Becoming Wise All Over Again

Solomon is inviting us. Gather around in this assembly. I'm an old man. You're going to have to listen up.

I can't talk very loud, but Solomon's going to open up his heart. There aren't any platitudes in here. There are no easy answers.

There's no quick fix. There's no guarantee that when you're missing pieces that somehow it will still come together. There's no sense here as he looks at life under the sun that there's some kind of guarantee to make sure everything is making sense because he will say, sometimes it doesn't. In a life full of soaring achievements and deep valleys, Solomon experienced it all. From a wise king to a man who lost his way, Solomon ultimately returned to the source of true wisdom. His book of Ecclesiastes is his heartfelt message to us.

Remember your Creator while there's still time. Like a pilot who trusts his instrument panel in the darkness, Solomon urges us to rely on God's truth to navigate a world often clouded with confusion and disillusionment. Today on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen opens up Ecclesiastes and invites you to learn from Solomon's wisdom. If there was ever a man who knew better than to fly by the seat of his pants, by his own intuition, depending on himself rather than the instrument panel of God's revealed truth and guidance, it was a man by the name of Solomon. If you're old enough in the faith, you remember that Solomon's life is quite an amazing flight, isn't it? It reaches incredible heights.

It is stratospheric in its accomplishments, but you also know that it was a flight that nearly ended in a fatal collision. Since you might be younger in the faith, and I don't want to assume too much as we begin to study this new book together, let me review some of the moments from his life that set the stage. You may know enough or it may be new to you that Solomon is the son of David and Bathsheba.

That would be another sermon or two or three. But he's destined for the throne of Israel from the beginning of his life. Now as Solomon is growing up, David is conquering all the neighboring kingdoms to ensure there will be a safe kingdom for Solomon in which to reign. He's also — David has gathered all the material for the greatest building project Israel has ever attempted. They will build the temple where this will become the centerpiece of worship for the nation in Jerusalem as they worship the one true and living God. Near the end of David's life, Solomon is crowned king of Israel, and it really couldn't have been a more perfect take-off.

Talk about set up. Then in 1 Kings chapter 3, if that isn't enough, it records an event that has never occurred before in human history and it hasn't occurred since. God appears to Solomon in a dream and says to him, make a wish and I'll make it come true. You have one wish. Whatever you wish, I'll grant it. Now you know if you're a kid and you're playing this game, you take that one wish and you wish for three wishes, right? This isn't the game.

This is the real deal. This isn't Aladdin. This isn't the genie. You get one wish and I'm going to fulfill it. And really to the surprise of the world around him, and frankly if we admit it, we would be surprised.

I'm not sure we would write this in on a blank check. But instead of writing in words like riches, fame, power, invincibility, health, he writes in the word wisdom. Wisdom. God responds and the record of the kings includes these words and it pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this and God said to him because you've not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but you've asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold I now do according to your word. I'm going to grant you your wish. I'm going to give you a wise and discerning mind.

And that's great, isn't it? I mean God says I'm going to give you your wish for wisdom and discernment because you didn't ask for riches or long life or invincibility, but then it gets even better because God isn't finished yet. He says in the next verse, I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor so that no other king shall compare with you all your days. Solomon's going to get the whole truckload. He's going to get it all.

He is in, he is set up for the ride of his life and off he soars. During his reign early on, Solomon will write the Song of Solomon, a passionate love story, but at the same time the compromise begins and he distorts love and marriage. He begins marrying the daughters of kings. We're told that Solomon will end up marrying 700 princesses. These are daughters of neighboring kings.

They're just pawns in his attempt to build military alliances. 1 Kings 11 gives the detail. The most prominent princess of all happens to be the daughter of Pharaoh, which would have been the most insulting thing you probably could have done to God. He had redeemed them.

He'd rescued them. Egypt was nothing to fear and yet Solomon says I'm going to make an alliance and marry one of the kings, one of the Pharaoh's daughters. During his middle years, Solomon is collecting Proverbs. He's experimenting. He's building. He's doing anything his heart desires and he collects what we call the Book of Proverbs, many of them written by his own hand. The trouble is, again, while collecting and writing Proverbs of wisdom, he is at the same time defying wisdom. It's clear that he's taken his eyes off the instrument panel.

