If the YouTube video above is not available, here are two other ways to view:

EBP-03

201015PM

THE WISDOM OF GOD THAT SOLOMON NEGLECTED TO OBEY: GOD’S ROAD TO LIFELONG USEFULNESS was seeking out God’s Wisdom through His Word daily and surrendering to follow it.
Becoming King meant so much to get done: a palace to build, an army to raise and manage, a city to fortify, a nation to rule and defend, a family to protect and supply and a personal life to maintain.
In the middle of all that God placed this incredible task: make a personal copy of the 192 pages of the Pentateuch by hand and carry it around with you.
For just a moment, why not take your Bible and feel the pages that make up Genesis 1through Deuteronomy 34. Feel that thickness? Now think 3,000 years ago. How would you make a personal copy of that much material? No copy machines, office stores, or printers. Just oil lamps to see by; and to capture words it meant either chisels into rock or crude ink onto animal skins. Think of how hard it was to get your recording skin materials, gather the tools to make and apply ink with, and find a flat spot to write on an animal skin.
So, that was a HUGE request from God and meant that His Word was VERY important for Solomon as he started to rule. What do these verses show as what God sees as critical for any leader? There are truths here that go way beyond just a King of Israel. There are some eternal truths that can help shape a life that counts for eternity in these words that come directly from God. Note these truths. First, God warned those who wanted to be useful, that there were pitfalls, temptations, and distractions that lessen usefulness and erase rewards.

Transcription

How did Solomon ruin his life? This is the third hour of our study in the book of Proverbs. What I’d like to read to you is a verse. You can see here on the board, class three: How Did Solomon Ruin His Life? We are focusing on Proverbs 12:26. This is again, one of the key themes. There are 10 themes that we’re working through, of the probably 140 that some scholars have found in the book of Proverbs. About 70% of the book covers these 10 themes.

  • We’ve seen in class one that true wisdom is salvation.
  • We saw last hour that to do the will of God, to be servant hearted, is the only way to have a life that never ends and the only way to have a life that doesn’t get burnt up.
  • This class we’re looking at being not saved, not servant hearted, but being selective in our friends.

Now look at this. How did Solomon, what’s the asterisk? The smartest, the richest, the most humanly blessed man on Earth that’s ever lived other than our Lord Jesus Christ. How did he ruin his life? Right here, proverbs 12:26.

“The righteous,” whoa… the righteous are those who are saved. Who have wisdom from above. Who are living for eternal gain.  They’re going God’s way. They are no longer going the way they were born. They’re not lost. They’re not living in foolishness. They’re not losing everything which is man’s way.

Verse 26, “the righteous,” the saved, the wise, “should choose his friends carefully, for the way of the wicked leads them astray.”

Look at the answer. How did Solomon ruin his life? Proverbs 12:26, introducing that huge theme of being selective in our friends. He didn’t select his friends God’s way. God says, verse 26, “choose your friends carefully.” What does that mean? Proverbs is a guide. It says these are the foolish and don’t befriend them. Don’t go their way. As a psalmist said, don’t walk or stand or sit with the ungodly and emulate their lifestyle. Really how Solomon ruined his life is because he didn’t heed God’s path of wisdom. He knew the Lord, but he had many foolish decisions that he made in his life. Back at the slides, how does Solomon ruin his life? This is just the third lesson of our Living Life God’s Way, as We’re Exploring the Book of Proverbs.

The book of Proverbs has 10 main themes. We’re going to be looking at, we’re on that third one. Next time we’ll look at being submissive to God, which is humility and how that reveals the ultimate sin of pride and on you can go through that list of the topics.

What God says is, be selective in your friendships.

Now on the slide make sure you note somewhere, if you’re taking notes, these three verses, and then we’re going to go through them in the scriptures together. Proverbs 12:26, James 4:4, and 1 Kings 11:4. I’ve already read Proverbs 12:26, “the righteous should choose his friends carefully.” Now, let me say to you, all of us who are saved- God has something clear to say about the friends we choose.

The first thing he has to say is right here in James 4 and verse 3.  James 4:4. Remember, James is most likely the very first New Testament book that was written.

James tells us in chapter 4 and verse 4, “Adulterers and Adulteresses.” Now listen, “do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?”

Pause. Think about that. When we befriend the world, it causes enmity with God. That means we treat God with hostility. Like we’re His enemy and worse than that, God acts hostile toward us. You know what the scriptures say? He resists us. He no longer blesses us because we are acting what? Like an unsaved person. See, when a Christian sin, when the saved who have God’s wisdom, living for Him sin, they are acting like a lost person. It’s foolish.

