The Sad Story of a Wise Old Fool

by Chip Brogden
I don’t recall anyone talking about this in Sunday School. We don’t want to recall it. We want to remember Solomon as a wise, prosperous, God-fearing king who built the temple in Jerusalem. Of course, we want to focus on how blessed he was.

The history of Solomon is an example of a man who had every blessing a person could want. As king of Israel for 40 years, he had power and fame. He had wealth beyond imagination. He had a discerning heart full of wisdom and understanding, making him wiser than the wisest men. He was a writer and composer, a scientist and a philosopher. He even penned Scripture, giving us the books of wisdom and poetry known as Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.

He had many accomplishments and building projects to his credit, but first and foremost, he constructed the temple in Jerusalem, fulfilling the lifelong dream of his father, David. When Solomon inaugurated the temple, God visited His people and graced them with His tangible presence, filling the temple with His glory so that the priests were unable to stand. Fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifices that Solomon offered. And God wonderfully answered Solomon’s prayer, promising Solomon that His eyes would always be on Jerusalem, and on the House that Solomon had built in His Name, to answer the prayers of God’s children, and to heal their land.

What a rich example of the blessing and favor of God upon a man!

But there is more to the story of Solomon, for in his final days something is recorded that is both shocking and disturbing. Something we all must pay attention to. Please read the following account slowly and carefully.

“But King Solomon loved many foreign women… from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, ‘You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.’ Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon. And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. So the Lord became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the Lord had commanded.” (I Kings 11:1-10)

However well Solomon may have started out, and however well he may have lived for most of his life, Solomon did not finish well. He did not end his life on a good note. He ended poorly. He did not just make some mistakes towards the end of his life – he utterly, completely, and totally failed. He became an idol worshipper and a builder of idol temples.

May I say that all the accomplishments and blessings of a lifetime are worthless if you do not finish well. Running well is important, but finishing well is even more important. We can run poorly, walk, stumble, crawl, go in circles or make mistakes our whole life; but if we find the right path and finish well, that’s all that matters in the end. Paul refers to it as “finishing the race with joy” (Acts 20:24).

I have stated before, and I repeat: the majority of Christians today are not on track to finish well. They do not run well. In fact, they do not run or advance at all. They sit just inside the Narrow Gate, rejoicing in a future hope and a future salvation, relaxed and comfortable in the knowledge that they have passed through the Gate, so all is well. They are not walking the Path of Christ-centered spiritual growth and maturity. They are content to look backwards to what God was doing in their life twenty, thirty or forty years ago; to what God told them then, what God showed them then. They are nostalgic for the “good old days,” but have no present truth, no fresh clear vision that compels them to keep moving forward, no motivation or incentive to finish well – to finish with joy, to go out with a bang, to be full of fire right up until they take their final breath.

I don’t know when I will live my last day on earth. Neither do you. And I don’t know about you, but I do not want to get old and content and spiritually lazy, and take my relationship with God for granted like Solomon. The wisest, richest, most blessed man who ever lived ended up worshipping idols in his old age. Where will you be? Where will I be? Will we stay on the Path, or be distracted from the goal? I don’t want to spend my whole life teaching and praying and proclaiming the Kingdom of God, only to come to the end of my life and fall flat on my face the way Solomon did. Christ in us is better than that.

If you are middle-aged, or advanced in years, do not listen to the voices in your head telling you that you are no good, finished, all used up, no longer useful, no longer needed. That is a lie. Now, more than ever before, the Body of Christ needs your experience. Your insight. Your wisdom. Your counsel. Your perspective. And if nothing else, the Body of Christ needs your prayers and intercessions. You have a purpose to fulfill. Fulfill it. Finish well.

Do not be like so many others who fritter away the remaining years of their life on useless activities, pointless novels, or endless rounds of golf. If you are retired then enjoy the fruit of your labor, but don’t let down your guard. Don’t take a vacation from your spiritual stewardship. Don’t let your golden years be tarnished through carelessness and complacency. Don’t be like Solomon, the wise old fool, who had everything a man could ask for, but forgot about God in his old age.

No one is perfect. I do not believe that God expects sinless perfection from His people. We will make mistakes in spite of every good intention, and God’s grace is big enough to take our imperfections and impurities into account.

