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Wrestling With Wisdom
September 22, 1996
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 1 and 2
Prayer:
Introduction:
/ In the Q&A section of InfoWorld was an interview with George Morrow of Morrow Systems (computers).
He observes: /
/ "An article in the Harvard Business Review called 'Market Myopia' talked about how some people didn't understand what business they were in.
For example, the railroad people didn't realize they were in the transportation business; they thought they were in the railroad business.
Had they realized they were in the transportation business they would have invested in the airplane.
The telegraph people thought they were in the telegraph business instead of the communications business.
In 1886 or so, they could have bought all the telephone patents for $40,000.
So obviously these people didn't know what business they were in."
/
At the Peter Lowe Success Seminar on Thursday, I heard Larry King, talk show host and comedian, teach with a subtle finesse that didn’t come around and hit me until later.
His story about his speaking engagement with the Rotary Club was a tremendous illustration about this truth.
(Explain: “The merchant marine has no future!”)
Solomon was given a tremendous gift of wisdom by God.
But it took a lifetime for him to discover the real meaning of the gift he was given - that is, for him to discover what business he was in - what it was that held a future.
He wrestled with this gift just like we might observe a national championship wrestling match.
He wrestled with all the implications of whether his gift was ultimately to serve himself or the God who gave it.
Let’s start at the beginning of the story about the man whom God appointed as David’s successor - the man who, in Ecclesiates, identified himself as “The Teacher.”
Let us see what he has to tell us who also teach - as well as learn.
\\ God promises to bless David’s descendant(s):
*2Sam.
7:12 When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom.*
*13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.*
*14 I will be his father, and he will be my son.
When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men.*
This son whom God chooses to bless is Solomon, the fruit of David’s repentance from adultery:
*2Sam.
12:24 Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her.
She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon.
The LORD loved him;*
*25 and because the LORD loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah.*
* *
David prepared for the work Solomon would do:
*1Chron.
22:5 David said, "My son Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the LORD should be of great magnificence and fame and splendor in the sight of all the nations.
Therefore I will make preparations for it."
So David made extensive preparations before his death.*
* *
David gives Solomon his call and direction:
*1Chron.
22:11 "Now, my son, the LORD be with you, and may you have success and build the house of the LORD your God, as he said you would.*
*12 May the LORD give you discretion and understanding when he puts you in command over Israel, so that you may keep the law of the LORD your God.*
*13 Then you will have success if you are careful to observe the decrees and laws that the LORD gave Moses for Israel.
Be strong and courageous.
Do not be afraid or discouraged.*
* *
David has Solomon anointed as king:
*1Kings 1:34 There have Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him king over Israel.
Blow the trumpet and shout, 'Long live King Solomon!'*
*35 Then you are to go up with him, and he is to come and sit on my throne and reign in my place.
I have appointed him ruler over Israel and Judah."*
\\ *1Kings 2:10 Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David.*
*11 He had reigned forty years over Israel-- seven years in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem.*
*12 ¶ So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his rule was firmly established.*
* *
Solomon asks God for wisdom (but not for the heart for God that David had):
*1Kings 3:6 Solomon answered, "You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart.
You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.*
*7 "Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David.
But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties.*
*8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number.*
*9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.
For who is able to govern this great people of yours?"*
*10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.*
*11 So God said to him, "Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice,*
*12 I will do what you have asked.
I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.*
*13 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for-- both riches and honor-- so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings.*
* *
Solomon displays wisdom:
*1Kings 3:28 When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice.*
But Solomon does not always display the faithful, righteous and upright heart of his father David as he wrestles with his gift of worldly wisdom in the arena of fallen humanity, especially his own:
Solomon involved himself in improper relationships:
*1Kings 3:1 ¶ Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt and married his daughter.
He brought her to the City of David until he finished building his palace and the temple of the LORD, and the wall around Jerusalem.*
\\ *1Kings 11:1 ¶ King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter-- Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites.*
*2 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.*
*3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.*
*4 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.*
*5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites.*
*6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done.*
* *
Solomon involved himself in improper worship:
*1Kings 3:2 The people, however, were still sacrificing at the high places, because a temple had not yet been built for the Name of the LORD.*
*3 Solomon showed his love for the LORD by walking according to the statutes of his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.*
* *
*1Kings 11:7 On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites.*
*8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.*
*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.*
*10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD's command.*
* *
Solomon involved himself in improper possessions:
*1Kings 4:26 Solomon had four thousand stalls for chariot horses, and twelve thousand horses.*
*1Kings 10:26 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.*
*27 The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills.*
*28 Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt and from Kue--the royal merchants purchased them from Kue.*
\\ All this in spite of God’s instructions:
*Deut.
17:16 The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, "You are not to go back that way again."*
*17 He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray.
He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.*
*18 When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites.*
*19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees*
*20 and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left.
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