Do you know what usually happens? As a pastor for four decades, when I meet people that come to my office and say, I just don’t think I’m a Christian. I say, did you ever think you were a Christian? Oh yeah, yes, yes, yes. I said, the good news is if you were ever Christian, you’re still a Christian because you can’t un-Christian yourself. Let’s do a little diagnostic to see if maybe you’re making foolish decisions, and you’re acting like a lost person, and you’ve lost the joy of your salvation. The Holy Spirit is grieved.

Now back to James 4:4, he explains it. “Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

Remember 1 John chapter 2:15-17. “Love not the world nor the things in the world. […] for all that’s in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the father, but as of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; he that does the will God abides forever.”

God says be selective in your friendship.

What happened to Solomon? Let’s go to 1 Kings and make sure you tie this in your notes. 1 Kings chapter 11 and verse 4. “For it was so, when Solomon was old that his wives…”

Did you know that the person you marry should be your best friend? That’s one of the ways you know who you’re supposed to marry. You find someone who you completely share life with. You share emotions with them. Your spiritual life with them. Your physical life with them. Everything that is important to you, you share with them. Beware of who you befriend, remember verse 4, his best friends, “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.” Verse five, “Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD.”

By the way, how did he do that? It’s because he began to follow his friends, his best friends, his wives, to worship their gods. If you go to Jerusalem today and stand there, on the Mount of Olives overlooking the old city Jerusalem, every guide will say as you’re looking at Jerusalem, right over there on the left, that’s the Hill of Offense.  All the tourists stand there and don’t even know what it is and are embarrassed to ask. Someone will finally say, what’s the Hill of Offense? The guide always says, that’s where Solomon built the homes for his wives, because they were not Jews. They were not believers and they worshiped false gods. So, he let them live on that hill with all their false gods and their idols which they brought into Israel, into God’s people.

Let’s talk about Solomon. The next slide, Solomon towers over most who’ve ever lived. What did the scripture say about Solomon? Let’s just look at some more scriptures, Proverbs 1:1 in your Bibles. Let me get there, it says in Proverbs 1:1, this book first verse, “The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel.”

Now look at Proverbs chapter 10, verse 1, “The proverbs of Solomon: A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is the grief of his mother.”

Keep going to chapter 25, Proverbs chapter 25. Look what it says there. “These also are the proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied:”

Now, remember, we already have talked about that. That Solomon did the vast majority of the Proverbs, 513 of them in this book. Also, there are Proverbs of the wise men, King Lemuel and on and on of others that are a part of it. This section are the Proverbs that Solomon gave under the inspiration of God’s Spirit that Hezekiah collected.

Here’s some other verses, and I want to read those two. 1 Kings 3:12 “behold, I have done…” this is the Lord speaking, “…according to your words: see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart.” Now, this is why Solomon towers over all other Kings that have ever lived. Listen to what God said, “so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you.”

What does that mean? Solomon understood everything. God gave him this understanding. It says he understood animals. He understood plants. He understood all the things of the world. Plus, he spoke with divine wisdom.

Keep going, look at 1 Kings 4:32, “he spoke 3000 Proverbs.”

How many are in the book of Proverbs? 513, but he spoke 3000.

Above that, verse 32 says, “his songs were 1005.”

So, he actually excelled his father David, most likely because David only wrote half the psalms, songs. Solomon wrote 1,005 psalms or songs. Now, two of them were inspired and we have those in the book of Psalms, but he wrote many more. It’s like this, some people have trouble with that, they say, wait a minute… how can someone write proverbs that aren’t in the Bible? How can you have psalms that aren’t in the Bible? Are we missing part of the Bible? No. Did you know, David lived a normal life, had correspondence with many people, but only the psalms that God inspired and only the words that God inspired were put in the Bible. The same with the apostle Paul. The apostle Paul wrote many letters, he talks about them, but only those that were inspired by the Spirit of God, make their way into the Bible.

One last verse about Solomon, 1 Kings 10, verses 23 and 24. “So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the Earth in riches and wisdom.” It doesn’t stop there. Verse 24 says, “all the Earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom,” listen, “which God had put in his heart.”

