the throne of his kingdom

over Israel forever I think I'm skipping ahead

a little bit here, but David wanted to build

God a temple David had decided he was gonna build

his temple for God, and now here that's some

of what God is referring to here, but he picks

out Solomon specifically. Several chapters later

says, and of all my sons, David's speaking again,

for the Lord has given me many sons. You have

a lot of sons when you have a lot of wives. He

has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne

of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. And so

here we see now again where Solomon is chosen

special. He's chosen as the beloved of God, chosen

as the favorite, if you will, of all of David's

sons. And he's going to sit on the throne of

the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. So God,

years in advance, specifies that Solomon ought

to be king after David. Now we're going to skip

forward a bit to 1 Kings chapter 1 and verse

1 Kings 1 · chapter mention

number 1. And this verse, if you go and read

it, it says something very short and very simple.

It says basically David got really old and he

couldn't stay warm. He was very cold. And I suppose

if you can't stay warm in Israel, you can't stay

warm anywhere. I don't know. He's getting pretty

old. He's getting pretty feeble. He's getting

to the point where he cannot adequately be the

king. He cannot adequately serve in that role

and do the things that a king ought to do is

kind of the gist of that. and they go and they

get him a concubine to come and to stay with

David here in his old age. This is what happens

in the first four verses. Alright, now very immediate

shift, very immediate important things start

happening in verse number five. Then Adonijah,

the son of Haggath, which was one of David's

wives, this is one of David's sons, exalted himself,

Adonijah, saying, I will be king. He knows that

his dad is getting old. He knows his dad's getting

feeble and unable to serve in the role of king.

And he looks and goes, this is my chance to be

king if I'm going to do it. And I assume he probably

knew that Solomon was going to be the chosen

one. I can only imagine. Maybe he didn't, maybe

he did, but he exalts himself saying, I will

be king. And he prepared for himself chariots

and horsemen and 50 men to run before him. And

his father had not rebuked him at any time by

saying, why have you done so? He was also very

good looking. His mother had born him after Absalom.

Here we see Adonijah has put together a coup,

if you will. He's got horsemen. He's got powerful

people. He's got some of David's servants on

his side, and he's put together this band of

people. And now he's trying to do that. He's

trying to get them on his side going, hey, you

come be with me. I'll be the king, and I'll make

sure you keep your job. And they probably don't

know what to do about that. And they decide to

side with Adonijah. Then he conferred with Joab,

the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar, the priest,

and they followed and helped Adonijah. Verse

number eight says, but Zadok the priest, Baniah

the son of Jehodah, Nathan the prophet, Shumay,

Ray, and the mighty men who belonged to David

were not with Adonijah. Skipping forward a little,

but he did not invite Nathan the prophet, Baniah,

or the mighty men, or Solomon, his brother. If

you're gonna throw a coup over a king or something,

there's probably all things that are in the How

to Overthrow a King for Dummies book is don't

get the people that are loyal to him in the room

with you. So he keeps Solomon out of it. He keeps

Nathan out of it. He keeps all these other people

out of it. He keeps some other folks in the room

that he thinks are going to help him. One of

those people was Joab. Joab was the commander

of David's army, thought to have been a mighty

man, a man with a lot of power. Abiathar was

one of the priests, a man with understandable

power and influence, if nothing else. Here we

have the run down there. David gets old, Adonijah

recruits some powerful people. David's son, Adonijah,

exalts himself as king. And so what's gonna happen

next? Obviously, nothing good can come of this.

Nothing good. In verse number 17, then she said,

this is speaking of Bathsheba now, I've skipped

ahead a little bit. Bathsheba goes in to David,

and here in just a minute, Nathan's going to

come in to David, and they're both going to say,

hey buddy, do you know what's going on out there?

