The Pursuit of Pleasure

Would you turn please in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes, chapter 2? Let's be talk about Solomon's pursuit of pleasure this evening. When I say the words Vanity Fair, what do you think of? Well, probably most of you would think of a magazine. Magazine known as Vanity Fair about pop culture and entertainment and movies, stars, and musicians, and modern fashion and design. Some of you ladies would think of the Vanity Fair lingerie company, which is the largest producer and seller of ladies' private garments around the world. Perhaps some of you, if you're from a literary background, have read the book Vanity Fair by William Makepiece Thackerie, written about the early 19th century Edwardian England and the social structures there. It was turned into a movie. So some of you might think of Reese Witherspoon and 2004 playing the lead role of a young lady in this book turned into a movie called Vanity Fair. And perhaps some of you would think of the origin of that phrase, which come from John Bunyan's book The Pilgrim's Progress. It appears that in this story Pilgrim is on his journey to the celestial city to heaven and he comes upon a beautiful broad to rich valley in which there is a town called Vanity. And in the town of Vanity there is a never-ending year-long county fair known as Vanity Fair. And Bunyan describes it. Then I saw in my dreams that when they were gone out of the wilderness, they presently saw a town before them. And the name of the town is Vanity. And at the town there is a fair kept. This fair is called Vanity Fair. It is kept all the year-long. It beareth the name Vanity Fair because the town where it is kept is lighter than Vanity and also because all that is there sold or that comeeth thither is nothing but Vanity, as the saying of the wise, all that comeeth is Vanity. This fair is no newly erected business, but a thing of ancient standing. I will show you the origin of it. Almost 5,000 years ago there were pilgrims walking to the celestial city as these two honest persons are today. And Beelzebub and the Pollyon and Legion with their companions perceiving by the path that the pilgrims made that their way to the city lay through the town of Vanity they contrived herein to set up a fair. A fair wherein should be sold all sorts of Vanity and that it should last all the year long. Therefore, at this fair are all such merchandise sold, such as land and houses, trades and places, honors and performance, titles and countries and kingdoms and lusts, pleasures and delights of all sorts as such as harlots and baudes and wives and husbands and children and masters and servants and lives and blood and bodies and souls and silver and gold and pearls and precious stones and what not. And moreover, at this fair, there are at all times to be seen jugglers and cheats, game players and fools, apes and nays and robes and that kind of every person. Here are to be seen too that for nothing thefts and murder, adulteries and false swearing and that of blood red color may be found. And as in other fairs or less moment there are several rows and streets under their proper names where such and such wares are vended. So here likewise, you have the proper places, the rows and streets, named after countries and kingdoms where the wares of this fair are soonest to be found and that of another in another place. Here is the Briton row and the French row, the Italian row and the Spanish row and even the German row, were shovels sorts of vandes are to be sold. Now as I said, the way to the celestial city lies just through this town where this lusty fair is kept and he that will go to the heavenly city and not go through this town must as needs be even go out of the world. In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon's memoirs, the king of Jerusalem calls us to an understanding of how he himself was distracted on his way to the celestial city by going through the country of vanity. Vanity of vanities says the preacher, vanity of vanities all is vanity and the striving after win. He spent it seems, the largest portion of his life, protracted in vain in this place called vanity fair. In the pursuit of the meaning and the fulfillment of life that comes from pleasure and wisdom and education and wealth and houses and women and wives, children and inheritance and government and politics and the pursuit of cultural things like music and farming and equestrian events and building projects and libraries and literature and especially his work. Work is a major theme for Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes and work is not seen as a bad thing in and of itself but a common where there was hawk to vanity fair when it was misused in the pursuit of things that were vain. Stanley Gail and his little book that comments on Ecclesiastes called making sanity a vanity says we all agree that work is good in God's eyes. How then can it be found in a place like vanity fair among lust and blood and bored according to the author of the Pilgrims' progress? Marriage and money and homes are good things, aren't they? How is it that they are listed by Bunyan on the directory of marketplaces of vanity fair like gentlemen's clubs and exotic dancers we can understand how undesirables and depravity set up shop there in the fair and attract the like of them but children and possessions what place do they have among the unsavory and the immoral. The point is that even that which is good and noble can be corrupted and misused. The knife that saves the life on the surgeon's table can instantly be used to take a life in a hand of rage. Family is a good thing, a blessing from God to be protected and nurtured yet when family becomes the end of life in itself a substitute for God it then finds its place in the aisles of vanity fair. Vanity of vanity says the preacher, vanity of vanities all is vanity. What does a man gain by all of the work in which he toils under the sun? I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under the sun. