When all Israel heard
the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw
that he had wisdom from God to administer justice.
– 1 Kings 3:28
We read in the Old Testament book of 1 Kings that God gave Solomon — the son of Israel’s famous King David — wisdom and very great insight, as well as a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. In fact, Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom found in all of Egypt, and kings from all nations sent their people to listen to him.
Solomon was an effective ruler when he lived by God's standards, and he used his wisdom to administer justice throughout Israel. But despite this, Solomon tended to falter in his personal life and make poor decisions when he took his eyes off God. It's through his years of learning-it-the-hard-way that Solomon penned Ecclesiastes, the book of the Bible that summarizes many of the wise king's observations about life.
His first observation was that this is our one and only life. And it's only through God that we can find true happiness in it. Likewise, our lives are short. Therefore, we need to make the most of the opportunities God gives us each day.
Although our lives are brief, they are more like cross-country marathons than straight-away sprints. Jesus centuries later reinforced Solomon's observation: "For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction," Christ warned his followers, "and many enter through it." The takeaway is that we must enter the Kingdom of God via life's winding roads and narrow gate. The hard way is the only way.
Finally, Solomon wrote that everyone's hour will come when they leave this brief lifetime and pass into the next chapter of existence. And since none of us knows exactly when that will be, we all must be ready — both for when we'll die and for where we'll spend eternity.
Those are indeed words to the wise.
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