Do You Want To Start Personal Life Change: Devotional
Studies In The Book Of Proverbs?
How Did Solomon Ruin His Life?
Lesson 4
Part 2
One last verse about Solomon, 1 Kings 10:23-24. “So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the Earth
in riches and wisdom.” It doesn’t stop there. Verse 24 says, “all the Earth sought the presence of Solomon to
hear his wisdom,” listen, “which God had put in his heart.”
23 So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom.
24 And all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.
Solomon was a testament to the greatness of God and the world came to hear him.
That’s why I say in your text there, God gives us a context for the book of Proverbs.
Think of sitting behind these books and seeing what was going on in the book of Proverbs.
Now, remember Solomon wrote three books. He wrote the Song of Solomon probably when he was young.
Oh now, if I was teaching song of Solomon, what a beautiful story, the thumbnail is this.
Solomon in all of his wealth had bought many farms and vineyards. He had a vineyard that was very
special and one day he went to his vineyard undercover. He didn’t wear his king outfit. He didn’t ride up in
his chariot. He just walked over there and actually started working. Now he owned it and the owner knew the
vineyard. His manager knew he was Solomon, but the workers didn’t know him. Because they didn’t have Facebook,
they didn’t have the internet, they couldn’t look up his picture. So, normal Solomon walks in as a worker, the
manager didn’t give him away, and he’s across the vineyard working from this young lady who he was interested in.
They worked together trimming and tying the vines and getting to know each other. They fall in love and she
commits her heart to him to marry him. They get engaged and then when she comes to see him just before their
wedding, he’s gone. The whole Song of Solomon is this lament and she’s saying, oh no, he’s gone. I don’t know
what to do. My heart is broken and all that. Then it ends in the last chapter of Song of Solomon with this
chariot coming. The manager says, the King is coming, and all the workers line up. They bow before the king
and the king gets off his chariot in his armor, wearing all of his finery. He walks right over to the workers
and stands right in front of her. She’s looking down and the King says, hello. She jerks her head up and looks
at him and she says, it’s you. That’s what the Song of Solomon is about. It’s about a theology of love. What
marital love should be like. Spiritually what our engagement to Christ should be like and how much we should
love him.
From the peak of his life, Solomon wrote Proverbs.
From the end of his life, he wrote Ecclesiastes.
What we’re sure about, the backdrop for Proverbs is the vast reputation that Solomon had for wealth and wisdom.
So, he can speak on this topic because God inspired him. His fleets of boats were known to ports all over the
world. The scriptures tell us that his boats regularly came in bringing gold and precious wood and animals from
tropical places that were exotic. Also, his commercial enterprises brought the goods of the world on caravans
to his doorstep.
Solomon’s three books have risen from the three stages of his life.
God inspired the song of Solomon from the young man in love.
God inspired Proverbs from the wisdom of a mature man at his zenith.
God inspired Ecclesiastes from an old and bitter man looking back on his wasted opportunities.
Why was he old and bitter? Because he didn’t select his friends God’s way. He ruined his life and he neglected
to heed God’s path of wisdom.
The Text reminds us the wisdom that God offers, that Solomon neglected to obey was at a crucial time.
Now look in your Bibles, let me explain this to you. 1 Kings chapter 1. Remember, the only way to properly
interpret any book of the Bible is to understand the context. The historical context. The context is contained
in, who God was sending that message to. The original recipients. Do you remember? We covered that in class one.
Proverbs were sent to, the recipient, Solomon at this time in his life when he was, look at
1 Kings 1:38
It says,
So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites, and
the Pelethites, went down, and caused Solomon to ride upon king David’s mule, and brought him to Gihon.
And they blew the horn, and all the people said, ‘long live King
Solomon!’ “
The wisdom God offered Solomon was neglected when he became King. Why? What was Solomon supposed to do?
God had given him a road to lifelong usefulness. Now, let me explain to you really quickly
what that means, we’re going to see in Deuteronomy 17. So, take your Bibles, and I want to show you what Solomon
was supposed to do on that day, he was anointed to be King. He was supposed to start something. Deuteronomy 17:18
says,
“And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of
this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:”
Who are we talking about? The king. Back up to
Deuteronomy 17:14.