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of men to be busy with for I have seen everything that is done under the sun and behold all is vanity and striving after wind. Solomon introduces his memoirs written we believe in his old age and he comes to chapter 2 in Ecclesiastes where he will begin to express where he went wrong in his life, how he pursued through his work, pleasure and wisdom and success. He does not condemn pleasure or wisdom or success but he exposes them as inadequate, inadequate to fulfill us in this life and distractions that could keep us from the celestial city and forever sampling the deities and the distractions of vanity fair. Remember this little book is called Ecclesiastes, that is the Greek version of the word cohaleth and that means in Hebrew the assembler. In the Hebrew way of thinking the cohaleth was the one who called assembly together in order to speak to them and calling the people together to preach to them he is interpreted and translated to be the preacher in English. The word for assembly or the gathering or the common group is called Ecclesia in Greek and so Ecclesiastes is the one who calls the group together in this sense Solomon the preacher to share with them the wisdom of God. I want you to remember that nowhere in all of his memoirs here or in any of his wisdom literature the Solomon condemn work. He writes from the perspective of wisdom as he does in Job and in Proverbs and in his songs and he tells us that work is a good thing, but it is an inadequate thing to produce a happy life and can be a dangerous thing if it keeps us from God. If it keeps us from God and from heavenly pursuits, again Stanley Gail says in this tour conducted by Ecclesiastes were exposed to virtually every area of life in which we might seek to find sense and significance at the behest of the hawkers of vanity fair family, friends, money, possessions, sex, entertainment, education, status, religion, social class, physical fitness and beauty. All here displayed before us by Solomon and throughout Ecclesiastes he alerts us to the folly and shows us how to reclaim life from the vanity under the sun that we might be kept from striving after the wind and instead may find in our lives what our work can give us a life and labor that are not in vain. And Solomon begins to do that in chapter 2 in the first 11 verses, followed with me as I read, I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with pleasure, enjoy yourself, but behold, this also was vanity. Instead of laughter, it is mad and a pleasure, what use is it? I searched with my heart out to chair my body with wine, my heart still guiding me with wisdom, and after they hold on folly to lie might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works, I built houses and planted vineyards for myself, I made myself gardens and parks, implanted in them all kinds of fruit trees, I made myself pools from it to water the forest of growing trees, I bought mail and female slaves and I had slaves who were born in my house. I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem, I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of men. So I became great, and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem, also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done, and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity in striving after in, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. Solomon tells us two things in these two paragraphs. He talks first of all about the pursuit of pleasure as an end in life, and the pursuit of pleasure as the purpose of work, and how they both will lead to nothing. Solomon gives us an overview of his wealth and his accomplishments in this first paragraph. In the first eight verses, Solomon introduces us to the themes and topics that he will return to again and again, not only in Ecclesiastes, but in Proverbs, in the Psalms of Solomon, and in the Psalms that he wrote in the Psalter. He will talk about vanity in striving after the wind and what is worthless under the sun. And he introduces us by reminding us of his legendary life of opulence. I'd like you to keep your finger, if you would, in Ecclesiastes, and turn back to one of the historical books called First Kings, chapters 10 and 11. For Solomon has, as the background of statements here, these two chapters, 10 and 11, in the account of his life in First Kings. How he was unparalleled in his wealth and his wisdom and in his prosperity and in his pursuits. First Kings chapter 10, beginning in verse 1, where the queen of Shiba comes to see him because of the reputation of his opulence. Now, in the queen of Shiba, that is the present country of Yemen. When the queen of Shiba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. And Solomon answered all her questions. There was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. And when the queen of Shiba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cup bears, his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord. There was no more breath in her. She said to the king, the report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom. But I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it and behold the half was not told to me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpassed the report that I heard. Happy are your men, happy are your servants who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom. Blessed be the Lord your God who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel. Because the Lord loved Israel forever. He has made you king. That you may execute justice and righteousness. And then she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones. Never again came such an abundance of spices as those that the queen of she gave to King Solomon. But over the fleet of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a very great amount of Al Maghwood and precious stones. And the king made of the Al Maghwood supports for the house of the Lord and for the king's house. Also liars and harps for the singers. No such Al Maghwood has come or been seen to this day. And King Solomon gave to the queen of sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked, beside what was given to her by the bounty of King Solomon, so that she turned and went back to her own land with her servants. Solomon displays before this queen of Yemen, this Arabic princess, this massive wisdom and massive wealth. And she professes that God had blessed him, that what she was seeing was supernatural beyond everything she'd heard which was wonderful in its own self. And then the writer of First Kings goes on to explain just how wealthy and how prosperous and how pleasurable was the life of King Solomon. He talks in verse 14 about his massive wealth. Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year with 666 talents of gold, besides that which came from the explorers and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of the west and from the governments of the land. King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold, 600 checkles of gold when it to each shield, and they made 300 shields of beaten gold, three miners of gold when it to each shield, and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon. The king also made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with the finest gold. The throne had six steps and the throne had a round top and on each side of the seat were arm rest and two lions standing beside the arm rest. While 12 lions stood there, one on each of a step on the six steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom. All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were pure gold. None were of silver. Silver was not considered anything in the days of Solomon. For the king had a fleet of ships of Tarshish at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the fleet of ships of Tarshish used to come back bringing gold and silver and ivory and apes and peacocks. And thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom, and the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his mind. Every one of them brought him present. Articles of silver and gold, garments, mirror, spices and horses, mules, and much year by year. Solomon, the author of King, says, also had a lot of toys. He had a lot of sports cards. In fact, he had so many sports cars. He had to build eight cities just to hold them. They were called in those days chariots, but they were toys. Verse 26. The Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Sheffalah. And Solomon's import of horses from Egypt and Kuh and the king's traders received them from Kuh at a price. A chariot could be imported from Egypt for 600 chequels of silver and a horse for 150. And so through the king's traders, they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Syria. Solomon didn't keep these toys to himself. He sent them to the kings of the regions around him as gifts. We learn in another book that he often went out riding with his young royal men and with the visiting dignitaries on their chariots as he took a spin around his kingdom. There was one more collection. One more great hobby that Solomon had. And in the end, it was his ruin. It was a collection not of gold and silver, of exotic spices and riches, of houses and palaces, of horses and chariots, but it was a collection of women. Chapter 11 verses 1-4. Now Solomon loved many foreign women along with a daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite women from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel. You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 concubines and his wives turned away his heart. From when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after their gods. And his heart was not wholly true to the Lord, his God, as was the heart of David, his father. They had 700 wives, with whom he would have contracted a legal and royal wedding. They were royal princesses and their children were in the line of inheritance for Solomon's mass of wealth. Most of them were made for political and business alliances. Like the alliance made with the daughter of Pharaoh Queen of Egypt and other young women that he took. And he had 300 concubines who were gifts for men, girls of the harem for his pleasure, who were not legally his princesses. Donna Weizman, when he comments upon this and his commentary on First and Second King says, large harems were not unknown in Solomon's day. David himself had 15 wives, some of whom Solomon inherited when he came to the throne. Jeroboam had 18 wives and 60 concubines, and other contemporary kings had in Solomon's time had more wives and concubines than Solomon did. These large numbers resulted from political alliances sealed by marriages with neighboring states of Moab and Ammon and Edom to the east, side on through a treaty with the high room to the west and Syria to the north. Solomon reviews all this, and in his memoirs he said, I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with pleasure. Enjoy yourself. But behold, this also was vanity. He summarizes these pleasures that he had in seven categories. There was wine and folly, liquor and partying. There were houses, royal palaces and other residences. There were horticultural adventures. He built vineyards and gardens and parks and orchards and irrigated forests. There were slaves of royal servants, herds and flocks. He mentions of horses and mules and camels and sheep and goats. There were music both singers and choirs and composers and performers. And there were women whom he calls the delight of the sons of men. All the trappings of success, typical of royalty both in ancient times and in modern times. And all of these things, Solomon says, turned his heart away from the Lord. It didn't happen overnight. But I suggest you that Solomon's downward spiral occurred in seven phases. This is what I want you to take away from the message tonight. First of all, Solomon did