Solomon - The Unhappy Billionaire
Who Tried Unsuccessfully to Be Happy
By Bob Marcaurelle bmarcaurelle@charter.net
“The Lord highly exalted Solomon in the sight of all Israel and bestowed on him royal splendor such as no king over Israel ever had before /
God was with him and made him great.” (1 Chronicles 29:23, 2 Chronicles 1:1) /
“I hated life, because the work that is
done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for.”
(Ecclesiastes 3:17, 18)
The treasures of heaven and earth were laid at Solomon’s feet. But because he turned his back on God to love wealth and wicked women, he lived and died a cynical, bitter, unhappy man, comparing life to a dog chasing his tail.
From 962 to 922 B.C. he ruled over one of the most glorious kingdoms in the history of the world. Jesus Christ himself paid tribute to this fact when He compared Solomon’s glory to the beauty of the God-created flower (Luke 12:27) and Solomon’s wisdom to His own (Matthew 12:42).
With his mining (1 Kings 10:22); his merchant ships (1 Kings 4:7-28); his lavish gifts from others (1 Kings 10:1-13); and his trade alliances (1 Kings 9:26-28); he could buy Bill Gates with pocket change. His emptiness was not born of temporary depression, spoken under the shadow of some great tragedy; but was the settled, deliberate, well-thought-out cynicism of a man who had traveled the wrong roads.
A. THE PATH OF WISDOM
(1 Kings 3:3-9; 4:29-34
Ecclesiastes 1:17-18; 12:12)
When God made him king, he did the right thing and went to church; and when God handed him a blank check, he did the right thing again and asked for wisdom (1 Kings 3:5).
From his mind came 1005 songs and over 3,000 proverbs. People came from everywhere to learn from him (4:34). He traveled the earth gathering its secrets and unlocking its philosophical treasures. His wisdom, the Bible says, surpassed the wisdom of all the people (4:30).
He said, “I perceived that this also is but a striving after the wind. For in much wisdom there is much trouble and the more you know the more it hurts” (Ecclesiastes 1:17,18).
We have put men on the moon and are scratching Mars. But with full minds our souls are empty. Billy Graham says one reason college students turn to drugs and sex is that our universities lead them to believe God doesn’t matter and their textbooks don’t touch their deepest needs.
And while we love the mysteries of our universe, the soul longs for the tree of life that never withers and for fountains that never run dry and for stars that shall shine after the glories of our earthly lights have faded and died.
Learning about the universe but not about the God of the universe, we keep rags and throw away riches.
B. THE PATH OF WEALTH AND WORLDLY
PLEASURE
(1 Kings 10:14-23; Ecclesiastes 2:1-11; 5:10)
Solomon was a multi-billionaire. He had a heated pool, flanked by twelve bronze lions and inlaid with pure gold. He had forty thousand horses. His throne was made of ivory and overlaid with finest gold. He had fleet ships that brought the world’s treasures to him, totaling a profit of a half-billion dollars a year. And what did this do for him? He said,
“I denied myself no pleasure” (2:10) and “I realized it all meant nothing. It was like chasing the wind (2:11) / He who loves money will not be satisfied with money” (5:10).
The American dream of a brick house, a boat and a Buick is one mad dash for the Almighty Dollar, leaving in its trail alcoholism, drug addiction, heart attacks, divorce, depression, and kids sick of being given “things” instead of love.
The company you sacrifice your health and family and eternal soul for, gives you a gold watch, if you are lucky, and forgets you. We spend our health getting wealth and spend our wealth getting our health back.
C. THE PATH OF WORKS
(1 Kings 5-9; Ecclesiastes 2:4-5; 18-20)
He expressed himself by building tangible monuments to his creativity. He built the marvelous Temple in Jerusalem. It was small but so elaborate that 150,000 men all around the world worked seven years to gather the materials and put them in place.
And like modern television personalities, he didn’t leave himself out. It took thirteen years for all his laborers to build his palace. Solomon spoke and buildings went up, canals were cut and deserts became gardens (See 2:4-5). And what did it get him? He said,
“I came to regret that I had worked so hard. You work for something with all your wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then you leave it all to someone who hasn’t had to work for it. It is useless and it isn’t right.” (2:20, 21, TEV
I saw a man crying on television because K-Mart laid him off in his fifties. He said, “I gave that company my life.” That was his real problem.
D. THE PATH OF WOMEN
(1 Kings 11:1-2; Proverbs 6:24-32; 31)
With no fulfillment in works or wealth, Solomon turned to sex. He disobeyed God by marrying many women (Deuteronomy 17:17) and by marrying pagans (Deuteronomy 7:3). He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. An educated guess is that He would hold a beauty contest and would walk away with the ten finalists. Someone said he made Hugh Hefner look like a priest.
In Proverbs 6:32 he says any man who commits adultery is a fool
In 6:24 he warns against being enticed by immoral women and prostitutes and compares them to poisonous spiders.
In chapter thirty-one he gives the Bible’s finest tribute to the good and godly wife, worth more than rubies (31:10). I believe this is the woman Solomon never found.
He said he never found an upright woman (7:28). He learned the hard way that true love from one wife (or husband) brings happiness and a series of shallow encounters brings emptiness.
E. THE PATH OF WINE
(Ecclesiastes 2:3; Proverbs 23:29)
He said, “I decided to cheer myself up with wine” (Ecclesiastes 2:3).
Poor Solomon. He looked at his books on the best seller lists; at his billions; at his beautiful women for the taking, and said, “I just can’t take this any longer. I think I’ll get drunk.” And where did it get him? Nowhere! He said:
“Show me someone who drinks too much. . .and I will show you someone miserable and sorry for himself. . .he has bruises that could have been avoided” (Ecclesiastes 2:29).
"Solomon learned you don’t drown your troubles in drink, you irrigate them".
F. THE PATH OF WICKEDNESS
(1 Kings 11:4-13; Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)
In his later years Solomon’s wives turned his heart away from the Lord and to their pagan gods. He actually built pagan shrines and followed Molech “the detestable god” (11:5) who demanded child sacrifices.
Because of this God told him he would tear the kingdom from his family, but because of his love for David, He would not do it during his lifetime.
Actually, Solomon’s sins and excesses sowed the seeds that divided the kingdom. God merely let it happen to reveal the destructive power of sin.
Solomon is like a lot of church members who serve God for awhile, and then turn away into unbelief or disobedience. We do not know if they are true Christians who have been trapped by evil (Galatians 6:1) or a worker for Christ who was never truly converted (Matthew 7:21-23).
Either way, his advice to us is in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.
“The conclusion of the whole matter, after all has been heard, is this. Fear God and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring everything we do to judgment, every hidden thing; whether it be good or evil”
A wealthy Texas rancher had Pastor George Truett over for supper. To impress him, as they sat on the front porch, he said, “Pastor, if you look East, I own all the land you can see in that direction. If you look North, South and West, I own it all.” Dr. Truett, knowing what really mattered, pointed upward and said, “How much do you own in THAT direction?” Was Solomon saved? Did he go to heaven? Preachers will argue until doomsday about that. The tragedy is we do not know.
– Copyright 2009 by Bob Marcaurelle
