King Solomon: How the Wisest Man Who Ever Lived Died a Fool

0:00 He asked God for wisdom and God gave him more than any person who ever lived. He built the most magnificent temple the ancient world had ever seen. Kings and queens traveled from the edges of the known earth just to hear him speak. First Kings chapter 10 says there was nothing like Solomon's kingdom before him and nothing like it would come after. But by the end of his life, Solomon was building altars to Molech on the hills overlooking the very temple he'd constructed for the God of Israel.

0:33 He was burning incense to Kamosh, the God the Moabites worshiped with child sacrifice. And First Kings 11 says something so devastating it almost doesn't sound real. It says, "The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the God of Israel who had appeared to him twice. Twice God showed up in person twice and Solomon still walked away. So what happened? How does the wisest man in the history of the world end up worshiping the gods he was specifically warned about? How does the king who wrote 3,000 proverbs about wisdom become the Bible's greatest cautionary tale about foolishness?

1:15 This is the story of Solomon's last days. And honestly, it might be the saddest story in the entire Old Testament. To understand how Solomon fell, you need to understand how high he climbed. [music] Because this wasn't some average king who drifted off course. This was the pinnacle, the absolute ceiling of what a human being could become with God's direct blessing. Solomon's story begins in 2 Samuel 12 when the prophet Nathan [music] arrives at the palace after the birth of David's son. The name Solomon comes from the Hebrew word shalom, meaning peace. But Nathan also gave him a second name, Jedodiah, meaning loved by the Lord.

1:58 From birth, this child was marked, set apart. God had plans for this kid before he could walk. But Solomon's path to the throne was anything but peaceful. He wasn't David's [music] oldest surviving son. That was Adonijah who was handsome, ambitious, and absolutely certain the crown belonged to him. First Kings chapter 1 records that as David grew old and frail, Adonijah made his move. He gathered chariots [music] and horsemen and 50 men to run ahead of him. He threw a massive coronation feast at the stone of Zohaleth near [music] Enrogal, invited the military commanders and the royal officials, and basically [music] declared himself king while David was still breathing. But he didn't invite Solomon. He didn't invite Nathan the prophet. And he didn't invite Banayiah, the commander of David's personal guard.

2:50 That wasn't an accident. Adonijah knew exactly who would oppose him, and he tried to cut them out. Nathan went to Ba' Sheba, Solomon's mother, and told her what [music] was happening. Bath Sheba went to David's bedside and reminded the aging king of his promise [music] that Solomon would sit on his throne. David confirmed it on the spot. He ordered Zadok [music] the priest and Nathan the prophet to take Solomon down to the Guehon spring, anoint him with oil, blow the trumpet, and declare him king. They did. And when Adonijah's [music] guests heard the trumpet blast and the shouting from the city above, the party ended instantly. Everyone scattered.

3:29 Adonijah ran to the altar of the tabernacle and grabbed the horns, begging for his life. Solomon spared him on the condition that he proved himself worthy. He wouldn't. Adonijah later asked Bath Sheba to arrange his marriage to Abishag, the young woman who had attended David in his final days. In the ancient world, taking a king's [music] concubine was a public claim to the throne. Solomon saw through it immediately. He told his mother, "Why do you request Abashag for Adonijah? You might as well request the kingdom for him." And he had Adonijah executed that same day. This was Solomon at the start.

4:07 decisive, cleareyed, ruthless when he needed to be, but guided by a sharp understanding of threats and motives. That clarity is what makes his later blindness so difficult to comprehend. The same man who could read Adonijah's hidden intentions in a marriage request would eventually fail to see what was happening in his own heart over the course of decades. So Solomon didn't just inherit the throne. He survived a coup to get it, eliminated a rival, and consolidated power with surgical precision. And the first thing he did with his secured kingdom tells you everything [music] about who he was at that point in his life. God came to Solomon in a dream at Gibian and said something no human being had ever heard before or since. Ask for whatever [music] you want me to give you. God came to Solomon in a dream at Gibian and said something no human being had ever heard before or since.

