Sermon
Solomon
July 18, 2004
Pastor Donald Sheley

Our lesson today from the Scriptures is found in the Old Testament in the Book of Kings. You'll all need a Bible because 95% of the sermon today is just going to be the reading of the Scriptures. We, during the summer months, have been spending our time studying some of the great characters of the Old Testament and learning from their lives. And the one today that we're going to talk about is Solomon.

Just for the background...when the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, brought out by Moses, and then into the Promised Land by Joshua, for a period of nearly 400 years the tribes of Israel were governed simply by what was known as a theocracy; that is God directed the nation through judges and through prophets. At the end of approximately 400 years, they wanted to have a king just like all the other neighboring nations around them, and so was a result, they turned against God for his leadership and they wanted a king and so God gave them Saul.

We've learned about Saul that was one of our lessons, so he was the first king of Israel. Now we watched a man with great capabilities disintegrate into a pile of sadness and tragedy when he takes his own life at the end of his sword on the battlefield.

Now Saul is followed by David and David rules for 40 years, and David now is nearing death and David's son, Solomon, is going to take the reins of the nation of Israel. As soon as Solomon is finished, because he does such a poor job in administering the kingdom, he leaves it in disarray and people hate him, and as the result, as soon as his death takes place his kingdom divides. And so you only they have three kings in the history of the nation of Israel who served a united kingdom. You have Saul, David, and Solomon.

Now Solomon is a very interesting person. Go with me to chapter 3. Solomon is approached by God as soon as he becomes established in his kingdom and God says to him -- look at verse 6 in chapter 3 of I Kings (go back just 1 verse) -- At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, "Ask! What shall I give you?"

And Solomon said: "You have shown great mercy to Your servant David my father, because he walked before You in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You; You have continued this great kindness for him, and You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. Now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people?"

So he asked God, he said, God, what I want you to do is I want you to give me wisdom so I know the difference between good and evil because I want to be a good king. And as we read the text, God answers back, he is very pleased with what Solomon has asked for and he gives him not only wisdom, but he said I'm going to give you something beside that; you didn't ask for honor and you didn't ask for riches, but I'm going to give that to you also. And so Saul now in the early moments of his reign he's blessed with God's wisdom, and he's blessed with a promise that God will honor him and make him a man of great wealth.

Now we come to one of those moments in his administration where there's a very interesting story as to how this wisdom works out in his administration. Look at verse 16 of chapter 3. Now two women who were harlots came to the king, and stood before him. And one woman said, "O my lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house; and I gave birth while she was in the house. Then it happened, the third day after I had given birth, that this woman also gave birth. And we were together; no one was with us in the house, except the two of us in the house. And this woman's son died in the night, because she lay on him. So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead. But when I had examined him in the morning, indeed, he was not my son whom I had borne."

Then the other woman said, "No! But the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son." And the first woman said, "No! But the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son." And thus they spoke before the king.

The king said, "The one says, 'This is my son, who lives, and your son is the dead one'; and the other says, 'No! But your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.'" And then the king said, "Bring me a sword." So they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, "Divide the living child in two, and give half to one, and half to the other."

Then the woman whose son was living spoke to the king, for she yearned with compassion for her son; and she said, "O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him!" But the other said, "Let him be neither mine nor yours, but divide him." So the king answered and said, "Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him; she is his mother."

So he identified the real mom by the compassion she had for her son -- wisdom.

Now we come to chapter 5. One of the first assignments that Solomon must do, and he wants to do, is to build a temple, a house of God. David really wanted to do that, but David wasn't allowed to by God because he was a man of war and his hand dripped with blood. And so God said, no David, you'll not build my house of worship, but your son will. And so in the closing years of David's life he spent his time gathering gold and silver and certain ornaments for the beautiful temple that was to be built by his son, and so Solomon now prepares to build that temple.

While David was alive, the king who was just north of his country, which today is Lebanon, was a close friend of David and his name was Hiram. Solomon realizes that in the building of this temple he's got to have wood structures, and so he's going to get hold of Hiram because up there in Lebanon there are beautiful cedars.

Solomon sent to Hiram, saying: (I'm at chapter 5 verse 3) You know how my father David could not build a house for the name of the LORD his God because of the wars which were fought against him on every side, until the LORD put his foes under the soles of his feet. But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary nor evil occurrence. And behold, I propose to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD spoke to my father David, saying, "Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, he shall build the house for My name."

Now therefore, command that they cut down cedars for me from Lebanon; and my servants will be with your servants, and I will pay you wages for your servants according to whatever you say. For you know there is none among us who has the skill to cut timber like the Sidonians.

