Solomon: Safeguarding wisdom Part 2
Solomon: Safeguarding wisdom • Sermon • Submitted
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Wisdom
Wisdom
OCA: The Virtue of Wisdom
“...immediate insight into things, the practical understanding and grasping of what is true and right in its living expression and form.”
Key elements:
Wisdom revolves around the knowledge of God
His divine light illuminates our hearts
once illumined, we are able to see His calling
The Wisdom of Solomon
The Wisdom of Solomon
What made Solomon so wise...
Typically: Temple, two harlot mothers and Queen of Sheba
And his literature: Proverbs, Wisdom of Solomon, song of Solomon(songs) and Ecclesiastes
29 Now God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the seashore. 30 Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 For he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was known in all the surrounding nations.
32 He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. 33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows on the wall; he spoke also of animals and birds and creeping things and fish. 34 Men came from all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.
This wisdom translated into tremendous prosperity for Israel
Both in riches and possessions
primarily in buildings and expansion
Chapters 5 - 8 detail the elaborate finishing of the temple
The bringing in of the Ark
First sacrifice and dedication
Solomon’s speech
At the conclusion of the speech and dedication God appears a second time to Solomon
3 The Lord said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built by putting My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. 4 “As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances,
4 “As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, 5 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’
QUESTION: Why after this great work does God visit Solomon a 2nd time to re-emphasize the first warning?
The devil is in the details!
The pitfalls of wisdom
The pitfalls of wisdom
The gift of Wisdom came with a very stern warning
14 “If you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will prolong your days.”
The commandments of God carry a divine wisdom in themselves, serving as the foundation for deeper wisdom
Solomon is know as the wisest King, but he declines over the course of his reign.
Beginning of the end
1 Then Solomon formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her to the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem.
The marriage to Pharoah’s daughter signified prominence for Israel as Egypt was well established. It was also a military strategy...
Pitfall 1: Remember the Basics…Obey the Commands
Remember the contingency for Wisdom…obeying the commandments
3 “Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons.
12 There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
Wisdom was received through humility but is lost through pride
Pride is thinking that my ways, which are influenced by the world, are better
Emphasis on my reason over obedience
Pitfall 2: Persistent secular pursuits
Author of 1 Kings (Jeremiah) clearly emphasized the splendor of the Temple
But he left significant hints of Solomon’s decline
38 In the eleventh year, in the month of Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished throughout all its parts and according to all its plans. So he was seven years in building it.
The next verse
1 Now Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.
Arguably as ornate or more consisting of 5 parts
Solomon’s continued personal expansions did not stop at his own house. He built ornate houses for all the wives he was marrying
Pitfall 3: Untamed Passions
There is a clear progression that leads us to untamed passions
Disregarding the commands
Persistent head in this world (Eye candy)
there is always one more thing to pursue after
Its a set up by the devil to unleash the most destructive behavior…untamed passions
1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2 from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.” Solomon held fast to these in love.
The commandments are laced with wisdom
17 “He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.
4 For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been.
6 Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as David his father had done.
The effect of passions
“...God is not the cause of evil. He has given men knowledge and understanding, the power of discriminating between good and evil, and free will. It is man's negligence and indolence that gives birth to evil passions, while God is in no way the cause.”
~St. Antony the Great(On the Character of Men no. 89)
Dispassion is a peaceful condition of the soul in which the soul is not easily moved to evil.
~St. Maximos the Confessor (First Century on Love no. 36)
Relationship between the mind and heart
Wisdom and rationality can only take us so far
The heart/emotions/passions are so powerful
rob us of our free will when left untamed, because nearly no amount of mental energy/rationality can surmount the power of passion
A great deal of our spirituality is devoted to controlling the passions because of the havoc it can cause in our lives.