Adonijah's trying to overthrow you and exalt

himself as king. She says to him, my Lord, you

swore by the Lord your God to your maidservant,

saying, assuredly Solomon your son shall reign

after me, and he shall sit on my throne. If y

'all know your Old Testament better than me,

show me, I assume you do even, but show me where

this verse is where David says that. And the

only ones I can come up with are those in First

1 Chronicles 22 · chapter mention

Chronicles chapter 22 and verse 28 that allude

to this where Solomon, rather, would follow David

as king. And it doesn't have to be written down.

Obviously, David made this... This oath he swore

this oath that Solomon would end up being king

and so that's what Bathsheba is going and reminding

David and Over these next 20 or so verses here

It's just dialogue between Bathsheba and David

Nathan comes in and wants to say all the same

things To David as well and what they finally

go and do is that they go and that they decide

they need to anoint right then and there well

not not there, they actually go to a different

location for some reason, and they anoint Solomon

as king. Verse 30 says, just as I swore to you

by the Lord God of Israel saying, assuredly Solomon

your son shall be king after me and he shall

sit on my throne in my place, says David, so

I certainly will do this day. Let their Zadok

the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him

Solomon king over Israel and blow the horn and

say long live King Solomon Then you shall come

up after him and he shall come it come and sit

on my throne And he shall be king in my place

for I have appointed him to be the ruler over

Israel and Judah Go out there and blow the horn

make a show Scream out that Solomon will live

forever, long live King Solomon and proclaim

that Solomon's the king because David's giving

him full power and full authority now and I want

you to let everybody know that Adonijah's not

king, Solomon's gonna be king. He's the rightful

ruler to this throne is what David sends out

for Zadok and for Nathan to go do and so that's

what they do. Now it gets a little awkward here.

It gets real awkward. Let's go back to the other,

kind of feels like election night when they're

throwing the party after they know they've won

the election or something. They got all their

buddies over there in the same room and that's

what's happening with Adonijah. He's got all

those powerful people. He got all those horsemen.

He's got all these people that were on his side

and they're in this big room together. Now Adonijah

and all the guests who are with him heard it

as they finished eating. They heard the horn

blowing. He heard them proclaiming that Solomon

was king. Then when Joab heard the sound of the

horn, he said, why is the city in such a noisy

uproar? They're wondering what's going on. They're

throwing a party in here for King Adonijah. When

outside, Solomon's becoming king. While he was

still speaking, there came Jonathan, the son

of Abathar, the priest. Bad time to walk in,

buddy. And Adonijah said to him, come in, for

you are a prominent man, and bring us good news.

I got some news for you, buddy You're not gonna

like it. It's actually gonna be the worst news

of your life And then Jonathan answered and said

to Adonijah. No our Lord King David has made

Solomon King He crushed his dreams. He ruined

his attempt to exalt himself as King. No David's

actually out just been outsider. He's had Nathan

and Zadok outside anointing Solomon as king,

and Adonijah is now not king. So all the guests

who are with Adonijah were afraid and arose,

and each one went his way. Now Adonijah was afraid

of Solomon, so he arose and went and took hold

of the horns of the altar. And it was told Solomon,

saying, Indeed, Adonijah is afraid of the king

Solomon, for, look, he has taken hold of the

horns of the altar, saying, Let king Solomon

swear to me today that he will not put his servant

to death with the sword. Then Solomon said, If

he proves himself a worthy man, not one hair

of him shall fall to the earth, but if wickedness

is found on him, he shall die. And so, obviously,

Adonijah's a little bit worried for his life

right now. He's just tried to overthrow the kingdom.

He's just tried to self -annoy himself over his

brother as king and it didn't work and Understandably,

he's a little bit worried that he's gonna get

put to death because he's basically commit treason

against the king is what he's done commit treason

against his dad and Solomon instead extends mercy

to him so King Solomon sent them to bring him

down from the altar and he came and fell down

before King Solomon and Solomon said to him Go

to your house. Just go home. Get out of my hair.

