1 Kings 1 to 11, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes The Rise and Fall of Solomon (MacArthur Bible Studies)

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There's a whole book in the Jewish Bible called Ecclesiastes that basically makes this point.

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Is it Ecclesiastes? I think it is. By Solomon? By what? Ecclesiastes, the book. Yes, correct. ... It's Ecclesiastes 1. It literally opens up like a suicidal 17 year old goth. It's meaningless, meaningless, all that is meaningless.

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King Solomon, meanwhile, is thought to have written several biblical books, including Ecclesiastes, which the folk singer Pete Seeger used as lyrics to his song Turn, Turn, Turn, which when recorded by the Byrds in 1965 was a number one hit.

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As he would later write in Ecclesiastes, Solomon denied himself nothing he desired.

That is a recipe for disaster.

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Now we see Solomon putting his wisdom to good use as he seeks to build the great temple of God inspired by the book of First Kings in Second Chronicles.

Solomon builds a temple for the Lord. In our last story we peered into the dreams of Solomon.

So now in the fourth year of his rule, Solomon began to fulfill that vision.

And what an impressive temple this would be. It was so much more than just a building. It was a symbol, a sanctuary for the people, a sign of God's presence and their freedom, a freedom that God promised and delivered to them.

So God spoke to Solomon saying in 1 Kings 6 verses 12 and 13, Concerning this house that you are building, if you walk in my statues and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you which I spoke to David your father. And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.

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Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord forever.

1 Kings 2 45

Through 1 Kings 2, I see that you give me the cheat codes to a long and fulfilling life

In our last story, Arunayjha exalted himself as the king, but David made sure to anoint Solomon as king.

In this story, David will give instructions to Solomon as he begins to rule as king and he will carry them out, inspired by first kings.

In our previous episode, we learned how Solomon became king of Israel.

Despite the attempts of his older brother Arunayjha to seize power, Solomon was anointed and appointed king according to David's promise to Bathsheba and the Lord's will for all of the people.

Solomon spared Arunayjha's life, but warned him that if he proved wicked, he would surely be put to death.

Today, we'll hear David's final instructions to his son Solomon, and witness the young king acting wisely and righteously, as he follows the guidance of God and the example of his father.

Solomon, Avenging the Righteous

He says this, Be strong and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn.

Echoes of Moses' words to Joshua will ring clear here. Be strong and courageous. Follow God and his commandments, that things may go well with you, that you will be successful.

These are such wise words for a king to give to his successor and for a father to leave with his son.

If Solomon listened to his father's words and lived by them, his reign would be even more successful than David's.

Then David turned to more practical matters, people that Solomon needed to deal with.

There was Joab, the general, who had shown poor judgment on many occasions and spilled the blood of Israelites under the guise of war.

Then there were those who helped David when he was fleeing Absalom. David charged Solomon with treating them kindly, welcoming them to his table.

Finally there was Shemai, who cursed David as he fled Absalom. Though David had sworn not to kill him, Solomon was under no such oath, so Shemai could finally be dealt with.

And so these are the final instructions from David to his son, after he ruled for 40 years.

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Jeroboam of Israel and Rehoboam of Judah, and the fates of both men, as well as their legacies, inspired by the book of 1 Kings.

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And in the last part of the royal kingdom, we see the decline of Solomon. And in 1 Kings chapter 10 and 11, we see that he had 700 wives and 300 concubines.

And you can read all about this in 1 Kings 12 where this whole mess begins.

And this verse is so critical because this begins a major division in the land of Canaan from Israel to two nations. And here's the verse. When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, what portion have we in David?

We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse to your tents. Oh, Israel, look now to your own house, David. And that was the year 930 BC. And there was a divided kingdom.

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And it says, the days are going to come when it goes on and says, where you'll say I have no pleasure in them, that before the sun and the light of the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, that sense of like, yeah, the days where your eyes grow dim.

And the day when the keepers of the house tremble and the strong men are bent and the grinders cease because they're few and those that look through the windows are dimmed.

The author is highlighting just these small things that we don't think about that are signs of here's this age I'm getting closer and closer to death. And it's just really, really as beautiful. If you want to get a chance to pick up your Bible and actually not just listen to it, but read those words, there's something powerful.

Why did we read Ecclesiastes? Why did the preacher teach these things? Why did Coelath or Solomon? Why is this in the Bible? And part of it is because of the wisdom of this, because we don't always get what we want.

So the kind of the, one of the lessons is you can't always get, or you don't always get what you want, but still choose the good.

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That is today, 1 Kings 9, Ecclesiastes 6 and 7, and then praying Psalm 7.

And we're going to hear about as well as diving more deeply into Ecclesiastes and this incredible, incredible wisdom book where Koaleth, the preacher examines what is the goodness of life and what should I set my heart on and what is it dangerous to set your heart on?

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Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil for if they fall one will lift up his fellow but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up.

If they fall, one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up.

A threefold cord is not quickly broken.

And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him.

For in a multitude of dreams, there is futility and ruin in a flood of words.

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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 does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the South and goes round to the North, round and round goes the wind and on its circuits, the wind returns.

All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full to the place where the streams flow. There they flow again. All things are full of weariness. A man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing.

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Yeah, you know, we have the yeah, we have the proverbs and the wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiastes and so many wonderful books that we're going to be going through.

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And for all of you who are reading along with Father Mike, there's one verse that this all pivots on like a seesaw, the fulcrum, and that is 1 Kings 12 and verse 16.

And this verse is so critical because this begins a major division in the land of Canaan from Israel to two nations. And here's the verse.

When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, what portion have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse to your tents, oh Israel. Look now to your own house, David.