5:04 Ask for whatever you want me to give you. Think about that for a second. The creator of the universe essentially handed Solomon a blank check. And Solomon, to his credit, didn't ask for money. He didn't ask for military victories. He didn't ask for a long life. He asked for wisdom. He asked for a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. And first Kings chapter 3 records that God was pleased. So pleased that he gave Solomon not only the wisdom he asked for, but also the wealth and honor he didn't ask for. God told him there would never be anyone like him among kings for as long as he lived. The results were immediate and staggering.

5:46 the famous judgment [music] between the two women claiming the same baby spread through Israel like wildfire. People realized this wasn't just a young king playing politics. This was something different, something supernatural. The text says, "All of Israel stood in awe of the king because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer [music] justice. But that judgment was just one case." The scope of Solomon's wisdom went far beyond settling disputes. First Kings 4 says Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs and composed 1,05 songs. 3,000 proverbs. Think about that number. The book of Proverbs, as we have it, contains roughly 800 verses. That means what survived in scripture is less than a third of what Solomon actually produced. The rest is lost to history.

6:39 And it wasn't just moral wisdom. The text says he spoke about plant life from the cedar of Lebanon to the hissup that grows out of walls. He taught about animals, birds, reptiles, and fish. He was a naturalist, a poet, a philosopher, a songwriter, and a judge all in one mind. First Kings chapter 4 says, "People came from all nations to listen to Solomon's wisdom sent by all the kings of the world who had heard about it. Delegations traveled from kingdoms that didn't even share a common language with Israel just to sit in his court and listen to him speak. This wasn't just a smart king. This was the intellectual [music] center of the ancient world.

7:19 Jerusalem under Solomon was what Athens would become five centuries later what Alexandria [music] would become after that. Except Solomon didn't build a school. He was the school. But the wisdom was just the beginning. What Solomon did next is what [music] made him a legend across the entire ancient world. He built the temple, the first temple in Jerusalem, the house of God, the project his father David had [music] dreamed about for decades, but was never permitted to touch. This wasn't some modest worship center. The construction took 7 years.

7:54 Solomon conscripted over 150,000 laborers. The interior walls were lined with cedar from Lebanon and overlaid with pure gold. The inner sanctuary, the most holy place, was a perfect cube, 30 ft in every direction, covered floor to ceiling in gold. Some estimates put the value of the gold alone in modern currency at over $60 billion. And when the temple was finished, Solomon brought the ark of the covenant inside. The priests carried it into the most holy place beneath the wings of the golden cherubim. And first Kings chapter 8 says that when the priests withdrew from the holy place, the cloud of God's glory filled the temple of the Lord. The cloud was so thick, so heavy with the presence of God that the priests could not perform their duties. [music] They couldn't even stand up. But the temple wasn't the real story. What happened after the dedication? That's the part that changes everything. And here's a detail that Bible readers often skip right past. First Kings 7:1.

8:59 It took Solomon 13 years, however, to complete the construction of his palace. 13 years. The temple took seven. Solomon spent nearly twice as long building his own house as he spent building God's house. And the palace was enormous. It included the hall of the forest of Lebanon, a massive ceremonial building 100 cubits long, 50 wide, and 30 high with 45 cedar pillars arranged in rows. It had a hall of the pillars, a hall of justice where he held court, [music] and separate living quarters for himself and for the daughter of Pharaoh, his most politically significant wife. The text doesn't comment on this. It just records the numbers and moves on. 7 years for God's house. 13 years for Solomon's house. But the implication sits there quietly waiting for you to notice it.

9:52 Where was Solomon's heart already [music] drifting even during the years when everything looked golden from the outside? Solomon knelt before the entire nation and prayed one of the longest, most theologically rich prayers [music] recorded anywhere in scripture. He acknowledged that even the heavens cannot contain God, let alone a temple built by human hands. He asked God to hear the prayers of anyone [music] who turned toward this place, whether Israelite or foreigner. And then God showed up again for the second time.

10:26 First Kings chapter 9 records that the Lord appeared to Solomon a second time just as he had appeared to him at Gibon. And God told [music] Solomon that he had heard his prayer. He had consecrated the temple. His eyes and his heart would be there perpetually. But then God added a condition that would echo through the rest of Solomon's life like a time bomb. God said, "If you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever."