So I suppose Adonaja does that. Just a few verses

later now, Adonaja blows it. He had his chance

to live and he just absolutely couldn't stand

it. And so Adonaja now asks Bathsheba for whatever

reason. if she will ask Solomon, her son, if

he can have Abishag, which was David's concubine

from 1 Kings 1 and 1 in his old age. When it

said he was getting old and cold and they got

him a concubine, that was Abishag. And now, so

for whatever reason, Adonijah goes to Bathsheba

and ask if she'll go and ask Solomon if he can

have Abishag as his wife. And so, Bathsheba does

that. And we'll skip forward just a little bit

here, but we'll read a touch of it. And King

Solomon answered and said to his mother, to Bathsheba,

now why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for

Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also, for he

is my older brother. For him and for Abiathar

the priest and for Joab the son of Zeruiah. And

so, understandably a little bit, that kind of

ticks Solomon off. David's not dead at this point

either, by the way. He's still alive and his

son just asked for his concubine to be his wife.

So understandably that kind of upset Solomon

after Solomon just extended grace to Adonijah.

And it's gonna go downhill pretty quick for Adonijah.

Then King Solomon swore by the Lord saying, my

God do so to me and more also if Adonijah has

not spoken this word against his own life. Now,

therefore, as the Lord lives, who has confirmed

me and set me on the throne of David, my father,

and who has established a house for me, as he

promised, Adonijah shall be put to death today."

And in verse 25, he sins and has Adonijah killed.

So Adonijah could have probably lived out his

days in a decent position, but he goes behind

David's back. and tries to take one of his concubines

from him and that ends up getting him killed.

And I think there's some other significance to

this that I didn't feel comfortable, you know,

presenting publicly that I thought if you want

to talk about later we might could because I

don't know how historically accurate some of

that stuff is, but it's kind of interesting.

Okay, we can move on now. More about Solomon,

a little less about Adonijah now. Gideon the

Lord appeared to Solomon in the dream by night

and God said now this is after now Solomon he's

understandably the king no one's threatening

his right to the throne and in this dream now

Solomon or excuse me. Sorry not in the dream

in this in this instance now God appears to Solomon

He says ask what shall I give you? And here's

the part we all know about Solomon. God gives

him this opportunity. He'll give Solomon whatever

he wants. He's the beloved of the Lord. And he's

got favor with God. And verse number nine says,

therefore give to your servant, this is Solomon

speaking, an understanding heart to judge your

people, that I may discern between good and evil.

For who is able to judge this great people of

yours? This speech pleased the Lord that Solomon

had asked this thing. So, Solomon could have

asked for anything, and they talk about that

at the time. But instead, he just asked for wisdom.

Help me to know good from evil. Help me to know

right from wrong. Help me to do what I need to

do to serve your people and to be a good king,

the best king that he can be for them. And obviously,

a pure heart like that, an honest heart that

really just wants to serve, that pleases God.

It pleased God that Solomon had even asked that.

Okay. Now here's God's response now to Solomon

asking for that. I have also given you what you

have not asked both riches and honor So there

shall not be anyone like you among the Kings

all your days So if you walk in my ways to keep

my statutes and my commandments as your father

David walked Then I will lengthen your days Solomon

gets everything he asked for and then everything

else Could ask for the riches, but he didn't

so he God made him rich could have asked for

his enemies to be put away, could ask for a long

life. He didn't ask for that, so God's gonna

give him that. No one's gonna be as wise, no

one's gonna be as wealthy, no one's gonna be

as powerful for Solomon as long as Solomon lives.

God's just given him this promise that he's gonna

be the most powerful, wise, prominent person

as long as he's alive. What an incredible opportunity

now that Solomon's got, and he's got the wisdom

to go on top of it. Okay, in first Kings chapter

four and verse number nine, it says, in God gave

Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great and understanding

and largest of heart like the sand on the seashore.

