"Solomon's Wisdom and Stupidity"

King David had promised Bathsheba that her son Solomon would be the next king. But while David was on his deathbed, Adonijah, another son of David, proclaimed himself king instead. So David got out of bed and crowned Solomon the next king. After David died Solomon prayed and asked God for a wise heart to govern Israel. God heard him and gave him gravy on his biscuit; He told him He was going to add wealth to that wisdom. Solomon became the wisest and wealthiest man in the world. He wrote 1005 songs and 3,000 proverbs, one song made it into the Bible, along with a book of Proverbs. People came from everywhere to hear the wisdom God had put into his heart. The most notable one was the Queen of Sheba. She questioned him about everything and saw all his wealth and her breath was taken away. She was overwhelmed. She gave him 15,280 pounds of gold and much more. You can count on it; she left with more than she came with.

He was the wealthiest man on earth. He had an annual income of 86,000 tons of gold. By today’s standard of $4500 an ounce, you figure out how much gold this man had. The value of gold never changes. The value of the dollar changes constantly; ever heard of inflation? Gold has the same value today as it did in Solomon’s day. That amount of gold in our day would be worth - $12,564,000,000,000. Elon Musk couldn’t carry this man’s baggage. He was the wisest man in the world and the wealthiest man in the world.

What does a person with so much wisdom and wealth do? Build the house of God. He used 5,000 tons of gold, plus silver and jewels to build that house of God. He poured his wisdom and wealth into the house of God. Wise man. It took 153,000 seven years, working six days a week to build that temple.

We know from the New Testament that the house of God in our day is the church (1Tim.1:15).

But Solomon went from being the wisest man in the world to the stupidest man in the world. Check it out. His heart turned from God and he began to love foreign women who worshiped idols. He became an idolator. He built temples to these abominable gods in Jerusalem, right alongside God’s temple that he had built. He offered sacrifices to these pagan gods. “His heart was not loyal to the Lord.” (11:4).

Sin has consequences. “So the Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from the Lord who had appeared to him twice.” Now the Lord raised up adversaries who attacked and rebelled against him and caused great damage to his kingdom.

Let’s make this relevant to N.T. Christians, to us. What would you do if you found yourself rich like Solomon and you had his wisdom? You would do like Solomon. You’d devote yourself to building the house of God. Let’s talk about the church. There’s a lot of ignorance concerning the house of God today.

1. For some, the word church is like a curse word, something they would not be a part of. They call themselves Christians but they never go to church and think the church is the scourge of the earth. I’ve met many like this. Meanwhile the Bible uses the word church continually, and refers to the house of God, the church, the body of Christ, the bride of Christ many times. Jesus said, “I will build My church.” Keep in mind, when the Bible uses the word church, it is referring to a local church. There are seven of them listed in Rev.2-3 alone. The church is located in a place where Christians meet to carry on the worship and work of God on the earth.

Why do these people feel this way about Christ’s church? One word – hurt. They have been hurt by someone in a church. Instead of forgiving them as Christ had forgiven them, they choose not to forgive. Instead of being reconciled to those who have sinned against them, like Christ reconciled Himself to us through the blood of His cross, they refuse to be reconciled. They stay away. They have been wounded and blame the hospital for wounding them. Here’s a word that might help – forgive, as you say Christ has forgiven you. The worst church in the Bible, the one that made Jesus sick, He wasn’t kicking the door down to get out, He was knocking on that door to get in (Rev.3:14-20). “But there’s so many things wrong with the church.” Oh, like you’re so perfect? Identify what you think is wrong and get in there and try to help them get it right. That’s what Christ would do.  What Would Jesus Do. They judge all churches by the one they were hurt in. Actually by that one person who hurt them. You tell them you found a good one where the word of God is preached and people love one another, and they think you are crazy. They have concluded that no such church exists.

2. There are others who don’t despise the word church; they just have a different definition of what the word church means. It’s not the church as it is described in the Bible. It’s their own little group of friends who meet in their homes. That’s so easy to do. You don’t have to mess with others who might disagree with you about something. Throw a little Bible reading in there and presto, you have a church! No you don’t. I’ve dealt with these people all my life. There’s much more to church than that. There’s missions. There’s tithing. There’s pastors and deacons. There’s accountability. There’s discipleship. There’s baptisms and communion. There’s preaching and teaching. And gifts of the Spirit. There’s church government.

Their problem? They can’t work well with or get along with others who are different from them. It’s like a group of fingers, people who are alike, but can’t work with a hand, or a wrist, or an arm, or a shoulder in the body of Christ. You get the picture. These fingers will accomplish nothing. They think they can be attached directly to the head, but no body in the world is like that. Christ’s body sure isn’t. Imagine fingers attached to the head.

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