10:59 But [music] then came the warning. If you or your descendants turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees [music] I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated [music] for my name. God wasn't vague. He wasn't subtle. He told Solomon exactly what would happen if he turned away. And Solomon heard every word.

11:27 Remember that. Because everything [music] that comes next, Solomon chose with his eyes wide open. At this point in the story, Solomon's kingdom was the wonder of the ancient world. The Queen of Sheba traveled from the edges [music] of the known earth to see it for herself, bringing gold, spices, and precious stones in overwhelming quantities. She tested Solomon with hard questions, and every single one he [music] answered. The passage says that when she saw his court, there was no more spirit in her. That phrase in Hebrew means [music] she was breathless.

12:02 She told Solomon that not even half of his greatness had been told to her. Solomon received 666 talants of gold in a single year. He made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem. He sat on a massive ivory throne overlaid with gold with 12 carved lions standing on six steps. Nothing like it had ever been made for any kingdom. And the wealth wasn't just sitting in a vault. Solomon built the most sophisticated [music] trade network the ancient near east had ever seen. He controlled the land route between Egypt [music] and Mesopotamia, which meant every caravan carrying goods between the two great civilizations of the ancient world paid Solomon a fee to pass [music] through his territory.

12:47 First Kings chapter 10 says, "Solomon's merchants bought chariots from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver each and horses from Kuwait for 150. Then they exported them to the Hittit and Araman kings at a markup. He was the middleman between empires. He built a fleet of trading ships at Ezon Gabber near Elth on the shore [music] of the Red Sea in the land of Edom. These ships manned by [music] Phoenician sailors sent by King Hyram of Ty sailed to Ofir and brought back 420 talants [music] of gold. Scholars still argue about where Oir was. Some say East Africa. Some say India. Some say the [music] Arabian Peninsula. Nobody knows for certain. But wherever it was, Solomon's ships found it and came back loaded. He also had a fleet of trading ships that returned every 3 years carrying gold, silver, ivory, apes, and baboons. The king of Israel had baboons from across the ocean in 950 BC. The scale of this operation is almost impossible to overstate. This was the peak, the absolute summit. the wisest, [music] wealthiest, most powerful king on earth, personally visited by God twice, living under a direct covenant promise. And this is exactly where [music] the story takes a turn nobody expected. First Kings 11 opens with a sentence that reads like a car crash in slow motion. King Solomon loved many foreign women. That's it. That's the beginning of the end. One sentence.

14:21 [music] And the rest of the chapter is the wreckage. The text is specific. Solomon loved women from the Moabites, Ammonites, Sidonians, and Hittites. These [music] were exactly the nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites. You must not intermar with them because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods. The Bible doesn't bury this detail. It puts it right up front as if to say, "He knew. He absolutely knew."

14:51 And the numbers are almost absurd. Solomon had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 [music] concubines, a thousand women. Now, these weren't love matches. Most of these marriages were political alliances. [music] In the ancient near east, marrying a foreign princess was how you sealed a treaty with her nation. It was diplomacy through marriage. Every wife represented a trade [music] route secured, a border stabilized, an army that wouldn't march against you. Solomon was playing the political game at a level no one had ever played before. And from a strategic standpoint, [music] it worked. Israel had peace on every border for most of his reign. The kingdom expanded. The economy thrived.

15:35 And here's an irony that almost nobody talks about. Many scholars attribute the Song of Solomon, the Song of Songs, to this same man. It's one of the most intimate, passionate love poems ever written. I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine. The entire book is about exclusive devotion between two lovers. One man, one woman, consumed with each other. Solomon wrote that. Or at least tradition says he did. The same man who would eventually have a thousand women in his palace wrote the [music] definitive poem about the beauty of singular devoted love. And then he lived the opposite of [music] every word. The song of songs describes love as a flame that many waters [music] cannot quench.

16:16 Solomon drowned that flame in a thousand streams, one political marriage at a time. But God hadn't said, "Don't [music] marry foreign women because it's bad politics." God said, "Don't marry them because they will turn your heart." And that's exactly what happened. Pay attention to this next detail because it explains everything that follows. The text says that as Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. Notice that phrase.