So Solomon says to Hiram, I need your help. Your workers can work along with mine, cut those cedars, I need them for the temple. So I go to chapter 6 now and its says: And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.

So in your calendar that was probably the year of 966 B.C. It takes Solomon seven and a half years to build this temple. Now chapter 6, 7 and 8 give us the dimensions and a lot of the intricate details with regards to that temple. Let me just quickly hurry to tell you that it was a magnificent structure. It took 180,000 men seven years. Now what Solomon did is he divided the 180,000 men; 153,000 were known as aliens, that was conscript, that was slave labor, and then he had some Israelites who work along with them on the building of the temple. And the result is that temple was built and covered with gold; almost everything in it was covered with gold.

Some years ago I was reading that the Architectural Association of Illinois did an intricate study of all the detail as it appears in the book of the Chronicles of all the golden and all the silver and all the precious stones that was accumulated and went into the magnificent structure. When they added it all up it was billions and billions and billions of dollars. Now we can say billions quite easy. They didn't even know the word then, because they probably worked for 2 or 3 cents a day, if there was any money to pay them. And so here is a magnificent structure, seven and a half years in the building, a structure everything is laden with gold, a structure that is one of the great masterpieces of all time.

Now we come to chapter 7, and I'm at the end of chapter 7. It says, So all the work that King Solomon had done for the house of the LORD was finished; and Solomon brought in the things which his father David had dedicated: the silver and the gold and the furnishings. He put them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD.

And then it says, Now Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, to King Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD. Now the ark of the covenant remember was that very sacred box that was built out there in the wilderness, and for all these years it has been kept in temporary quarters. Solomon's great dream was to make that temple to be the permanent place where this ark of the covenant could be placed. So they bring this ancient and this marvelous piece of furniture and they put it in the temple.

Look at verse 10 of chapter 8, And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD. It says that in that moment of dedication God so manifested his presence in the form of a cloud the priests couldn't even offer the sacrifices. There was a solemn, glorious moment when eternity invaded time.

After that moment, verse 14, Solomon gives his completion speech and then in verse 22 Solomon prays the dedication prayer. It's a beautiful prayer. When you have time, read it. Now I'm down to verse 54 of chapter 8: And so it was, when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the LORD, that he arose from before the altar of the LORD, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven. Then he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying: "Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to His people Israel..." and so he blesses people.

Look at verse 62, Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices before the LORD. And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to the LORD, twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.

It was a glorious day, the completion of a magnificent temple. Now we come to chapter 9. Solomon has another very sacred moment. And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he wanted to do, that the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. And the LORD said to him: "I have heard your prayer and your supplication that you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built to put My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, "You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel."

But if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss, and say, "Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?' Then they will answer, "Because, because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore the LORD has brought all this calamity on them."'

The warning is, Solomon, you follow my commandments and you'll be blessed. You start serving false gods and I'll rip this kingdom from you. It happens, and in the year 78 A.D. the temple area was totally destroyed by the Roman armies.

Now we come to chapter 10. In the midst of Solomon's reign he has a visitor. Her name is the Queen of Sheba, that's Ethiopia. Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels that bore spices, very much gold, and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was in her heart. So Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing so difficult for the king that he could not explain it to her.

And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel, his cupbearers, and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the LORD, there was no more spirit in her. She's speechless. She hadn't seen something so beautiful. She couldn't talk, and when she could she said: "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 my own eyes; and indeed the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard."

No one could explain all of Solomon...she says I only heard half of it.

Look at his wallet -- it starts at verse 14: The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold. You say, How much is that Pastor? Well I looked at one computation and that's 25 tons of gold. Now a ton has 2000 pounds, so that's 50,000 pounds of gold. Each pound has 16 ounces, so you multiply it by 16, and if gold sells for four dollars an ounce -- that's a nice paycheck. I think I calculated it out to about 335 million. Now those are just starters folks. That's just for the first day of the year. This man is wealthy. Everything he's got is covered with gold. He drinks from gold and eats off of gold tables. He's got everything.

Now the story turns. Here's the tragic part of the story. Look at Chapter 11: 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 intermarry 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 seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David.

Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and he did not fully follow the LORD, as did his father David. Verse 9: 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 had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the LORD had commanded. Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, "Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, 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.

And thus, because of the sin of Solomon, his kingdom just shortly after his death divides. Look at verse 41: 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 forty years. Then Solomon rested with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David.