And this is where the whole mess begins, is that he goes to Rehoboam and said, your father Solomon was really rough on us. How are you going to lead?

So you are called on to pay attention. As you're reading this now, you're going to be reading a lot of this, King so-and-so of Israel, so-and-so King of Judah, and it goes up and down, down and up, up. It goes all over.

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As we put out an episode every single day, as I said, we're in 1 Kings chapters 17 and 18, 2 Chronicles chapters 18 and 19 and Song of Solomon right smack dab in the middle with Song of Solomon chapter five.

we're reading 1 Kings chapter 17 and 18. We're getting introduced to our buddy, Elijah the prophet.

one of the things that first Kings is revealing is that Elijah is someone who listens to the Word of God and obeys the Word of God and this sets Elijah distinctly apart from some of the kings we've been hearing about some of the people we've been hearing about who might hear the Word of God but not act on the Word of God but Elijah does that.

we get introduced to Elijah and first Kings this time we also get introduced in a deeper way to Ahab no yesterday Ahab was mentioned Ahab one of the worst kings of Israel king of the north and Elijah right he prophesied a drought and what happens well there's a drought.

and so that's we have in store for us so you guys have been so faithful which is so good so keep it up I am praying for you please pray for me my name is Father Mike I cannot wait to see you tomorrow God bless

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Remember, this is a wisdom book, wisdom literature. It's not straightforward wisdom in the sense that every single thing, you'd say, yeah, take that and run with it. It's the wise one, the preacher, right? Koaleth, who's working through some things.

And what he's working through is he's working through, okay, I find happiness in this particular thing. I find happiness in toil. I find happiness in pleasure. I find happiness in wisdom, all these different things. And then realizing, oh, but then I still die. Then I still lose. Then I still am, things are taken away from me.

I heard in chapter four, the value of friendship was just so, so good. Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up.

Again, it goes on, a threefold cord is not quickly broken. I just think about how this is real in our lives, right? To have a true friend, to have a Jonathan to your David or David to your Jonathan, to have that person who can walk with you, but also not just one other, a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with gain. This also is vanity.

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This book of Ecclesiastes, this book of the Song of Solomon is basically a wise person who's looking at the world and looking at how people are living, looking at how he himself has lived and is saying, this is all vanity.

Everything is vanity. Well, one thing to keep in mind, that's kind of a strange translation. It's the Hebrew word Hevel, which is a word that means a vapor.

So just keep that in mind. The author of the book of Ecclesiastes is kind of, it's ascribed to someone like King Solomon, the wisest. It is unknown exactly who is the author of Ecclesiastes, but that isn't necessarily important.

What's important is the heart of the book of Ecclesiastes and the big question it asks, which is, isn't life in face of all these things, all the things you can do, all the ways a person can work to make a name for themselves, all the ways a person can simply strive to maximize pleasure in their life, is it all meaningless?

And so it's going to be a kind of a negative book, but it's going to be ultimately positive. And so I just invite you to hang with us for the next five days as we go through Ecclesiastes.

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As we mentioned last couple days, at the end of 2 Samuel, we're getting to the end of David's life.

And so here we are starting in 1 Kings, which indicates a transition.

And so here we have David who is as old as he's going to get and he's unable to stay warm.

Now this is going to be really important for the rest of this book of Kings.

We're gonna hear stories of king after king and almost every one of them is going to be worse than the one who came before him.

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We know him for his wisdom. We have the Proverbs and the wisdom of Solomon and the Ecclesiastes and so many wonderful books that we're going to be going through but he disobeyed what was told earlier that a king should not do.

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the other wisdom books like Job and Ecclesiastes show us what those exceptions look like.

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You remember I told you that my favorite book of the Bible is Ecclesiastes, right?

A big part of Ecclesiastes is sort of saying, you know, no reason to have ego because we're all going to die.

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Ecclesiastes is my favorite book of the Bible. Sort of talks about the, the sort of why life is not forever. And there's a time for everything in life, but then also to remember that ultimately we are part of a bigger picture.

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Also when are you going to FaceTime about the book of Ecclesiastes as you promised? Well, you mentioned that you were going to do a FaceTime thing about the book of Ecclesiastes and how it meant to you.

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Proverbs is followed by the book of Ecclesiastes, which seems to say it's not that simple.

The preacher quoted in Ecclesiastes observed that he gave his heart to no wisdom, but still found vexation of spirit and much grief.

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He helps us with that with a few principles from the Word of God. This one today I want to share is very, very simple from the school of Solomon. Ecclesiastes 11, verse 4 says this.

the Collected Teachings, which are like Proverbs but written in such a way as to convince the knowledge of the universe and the futility of vanity.

He uses this image of the wind. Why? Because it is an invisible force.

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It says, 'You do not know the way the Spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.'

Solomon, the wisest man in the world, speaking about human ignorance... Even after all he learned, accomplished, and every success he achieved, his common theme in this book is, 'You do not know.'

He said one might prosper that you count out, and so since you don't know, keep sowing. For you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

Solomon said the same thing. He said, 'There are some things in your life that are like the bones that are waiting on the breath, and you don't know the way God is going to work in your situation.

It is always too soon for you to quit on something God put on the inside of you. If he gave you a dream, it's too soon to walk away from it just because it doesn't manifest in three dimensions by the time you get done praying about it.'

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It says, 'You do not know the way the Spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.'

Solomon, the wisest man in the world, speaking about human ignorance... Even after all he learned, accomplished, and every success he achieved, his common theme in this book is, 'You do not know.'

He said one might prosper that you count out, and so since you don't know, keep sowing. For you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

Solomon said the same thing. He said, 'There are some things in your life that are like the bones that are waiting on the breath, and you don't know the way God is going to work in your situation.'