Running On Empty

King Solomon was described as the wisest, wealthiest, and one of the most powerful men in the Bible. He was famous because he asked God for wisdom. Shortly after he asked for wisdom, 2 women came before him with the riddle, which of the mothers had the remaining live child. His answer caused people to take notice of him. “And all Israel feared Solomon, seeing the wisdom of God was in him.” Much of what he learned, he shared in the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. They emphasized his wisdom to where the Queen of Sheba visited him to see if he was indeed wise.

Solomon gathered great amounts of lumber and stone to build the Temple at Jerusalem The beauty of the Temple in Jerusalem was considered the Eighth Wonder of the World by collecting skilled artisans of all sorts as he erected the Temple. His power became as famous as his wisdom, and other kingdoms sent tributes of gold, silver, lumber, and even more artisans to Solomon. It was written that the Queen of Sheba brought 120 talents of gold as a gift. A talent is equal to 120 pounds, so she brought from Solomon 14,400 pounds of gold plus other gifts.

Solomon built beautiful palaces, exotic gardens, lush vineyards, and orchards with different fruits and pools to keep them watered. He owned cattle of types and sizes. Although in the book Deuteronomy God warns about multiplying horses, but Solomon built great barns had 4,000 stalls for his horses and chariots. He also gathered 700 wives and 300 concubines. He had man servants and maids. Entire orchestras of instruments were at his beck and call as well as men singers and women singers. Everything his heart’s desired, Solomon had at his fingertips. Wine, women, and song…all of the pleasures that the world had to offer Solomon investigated and sampled.

Solomon didn’t find happiness in the entertainment of his life. He didn’t find satisfaction in the riches he’d accumulated and his wisdom was little more than madness. He called it folly. When Solomon weighed his life, he called it all vanity. Everything that the world had given him left him empty. All that he accomplished, all that he gathered, all that he tasted was merely ashes. Nothing the world had to offer could fill the God sized and shaped void in his life.