16:47 As Solomon grew old, this wasn't a sudden rebellion. This wasn't [music] a dramatic moment of defiance. This was erosion, a slow, gradual wearing away of conviction that happened over years, maybe decades. Think about how that works. You marry a Sidonian princess. She worships Ashttoth, the goddess of fertility and war. You love her. She asks if she can have a small shrine built somewhere outside the city just so she can practice her faith. You think, "Well, what's the harm? It's just a building. It's not like I'm worshiping there. I'm just being a good husband, a tolerant king." Then another wife makes the same request and another. And before you know it, there are shrines on every hilltop around Jerusalem. [music] And maybe one morning you go up there with one of your wives just to be supportive.

17:36 You stand [music] at the edge of the ceremony. You watch. You participate a little. What's the harm? And the next time it's easier, and the time after that easier still, until one day you're burning incense to Kimosh, the god of Moab on the hill [music] east of Jerusalem, the hill that overlooks the very temple you built for the Lord God of Israel. The Bible names the gods specifically. Solomon followed Ashtarth, the [music] goddess of the Sidonians. He followed Mollik, the detestable god of the Ammonites. He built [music] a high place for Kimosh on a hill east of Jerusalem, and another for Moolik. And he did the same for all of his foreign wives who burned incense and [music] offered sacrifices to their gods. And you need to understand what these gods actually demanded because the Bible calls them detestable and moves on. But the reality behind that word is staggering. Ashtto worship involved ritual [music] prostitution at temple shrines. Priests and priestesses performed sexual acts as part of fertility rights, believing it would make the crops grow and the herds multiply. This was [music] happening on the hills around the city where God's temple stood. Kosh, the god of Moab, was a war god who demanded human sacrifice in times of military crisis. 2 [music] Kings chapter 3 records the king of Moab sacrificing his own firstborn son on the city wall when he was losing a battle and the text says [music] great wrath came against Israel. That's the god Solomon built an altar for and Molech was the worst. [music] Ancient sources describe Molech worship as involving the sacrifice of children by fire. The book of Leviticus 18 specifically forbids giving your children to Moolik, calling it a profanation of God's name. Later, prophets like Jeremiah would describe the Valley of Hinnam outside Jerusalem where children were burned alive in Moolik's name. Solomon didn't create that practice in Israel, but he opened the door. [music] He built the infrastructure. He made it respectable.

19:41 The man who asked God for wisdom to judge righteously was now endorsing religions that burned children alive. Now, here's a detail that everyone [music] misses. That hill east of Jerusalem, that's the Mount of Olives. The same mountain where [music] centuries later Jesus would pray in the Garden of Gethsemane before his crucifixion. The same mountain where Jesus wept over the city. Solomon put pagan altars on that hill. altars that would stand for over 300 years until King [music] Josiah finally tore them down in 2 Kings chapter 23. Three centuries later, they were still there.

20:17 And the text says, "Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord." This is the same language used for the worst kings in Israel's history. The same phrase used for Ahab, for Manasseh, for the kings who led Israel into exile. Solomon [music] is placed in the same category. The wisest man who ever lived. did evil in the eyes of the Lord. The Hebrew word used for how Solomon's heart turned is the word nata. It means to stretch out, to extend, to bend. His heart didn't snap. It bent slowly over time like a tree growing toward whatever light source is closest, regardless of whether that light is the sun or a fire that will eventually burn it down. And this is where the story gets personal because Solomon's drift didn't start with idol worship. It started with compromise. It started with rationalizing. [music] It started with telling himself that he could manage the tension between his faith and his choices. That he was wise enough to hold both worlds in his hands without one corrupting the other. Sound familiar? Because this is how it works for everybody. Nobody wakes up one morning and decides to destroy their life. Nobody sits down and plans their own spiritual collapse. It happens one small yes at a time. One compromise that feels reasonable. One boundary that gets moved just slightly. One conversation you know you shouldn't be having, but it's not that bad. One habit that started as occasional and became daily.

