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Solomon’s Deep Repentance
41
“Fear God, and keep His commandments,” he wrote, “for this
is the whole duty of everyone. For God will bring every deed into
judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
Verses
13, 14
, NRSV.
Counsel to Youths
Solomon’s later writings reveal that as he realized more and
more the wickedness of his actions, he gave special attention to
warning the youth against the errors that had led him to squander
Heaven’s best gifts. With sorrow and shame he confessed that in the
prime of manhood, when he should have found in God his comfort,
his support, his life, he put idolatry in the place of the worship of
God. And now his greatest desire was to save others from the bitter
experience through which he had passed.
With touching appeals he wrote concerning the privileges before
the youth: “Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your
heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your
heart, and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these God
will bring you into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow from your
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heart, and put away evil from your flesh, for childhood and youth
are vanity.”
Ecclesiastes 11:9, 10
.
Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,
Before the difficult days come,
And the years draw near when you say,
“I have no pleasure in them.”
Ecclesiastes 12:1
The life of Solomon is full of warning. When his character
should have been like a sturdy oak, he fell under the power of temp-
tation. When his strength should have been the firmest, he was
found to be the weakest. The only safety for both young and old is in
watchfulness and prayer. In the battle with inward sin and outward
temptation, even the wise and powerful Solomon was conquered.
His failure teaches that whatever our intellectual qualities may be
and however faithfully we may have served God in the past, we can
never trust our own wisdom and integrity.