The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler

Author:Matt Chandler [Chandler, Matt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: amazon
Published: 2020-05-13T15:00:00+00:00

Solomon basically became Billy Madison. He’s saying, “I didn’t do anything for myself. I woke up about 11:00, and somebody cooked breakfast for me, chewed it up for me, and then fed it to me. I moved on from there to get a massage. I moved on from there to get the facial, the pedicure . . .” He tried partying and building, and now he’s trying just taking it easy. He tried the Richie Rich scene. He tried the polo club scene. He tried the music scene. If he liked a certain song, he didn’t download the MP3; he bought the band. On top of all this, he indulged in what he’s infamous for: women. Solomon had seven hundred wives. Now, there isn’t any way to keep seven women happy, much less seven hundred. But he had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines at his beck and call. This is not big love; it’s big lust. Solomon experienced uninhibited sexuality. He made Hugh Hefner look like an amateur.

Solomon tries everything, and he tries it bigger and better than anybody ever has. This did not escape notice. Check out Ecclesiastes 2:9: “So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem.” Do you hear what he’s saying? “I was popular.” Is it any wonder? After such huge parties, such massive landscaping projects, such vast wealth, and such sexual prowess, is it any wonder he became the most famous man of his day? All five hundred million people on Facebook would have “liked” him. He’d be on the cover of every magazine. He was like Einstein, JFK, and Justin Bieber all rolled into one.

But what he says in the second part of Ecclesiastes 2:9 is really intriguing: “Also my wisdom remained with me.” What does he mean? I believe he means that he never forgot what he was doing. He never got so caught up in seeking pleasure that he forgot that his goal was, from the beginning, to see if there was really anything of value out there in the world. From day one, he never forgot that this was an experiment. It may be easy to say, “Well, if you indulge in such a way that you’re out of control, of course you won’t find satisfaction.” But Solomon indulged in all of this stuff very heavily, all the while maintaining his wisdom. He never lost sight that he was intentionally seeking meaning in his indulgences. So he had the best of both worlds going on here. He could act like an addict but keep his wits about him somehow.

You and I cannot do this, mainly because we don’t have the unparalleled wisdom that God gave Solomon. In any event, the bottom line is not that Solomon sought pleasure but didn’t find it. He did find it. He says, “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” (Eccles.

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