21:52 one relationship you told yourself you could handle even though every warning sign was flashing and the whole time you're the wisest person in the room. You can explain exactly why it's fine. You can justify every single step. You have a reason for everything. That's what makes it so dangerous. Solomon didn't fall because he was stupid. He fell because he was brilliant enough to rationalize anything. If you're watching this and you want more content that digs this deep into biblical stories most channels won't touch, hit subscribe. We release new documentaries every week that go beyond the surface and into the real uncomfortable details that scripture actually [music] contains. So Solomon had been warned. God had appeared to him twice and laid out the terms of the covenant in plain language.

22:39 And Solomon broke those terms. What God did next made all of that look like a warm-up. First Kings 11:9. The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. That word angry in Hebrew is anaf. It doesn't mean irritated. It doesn't mean disappointed. It means the nostrils flared. It's visceral, physical. It's the kind of anger a father feels when a child he's given everything to walks away and throws it all in the garbage. This is grief wrapped in fury. And God spoke.

23:18 Although he had forbidden [music] Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord's command. So the Lord said to Solomon directly, "Since this is [music] your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates." But then God adds something remarkable. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe [music] for the sake of David, my servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen. Even in judgment, God showed mercy. Not for Solomon's sake, for David's sake. Solomon's father had been dead for decades, and his faithfulness was still covering his son. The memory of [music] David's devotion bought Solomon's heir one tribe instead of zero. Think about that. David's relationship with God was so deep that it functioned as [music] a shield for his descendants even after his death.

24:24 But the judgment was coming. And God didn't [music] just announce it. He orchestrated it through three specific adversaries. The first was Hadad the [music] Edomite. When David had conquered Edom years earlier, his general Joab had killed every male in the country over a six-month campaign. But Hadad, a young prince from Edom's royal family, had escaped to Egypt as a boy. Pharaoh gave him a house, land, food, and eventually married him to the sister of his own queen. Her dad's son grew up in the Egyptian [music] palace alongside Pharaoh's own children. And when her dad heard that David and Joab were dead, he told Pharaoh he wanted to go home. Pharaoh asked what he could possibly be [music] missing. Hadad's answer was essentially nothing, but let me go. He went back to Edom and became [music] a thorn in Solomon's side, opposing him throughout the latter part of his reign. The second adversary was Reszison, [music] the son of Eliada, who had fled from his master, King Hadadzar of Zoba. Reszison gathered a band of raiders around him and eventually seized Damascus, the capital of Syria. He ruled Damascus and became hostile to Israel throughout Solomon's reign. Where Solomon once had peace on every border, he now had an enemy kingdom directly to the north. If that sounds bad, it gets worse. Because the third adversary came from inside the house. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, was one of Solomon's own officials. He was an Ephraimite from the town of Zeredar, and his mother was a widow named Zerua. Solomon had noticed Jeroboam's talent and work ethic and [music] had put him in charge of the entire labor force from the tribe of Joseph. This was a significant position.

26:10 Solomon trusted him. And then the prophet Ahijah found Jeroboam on a road outside Jerusalem. Ahijah was wearing a brand new cloak. And in one of the most dramatic prophetic acts in the [music] entire Old Testament, Ahijah took off that new cloak and tore it into 12 pieces right there on the road. He told Jeroboam to take 10 pieces for himself [music] because God was about to tear the kingdom out of Solomon's hand and give 10 tribes to Jeroboam.

26:39 Picture this scene for a second. A prophet of God standing on a dusty road, ripping apart a perfectly good garment piece by piece while a government official [music] watches in shock. In Israel, prophetic actions weren't theater. They were considered binding declarations of God's will. When a prophet tore a cloak, the thing he symbolized [music] was as good as done. Ahijah wasn't making a suggestion. He was delivering a verdict. And Jeroboam was holding the evidence in his hands.

27:08 10 torn strips of fabric that represented 10 tribes of Israel being ripped away from the house of David. Ahijah explained God's reasoning in detail. Solomon had forsaken the Lord and worshiped Ashtarth, Kaosh, and Moolik. He had not walked in obedience to God as his father David had done. Therefore, God was stripping the kingdom, but not all of it and not yet. David's grandson would keep one tribe. Jerusalem would remain under his descendants's control. And then Ahijah told Jeroboam something astonishing. If Jeroboam would walk in obedience to God the way David had walked, God would build him an enduring dynasty. The same promise he'd made to David. A fresh start, a second chance for the kingdom through a different family line. When Solomon heard what Ahijah had told Jeroboam, he tried to kill him. The wisest man in the world responded to a prophetic word from God by attempting to murder the prophet's chosen successor.

