Whenever we engage in any kind of behavior, we don’t generally seek to repeat the experience unless we found that whatever we chose to do was rewarding in some way. Conversely, we avoid repeating experiences we don’t enjoy – unless that repeat is something we must necessarily do.
One of the most familiar examples is when we try a new restaurant. In those cases, first impressions are everything, and even if the food is good, we aren’t likely to return to that establishment if the service isn’t. Another enjoyable experience would be when we hire a plumber, a carpenter, or some other professional who does a good job at a fair price. We’ll probably call that person the next time we need something done.
Of the experiences we don’t enjoy, one of those might be jury duty, and another might be renewing our license plate or registering a used vehicle. For most of my life it has seemed that there have been too many times when those courthouse experiences are laced with unpleasant surprises, and that there are even times when the person on the other side of the counter seems to be making up the rules as they go along.
For a mild digression related to human nature to repeat certain patterns, let me say that in my decades of experience as a mechanic and later on in life as an automotive instructor, one of the more predictable elements of managing things like tools, supplies, and service is that people will virtually always take advantage of anything they find to be easy and free.
I worked alongside mechanics (more than a few of them) for years who had the money to buy whatever tools they needed – and many of them had toolboxes nicer than my own – and yet for some reason they felt the need to borrow certain specialty tools I had in my toolbox rather than buying tools the job required. This wasn’t a case of need – it was simply a case of pleasurable convenience for them to reach into my toolbox.
One universal principle on earth is that if you want more of something, subsidize it. If you want less of something, you tax it.
So, in order to “tax” that tendency, every time they came around, I would pointedly ask them if they were going to buy their own fuel line disconnect tool (or whatever they were borrowing) the next time the tool guy came around. I’m not against loaning when there’s a genuine need, but their need wasn’t genuine. And they always got irritated when I asked them that, because they didn’t want to buy their own. They wanted to use mine. But I made them answer for it.
The point is that if you give them a hard time when they’re out of line, they're not as likely to want to return to repeat the encounter, and they’re more likely to buy a fuel line disconnect tool. That’s just one observation regarding human nature.
From our earliest moments in life, we naturally gravitated toward things that brought us fleshly pleasure and comfort, and we typically got good at it right away. But as we grew older, we needed to be taught to do things we didn't enjoy, like brushing our teeth, taking a bath, and keeping our room and closet in order. Unlike the perpetual quest for pleasure (which comes naturally), the propensity to work must be cultivated.
Ecclesiastes 2:1: I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.
Solomon’s life as king had become easy to the point of boredom, and so he applied himself to seeking pleasure.
According to Solomon’s recorded progression here in his quest to find fulfillment under the sun in day-to-day life, humor, mirth, comedy – whatever we might call it in our time – was the first thing he tried.
Not all comedy is evil, but as a way of life, it’s a waste of time. One thing I’ve always noticed about those who go out of their way to be funny is that they tend to resort to the mindset Paul warned against in Ephesians 5:4, where filthiness, foolish talking, and jesting are mentioned together in that passage, all couched in the context of fornication and idolatry. And we’ve all seen those times when people who are trying to say funny things but don’t quite accomplish their purpose tend to resort to profanity hoping for a laugh from the audience – and they usually get it. Why do people laugh at the profane?
On the other hand, my mother didn’t go looking for humor, but she tended to find it all around her, and during those times when we had long conversations, she wouldn’t go more than a minute without sharing something (with laughter) she had found humorous that somebody had said or had done, and that was a healthy outlook. After all, according to Proverbs 17:22, a merry heart doeth good like a medicine.
The point is that the most enjoyable humor is that which is spontaneous rather than fabricated, and the fact that we have a sense of humor means that God does too. But there are obviously some things we laugh at that we shouldn’t.
Verses 2-3: I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it? I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.
Solomon soon exhausted his search for laughter – he realized that his search for comedy was a dead end street, and there are times when crazy people laugh for nonsensical reasons. Whether he had observed this in his search may be in question, but for whatever reason he decided it was time to move on to something else in his quest for fulfillment.
