If Solomon Was so Wise, How Could He Go So Wrong?

Now, Contending for the Faith. In this regular feature, Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call. Here’s this week’s question:

“Dear Dave and Tom: Tell me what you think about Solomon. Did he make it to heaven in our opinion? I wonder about a guy whom God gifts with wisdom beyond any human other than Jesus, yet he turns it all upside down for the pleasures of this world. Did he write Ecclesiastes after he indulged himself and figured out it was all vanity? Was this his act of repentance?”

Tom: Dave, Solomon really is a puzzlement. He told God all he wanted was wisdom, and God gave him wisdom beyond any man. I think that’s what the Scriptures teach, yet his life…and Ecclesiastes, that is a puzzlement, as well. Dave, was that a book—certainly it’s in the Bible, so it’s inspired of God, yet it deals with “everything under the sun.” It’s as though Solomon was given the opportunity to articulate what he experienced without God, trying to figure things out on his own. I don’t know. What do you think?

Dave: Well, Tom, I think Solomon teaches us some very important lessons, of course. He had wisdom, no doubt about it. You read the Proverbs—tremendous wisdom, tremendous insight—Ecclesiastes, as well. Ecclesiastes begins by telling us all the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full: “To the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.” So we’re getting the water cycle: it’s evaporated out of the ocean, comes down in rain from the clouds, goes back into the rivers, comes…you know. I don’t know how many people knew that or understood that in those days. He had a lot of insights, tremendous wisdom. But it takes more than wisdom; it takes a heart…

Now, the contrast is made in the Scriptures between Solomon and his father. It says, “David your father served me with all his heart.” And Solomon’s heart, although he knew what was right and wrong, his heart apparently was turned—in fact, the Scriptures tell us in his latter years, his heart turned from the Lord. He had the basic problem of lusting after women, so what did he have? Several hundred wives and a thousand concubines—I don’t know, the other way around, perhaps, but beyond comprehension. You couldn’t possibly have enough time for all of them, but Solomon talked about desiring beyond what we could handle, because our lusts want more and more and more.

Tom: And, Dave, who more than Solomon could speak to those issues from experience? Certainly we have a lot of people desiring and hopeful and wishful they’re going to win the lottery or something like that and have all that there is out there. But…

Dave: Tom, I often tell people I believe we should prove that the Bible is true. We can prove it. And of course Paul did that; Apollos, Acts:18:28For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publickly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.
See All..., he “mightily convinced the Jews publicly, proving from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ.” We can prove it, but that doesn’t mean that everyone then will say, “Oh, okay. I believe in Jesus.” It’s a matter of the heart, because the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. The heart is in rebellion against God, and that’s why David in Psalm 139 prayed, “Search me, O God, know my heart; try me, know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” 

So David committed himself to God. He knew the wickedness of his heart: “Lord, deliver me from my own heart, and lead me, guide me.” 

Solomon was so wise, so brilliant—in fact, he said, and it’s true: “Wisdom is the principle thing. Therefore get wisdom, and with all your getting, get understanding.” We need that as a foundation. James…

Tom: Proverbs:4:7Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
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Dave: James says, “If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. He will give it to him.” But then I have to have a heart that desires to follow what the wisdom God has given me tells me I ought to do. It’s kind of like Ahitophel: he was, I suppose, the most brilliant military strategist the world has ever seen. I guess he got bored. He was David’s closest advisor, and got bored when they conquered all the enemies—decided to go with Absalom. That would be a challenge, wouldn’t it? “We’ll take over from David!” And so he was the chief counselor of Absalom. As soon as David knew that, he said, “Guys, pack your bags and get out of here. Head out of Jerusalem.” And he prayed a very simple prayer: “O God, I pray that you will turn the counsel of Ahitophel into foolishness.” That was what had to be done. Ahitophel told them what they had to do to defeat David. They were afraid. As soon as they rejected his advice, Ahitophel, it says, saddled his ass, went home, put his affairs in order, and went out and hanged himself. He knew that was the end. He had great wisdom, strategy, understanding, but he didn’t have a heart to follow God, and that’s what we need.

Tom: So, Dave, the question: you think Solomon is with the Lord now?

Dave: I think he is, yeah. Because in his early years, he certainly sought the Lord, gave himself to God, but he turned away…

Tom: Mm-hmm, and he…

Dave: …in his later years.

Tom: …he reaped what he had sown in his life.

Dave: Wow, and his descendants after him, yeah. He started the kings of Israel on that downward path.

Tom: So Ecclesiastes, he articulates what he went through for our sakes, hopefully. Is that an act of repentance you think?

Dave: I think it’s his confession, whether repentance or not, it’s his confession that his way of life was vain. It led to vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What this world has to offer is not what we want. We need to look to God for eternity, and I think that was his confession.