Thus Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of

all the men of the East and all the wisdom of

Egypt. He spoke 3 ,000 Proverbs and his songs

were 1 ,005. Also, he spoke of trees from the

cedar. tree of Lebanon even to the hyssop that

springs out of the wall he spoke also of animals

of birds of creeping things of fish of and men

of all nations from all the kings of the earth

who had heard his wisdom came to hear him came

to hear rather the wisdom of Solomon and so here

we see that starting to play out the wisdom of

Solomon the things that he knew uh interesting

flex he knows all these things about animals

now he's a He's a biologist. He knows all how

these things work, which is maybe how he writes

the Proverbs, maybe how he writes some of the

things in Ecclesiastes, how he understands those

things. God gave him all those abilities. Now,

we'll just briefly go over probably the most

famous story, the most known thing about Solomon.

First, I wanted to read through these verse by

verse, but for Tom's sake now, we're just gonna

kinda... go over that really quickly because

I know I can tell a story in about 20 seconds

but essentially there's two women says that they

live in the same house they live in the same

place and they're both pregnant and they both

give birth one of the women her baby dies and

then the other woman her baby does not and now

they have a dispute the one whose baby died she

tried to take that baby from the mother whose

child was living and they have this dispute over

the baby And what are they gonna do? And so they

go before King Solomon. They know that he's wise.

They know that he'll have the answer. And Solomon

has a very interesting, but incredibly wise answer

to what they should do. And he says, that's fine.

We've got two mothers. We've got one baby. He

said, let's split it down the middle and we'll

give half of it to each of you. And you'll both

have a baby. And Solomon knew what was about

to happen. The one who's, it was actually the

mother. She says, no, no. Just give the baby

to her, because she'd rather see her own baby

go to somebody else than to see the child be

split in half and die. And Solomon says, OK,

you're the mother, give the baby to her. It's

like, ah, that's genius. And there's the wisdom

that was given to Solomon. What a credibly wise

and simple way to fix that dispute. So now we

can go back to 1 Chronicles, where we were reading

a little bit about this temple that David wanted

to build for God. David was getting in his old

age. At this point, I'd be honest with you, I'm

not sure if he's passed away or not. But he knows,

Solomon knows that he was charged to end up building

that temple now in the place of David. In verse

number 11, it says, then the word of the Lord

came to Solomon saying, concerning this temple

which you are building, if you walk in my statutes,

execute my judgments, keep all my commandments,

and walk in them, then I will perform my word

with you. which I spoke to your father David,

and I will dwell among the children of Israel

and will not forsake my people Israel." So Solomon

built the temple and finished it. God makes this

promise now to David and Solomon says, I'll build

the temple. I'll do it. So Solomon builds and

finishes this temple for God. In chapter eight,

it says, then Solomon spoke. The Lord said he

would dwell in the dark cloud. "'I have surely

built you an exalted house "'and a place for

you to dwell in forever.'" This magnificent,

incredible place built by the most wealthy man

in the world. He's built this temple now for

God. This guy who wants to serve God, who wants

to serve his people, who's got incredible largeness

of heart is how it's explained in 1 Kings. And

now he's built this temple for God. Second Chronicles.