He's upside down. For example, it'll take him seven years to build that glorious temple. I mean it's literally coated in gold. Seven years to build it. He'll spend 13 on his own house.

We can't imagine the opulence and magnitude of his own palace. He's collecting horses and chariots. They're symbols of military power.

The Lord specifically forbade any Israelite king to collect them. Why? He wants them to trust in him, not the latest arsenal, not the latest weapon. In fact, Solomon is convinced and committed to this. He's going to breed them. He even sells them.

The foolishness. He sells them to Hittites and to the Syrians so that later on, by the way, if you study the record of his life, they can use those weapons and come and assault Israel. He built cities to manage all the horses and chariots. How could he become so foolish? In the meantime, he's unsatisfied with everything along with his 700 wives. He starts collecting a harem of 300 concubines, or as one little boy mispronounced it, 300 cucumber vines, which I think is perfect because they did indeed tangle him up and trip him up. He's marrying on average 17 princesses a year and adding a concubine to his harem one every other month.

Not only is it incredibly selfish and destructive in ruining all their lives, it is spiritually suicidal. In fact, God had warned him of what it could mean for him spiritually in 1 Kings. God warns they will surely turn your heart away after their gods. Next phrase reads, Solomon held fast to these in love. I don't care what God says. I'm going to hold fast.

I'm going to stay this course even though it is one of defiance. He held fast. In other words, he didn't just marry them. He flaunted them. He paraded them. Then you hear other construction programs taking place on a hill east of the city of David, on a hill that will be known as the hill of shame where he is going to build for them shrines to their false gods and goddesses. And you think, how could he go that far? It's obvious he's upside down. He's lost track of where he's been, who he is, who God is, where he should be going.

He's racing toward a fatal collision and catastrophe. And maybe that's where you are today. And maybe you're hearing my voice, but it's a distant voice because your mind is wrestling. You're weighing options. You're considering a decision that might be nothing less than defiance.

I know God says this, but for you, perhaps today is the crossroads and you're going to decide which direction you're going to go. God has brought you here today to hear from an old man named Solomon, why you don't want to go that way. Solomon slides into his later years a man without any distinction really, more a character.

He's grown to be known for his taxation, his oppression of his people. Then the surprising news is discovered that somewhere, somehow something happens in Solomon's life. Though his heart had grown cold and defiant, but we're not sure exactly when or how. We're not even given the details, but as an old man, his heart is rekindled toward God. My guess is it's the same thing that I've seen many times over in a person's perspective, causing them to ask questions.

Often it's a life-threatening disease, some tragedy, or maybe just old age where a person comes to realize there's not much ahead compared to behind, not much time left. Reminds me of a man I knew, I would invite him to church. I would see him maybe once every year or so, never had come to Colonial. And I had shared the Gospel, he wasn't interested, but when I'd see him I'd invite him to church and he'd always laugh and he would say, Stephen, Sunday is easily the most beautiful day of the week, it's my day off, why would I ruin it by going to church? Then he got cancer. By the time they discovered the cancer, it was in the last stage and beyond. In fact, he was told he didn't have much time left if the treatments wouldn't work and the treatments evidently didn't work and that's when he contacted me and asked me to come over.

I did. I went to visit a man who was no longer brave. He'd been stopped in his tracks and all of a sudden he was very interested in the instrument panel. It was a delight to spend time with him that afternoon explaining to him the Gospel that he didn't know and then to see him with tears running down his cheeks, repenting of his pride and his sin and casting himself upon the mercy of Jesus whom he knew he would stand before very soon. I never saw such growth, frankly, hunger, even though a few months later he would die.

God in his mercy made that man sick with just enough time to make him think. Solomon is now an old man and from the clues we pick up in his journal, he's completed his building projects, he's grown bored with his possessions, he's finished his collection of Proverbs, his body is now bent with age. Maybe it's his physician who's come along and said, Solomon, nobody else is going to tell you this but I need to tell you you don't have much time left.

