What God Does Will Last Forever
First Kings records a sad summary of King Solomon’s life, but we have other writings from him in the Bible, including the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes seems to offer a humble reflection on significant life endeavors with an understanding of human limitations. Ecclesiastes 3:9-15 says:
What does the worker gain from his struggles? I have seen the task that God has given the children of Adam to keep them occupied. He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but no one can discover the work God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life. It is also the gift of God whenever anyone eats, drinks, and enjoys all his efforts. I know that everything God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of him. Whatever is, has already been, and whatever will be, already is. However, God seeks justice for the persecuted. (CSB, emphasis mine)
God gave Solomon wisdom, great insight, and understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore. His knowledge was greater than all the wisdom of Egypt and the countries of the East. Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs and wrote 1,005 songs (see 1 Kings 4). With all the wisdom in the world, you might expect Solomon to have a story like Joshua, Nehemiah, or one of the disciples.
However, the beauty of Scripture is that we learn both the good and bad parts of Jewish and Christian history. For me, this is one aspect of the texts that makes them more reliable. Our shared history as believers includes humans who imperfectly followed God. Even when they were called to significant leadership roles, there were times when they failed, just like we all do.
Solomon ruled over Israel for forty years. When David, Solomon’s father, wanted to build God’s temple, he learned that the honor would go to his son. Fulfilling the calling to build God’s temple took thirteen years (1 Kings 7). After the temple was established, Solomon continued collecting knowledge, wealth, and women. He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines.
Solomon was the wisest, richest, and most powerful man on earth, and the one boundary God established was that he was the only one Solomon must worship, saying to Solomon, “And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days” (1 Kings 3:14 ESV).
When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods. He was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord, as his father David had been. Solomon followed Ashtoreth, the “Queen of Heaven,” known as a fertility goddess (1 Kings 11:4-5).
This betrayal crossed the one boundary God had established for Solomon, and all of Israel paid dearly for his disobedience. But isn’t that what we should expect from bad leaders? Instead, their example ends up impacting the masses.1 Kings 11: 9-11 says,
“The Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. He had commanded him about this, so that he would not follow other gods, but Solomon did not do what the Lord had commanded. Then the Lord said to Solomon, “Since you have done this and did not keep my covenant and my statutes, which I commanded you, I will tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. (CSB)
Jeremiah 52 records the fulfillment of what God said to Solomon with the destruction of the temple he built. The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars and stands and carried all the movable bronze they could take to Babylon. Solomon was one of many leaders to fail in his leadership role.
History Is in the Eye of the Beholder
In Egyptology, Rameses the Great is frequently regarded as the greatest and most powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom era of Ancient Egypt. While documented as a time of unmatched wealth and power for Egypt, the Israelites have different perspectives on this period.
Most scholars agree that Ramesses the Great was the Pharaoh Moses and Aaron confronted in the book of Exodus, freeing the Israelites from 400 years of slavery. In 1816, archeologists discovered the head of a statue of Ramesses. The head was one of six parts eventually excavated which, when pieced together, created an eleven-foot statue of the pharaoh. Egyptians have since commissioned it for reconstruction.
Ramesses enslaved people and forced them to spend their lives building temples and statues meant to glorify his life. The Egyptians worshipped him as a god. Centuries later, his work lay in ruins, and Ramesses’s name isn’t even recorded in the most-read book on earth.
Author Albert Camus said, “The entire history of mankind is, in any case, nothing but a prolonged fight to the death for the conquest of universal prestige and absolute power.” It’s easy to make a case that Solomon and Ramesses both sought universal prestige and absolute power. Yet, in the end, what remains of their legacies is mostly what God did, just as Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes.
May I encourage you that, wherever you’re working and leading these days, rather than doing things just to remain occupied, pray and ask God to show you how to spend your time and energy? In the end, those are the things that will bring you the most satisfaction today and impact the future.
Beth M. Walker is an author, speaker, and experienced digital marketer. Married to a football coach and raising two sons, she has waded through the challenges of balancing home life with the work she loves. One of Beth’s gifts is helping others discern their gifts and take them to the next level. With many years of expertise in writing and digital marketing, she has helped countless people identify their unique calling, thrive in their life purpose, and pursue their courageous next step vocationally. She blogs at BethMWalker.com.
Photograph © Timothy Eberly, used with permission