28:07 Jeroboam fled to Egypt and stayed there with Pharaoh Shishach until Solomon's death. Think about where Solomon was at this point. He was an old man. His kingdom was fragmenting. Enemies were rising on every border. His own officials were being anointed as his replacements by God's prophets, and he was trying to kill the man God had chosen. He had gone from asking God for wisdom to fighting against God's will with assassination attempts. Try to picture what the palace in Jerusalem looked like during those final years.

28:39 The gold was still on the walls. The ivory throne still stood in the great hall. The cedar from Lebanon still smelled faintly of the forests it came from. But the court that once drew the Queen of Sheba was now a place of suspicion and fear. Solomon's officials whispered about Jeroboam's prophecy. The border reports from Edom and Damascus got worse every month. And the king who once dazzled [music] foreign dignitaries with his wisdom now spent his days managing threats he couldn't eliminate because God himself had sent them. The man who had everything was now a prisoner of his own palace, surrounded by a thousand wives whose gods stood on every hilltop, haunted by the words of a covenant he had broken, waiting for a death he knew would trigger the destruction of everything he'd built.

29:27 This wasn't power. This was the loneliest place on earth. This is what unchecked drift looks like. It doesn't just take you a little off course. It turns you into someone you wouldn't have recognized 30 years earlier. And this is where we come to the book that many scholars believe Solomon wrote in his final years. Ecclesiastes. If you've never read Ecclesiastes carefully, you might know the famous phrases, vanity of vanities. All is vanity. There is nothing new under the sun. A time to be born and a time to die. These get quoted on coffee mugs and graduation cards, but stripped of their greeting card packaging, they're actually the words of a broken man looking back at a life that had everything and still ended in ashes. The Hebrew word translated vanity is he. And it doesn't quite mean vanity in the way we use [music] it in English. It literally means breath or vapor. It's the wisp of steam that comes out of your mouth on a cold morning. You can see it for a second and then it's gone. That's what Solomon [music] says about everything. All of human achievement, all of pleasure, all of wisdom itself. I said to myself, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good." But that also proved to be meaningless. I undertook great projects.

30:53 I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. I made gardens and parks. I amassed silver and gold for myself and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers and a haram as well. That's not a hypothetical. That's Solomon's actual biography. The vineyards, the projects, the gold, the singers, the haram. That's first kings chapters 4-10 restated in the first person by the man who lived it. And then he says, "Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Nothing was gained under the sun."

31:36 The man who had literally everything is saying none of it mattered. But Ecclesiastes chapter 4 has a verse that nobody connects to Solomon's personal story. And when you see it, the whole book reads [music] differently. Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed and they have no comforter. Power was on the side of their oppressors and they have no comforter. Solomon had built his kingdom partly on forced labor. First Kings chapter 5 describes how he conscripted 30,000 men from all Israel. Chapter 9 says he used forced labor [music] from the Amorites, Hittites, Perisites, Hivites, and Jebusites who remained in the land. And by the time Jeroboam led his rebellion, one of the primary grievances of the northern tribes was the crushing weight of Solomon's labor demands and taxation. So when Solomon writes about the tears of the oppressed, he's not observing from the outside.

32:35 He's the oppressor. He's looking in the mirror. And that's what [music] makes Ecclesiastes so gutting. It's not a sage on a mountain dispensing universal truths. It's a guilty man trying to make sense of what he's done. [music] It's wisdom arriving too late to prevent the damage, but just in time to name it. Ecclesiastes chapter 2 goes even further. Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom and also madness and folly. I saw that [music] wisdom is better than folly just as light is better than darkness. But I came to realize that the same fate overtakes [music] them both. The wise man and the fool both die. This is Solomon grappling with the most terrifying realization of his life. He was given supernatural wisdom by God himself. And it didn't save him. He could see clearly. He could understand deeply. And he still [music] made the choices that destroyed his kingdom. Wisdom without obedience is just a front row seat to your own destruction. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish. Yet they will have control over all the [music] fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. He already knew. He knew that Rihaboam, his son, was not the [music] man David had been. He knew the kingdom was going to fracture. He could see the future because God had literally told him what would happen. and he was powerless to stop it because his own choices had set it in motion. The famous passage in chapter 3, a time to be born and a time to [music] die, a time to plant and a time to uproot is often read as a comforting meditation on the seasons of life. But in context, Solomon is saying something much harder. You don't get to choose [music] your season.