“When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it,
and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations
that are about me;”
Verse 15, “you should surely set a king over you.”
Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: one from among
thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.
So, Solomon was set over as a king. Verse 15 says don’t set him as a foreigner.
Verse 16,
But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he
should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.
The King, should not multiply horses.
Verse 17,
Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to
himself silver and gold.
He shall not multiply wives, lest you turn his heart away. Nor shall he greatly
multiply silver and gold.
How is Solomon supposed to know all these things? Here’s the pathway to God’s usefulness, look at verse 18
And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law
in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:
“and it shall be when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a
book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. And it…” that’s his copy, he makes, “shall be with him,
and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God and careful to observe.”
Whoa. How did Solomon ruin his life? One big obvious element is he didn’t select friends God’s way. But why didn’t
he select friends God’s way? Because he didn’t heed God’s path of wisdom. What’s God’s path of wisdom? He had an
assignment here. Let me just go through this assignment.
A skilled scribe who was at his peak, could copy the words of a page in two to three hours. If everything was set
for him. Now I’m talking about in the time of Solomon. If he had ink and paper and pen and a reader to read it
to him, he would copy it down. Now, back to your Bibles, what does it say?
In verse 18,
And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a
book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:
When he sits on the throne,
he writes a copy of this law. What law is he talking about? He’s talking about the Pentateuch;
he’s talking about the first five books of the Bible.
Now for a moment, take in your hands, your Bible, and get Genesis to Deuteronomy right there. See here’s the Bible
and look at that much. In my Bible, it’s 194 pages of the 1100. So, it’s 200 pages of a thousand. It’s a fifth,
almost, of the Bible. The Pentateuch has 5,852 versus nearly 160,000 words. At normal
speed it would take a minimum of 900 hours to hand copy the Hebrew letters with ink and a quill onto an animal
skin or parchment. That would be six months of work nonstop at eight hours a day.
192 pages, that’s the Pentateuch, 5,852 versus, 160,000 words, 900 hours of work, or
six months, of eight-hour days.
God ask every King of Israel to do something. As soon as he sat down on the throne. He asked him to do
something very hard. He asked them to devote themselves to hand copying 192 pages of the Bible and
having that personal copy sitting next to them on the throne.
Deuteronomy 17:14-17, before this command to copy, would have been something Solomon
would have had to have copied over. It says when you’re King don’t multiply horses. Don’t multiply wives. Don’t
multiply gold and silver. Let me just ask you, even someone that has a very cursory knowledge of Solomon’s life,
what was it was he known for? He was known for having chariot cities, thousands of horses. He was known for having
a thousand wives. How many wives do most people have? Either zero or one. The majority of people throughout all
history have either not been married or had one, the vast majority. Salomon had a thousand. Gold and silver, he
had more gold than anyone has ever amassed in history. Silver was as common as gravel it says during his reign.
Wow. He would have noted those three direct commands of God, if he would have look at this, if he would have
heeded God’s path of wisdom.
What was God’s path of wisdom? Look at the next slide. This is what the Lord said. God says I have a pathway for
you in Deuteronomy 17:18-20.
God’s pathway:
Number one, God must become your personal pursuit. Notice what it says in verse 18, “that he shall write for
himself…” Wow, “a copy of this law.” It’s a personal pursuit.
Number two, pursuing God would be inconvenient. It says in verse 18, “from the one before the priests, the
Levites.” Now, just think for a minute what that means. This isn’t something someone could do in his robe and
slippers. He couldn’t just sit there with the fire going in his fireplace, eating breakfast, and sitting in bed
and copying this thing. He had to get up, get ready to get dressed, and make a trip from his palace to the tent
outside of town where the tabernacle was and where the scrolls of the Pentateuch was. The priests would have to
get them out of the chest. The priests would have to lay them on a table. There was only one copy. They were very,
very special, and important, and revered. He had to sit there as the priests were watching him, eight hours a day,
five days a week for six months and hand copy for himself.
Look pursuing God will be inconvenient to your life. It was especially for Solomon.
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“Only one life to live and soon is past
Only what’s done for Christ will last!”
Hoping to make the time I have left count for the glory of God.
Do You Want To Start Personal Life Change: Devotional