Whatever. We don't know when or how that brought him to write this closing message to his family and his nation and at times specifically to his son. What we do know is that Solomon comes to the end of his life and refocuses on the instrument panel of divine instruction. I would agree with conservative commentaries and commentators, including beloved Matthew Henry who wrote 300 years ago that at the end of Solomon's life, from what we can gather in the book we're going to study together, he recognized his sin, he repents, he sees the danger, the collision just ahead and just in time pulls up. Now if we put the clues together and we will, Solomon's third and final book of wisdom literature is written during these last days and I think frankly it's a matter of days.

It could be hours. We call it the book of Ecclesiastes so if you haven't already, unstick the pages and turn to Ecclesiastes, the book we usually skip on our way to either Psalms or Proverbs. This is a book of wisdom, the wisdom genre. It includes wise sayings, poems, riddles, problems, a little philosophy and I'll tell you ahead of time and I spent an inordinate amount of time just reading just to get a grip on not only this book but then what others were saying about it and it's interesting to me that there are many people out there that think Ecclesiastes is a waste of time. I mean think about it, how often have you had a series of messages from the book of Ecclesiastes?

This is my first time. I mean isn't this kind of a rambling book from a bitter old man? Right? You get to verse 2 and it's everything's empty, emptiness of emptiness, everything's empty, meaninglessness of meaninglessness, everything is meaningless so why read further?

Right? Okay, thank you. I won't waste my time. Well it isn't a waste of time. It's interesting the rabbis in the early centuries debated whether or not this Bible should remain in the canon of Scripture. You know sometimes you get the best advice from someone who knows they don't have much time left to live.

We'll learn that together. Now you look at the title at the top of the page, you'll notice obviously Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes to save you all of the heartburn of the history of this word. It's simply a Greek term for someone who is convening, we could render it that way, or creating an assembly.

He's gathering an assembly. In fact if you look at the title you can see in the first part of it the word ecclesia or ecclesia. That's the New Testament word translated church.

There's not a church here in Israel but there certainly is an assembly and that's what the word means, gathering, assembly. And he's gathering them to hear a message. So the title is essentially an invitation to gather. You might even write underneath the title the words gather around.

Or if you're from the deep south you all gather. It'll mean the same thing. You just write something up there that reminds you Solomon is inviting us to gather around and to hear his final message. Now the Hebrew equivalent of Ecclesiastes is kohelet. That's translated in verse one and several times throughout the book as simply the preacher. The one who is gathering the assembly together to deliver a message, a sermon, a lecture, and it's translated in my text as the one who will do the preaching. He's the one calling this assembly. So you can think ahead of time as Ecclesiastes as perhaps a sermon, or maybe a last will and testament, or a memoir, or an autobiography.

Frankly I believe it's all of them and more. Now in verse one we're given an introduction to the author of this sermon. We read in verse one the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Now if you look directly across the page at verse 12 Solomon adds I the preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

That is it's a united nation. The capital is Jerusalem and he's reigning there. You could translate this I have been and I still am king over Israel in Jerusalem. Solomon is the only son of David who reigned over a united kingdom after David in Jerusalem. After Solomon dies the nation is divided which leads me to believe that indeed this is Solomon who is the author even though he refers to himself often sometimes even in the third person as the one doing the preaching. So this is an autobiography.

This is the personal testimony of Solomon. Now I want to stop at that superscription and tell you that in order to understand this sermon you can't start at the beginning. Again like I said you get into the next verse and everything's meaningless. And he talks about the meaninglessness of life under the sun and then it's sort of like well why bother this is evidently just a cynical old man who has nothing more to do than write something.

So we're not going to do any more study. Well that that's true if you start at the beginning. This is one of the few books where we're given the purpose statement of why it was written that helps clear up everything in between. So let's start at the conclusion. Chapter 12.

Go there. Chapter 12. Solomon begins to tell us clearly why this was written. You'll notice in verse 1 maybe this is the one verse you've heard a sermon on and we'll get there and do a sermon but let me just let me just touch on it. He writes remember also your creator in the days of your youth.

