Sometimes I do things and afterwards I wonder what on Earth I was thinking when I did that. I sometimes amaze myself with my own stupidity.
Well, it’s not really stupidity, I’m quite smart, but sometimes I don’t put that intelligence to good use. I guess it’s whatever is the opposite of wisdom. Wisdom is basically the good application of intelligence and observation.
I don’t always act wisely. I guess you don’t either.

But here is something interesting that someone showed me one day.
Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived right. (The Bible says this, but I assume this is excluding Yeshua). But let’s leave it as, “wisest man who ever lived”.

Now, in Deuteronomy 17 we read that when they enter the land God is giving them, and they want a king, (I thought God was their king?), anyway, the king is supposed to write a scroll for himself and read it everyday to keep himself on the straight and narrow. Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived, so I guess he followed this one piece of advice from God, through Moses to the future king, (himself).

Let’s see.

So on this scroll, he is supposed to write three things God doesn’t want him doing. (And read it every day to make sure he doesn’t forget them, and go off and do them...).
He mustn’t acquire lots of horses, above all, not go back to Egypt to get them.
He must not take many wives.
He must not accumulate large amounts of silver or gold.
Sounds pretty straight forward.

So, let’s see how he did...
Have a look at 1 Kings 10.
Horses? “Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem.” Oh. 12,000 horses? Is it just me or does that seem like a lot to you? And if you look further down... he imported them from Egypt. Oops.
Wives? Read on to the beginning of chapter 11. 700 wives! 300 concubines! And his wives from all sorts of countries that God had said specifically not to intermarry with. Oops.
Gold and Silver? “Nothing was made of silver, because silver was considered of little value in Solomon’s days.” In fact, he had so much gold, that he didn’t bother having anything made of silver. Gold cups, gold shields, gold throne, gold everything. In fact, 666 talents of gold per year. That’s 20 TONS of gold, every year. Oops.

Wisest man in the world. Only three rules he has to worry about. Completely failed all three.
But God still calls him the wisest man in the world.

Perhaps there is hope for me yet. Mind you, I have the Holy Spirit, so I have a huge head start over Solomon. I hate to think how badly I would have messed up being king of Israel if it had been me instead of him.

How about you? How wise are you?