WISDOM GONE BAD

Solomon is known as the “wisest man who ever lived.” This is based on the Lord speaking to Solomon in a dream at Gibeon and asking him, “Ask what you wish me to give to you.” He asked for, “a wise and understanding heart.” The scripture says the Lord spoke, “I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. And I will also give you what you did not ask for, riches and honor.”

The wisdom of Solomon served him well for a while and then he started making very unwise decisions. He used bad judgment in the way he spent his money and his decisions about women. The story of his life tells us, “And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.” He went from a wise and understanding heart to a turned away heart. How much wisdom has been lost when a man wants one thousand women… seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines?

Most of us know that one wife is more than enough for one man (or one husband for one woman). Because Solomon’s wisdom had gone bad, he says at the end of his life, “My child, I warn you to stay away from any teachings except these. There is no end to books, and too much study will wear you out. Everything you were taught can be put into a few words: Respect and obey God! This is what life is all about. God will judge everything we do, even what is done in secret, whether good or bad.”

“But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.” Jesus