A stop of them. That's significant. Remember your creator.

It's as if to say I forgot him. Don't be like me. Don't do as I did do as I say now. Don't learn by experience.

I've had all the experience anybody would ever want. Remember your creator. Don't be like me. I'd forgotten God.

Remember him. In fact I hear in this the hint remember you are created. You're not an animal. You're not an accident. You're created by a designer who has designs for you.

Even when those designs don't seem to draw much of a picture. Remember you're crafted by creator God. Crafted so that you uniquely as a human being by faith in his son can relate to him. Can worship him. Can walk with him. Can look forward one day to living with him.

And that day will never end. See Solomon is wrapping this sermon up by essentially saying without him there is no meaning in life under the sun. See you don't want to get your perspective under the sun. You want to get your perspective of life under the sun by something above the sun. Remember your creator.

That will give meaning to the toil. And get this old Solomon is saying here don't forget God when? In the days of your youth. When you're taking off. When you got the world by the tail. When everything's in front of you.

You've had a smooth take off. Remember God then. You happen to be flying into a culture that's darkened and growing darker by the minute.

It's not going to give you any help. No beam of light. No horizon of absolute.

You're going to think that you're right side up and you're upside down when you're taking off. Make sure you keep note of the instrument panel of divine truth. If you go over to the very end then of chapter 12 he says this. Okay here's the end of the matter. I've written everything I've written but just in case you've missed it and by the way he'll remind us throughout this memoir.

Here's the end of it. After everything's been heard. Fear God. That refers to a trusting relationship with God. Fear God and keep his commandments. Obey the word of God.

And there's a volume of misery and woe in that. Why? Because he forgot it. Defied it. Ignored it. Now keep it. Follow it. This is the sum and substance of your life.

Without it you're just toiling under the sun. Solomon is inviting us. Gather around in this assembly.

I'm an old man. You're going to have to listen up. I can't talk very loudly but I could summarize his sermon with the right perspective. Solomon is wanting to sit us down and I believe you're sitting here by the invitation of God to hear from him at the very outset. Solomon's going to open up his heart. He's going to empty his soul and there are people maybe there are some in here who aren't going to like it.

Who can't handle it. There aren't any platitudes in here. There are no easy answers.

There's no quick fix. There's no guarantee that when you're missing pieces that somehow it'll still come together. There's no sense here as he looks at life under the sun that there's some kind of guarantee to make sure everything is making sense because he will say sometimes it doesn't. Can you handle that?

Can you wait? Can you trust? Solomon is going to say, listen I want you to remember even when life is confusing and it seems futile and meaningless and terribly repetitious, there is a creator God who has designs for you. Even when his plans for your life at times seem mysterious, maybe even unfair, God has a plan in mind. Even when all the world is black as night, offers no hint of help or mercy or light. Trust him.

Trust him. In the meantime, Solomon is going to drive home the point that what you do is not the primary question of life, especially for the believer. The primary question is to whom do you belong? It's not what you do. It's to whom you belong.

It isn't what you've experienced or what you do. That is the sum and substance of life. It is to whom you belong and Solomon then is gathering us around and we discover a man who was once wise, who became foolish, and in his last days, I'm glad to tell you, he became wise once again. You know that because once again, the most important aspect of his life is going to be being related to creator God.

That was Stephen Davey and this is Wisdom for the Heart. Solomon's life reminds us that wisdom isn't about what we achieve, but about who we belong to. The trials, achievements, and regrets he shares are not just personal, they're universal. Whether you're at the start or nearing the end of your journey, Solomon's words echo with a timeless challenge, stay grounded in God's truth. Today's message was the first in a series entitled Finding Meaning Under the Sun. Stephen will be working through the opening section of Ecclesiastes in this series. Sign up for Friends of Wisdom and get free resources from Stephen. Each Tuesday you'll receive an email with encouragement, answers to Bible questions, or insights into applying God's Word. You'll also get two free booklets, Blessed Assurance and The Coming Tribulation. Visit wisdomonline.org forward slash friends and join today. I hope you do and I hope you'll be back next time on Wisdom for the Heart.