Solomon was a testament to the greatness of God and the world came to hear him. That’s why I say in your next slide there, God gives us a context for the book of Proverbs. Think of sitting behind these books and seeing what was going on in the book of Proverbs. Now, remember Solomon wrote three books. He wrote the Song of Solomon probably when he was young. Oh now, if I was teaching song of Solomon, what a beautiful story, the thumbnail is this. Solomon in all of his wealth had bought many farms and vineyards. He had a vineyard that was very special and one day he went to his vineyard undercover. He didn’t wear his king outfit. He didn’t ride up in his chariot. He just walked over there and actually started working. Now he owned it and the owner knew the vineyard. His manager knew he was Solomon, but the workers didn’t know him. Because they didn’t have Facebook, they didn’t have the internet, they couldn’t look up his picture. So, normal Solomon walks in as a worker, the manager didn’t give him away, and he’s across the vineyard working from this young lady who he was interested in. They worked together trimming and tying the vines and getting to know each other. They fall in love and she commits her heart to him to marry him. They get engaged and then when she comes to see him just before their wedding, he’s gone. The whole Song of Solomon is this lament and she’s saying, oh no, he’s gone. I don’t know what to do. My heart is broken and all that. Then it ends in the last chapter of Song of Solomon with this chariot coming. The manager says, the King is coming, and all the workers line up. They bow before the king and the king gets off his chariot in his armor, wearing all of his finery.  He walks right over to the workers and stands right in front of her.  She’s looking down and the King says, hello.  She jerks her head up and looks at him and she says, it’s you.  That’s what the Song of Solomon is about. It’s about a theology of love. What marital love should be like. Spiritually what our engagement to Christ should be like and how much we should love him.

From the peak of his life, Solomon wrote Proverbs.

From the end of his life, he wrote Ecclesiastes.

What we’re sure about, the backdrop for Proverbs is the vast reputation that Solomon had for wealth and wisdom. So, he can speak on this topic because God inspired him. His fleets of boats were known to ports all over the world. The scriptures tell us that his boats regularly came in bringing gold and precious wood and animals from tropical places that were exotic. Also, his commercial enterprises brought the goods of the world on caravans to his doorstep.

The next slide Solomon’s three books have risen from the three stages of his life.

  • God inspired the song of Solomon from the young man in love.
  • God inspired Proverbs from the wisdom of a mature man at his zenith.
  • God inspired Ecclesiastes from an old and bitter man looking back on his wasted opportunities.

Why was he old and bitter? Because he didn’t select his friends God’s way. He ruined his life and he neglected to heed God’s path of wisdom.

The next slide reminds us the wisdom that God offers, that Solomon neglected to obey was at a crucial time. Now look in your Bibles, let me explain this to you. 1 Kings chapter 1. Remember, the only way to properly interpret any book of the Bible is to understand the context. The historical context. The context is contained in, who God was sending that message to. The original recipients. Do you remember? We covered that in class one. Proverbs were sent to, the recipient, Solomon at this time in his life when he was, look at chapter 1 and verse 38. It says,

“So, Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites, and Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule, and took him to Gihon. Then Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. And they blew the horn, and all the people said, ‘long live King Solomon!’ “

The wisdom God offered Solomon was neglected when he became King. Why? What was Solomon supposed to do?

 

On the slide there, God had given him a road to lifelong usefulness. Now, let me explain to you really quickly what that means, we’re going to see in Deuteronomy 17. So, take your Bibles, and I want to show you what Solomon was supposed to do on that day, he was anointed to be King. He was supposed to start something. Deuteronomy 17 and starting in verse 18 says,

“It shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom…”

Who are we talking about? The king. Back up to verse 14 of Deuteronomy 17.

“When you come to the land which the LORD […] gives you […] and you dwell in it,”

Verse 15, “you should surely set a king over you.”

So, Solomon was set over as a king. Verse 15 says don’t set him as a foreigner. Verse 16, he, the King, should not multiply horses. Verse 17, he shall not multiply wives, lest you turn his heart away. Nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold.

How is Solomon supposed to know all these things? Here’s the pathway to God’s usefulness, look at verse 18 “and it shall be when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. And it…” that’s his copy, he makes, “shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God and careful to observe.”

Whoa. How did Solomon ruin his life? One big obvious element is he didn’t select friends God’s way. But why didn’t he select friends God’s way? Because he didn’t heed God’s path of wisdom. What’s God’s path of wisdom? He had an assignment here. Let me just go through this assignment.

Look at the next slide and I’ll read it and you just follow along. A skilled scribe who was at his peak, could copy the words of a page in two to three hours. If everything was set for him. Now I’m talking about in the time of Solomon. If he had ink and paper and pen and a reader to read it to him, he would copy it down. Now, back to your Bibles, what does it say? In verse 18, when he sits on the throne, he writes a copy of this law. What law is he talking about? He’s talking about the Pentateuch; he’s talking about the first five books of the Bible.