34:24 You don't get to stay at the peak. The same God who gives also takes away. And Solomon was watching [music] God take everything away from him in real time. And then comes Ecclesiastes 12, Solomon's description of his own death. Remember your creator in the days of your youth before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, [music] "I find no pleasure in them." He's telling young people to do what he failed to do. Remember God now.

34:52 Don't wait. Don't think you're wise enough or strong enough to wander and still find your way back. Because Solomon wandered and look where it got him. The golden bowl is broken. The silver cord is snapped. The picture is shattered at the spring. And the [music] dust returns to the ground it came from. And the spirit returns to God who gave it. That's Solomon writing about his own death. He can feel it coming. And the last verse of Ecclesiastes contains [music] what he's learned from an entire lifetime of having everything and losing what mattered most. Fear God and keep [music] his commandments. For this is the duty of all mankind. That's it.

35:29 After all the gold and the women and the power and the philosophy. Fear God, keep his commandments. That's everything. And this brings [music] up a question that scholars and rabbis have debated for centuries. Did Solomon actually repent before he died? The Bible never says it directly. First Kingsap 11 records his sins, [music] his adversaries, and his death. That's it. No confession scene, no altar moment, no dramatic return to God. The text just says he rested with his ancestors. But some Jewish traditions read Ecclesiastes [music] itself as the repentance. The Talmud records a debate about whether Ecclesiastes should [music] even be included in scripture. And the argument in favor was that it begins and [music] ends with the fear of God. If Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes at the end of his life, then the book is his way of saying, "I was wrong. I chased everything. None of it lasted. Fear God.

36:26 That's all that matters." That's not a philosophical conclusion. That's a dying man telling [music] you what he wishes he'd done differently. Other scholars point out that Solomon never tore down the high places he built. The altars to Kimosh and Molech on the Mount of Olives stood until Josiah's reforms 300 years later. If Solomon truly repented, why didn't he destroy what he'd built? Was he too old, too politically entangled? Or did his repentance [music] stay on the page and never reach his hands? The Bible leaves it unanswered. And maybe that's the point. Maybe we're not supposed to know whether Solomon found his way back. Maybe the uncertainty is the warning. You don't get a guarantee that there's time to fix what you've broken. The brutal irony is that Solomon ended up exactly where he started. God had given him that instruction from the very beginning. Walk before me faithfully. Keep my commands. And Solomon had said yes. And then he spent the rest of his life learning the hard way that the answer had always been that simple. Solomon died around 9:31 BC after reigning for approximately 40 years. First Kingsap 11 [music] says he rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David. And then his son Rehoboam went to Sheckchham because all of Israel had gathered [music] there to make him king. The northern tribes came to Rehaboam with a single request. They said, "Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you." This was the forced labor, the crushing taxation that Solomon had imposed to fund his building projects, his palace, and the lifestyles of his thousand wives.

38:13 Rahoboam consulted the elders who had served his father. They told him, "If you will be a servant to these [music] people and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants. Be kind. Lighten the load. Show mercy." But Rihoboam rejected their advice. He consulted instead with the young men he had grown up with. And they told him to say, "My little finger is thicker than my father's waist. My father laid on you a heavy yolk. I will make it even [music] heavier. My father scourged you with whips. I will scourge you with scorpions. Rehaboam said exactly that and the kingdom split instantly. The 10 northern tribes left and made Jeroboam their king exactly as the prophet Ahijah had predicted. The united kingdom that David had forged and Solomon had ruled at its peak was finished. It would never be reunited. Everything Solomon built gone in a single conversation because his son had none of his wisdom and all of his arrogance. And it got worse. 5 years after Solomon's death, the very thing God had warned about came to pass.

