Last Sunday morning I was preaching about the legendary wisdom of Solomon and had hardly got going when Rozina asked, "How come Solomon did so many bad things later on? Where was his wisdom then?" That was the general gist of her question, if not the actual words she used.
The answer to this is that people don't always act wisely. Often we act out of our own selfish/ sinful desires and turn our back on the ways of the Lord.
In Solomon's case this is very dramatically described in 1 Kings 10 and 11.
In chapter 10 we have the narrative of the Queen of Sheba coming to see for herself the great wealth and wisdom of Solomon. In 10:6-7 she says, "The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. But I did not believe these things until I came and saw them with my own eyes. Indeed not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard."
The rest of the chapter describes in detail the great wealth and splendour of Solomon's kingdom.
The turning point is in the next chapter, which includes in the very first verse the dreaded word "however."
"King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women... They were from the nations about which the Lord had commanded the Israelites, "You must not intermarry with them because they shall surely turn your hearts after their gods." Nevertheless, solomon held fast to them in love."
Solomon had a weakness for women. His role as king required him to marry important foreign women as a diplomatic measure. He wasn't expected to love them. But Israel was supposed to show the world a different way, and Solomon should have found other ways of forming alliances with his neighbours.
As the chapter develops, we read of Solomon's excess in loving foreign women. We also read of the way the Lord raises up enemies from without and within as the Lord attempts to bring Solomon back to His ways.
Wisdom, even the wisdom of the Lord, will not protect us from our own sinfulness. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, we are told four times in the Old Testament. The start of wisdom is to obey God's ways.
We all have our weaknesses. For Solomon it was an excessive love of women- not love for a woman but the love of women in general. Most of us have the potential to fall in the area of at least one of the "three G's"- gold, glory and girls/guys. To put it more bluntly, we can be tempted so easily in greed, pride and sex.
Wisdom means putting a boundary around our behaviours so that we limit temptation in the areas where we are weak.
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