Now for a moment, take in your hands, your Bible, and get Genesis to Deuteronomy right there. See here’s the Bible and look at that much. In my Bible, it’s 194 pages of the 1100. So, it’s 200 pages of a thousand. It’s a fifth, almost, of the Bible. Now look back at the slide. The Pentateuch has 5,852 versus nearly 160,000 words. At normal speed it would take a minimum of 900 hours to hand copy the Hebrew letters with ink and a quill onto an animal skin or parchment. That would be six months of work nonstop at eight hours a day.

Looking at the next slide, 192 pages, that’s the Pentateuch, 5,852 versus, 160,000 words, 900 hours of work, or six months, of eight-hour days. Now look up from your slides. God ask every King of Israel to do something. As soon as he sat down on the throne. He asked him to do something very hard. He asked them to devote themselves to hand copying 192 pages of the Bible and having that personal copy sitting next to them on the throne.

Now look at the next slide. Deuteronomy 17:14-17, before this command to copy, would have been something Solomon would have had to have copied over. It says when you’re King don’t multiply horses. Don’t multiply wives. Don’t multiply gold and silver. Let me just ask you, even someone that has a very cursory knowledge of Solomon’s life, what was it was he known for? He was known for having chariot cities, thousands of horses. He was known for having a thousand wives. How many wives do most people have? Either zero or one. The majority of people throughout all history have either not been married or had one, the vast majority. Salomon had a thousand. Gold and silver, he had more gold than anyone has ever amassed in history. Silver was as common as gravel it says during his reign. Wow. He would have noted those three direct commands of God, if he would have look at this, if he would have heeded God’s path of wisdom.

What was God’s path of wisdom? Look at the next slide. This is what the Lord said. God says I have a pathway for you in Deuteronomy 17:18-20.

God’s pathway:

Number one, God must become your personal pursuit. Notice what it says in verse 18, “that he shall write for himself…” Wow, “a copy of this law.” It’s a personal pursuit.

Number two, pursuing God would be inconvenient. It says in verse 18, “from the one before the priests, the Levites.” Now, just think for a minute what that means. This isn’t something someone could do in his robe and slippers. He couldn’t just sit there with the fire going in his fireplace, eating breakfast, and sitting in bed and copying this thing. He had to get up, get ready to get dressed, and make a trip from his palace to the tent outside of town where the tabernacle was and where the scrolls of the Pentateuch was. The priests would have to get them out of the chest.  The priests would have to lay them on a table. There was only one copy. They were very, very special, and important, and revered. He had to sit there as the priests were watching him, eight hours a day, five days a week for six months and hand copy for himself. Look back at the slides, pursuing God will be inconvenient to your life. It was especially for Solomon.

Number three. God’s word must be your guarded treasure. Verse 19 says, “it shall be with him.” Look up for a second, think about this. Did you know I was taught, when I was a young person, like many of you that are actually taking this course for credit, in Bible Institutes. I was taught by my youth pastor that this book, the Bible, should go with me when I went to school, every day. Now, we didn’t have electronic devices back then. When you went to school, you had a stack of books. You had your English book and your math book and your science book and your history book and whatever other courses you were taking. By the way they hadn’t invented backpacks 40 years ago when I was in school, we carried everything.  So, here’s this big arm of books and what our pastor, my youth pastor said is, the top book in your pile should be your Bible. Now look back at that slide, where did he get that from? Deuteronomy 17:19, and “it shall be with him,” the King. God wants us to guard the scriptures and have it be a part of our life.

The next slide, the fourth point of God’s pathway, reading the word must become your personal habit. “And he shall read it.” Look up, I know that many of you that are in training, are in school, and you’re studying the Bible. You have to write down the chapter title of every title of the Bible, and you have to do all of these different things that you’re doing, and you have to do readings for your Bible classes. Especially, if you’re in the two-year program. It’s just like you’re immersed in the scripture. We’re not talking about during Bible school, look back at that slide, reading the word must become your personal habit, whether you’re in school or not. “And he shall read it.”