Now that's an interesting story. But Solomon left for us his personal testimony, and this is the most valuable. Go with me to Ecclesiastes, and this is what Solomon had to say just before he died. Now this is important, remember, he's the wisest man in all the world; supposedly, I call him the wisest man who became the biggest fool. The wisest man in all the world got all this gold, all this wealth, he's the wealthiest man in the world, and look at what he writes.

Listen closely: The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What's vanity? Meaningless -- no value. Meaningless, meaningless. But Solomon, you eat off of gold, you have everything. It's just like chasing the wind he said.

Look at Chapter 2. I said in my heart, "Come now, and I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure"; but surely, this also was vanity. I said of laughter--"Madness!"; and of mirth, "What does it accomplish?" You can sit around and laugh all day, but you've got to face reality when the laughter is gone. Madness.

I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds. And so I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.

Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor; and this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled; and indeed all was meaningless like grasping for the wind. And there was no profit under the sun.

Look at chapter 5 verse 10. He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them; so what profit have the owners Except to see them with their eyes? The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep...because he wonders when he wakes up in the morning what the stock market is saying.

Solomon says it's all like chasing the wind folks. You say, well, how did he end it all? Look at chapter 12. He's getting ready to die now. Here's what he says to us: Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come, and the years draw near when you say, "I have no pleasure in them." What he's saying is, the older you get the less capacity you have to enjoy what's around you. Now I found that to be true. The older you get the less attractive the world becomes.

So Solomon then he paints, I think this is a poetic...this is a masterpiece. Look at how he talks about death. Verse 6, Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the well. That's a poet's picture of death.

Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. That's the funeral service. What's going to be tacked on his tombstone? He gave it to us -- "Vanity of vanities; All is meaningless."

Ladies and gentlemen, why don't we understand that? We struggle in life for every nickel and we want a nickel more thinking it will make us happy, and Solomon says things of time do not bring satisfaction; it's the things that are eternal, the things where God is involved that's what makes life worth while. And you leave God out of your life, if you ask Solomon, he'll call you a fool.

Paul said it's not the things that are seen that are meaningful, it's the things that are unseen; because the things that are seen are temporal, but the unseen is eternal.

So Solomon says I have one more thing to say. Let's hear the conclusion of the whole matter. He said: Fear God, fear God, fear God, 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.

What did Solomon say? Everything else is meaningless. The only thing that really counts is what's eternal. And if God is left out of your life, folks, you're chasing the wind and you end up empty-handed.

What doth it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what will a man give, what will you give in exchange for the most valuable thing you've got, your eternal soul? That verse hit me like a ton of brick some years ago. I had a gentlemen come to the service sitting here, and he, by his very demeanor, and by his very carriage, you knew he was a man of means.

After two or three times he came by on a midweek day and said, Pastor Sheley can I take you for lunch? I said, sure. So I walked out to his beautiful automobile, he introduces himself, we get in and he starts telling me his story. He held most of the major stock in a major insurance company and if I told you the insurance company, you'd realize he was a man of great means. He said, can I take and show you my home? I said yes. So we drove down to Hillsboro and wound through some of those beautiful hills and sitting on this noll was this gorgeous mansion.

We drove up and parked beside a tree over quite a distance, but you could see everything. Playing out on the lawns of a manicured lawn were two beautiful little children with their nanny, and he started crying. He said, Pastor, those are my children, but I have a restraining order. I can't go near them.

I look up on the veranda of this mansion and I saw a lovely lady with I'm sure it was ladies of the neighborhood who were having tea together. He said, you see that lady up there? She used to be my wife. He said, Pastor, I have spent my life trying to make dollars and that's what I've lost, my family, my assets. And I sat there and cried with him. We had a long talk, he brought me back, he came to church a couple of times then disappeared. I haven't seen him since, but I've never forgotten.

You can struggle all your life for things and end up empty-handed. Or you can set your goals and your priorities that everything you do is going to bring honor and glory to God, and you're going to live with eternity's values in view -- you're the wise person. Because when you get near to the end of days you can look God in the face and thank him that he's been beside you for the entire journey.

The message is very clear, isn't it? What are your values in life? What is your value system? And may I say it as gently as possible...but if you've left God out of your life, you're a fool. Just ask Solomon. Someone asked me after the first service this morning, Pastor, do you think Solomon when he died he went to heaven? I said, I don't know. The Bible doesn't say. But boy when I die, I don't want any questions in anybody's mind. I want them to be able to say, he went straight to heaven. Amen? Have you got the message? Let's pray.

Father, thank you for this day, and for this service, and for your presence, and for your blessing, and for your word. In Jesus' name...amen. God bless you all.