what was preferred and even permitted, but what was not principled and pure. Solomon was a good man but he was a worldly man. He was handsome and adept and intelligent and cultured and charming. And he did whatever he preferred to do but what he preferred to do, although it appeared to be good, was not always according to biblical principles or the purity of morality. For example, God permitted men to have more than one wife, although he preferred they not. Jesus says that from the beginning, God made a man and a woman and brought them together and Jesus said, the two shall become one flesh. It was because of the hardness of your heart, Jesus said, that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives but from the beginning it was not so with God. It was God's principle and God's preference. The Solomon had one wife, but Solomon had many because that's what he preferred to do even though it was unprincipled in decision and impure in its effect. Secondly, Solomon fudged on obedience. He simply ignored what the Bible clearly taught. There was an old ordinance in Israel that once a year, the priest was to take a copy of the book of Deuteronomy, bring it to the palace room of the king and read a certain paragraph to him. I'd like you to turn to that paragraph. It's in Deuteronomy chapter 17. It tells the king what things will be set him and derail him if he's not careful. Deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 14. When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me. You may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers, you shall set a king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you who is not your brother. Only he must not acquire many horses for himself, or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses. Since the Lord has said to you, you shall never return that way again. He shall not acquire many wives for himself, let's his heart turn away, no shall he acquire for himself excess of silver and gold. No horses, not too many wives, not too much gold, the history of the first three kings of Israel. Saul, David, Solomon, is a sad story of the wreckage of those men because they ignored this paragraph. Solomon no longer likely said, well, you know my father did it, he had 20 some wives and he was a good man to follow the Lord. And what the fathers did in moderation, the sons always do in excess. Thirdly, Solomon violated clear biblical precepts and justified them by the excuse that it was practical and necessary. In Exodus chapter 34 and in Deuteronomy chapter 7, the Lord clearly says, you shall not intermary with the daughters of the nations into which I am sending you. For they will turn away your sons from following me to serve other gods. Solomon did just that. His first wife was an Egyptian girl, no doubt, to seal an alliance with the king of Egypt and then he married some princesses from Moab, from Ammon, from Edom, from Sidon, from the Hittite capital, from Arabia. He took all these wives because after all it says in the book he fell in love with them. He loved many women, it says, and it was practical. It was good for business, good for politics, kept them out of war, kept the economy strong, kept the balance of exports over imports in a favorable time frame and reference and everybody was happy. Number four, Solomon became obsessed with his pleasures, his project and his pursuits. All the wonderful characteristics Solomon had, he lacked one. The man had absolutely no self control, no balance, no discipline. In fact, he admits here in this very passage, he looked in chapter 2, verse 10 of Ecclesiastes, he admits that he could never and would never say no to himself. Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, from my heart found pleasure in all my toll and this was my reward for all my toil. All of his wealth, all of his women, all of his wine, all of the wonders that he did, he never told himself no. Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians 6 that not all things are sinful but not all things are edifying and that if we're not careful we will be mastered by the very things that give us pleasure and that was the case of the man who could not say one word to his soul. No, and the things that he went after became addictive as all successes and all sins are addictive. Fifthly, Solomon sought to numb his spiritual pain with pleasure and possessions and with people. I believe that Solomon was a believer in God. I believe that he was a wise man, we're going to find that out at the end of this passage. I believe that Solomon was and displayed that he was deeply religious. I believe that Solomon is in heaven. But when Solomon's conscience began to grieve him, he sought apparently to drown it out with music and numb it with wine and preoccupied with beautiful women and all of his work and projects. And it worked through the vast majority of his wife Solomon appears never in his vast wisdom to stop and explore the nature and result of these things until he was an old man and his conscience was awakened one more time. Thics, Solomon sought to invest in the temporal things of the world and tried to make them eternal. This will be his statement again and again in a book of Ecclesiastes. He appeared to make his pursuits and the things he built last forever. The moment's the fact that in many places it seems it doesn't place in Ecclesiastes that after he died all that he earned and all that he built. And even the women he loved would go to someone else. I think the Solomon pursued eternal results to temporal undertakings because it appeared to make them legitimate and even spiritual. He believed I think that he was doing good for his family, for his nation, even for God. But if you ask the Israelites what life under Solomon was like, you don't have to go very far. For within days after he died some young men came to his son who was the heir apparent Rehoboam and said your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and this heavy yoke on us