Having
found that wisdom and the work of God are most profound and beyond complete
comprehension, Solomon turns now to look at something rather more understandable
– namely the identifiable reasons behind
much of the wickedness and folly that mars our lives, the psychological
structure of stupidity.
For
example, although he may not have continually felt the need to lie,
steal and kill, Solomon did find, especially as a wealthy man, that
sexual temptation was an ever present problem – and in an active,
rather than passive, form as beautiful women deliberately set out to
pursue, ensnare and then control him. Although
it is unspoken in the gospels, Jesus must have been exposed to the same
pressures.
Their hands were chains, fetters or bands,
saysSolomon, gripping tightly, and almost impossible to escape
from, once trapped. False teachings, once accepted and
possibly grown up with, are also very hard to break away from. It is
said that un-learning is harder than learning.
As
Solomon’s fame as a great guru grew, thousands of people came
to listen to his wisdom, not only from Israel but from all over the
world. No doubt, during those thousands of audiences, Solomon not only
answered questions but also posed questions of his own, and quietly
assessed the character and intentions of his visitors, possibly even
testing them in some way.
The
outcome, as he informs us here, was that among those thousands of visitors,
he found only one upright man – and
that statement is probably a prophetic one, referring to Jesus himself,
the one such man who has ever lived.
On
the other hand, he found not one upright woman.
Once again, however, the statement may be prophetic and have a spiritual
dimension, for in both Old and New Testaments, women are used as types,
with the Church as the virgin bride of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2),
and the evil and beguiling Babylonish world system depicted as a harlot
(Revelation 17:1-8). Likewise the act of seduction frequently signifies
the lure of immoral and false religious teachings and organizations
(1 Timothy 4:1).
As
we acquire Enlightenment, then, and begin to question and modify our
earlier basic beliefs and assumptions, great care must be taken over
what we now accept as Truth. This, in fact, is the wise counsel of Paul,
who urges believers, Quote: “Test everything; hold fast that which
is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).
Beware
of the simplistic answers and the black-and-white solutions to life’s
many problems that are confidently pronounced by predatory sects and
false teachers who don’t actually know what they are talking about
(Colossians 2:18-19) – for, behind such human fronts, more sinister
powers may lurk, as Paul also warns, saying, Quote: “In the latter
days some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits
and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical
liars” 1 Timothy 4:2),
The
problem extends far beyond religion, and it has been said that the majority
of mankind have been brainwashed by their culture, their upbringing
and mis-education, and as a result are passively sleepwalking their
way through life – as if hypnotized by self-limiting beliefs,
blind to their amazing gifts and as-yet-unrealized creative potential,
too busy earning a living to think, get wise, solve problems and take
charge of their circumstances. Living life under the influence of unquestioned
assumptions and false beliefs has been compared to finding your way
around a city using the wrong map – so with the best will in the
world, things keep going wrong.
God
made mankind upright, Solomon concludes, but he has gone
in search of many schemes -- possibly signifying
all manner of selfish goals and scams, and the devising of all manner
of foolish philosophies and deceptive religious beliefs.
The
fact that man was originally made upright
may well imply, also, that we all do actually know better when we do
wrong and give into temptation, and so are without excuse.