The next slide, number five of God’s pathway, how to pursue Him and His wisdom. Nurturing your soul must become a lifelong habit. It was a daily reading but look what verse 19 says. “All the days of his life.” Now pause, let me ask you, do you hunger for the word of God as much as you are reminded in the morning that you want breakfast, or coffee, or tea? Or at lunchtime, when you get up and didn’t have breakfast, your stomach is growling and you’re looking for something to eat? Or you’re famished at dinner and the only thing on your mind is where am I going to eat? I don’t want to miss the meal. Did you know, the Bible says that we’re supposed to hunger after the pure milk of the word until we grow enough, that we feast on the meat of God’s word. Number five, nurturing your soul must become a lifelong habit. Number four, it must become reading the word as a personal habit, that cultivates a lifelong habit.

Now, look at number six, spiritual growth takes up your time. It’s not instantaneous. Verse 19 says, it continues, “that he may learn to fear the LORD his God,” Whoa. Look at this, God says, Solomon, you ruined your life because you didn’t obey my word and select friends God’s way. Because you did not commit to seeking God’s path of wisdom. You didn’t realize spiritual growth takes time. It’s not instantaneous. It takes time to read the Bible. It takes time to mark the scriptures. It takes time to memorize the scriptures. Are you committed lifelong, personally, to long-term growth? That’s God’s pathway.

Do you remember what Joseph said? Not only did he say no and flee, but before he fled, he looked at Potiphar’s wife and he said, how can I do this evil and sin against what? God. I have a phonographic mind. In other words, when I talk to you, I’m actually seeing pictures. I was seeing Joseph right there. I was seeing Solomon supposed to copy this. I was seeing David as he did copy it and it came out in all those psalms he did. Do you know what I think of when I think of Potiphar’s wife and Joseph’s statement to her? Joseph said, how can I do this evil and sin against God?  Potiphar’s wife went, God? There’s nobody else in this room. There’s nobody else in this house. Who are you talking about?

What’s the fear of God? God’s watching all the time. Proverbs reminds us of that. That’s God’s path of wisdom, to say, Lord, I’m wanting to go your way and you’re watching. You saved me. You redeemed me. You bought me at a price. You’ve given me your wisdom. I want to start redeeming my time for eternity. Number six, spiritual growth takes up your time and it’s not instantaneous.

Number seven. God wants your obedience, not just going through the motions. Now, what does verse 19 say? “And be careful to observe…” look at the next word, “all the words of this law and these statutes.” The King copied all of those words down so he would know how God wanted him to select his friends. So that, he would heed God’s path of wisdom. Specifically, Solomon would know that he’s not supposed to multiply horses, not multiply wives, and not multiply wealth. Now you say, wait a minute. I thought Solomon inherited the biggest fortune ever passed on from his dad, David. Yeah, but what did David do with his wealth? Remember David had done this, David had heeded God’s path of wisdom, that’s why he writes the 19th Psalm and talks about the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.  He says, it’s sweeter than honey in my mouth. I love it. I long for the word of God. He had done this exercise. He had copied his own copy. It shows up in all of his Psalms. It shows up in all of his dealings with people. David followed God’s path of wisdom. Solomon didn’t. He just went through, number seven in your slides, he went through the motions and was not careful to observe all the words of this law and these statues.

Number eight, God expects you to choose humility. Deuteronomy 17:20, “that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren.” Now, while Solomon was to do this path of wisdom look what he would have bumped into. These are the top 10 key themes of the book of Proverbs. Remember what chapter 1, we read this, chapter 1 says, I’ll put my Spirit on you. That’s salvation. Proverbs talks about the Holy Spirit saving people. The King was supposed to be reminded of God’s salvation, of being a servant, of having selected the right friends, but look at this, so that he would submit to God and not be proud. Now, back to number eight, God expects you to choose humility. What is humility? That your “heart may not be lifted up above your brethren.” God wants us not thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think.

Number nine, God expects your submission. Deuteronomy 17:20 says, continuing this verse it says, “that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left.” What the Lord is saying is I want you to submit to me. I want you to say speak Lord, your servant hears. By the way, what is servant hood? It’s being willing to have someone tell you what to do. Do you know what most people say? I’m not going to have anybody tell me what to do. Most people bristle at being told, go over there, do this, wear that, come at this time, whatever. We don’t like rules and we don’t like to be bossed around, but what did God say? Jesus said to his disciples. Who’s the greatest among you? The one who’s the greatest, what? Servant. Now let’s just talk for a minute about that word servant because in the New Testament, the word that is translated most often servant, is literally the word in English – slave. What word is that? Doulos. The New Testament translators, when they came to the Greek word doulos, which meant slave, that’s all it meant no doubt, it’s always in literature, doulas, slave. When they were translating the Bible slavery, just like today, was a very bad topic, controversial, and looked down upon. No one could ever think that God wants to call us slaves, but that is what he said.  A slave is someone who is willing to do what they’re told to do. A slave has no rights. A slave doesn’t own anything. A slave doesn’t have anything to look forward to, except a lifetime of doing what someone else tells them to do. When we got saved, God owns us, and we become his doulos. Plural douloi, servants. Except the servant could pick who they served. A slave had no choice. They just responded in obedience. Back to your slides. God’s expects our submission. We’re his slaves. And we’re not supposed to turn from his commandment to the right or to the left.

