Saul was the first king. God didn't want the Israelites to have a king but they persisted. It didn't go that well....and then God gave them David....and established a kingship that would last forever through our Lord Jesus Christ....and then came Solomon.
The book of Ecclesiastes may be the most difficult book in God's Word to get a grip on....even more so than Revelation....for in Revelation it is interpretation that we struggle with....prophecy....but in Ecclesiastes we struggle with the author....Solomon....who as with other kings of Israel who did the things that Solomon did....we read something like...."and he did evil in the sight of the LORD." Well Solomon did that evil also....but he repented.
Solomon had a heart for God....God gave him great wisdom....Solomon used that wisdom....but then the glory got the best of him....and he spiraled downward....until he was a mess....but then that same wisdom that got him in trouble....was enough to make him see why he got in trouble. Still....if Ecclesiastes was written near the end of his life....he must have looked like someone who had been on drugs....worn out. He had been freed from that drug....vanity....but the effects of years of abuse were still in his words.
It wasn't an election per se....but it was a choice....Jeroboam....one of Solomon's officials....or Rehoboam....a genuine son of David....kind of like Harris or Trump....where we lose both ways. So ten tribes followed Jeroboam who actually fashioned two golden calves...."Here are your gods. Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt"....(1 Kings 12:28)....and Judah and Benjamin stuck with Rehoboam...."The people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites....(1 Kings 14:24.) The northern kingdom lasted 209 years before Assyria took all the people away to who knows where....and Judah lasted 345 years....ignoring the warnings of Jeremiah and other prophets before the Babylonians took them away....and destroyed the temple and the walls of the city.
So what is this....vanity....of which Solomon learned the hard way? There are a lot of opinions here...."nothingness....meaningless"....are two words often bandied about. When I see the word vanity....as we use the word....which may not be the way that Solomon used it....I see....self-centeredness....pride....I'm the only one that counts.
Whether or not that is what Solomon meant....it certainly describes us today. Everything from selfies to Facebook or politics is....vanity. It is all about us. Nebuchadnezzar looked over his kingdom and boasted on what he had built....and we know what happened to him next....and it appears that Solomon did much the same thing....and God brought him to utter confusion....and God will do this to us if we lose perspective....in fact that is where we are today.
Not everyone takes that path...."and did evil in the sight of the LORD." It does not appear that Spurgeon did.....nor Whitefield....but maybe Billy Graham did as he wasted so much time early on on politics and palling around with presidents....wasted time that he regretted later on. Either way it is the same road that we are all on....and the same river that will be crossed....and the same Celestial City....and the same glory and honor and praise to Jesus Christ at the end....and we can all thank God for these mercies and that promise to keep us!
So back to Jeroboam and Rehoboam....there was no lesser of two evils there. Should Jesus tarry....we may yet see a wise and God-fearing leader in America if but for a short time....but as for now.....Lord have mercy upon us for what we have become!
Saul was the first king. God didn't want the Israelites to have a king but they persisted. It didn't go that well....and then God gave them David....and established a kingship that would last forever through our Lord Jesus Christ....and then came Solomon.
The book of Ecclesiastes may be the most difficult book in God's Word to get a grip on....even more so than Revelation....for in Revelation it is interpretation that we struggle with....prophecy....but in Ecclesiastes we struggle with the author....Solomon....who as with other kings of Israel who did the things that Solomon did....we read something like...."and he did evil in the sight of the LORD." Well Solomon did that evil also....but he repented.
Solomon had a heart for God....God gave him great wisdom....Solomon used that wisdom....but then the glory got the best of him....and he spiraled downward....until he was a mess....but then that same wisdom that got him in trouble....was enough to make him see why he got in trouble. Still....if Ecclesiastes was written near the end of his life....he must have looked like someone who had been on drugs....worn out. He had been freed from that drug....vanity....but the effects of years of abuse were still in his words.
It wasn't an election per se....but it was a choice....Jeroboam....one of Solomon's officials....or Rehoboam....a genuine son of David....kind of like Harris or Trump....where we lose both ways. So ten tribes followed Jeroboam who actually fashioned two golden calves...."Here are your gods. Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt"....(1 Kings 12:28)....and Judah and Benjamin stuck with Rehoboam...."The people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites....(1 Kings 14:24.) The northern kingdom lasted 209 years before Assyria took all the people away to who knows where....and Judah lasted 345 years....ignoring the warnings of Jeremiah and other prophets before the Babylonians took them away....and destroyed the temple and the walls of the city.
So what is this....vanity....of which Solomon learned the hard way? There are a lot of opinions here...."nothingness....meaningless"....are two words often bandied about. When I see the word vanity....as we use the word....which may not be the way that Solomon used it....I see....self-centeredness....pride....I'm the only one that counts.
Whether or not that is what Solomon meant....it certainly describes us today. Everything from selfies to Facebook or politics is....vanity. It is all about us. Nebuchadnezzar looked over his kingdom and boasted on what he had built....and we know what happened to him next....and it appears that Solomon did much the same thing....and God brought him to utter confusion....and God will do this to us if we lose perspective....in fact that is where we are today.
Not everyone takes that path...."and did evil in the sight of the LORD." It does not appear that Spurgeon did.....nor Whitefield....but maybe Billy Graham did as he wasted so much time early on on politics and palling around with presidents....wasted time that he regretted later on. Either way it is the same road that we are all on....and the same river that will be crossed....and the same Celestial City....and the same glory and honor and praise to Jesus Christ at the end....and we can all thank God for these mercies and that promise to keep us!
So back to Jeroboam and Rehoboam....there was no lesser of two evils there. Should Jesus tarry....we may yet see a wise and God-fearing leader in America if but for a short time....but as for now.....Lord have mercy upon us for what we have become!