39:22 Pharaoh Shishak of Egypt, the same ruler who had sheltered Jeroboam during his exile, marched against Jerusalem with 1200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen. 2 Chronicles 12 says, "Shish took the fortified cities of Judah and came [music] as far as Jerusalem. Rihoboam surrendered and Shishak carried off the treasures of the temple of the Lord and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including the gold [music] shields Solomon had made. The gold shields, the ones that had made visiting dignitaries [music] lose their breath, the ones the Queen of Sheba had marveled at, gone, hauled back to Egypt. Rehaboam replaced them with bronze shields. Bronze? That detail tells you everything. The golden age was over [music] and everybody knew it. The kingdom kept the rituals, kept the temple, kept the throne, but the gold was gone and it was never [music] coming back. The temple still stood. Jerusalem remained under the house of David. But the empire was over. The golden age [music] had ended. And the division Solomon caused would eventually lead both kingdoms into exile. the north to Assyria in 722 BC and the south [music] to Babylon in 586 BC when Solomon's temple itself was burned to the ground.

40:48 The building Solomon [music] spent 7 years constructing. The building where God's glory was so thick the priests couldn't stand. Reduced to ashes and rubble by Nebuchadnezzar's army. Exactly as God had warned. Solomon's story isn't really about a king. It's about the most fundamental question every person faces. If you had everything, would it be enough? If you had wisdom, [music] wealth, power, fame, and the direct attention of God himself, would you still be faithful, or would you drift?

41:19 And what makes Solomon's story even more devastating is the comparison with his own father. David sinned, [music] too. David committed adultery with Ba Sheeba and arranged the murder of her husband, Uriah. Those weren't small compromises. [music] Those were catastrophic moral failures. David did things that would have destroyed any [music] other king. But when the prophet Nathan confronted David, the Bible records one of the most important [music] sentences in the Old Testament. 2 Samuel 12. David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." four words, no excuses, no rationalizing, no political spin, just raw admission. And Nathan told him the Lord had taken away his sin. David's Psalm 51 is the other side of that confession. Create in [music] me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me." David begged [music] God not to leave. He was terrified of losing God's presence. That fear, that desperate clinging to God, even after his worst failures is what made David a man after God's own heart. Solomon never wrote a psalm like that. We have his proverbs, his songs, his Ecclesiastes.

42:43 But we don't have his confession. We don't have Solomon crying out to God for a clean heart. We have philosophy. We have regret. But we don't have repentance. At least not the kind David had where you throw yourself on God's mercy and refuse to let go. David sinned and ran toward God. Solomon sinned and drifted away. And that difference, that single difference, is what separates a flawed hero from a cautionary tale. Because drift is the real enemy in Solomon's story. Not rebellion, not some dramatic rejection of God, just drift.

43:22 small compromises, reasonable exceptions, gradual accommodations that felt wise at the time but bent his heart degree by degree until it was pointing in the opposite direction. And the [music] scariest part of Solomon's story is that he knew better. He literally wrote the playbook on wisdom. Proverbs 4:23 says, "Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it." Solomon wrote that. And then [music] he didn't guard his own heart.

43:55 He let a thousand voices whisper into it until the voice of God became just one among many. If the wisest man who ever lived couldn't outthink temptation, what makes you think you can? That's not meant to be discouraging. It's meant to be clarifying. [music] Solomon's story teaches you that wisdom isn't armor. It's a tool. And tools only work when you use them. The book of Proverbs is Solomon telling you what to do. The book of Ecclesiastes is Solomon telling you what happens when you don't.

44:27 God told Solomon at Gibian, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you." [music] Solomon asked for wisdom. God gave it. And Solomon proved that having the answer and living the answer are two very different things. If this story hit you the way it hit me, the video on screen right now covers what happened to King David's family and why God called him a man after my own heart despite everything he did. Click it now. Solomon started as beloved of the Lord. He ended as a cautionary tale. And the four-word lesson he left behind is the same one you and I need to hear today. Fear God.

45:03 Keep going.