To the untrained eye, this chapter seems almost pedantic. Solomon piles up the overlapping phrases again, trying to convince his readers that God is the source of all wisdom. Our problem in Western society is that we are so utterly convinced that spiritual wisdom is one thing, and morality almost another thing, but that we can get along through life just fine with our human wisdom regarding science and technology. What difference does it make to God how someone engineers next year’s car model? So long as there is nothing in the car company’s actions that warrant a boycott, what does that have to do with God?
Therein lies the issue. Even in Solomon’s day, there was a major problem with folks convinced they could use their human reason and wisdom to work out all kinds of things and not have to worry about divine wisdom all the time. So Solomon uses his position as the wisest man in history, at least up to that point in that part of the world, to counteract that false notion.
If you are going to deal with reality, it’s always best to start by asking the Person who made it that reality. Failing to start with God’s revealed moral truth means it won’t matter what you engineer, He won’t bless it. That may not have a noticeable effect, or at least not so much on a human time frame, but it makes a difference. So perhaps we should not have started that car company, never mind how the next model is engineered. Or maybe the whole concept of automobiles is really terribly wrong, and will eventually bring God’s wrath. You won’t know until you make it a point to ask God.
Start with the moral fabric of Creation, the moral character of God Himself, and everything else you do will make sense. Otherwise, nothing you do will make sense in this reality, despite how it may appear to human reason. Solomon hammers on it over and over in this chapter. He uses some rather obvious images that would tear at the fabric of a covenant society, like an adulteress. Everybody knows better, but some men just don’t know how to tell that head between their legs, “No.” And by this time in Israel’s history, there were plenty of well known examples of how that never quite worked out. Would you have liked to ask Solomon’s mother, Bathsheeba about her first-born?
The adulteress is named Folly. Get to know her from a distance.
