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travagant exchanges of gifrs. When
the famous Queen of Sheba, for in–
srance, carne ro investigare che fabu–
lous rumors she . had heard about
Solomon, she broughr along
120
ral–
ents of gold, a "very great srore" of
spices and precious srones ro boor.
Nearby friendly King H iram, who
lived on the Mediterranean coast,
used his ships ro bring Solomon gold
from Ophir, as well as large amounrs
of rare wood and precious srones.
H owever, money really wasn't
everyrhing. The Bible says that Solo–
mon loved "many strange women"
(I Kings
11:1).
That is anorher mag–
nificent understatement. Solomon
kept
seven hundred
bona-fide wives
plus three hundred concubines. To
impress these wives, he commanded a
personal army of charioreers -
1,400 ·
chariots,
to
be exacr, and twelve thou–
sand horsemen. He even built special
cities for these men, and imponed
their horses from Egyp.c. To keep his
wives happy, he also ordered the besr
of imponed fabrics (I Kings
10:28-
29).
But
Was
He Happy?
In addition, Solomon, being ki ng
and all-powerful, could of course do
anything he desired - which is pre–
cisely what he set about
co
do. Larer
on, he wrote a book abour his ex–
ploits called
Ecclesiastes.
In chis book, Solomon relates how
he experimented with nearly every–
thing under rhe sun to see what
might make him happy. Nonsrop en–
tertainment soon grew tiresome. "But
I found chat chis, too, was futile. For
it is silly ro be laughing all che time;
what good does
it
do?" (Ecd.
2:2,
The Living Bible.)
He mentions rak–
ing up drinking ro see if bappiness
could be found in a borde. Happiness
wasn't, but morning-after headaches
probably were. He constructed monu–
ments ro himself in che forro of im–
mense and beautiful public works.
They were impressive and undoubr–
edly provided a great ego-trip, but
rhey seem ro have made him no hap–
pier. He built elaborare houses for
14
himself and constructed temples for
the gods of his favorite pagan wives.
He raised vineyards and conducted
experiments in his boranical gardens
on all kinds of rare crees and planes.
He constructed waterworks to irrigare
che nearby arid land. Most of this is
described in
Ecclesiastes,
chapter rwo.
He stated matter of factly, " I be–
carne greater than any of the kings in
Jerusalem before me, and with it all
1
remained clear-eyed, so that I could
evaluare all these things." This, ad–
mittedly, sounds like shades of Mu–
hammad Ali, the boastful American
heavyweight boxee, but it was che lit–
eral truth. He also confessed that
"anything
I
wanted, I took, and did
not restrain myself from any joy"
(Ecd.
2:9-10,
The Living Bible).
In short, Solomon had fame ,
money, and wisdom - every physical
blessing there was to have. He rried
everything there was to try - at least ,
all he could think of - and he had
whatever he wanted whenever he
wanred ir. Ir was all paid for. He
lacked absolurely nothing in che way
of human comfort.
Unforrunately, Solomon was mis–
erable. He admitred it himself. "So
now I bate life because it is all so irra–
cional; all is foolishness, chasing the
wind" (Eccl.
2:17,
The Living Bible).
Why on earch would a man who
had everything, including an unre–
stricted and enormously varied sex
life, be so fed up with living that he
felt like committing suicide?
The truth is that Solomon knew
what would have made him happy -
bur he ignored ir. Had he paid more
acrentibn
to
ir, he could have lived a
life more like che happier, fuHiUed
and rewarding existence of another
man who lived almost a thousand
years
la
ter.
From P ersecuto r ro P ersecured
T his man seemed to have every
right ro be miserable. He was Jewish
and a member of the sect of the Phar–
isees.
He haced che new sect which
was called "Christian" after a cerrain
Jesus Christ who had been publidy
executed, but who che Chrisrians
claimed was srill alive. He considered
rhem an annoying threat ro che Jew–
ish religious establishment in which
he held a high position. He per–
secuted che Chriscians with a vigor
that astounded che liberal Romans in
charge of that pare of che Empire.
This man was forced ro undergo
conversion to che very "sect" which
he had been so avidly persecuring.
H is former compatriots probably con–
sidered him slightly insane co cake
such a flip-flop in his thinking. The
man's name, of course, was Paul. He
later became an apostle and one of the
chief figures
in
che development of
the New Testament church.
Far from having the magnificent
wealth which Solomon had enjoyed,
Paul was forced by circumsrance ro
fall back on his childhood training of
tentmaking in order ro supporr him–
self as he minisrered ro rhe Churches
of God locared around the Mediterra–
nean Sea. In addition, he had ro do
much of his traveling on foot,
oc
by
ship. Devastating scorms were com–
mon occurrences. Then, too, he was
under constant danger from those in–
rene upon persecuting che Church as
he had once done hi¡:nself. He didn't
always escape rheir wrath.
He caralogued his "misadvenrures"
in che ministry in one of his pub–
lished lecters to che church Jocaced in
rhe Greek
city
ofCorinth:
"Five different times che Jews gave
me their terrible rhirty-nine lashes.
Three rimes 1 was beaten with rods.
Once I was stoned. Three times 1 was
shipwrecked. Once 1 was in the open
sea al! night and che whole next day.
1 have traveled many weary miles and
have been ofren in great danger from
flooded rivers, and from robbers, and
from my own people, the Jews, as
well as from the hands of che Gen–
tiles. I have faced grave dangers &om
mobs in the cities and from death in
rhe deserrs and in the srormy seas and
from men who claim ro be brochers
in Christ but are not. I have lived
wirh weariness and pain and sleepless
nighrs. Often I have been hungry and
PLAIN TRUTH
Jonuory
1973