The final element from God’s pathway in Deuteronomy 17 is, God wants to bless you and offers you a spiritual heritage. Here was the promise to the king “that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.” Look up, what’s God saying? God’s saying, if you will heed my path of wisdom, it’s going to cause you to have longevity, prosperity, success.

What does Joshua 1:8 and 9 say? “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do” what is acceptable in the Lord sight. Then what does it say? He will prosper you and all that you will do. Fear not, He said, I’m going to bless you in every way. If this book of the law that you follow, God’s path of wisdom, if you respond and submit, if you are submissive. If you have a singular focus. If you are self-controlled by the Spirit. If you see all of life as a stewardship, that you don’t own it, that your money and time belongs to God. If you’re hardworking and studious. If you’re sober-minded, you have a godly mind and speak wisely, you’ll show that you belong to God.

The next slide. There are stark contrasts that the scripture gives us between David and Solomon. Let me just give these to you in God’s word the Bible. Two old men sat down and wrote the summary of their lives. One was a father, the other his son. Both wrote under the inspiration of God’s Spirit. Both had suffered through many afflictions. Both knew the Lord in an unusual way. For one, Solomon, he looked back almost bitterly at the end of his life. He looked back and he perhaps too late realized that the only way to live and the best way to die was to reflect on God’s plans in the first place. His name was Solomon, the summary of his life, a book called Ecclesiastes. The book of Ecclesiastes, these could be called the lessons of what happens to you when you neglect a lifestyle of fearing God as described in the book of Proverbs. Solomon found out after his restless pursuit of all the world had to offer, that nothing but God satisfies. In fact, the message of Ecclesiastes is nothing satisfies, but God.

What about the other one? The next slide says that David invested his life with God. The other man at the end of his life looks back and sees a lifelong growth and experiencing God. His name was David. The father of Solomon. David ended well. Feared no evil because he remembered his creator. His summary is still the best-known song in the world. Do you know what one of David’s writings? Everybody in Christendom knows the 23rd Psalm. As a youth, David remembered his creator. In Acts 13:22 God wrote David’s epitaph. He said, he is the man after my own heart, who serves my purpose.

The next slide. There’s a warning for all of us. Difficult, hard, and evil days are ahead. That’s what Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 12.

The next slide, I remind you, we have a choice. Don’t ruin your life like Solomon.

Each day we’re choosing a pathway, God wants us to walk in wisdom.

In the next slide, that’s why I asked you, why should we memorize Proverbs 3:5 and 6? Here’s the reason why, just before we go and our class is almost over, but Proverbs 3:5 and 6 have some important elements. The first word is trust.  What that word means in Hebrew, if you did a word study on it is, to lie helplessly face down. So, God wants us to come to Him submissively and in humility. Trust, just fall before the Lord helplessly and humbly. Then it says, lean not on yourself. Do you know what that means? The word lean means, not to incline, but actually to be held up by. If I lean against this wall far enough, I can’t stand up without the wall holding me up. Do you know what Proverbs 3:5 and 6 says? Only be able to go through life, held up by God, as we fall submissively before Him. Then verse 6 says,” in all your ways acknowledge him.” That means knowing God, seeking God, pursuing His wisdom, and seeing that living for Him is what life is about. Then it says, God will direct your paths.

The last slide is a reminder, that’s how Solomon ruined his life. What is that? How did the world’s smartest and richest man ruin his life? He didn’t select his friends God’s way. Are you committed to not marrying an unbeliever? Solomon married an unbeliever and ruined his life? Are you going to heed God’s path of wisdom?

Let’s bow and pray.

Father, thank you for this third-class. Thank you for the truth from your word, that we can all embrace and learn from, but it must start by us humbly coming, submissively before you. Trusting you helplessly, apart from your grace we can’t live this way. You gave Solomon grace and he foolishly didn’t heed your law, your word, your truth, and didn’t follow your pathway. We want to. In the precious name of Jesus and for your glory, we pray.  All God’s people said, amen.

God bless you.

Slides