rots this as well when Solomon had finished praying

fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt

offering and the sacrifices and the glory of

the Lord filled the temple and The priests could

not enter the house of the Lord because the glory

of the Lord had filled the Lord's house When

all the children of Israel saw how the fire came

down and the glory of the Lord on the temple

they bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement

and Worshipped and praised the Lord saying for

he is good for his mercy endures forever and

so Partly because of Solomon, Solomon had a hand

to play in the building of this temple where

people were able to come and see the glory of

God and they were able to bow down, they were

able to worship God and see his goodness and

see his mercy. What a wonderful thing, but the

most interesting, the coolest part of this passage

is back in, was it in verse number two? It says,

the priest could not enter the house of the Lord

because of the glory of the Lord had filled the

Lord's house. He built this magnificent place

and that the Lord wanted to fill where God wanted

to be and where God could dwell. And it's very

obvious that God had a lot of respect for this

temple that Solomon built. He had a lot of respect

for Solomon for building this magnificent temple

for him. Okay, now we'll read rather quickly

here. Another example of Solomon becoming extremely

wise. There's this queen, and I'm forgetting

her name now. I could guess it, but I'm forgetting

it's like Sheba or something. She says to the

king, it was a true report which I heard in my

own land about your words and your wisdom. However,

I did not believe the words until I came and

saw with mine own eyes and indeed the half was

not told me your wisdom and prosperity Exceed

the fame of which I heard this prominent this

powerful queen. She's heard all these stories

about Solomon So she wants to go and she wants

to see his wisdom. She shows up She it says in

verse two or three or so she she's got all these

questions to ask Solomon So she asked him all

his questions whenever she gets done. She goes

all the things I heard I didn't even hear half

of how wise you were and she's very impressed

with Solomon he is extremely wise he becomes

extremely wealthy says the weight of gold that

came to Solomon yearly was 666 talents of gold

Lot of gold besides that from the traveling merchants

from the income of traders from all the kings

of Arabia and from the governors of the country

and King Salman made 200 large shields of hammered

gold 600 shekels of gold went into each shield

He also made 300 shields of hammered gold three

Minas of gold which went into each seal shield

the king put them in the house of the forest

of Lebanon and there's Go read the chapter if

you want. There's a bunch of talk of all the

things that he made out of gold made a lot of

things out of gold or lined with gold All of

King Solomon's drinking vessels were gold, and

all the vessels of the house of the forest of

Lebanon were pure gold. Not one was silver, for

this was accounted as nothing in the days of

Solomon. He's got so much gold, who cares about

silver? For the king had merchant ships at sea

with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years,

the merchant ships came bringing gold, silver,

ivory, apes, and monkeys. So King Solomon surpassed

all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.

It's what God said. What's gonna happen? It comes

true. He becomes extremely powerful. At the end

of the day, that's what this means. When you

have all the wealth in the world, when you have

all the wisdom in the world, you become very

powerful. Now all the earth sought the presence

of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had

put in his heart. Imagine being the one guy on

earth and everybody wants to hear from you, because

you're so wise. And with that comes an insane,

amount of power, an un -understandable amount

of power. Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen.

He had 1 ,400 chariots and 12 ,000 horsemen whom

he stationed in the chariot cities and with the

king at Jerusalem. And this is why it's so important

for us to understand exactly how powerful Solomon

was, exactly how wealthy Solomon was, exactly

how wise Solomon was. When we do, it brings a

little bit more meaning now to the book of Ecclesiastes.

When Solomon's, we can know he's powerful, we

can know he's wealthy, we can know he's wise,

but to understand the extent. But unfortunately,

Solomon turns away from God. But King Solomon

loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter

of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites,

Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites, from the nations

of whom the Lord had said to the children of

Israel, you shall not enter Mary with them, nor

they with you. Surely they will turn away your

hearts after their gods. Solomon clung to these

in love. And he had 700 wives, princesses, and

300 concubines. And his wife turned away, his

wives rather, turned away his heart. For it was

so when Solomon was old that his wives turned

away, turned his heart after other gods. And

his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God,

as was the heart of his father's David. He's

got all the wisdom, he's got all the power, he's

got all the wealth. And yet he kept chasing after

other things. God warned him, don't do this.