In a peculiar dichotomy, he sought to become a philosophical wine-bibber, hoping the relaxation of intoxication might trigger his wisdom to see what life looked like from the perspective those who chose to live drunken lives. Interestingly, his mother had warned against this (Proverbs 31:4);
It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink: Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.
Was it possible that Bathsheba witnessed this exploratory campaign of his to discover the folly of excessive imbibing? We may never know, but if she was still living at this point (and she probably was), she may well have called him to account for this misguided foray, in which he may well have issued some bad judgments while inebriated. This is conjecture, of course.
Verses 4-6: I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees:
Turning away from laughter and wine, Solomon began to apply his great wealth to building one palatial estate after another (i.e., “houses), complete with fruit orchards, gardens, ponds for irrigation. His collection of real estate holdings must have been something to behold.
There have just about always been people of wealth who used their resources to acquire land and improve it with structures and landscaping. Interestingly, Psalm 49:11 seems to address this very issue, and we can be certain that Solomon had probably read the passage, since it were likely written before he was born, and probably by his father David:
Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue forever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.
Interestingly, ever since the Fall in Eden, man has pined away for immortality (which, by the Blood of Christ alone can be ours!) and some believe that their houses and lands will provide them with an enduring legacy. But what are houses and lands without people moving about the halls and working the grounds? Still looking for ways to fill the void he felt in his life, Solomon applied his wisdom to filling all those houses.
Verse 7: I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me:
Solomon reigned forty years, and as his wealth continued to grow, he was able to gather a veritable army of servants to fill his many houses, with each estate probably graced with members of his personal staff, people who entertained him, guarded him and his wealth, cooked his food and served his tables, did the cleaning, tended his massive herds of livestock, pruned his hedges, mowed his grass, and harvested his fruit.
Nobody before or since has enjoyed so much material wealth on so many levels. Solomon’s life as king was quite literally the stuff dreams are made of, and no movie could ever match the scale of Solomon’s holdings. Yet with all he had, he still felt an emptiness he couldn’t seem to fill. That’s life, isn’t it?
Verse 8: I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts.
The silver and gold Solomon banked in his vaults was incredibly vast and continued to accumulate as tribute from other nations came in and as Solomon’s people mined it from wherever they managed to find it.
The “peculiar treasure of kings” would be those things that only a king could afford to collect, probably displayed in his private museums under heavy guard.
He put together skilled teams of musicians and dancers and tasked them with keeping him entertained night and day. Of course, everybody in his employ ate sumptuously – they were living as lavishly as anyone could imagine, and this went on for decades. First Kings 4:22-23 gives us a peek into what the king’s household consumed daily.
Now Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty kors (1800 gallons) of fine flour, sixty kors (3600 gallons) of meal, ten fatted oxen, twenty oxen from the pastures, and one hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fatted fowl.
That what it took to prepare the food for Solomon’s household – for just ONE day. Multiply that times 360 days (which is how long a year was at the time) and the numbers become too massive to even imagine. No wonder Solomon was called the richest man who ever lived! But was he satisfied? No.
Verse 9: So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.
Solomon never mentioned his 300 wives and 700 concubines (secondary wives) in this passage; what that means is that, in addition to his servants, there were a thousand women who ate at his table every day.
And although his marriage to many of these foreign women led him astray in his faith, he was still able to exercise his wisdom to expand his coasts on every level. What (and who) he didn’t have, he didn’t want. He always gave in to his flesh.
Verse 10: And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.
This was another way of saying that Solomon didn’t deny himself anything. What he lusted for was not withheld from him, and while his finished projects didn’t fulfil him in the end, the joy of the journey to complete those things was considerable – and for a time he did enjoy having the stuff he had acquired and built. But like most pleasure, the joy was fleeting. Like an always shopping person whose closets are overfull, it was gaining something new that sparked his joy – over and over again.
Verse 11: Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
The words “dead end street” come to mind here. Those who constantly work to acquire new things forget about those new things when they’re put away, and last year’s pleasures and successes won’t carry us through next year. The problem with physical earthly pleasure is that it is all temporal.
Conversely, the power we receive to become children of God brings with it pleasures forevermore. R.W.M.