The point of this writing is not to examine God’s forgiveness (which is great), but to look at Solomon’s failure, make note of it, learn from it, and tuck it away for that time in our life when old age approaches – to ensure that we are not lulled to sleep, thinking that because we have walked with God for so many years, we can afford to become complacent.

And this word is also for those who are still young. Take advantage of the strength and passion of your youth. Follow hard after God and lay a good foundation for your later years. Don’t say you’ll do whatever you please now, and later on you’ll get serious. It seldom works out to be that way. Get committed now. Run well. Keep your eye on the goal.

In the end, Solomon wasn’t as wise as we thought. He threw away his most valuable possession: his friendship with God. If you and I, for all our other shortcomings, can keep our relationship with the Lord strong now, and all the way to the end, we will be in a much better place than Solomon was in his last days – a wise old fool who fell away from the truth.

The Book of Revelation(Vol. 1)
The Book of Revelation
(Vol. 1)

Volume 1 | Volume 2My goal is to help you see the Book of Revelation differently – not as a book of “hype” but as a book of hope. When I was about eight years old, a boy in my Sunday school class at St. James United Methodist Church told me that the Bible predicted...

The Book of Revelation (Vol. 2)
The Book of Revelation
(Vol. 2)

Volume 1 | Volume 2My goal is to help you see the Book of Revelation differently – not as a book of “hype” but as a book of hope. When I was about eight years old, a boy in my Sunday school class at St. James United Methodist Church told me that the Bible predicted...

The Church in the Wilderness
The Church in the Wilderness

Among those with spiritual discernment, there is an uncomfortable, embarrassing difference between the power and practice of the New Testament Church and the religious organizations and denominations that have since come into existence. What began as a living,...

Embrace the Cross
Embrace the Cross

Embrace the Cross was written specifically to call people to radical faith in Jesus and Christ-centered discipleship. This book contains nearly everything Chip has ever written about the Cross, discipleship, and following Jesus – plus some things never before...

Free Indeed
Free Indeed

God’s righteous judgment is in a realm far removed from ordinary human judgment. Our judgment is destructive and punitive; God’s righteous judgment is redemptive and restorative. Judgment is easy. We make judgments all the time. We judge ourselves, we judge others,...

Heart of Fire
Heart of Fire

Heart of Fire is more than a novel or a book of spiritual teachings: it is a Biblically and historically accurate account of life as a Christian in the first and second century, based on real people, actual events, and timeless truths that are as applicable today as...

Infinite Supply
Infinite Supply

(Not available on Kindle.)Infinite Supply is more than a book of daily devotions – it is a doorway that opens up the heart and the mind to the immeasurable, unsearchable, unending treasure of spiritual blessing that is found in the Person of Jesus Christ. We began...

The Irresistible Kingdom
The Irresistible Kingdom

What is the Kingdom of God? What is its nature and character? What is its purpose and reason for being? Where is it? Who may enter it, and how? Who is excluded from it, and why? How is this Kingdom organized and governed? How does it function and operate? What resists...

Lord of All
Lord of All

Before there was a website there was just a pastor and a pastor’s wife who had a revelation of Christ in His glory and tried to explain what they saw to others. When they tried to explain it to the people in their church, the church wouldn’t let him preach anymore. So...

Not Many Fathers
Not Many Fathers

While on earth, Jesus showed us what it is like to have an intimate relationship with God – so intimate, in fact, that Jesus says there is only one Father, and no one else on earth can take His place: “Call no man on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father in heaven.”...

The Prophetic Mandate
The Prophetic Mandate

This is one of the most urgently needed books I have ever written. If we don’t learn how to recognize, restore, and receive from the genuinely prophetic men and women in the Body of Christ then the purity and simplicity of a Christ-Centered Faith will be lost. If you...

What About Israel?
What About Israel?

“All these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11). Everything that happened to Israel happened as an example – often, of what NOT to do. And these things were written down...

About the Author

CHIP BROGDEN is a best-selling author, teacher, and former pastor. His writings and teachings reach more than 135 nations with a simple, consistent, Christ-centered message focusing on relationship, not religion. Learn more »