Don't go intermarry with those people. And still

he was not as loyal as his father David. And

verse number six, it says Solomon did evil in

the sight of the Lord and did not fully follow

the Lord as did his father David. And when God

looks down at this person who at his birth, he

said was beloved by the beloved of Yahweh. When

he looked at this person who said was gonna bring

peace and quietness to the people, he looks at

him and now sees evil. And he did likewise for

all his foreign wives who burned incense and

sacrificed to their gods. He was just giving

them things and they asked for things and he

gave them. So the Lord became angry with Solomon

because his heart had turned from the Lord God

of Israel who had appeared to him twice. And

so with all the power, with all the wealth, with

all the wisdom. His story, his life, it ends

here in this sad, sour, tragic note as he turns

away from God. Now the Lord's gonna tell Solomon

his demise. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon,

because you have done this, because you've turned

from him, because you've went and got all these

wives I told you not to get, because you've listened

to them, because you are doing things for them.

I have and have not kept my covenant and my statutes

which I've commanded you remember the covenants

and the statutes he talked about there when he

was building the temple and asked said if you'll

if you'll follow him if you'll be obedient to

him he will give those to you he says you didn't

do those I will surely tear the kingdom away

from you and give it to your servant nevertheless

I will not do it in your days for the sake of

your father David I will tear it out of the hand

of your son However, I will not tear away the

whole kingdom I will give one tribe to your son

for the sake of my servant David for the sake

of Jerusalem which I have chosen and so here's

His demise now the rest of the acts of Solomon

all that he did and his wisdom are they not written

in the book of the acts of Solomon and The period

that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel

was 40 which seems like a really pathetic amount

of time to rule for someone with that much power,

with that much wisdom, and with that much wealth.

Then Solomon rested with his fathers and was

buried in the city of David his father, and Rehoboam

his son reigned in his place. Maybe that'll go

better than Solomon's reign, I don't know. We'll

have to find out next time. And so there's the

life of Solomon. All the power. all the prominence,

all the wisdom to come crashing down in failure.

So I wanna close, next time we'll start getting

into the book of Ecclesiastes finally and examining

his writings there. But I wanna go look at two

of the things that he says in that book. In chapter

five and verse number 10, Solomon says, he who

loves silver will not be satisfied with silver,

nor he who loves abundance with increase. This

also is vanity. And that's kind of the gist of

a lot of the book. of Ecclesiastes. We have all

these things in life that we want, that we desire,

that we chase after, that we try to have more

and more money, we try to have more and more

fun, we try to have more and more hobbies, and

we try to fulfill ourselves in these hobbies.

And here's this guy who had it all, and he says,

that's vanity, that's emptiness, that's meaningless

to live your life that way. And if we can't believe

that from anybody, except one person that might

just be Solomon. He had everything he could want.

Even he goes against his wisdom that he says,

if there's something you want in life, in this

world we live in, you're not gonna be satisfied

with it at the end of the day. He had hundreds

and hundreds of wives and concubines, wasn't

enough, they turned him away from God. And maybe

that silver for you today, you can have all the

silver you want, it's never gonna be enough,

it's never gonna satisfy you. It can all go away.

It can all be taken from you. If that's just

downtime or whatever that is, it can all be taken

away. Solomon gives some of the best advice and

wisdom at the very end of his book. Let us hear

the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God

and keep His commandments. For this is man's

all. For God will bring every work into judgment,

including every secret thing, whether good or

evil. At the end of the day, Solomon's greatest

advice of wisdom is forget about everything else

in life. Go and live your life. Go have some

fun every now and then. But whenever you chase

after it, you're never going to be satisfied.

You're never going to be satisfied. What you

can be satisfied in is fearing God and keeping

His commandments. If the church can help you

with something this evening. Thank you for listening

to today's sermon from the Church of Christ Wheeler

area. We hope this message encouraged you and

strengthened you in your faith this week. Don't

forget the doors always open at 1500 South Allen

L. Bean Boulevard at 1030 a .m. on Sundays, 230

p .m. on Sunday afternoons, and recharge with

us midweek on Wednesdays at 7 p .m. For more

information or to hear past messages, follow

us on your favorite podcast platform. Look us

up on Facebook and Instagram. We hope you have

a blessed week, and we'll see you next time.