and we will willingly serve you forever. All of Solomon's great accomplishments were a burden, not a blessing to his people. And seventh, when God got in the way Solomon shelved his relationship with God and lived like a secularist. In fairness to him he never converted to idolatry. He simply added to his life the spiritual interest of his wives so that the Bible says in several places his heart was not wholly after his God like that of David his father. He introduced idolatry into his culture to please his wives and winked as I tipped his head when to please the Mrs. he would go to church with them once a year at some sacred season of their crass and violent religion. It took years to happen but eventually Solomon fell into a compromised believer and all of this happened over the span of 40 years. Slowly and perceptibly one compromise one band decision one self indulgent after another became the ruin of this great godly man. In the English standard version study Bible Max Rogland makes a comment about how we can see if we read the first 10 chapters of first kings how we can see this coming upon Solomon. Throughout chapters one to ten the reader has received hints that all is not well with Solomon's heart. In chapter three his love is juxtaposed with God with the suggestion of deviled loyalties revealed in the choice of his women that he married. In chapter four we were told of his accumulation of horses in chapter six how he pursued the question of building projects with a vengeance and made them his number one priority. And in chapter ten he did the same with regard to horses in the context in which the topic of Solomon's great wealth was introduced and the marriage question again briefly addressed. And now as we approach chapter 11 of first kings the authors revealed the inevitable consequence of all that had gone before Solomon's sins had slowly but surely led him into apostasy. Solomon is the Old Testament illustration of the New Testament's rich young ruler and now we understand why Jesus says truly I say with you only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. To tell you the truth it is easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. Here Solomon indulges in sensual things without ever technically being sinful, sensual not in the terms of sinful but that which gives pleasure is the ultimate good in life wine and women in song. And the scary part is in all of this Solomon's defense I think if we said okay what are you doing he would look at us with sincerity and say no listen I worked hard for these things I earned all these things my honest diligent persistent labor have blessed me and who can deny me the fruit of my hard work. So Solomon takes us in the second paragraph briefly to tell us that not only is pleasure not the end all of life it cannot be the purpose of work he says three things to us three secrets that he lets us in on about his life he says first of all I worked hard to earn what I did I was not one of these idle pampered play boys spoiled royalty so I became great and surpassed all who were before me and Jerusalem also my wisdom remained with me I became great and the words surpass can mean in Hebrew that he worked harder than all who were before him I believe that's what he's saying he worked hard to build political alliances that kept his country out of war. He built beautiful temples and cities and palaces and stables and fortresses agricultural centers libraries only public structures so that the whole culture of life in Israel would be raised to a golden era invested wisely an international trade agreements so that the balance of trade the gross national product of his kingdom never has reached that point again he farmed he forested he cultivated livestock. He was devoted to both religion and to the arts he ushered in this golden age of visual he was not a lazy man that is why work is such a repetitive topic in his memoirs the second thing he tells us in verse 11 which is hard for us to believe as then in all of the did he never lost his wisdom from God you remember in chapter three when he was a young prince who had just become king he was a humble guy like his father like we talked about this morning and God appeared him and said Solomon I will do for you whatever you want me to do as a favor to your father David whose heart was holy after me and Solomon asked for the most precious thing he did not ask for wealth and for power and for riches he asked for wisdom he said in effect Lord God I'm a young fella and my father's finger was as thick as my thigh meaning in modern English my dad was five times the man that I was how could I fit into shoes of David and rule this great people Israel just make me wise and God said to him you know Solomon because you asked for wisdom and not for riches and fame and power I'm going to give you all those things and I'm going to make you the wise as man whoever lived on the face of the earth and Solomon says in chapter two verse 11 also my wisdom remained with me you say pastor how can that possibly be commentators describe his statement this way that he did not go berserk in his quest for luxury and pleasure that his wisdom remained with him even as he indulged in his pleasures that he never reached a level of mindless stupor his rational capacities always were his greatest asset Solomon was as wise as could be but he was very selective and when he chose to listen to wisdom and when he chose to ignore it it is possible to be a godly man full of biblical wisdom and to turn it off when it's inconvenient Solomon says thirdly and this was my undoing I never told myself no I never said to myself Solomon you can do that it's within your grasp within your right within your power but it's not good for you whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them I kept my heart from no pleasure from my heart found pleasure in all my toil and this was my reward for all my toil he simply did it because he could and he sounds a lot like an American I worked hard at what I do I know what I'm doing I've earned it I can afford it it's not good heard anybody and no one can tell me no and who can say to the king Solomon quite frankly suppressed his conscience for a long time but then something happened to him that happens to all men something that never enters their mind as a young man they get gray hair I'm serious that's what he talks about in chapter 12 if we skipped ahead 10 chapters we would find that as Solomon got old as he deteriorated in health as he looked at his impending death gazed into eternity when the wine had run out and the works were all done and he had neither the energy nor the zeal to do anymore and when all of his beautiful women had grown old not as lovely and as he said later on in his memoir I've known a thousand women but not one that I could love Solomon began to think about his life and he began to realize that he quite frankly had been addicted to work you know addictions are what they are because it always takes another one to bring the benefit another drink to make you loose another hit of a stronger chemical to get the high the buzz that you want more sex which is usually more bizarre only until that regular love making becomes a version that grants relief more things more homes more travel more success more and more and more of the cheap stuff of vanity fair all because we misunderstand what work is supposed to be if we go back to the beginning of the Bible we learn that gone created man to work let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all of the earth and over every creeping thing that is upon the earth let them have dominion over all flesh and let them rule the earth then it says God made a garden and placed a man in the garden that he might tend that garden and when his work became overwhelming when he was beginning to lose perspective when he was lonely God said this is not good I will make for him a helper a companion in his labors who offsets and is suitable and complimentary for him they will become one flesh they will procreate and fill the earth and they and their children will work until all of the raw beauty of my creation becomes a celestial city the primary purpose according to God for work is not your pleasure it is not your stuff work was designed and given to us to please God to bless other people and for you to make the world a better place than when you first arrived in it endless pursuits of pleasure have been and will continue to be the ruin of the American way of life in fact I believe with all my heart that we are at the stage we are in our economy because God is saying enough already enough of vanity fair what you do to please God and to bless others and to improve your world must last forever or it is vanity and striving after wind you know what's interesting of all the things that Solomon said to accomplish only to remain to all of his palaces and temples and cities all of his building projects are gone all his gardens and forests and fields and flocks have since been overcome by nature all of his wives and concubines are dead probably all of them are in hell he lost his children his bottles of wine are gone his music is silent there are no gold no silver no splendor that are in any museum that we can say this belonged to Solomon that's amazing even in the British Museum there's not one object that belonged to Solomon but there are outside of Jerusalem about five kilometers south with the Bethlehem three large things that look like swimming pools they're called the pools of Solomon Ecclesiastes26 look at it again I've made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees one is 582 feet long 270 feet wide 50 feet deep it's a rectangle like a big pool looks like an Olympic swimming pool it's massive the others forward in 23 feet long 250 feet wide 39 deep and the smallest one is 380 feet long 236 feet wide and 25 feet deep but the problem is archaeologists who study these attribute the first one to the sons of Judas Macabees and the last two to a man named Pontius Pilate they're called the pools of Solomon but they're not so that leaves one thing that he left his wisdom Ecclesiastes and Proverbs two songs and the love poem about a wife he never really had the song of Solomon and those have been the spiritual blessings for millions of people in excess of three millennia what will your work leave behind my friends a story of a good time had by all remnants of things that you once built and owned that now belong to someone else or we don't know who they belong to or a godly and wise influence on generations yet to come these indeed have an appearance of success but they're not what we need to do is look to the real Solomon the real man of peace Jesus Christ you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea beginning from Galilee after the baptism of John how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power and he went about doing good and healing all who are pressed by the devil because God was with him doing good delivering people from evil taking God with you anything else is striving after win and the cheap and tawny stuff of vanity fair let's pray Father our lives are shaped by our work they are for both men and women the activities that define who we are and express with no uncertainty what we believe and what our great priorities are we're told by Paul and Colossians that we are to do our work for the Lord and not for men because it is from the Lord that we will receive the reward of our inheritance it is the Lord Christ who must serve help us as we enter into these memoirs of Solomon as we look at work to gain perspective on what it is to use our careers and our callings and our labors for that which does good brings healing and liberation and shows that God is with us and blessing people through us this is what we ask that you will confirm the work of our hands and make our labor good both now and after the hour of our death and for Jesus sake for we ask this in Jesus name amen