15 In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. 16 Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? 17 Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? 18 It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.
— Ecclesiastes 7:15-18, ESV

For a small town boy and Baptist preacher, I’ve been a lot of places and seen a lot of things in my lifetime.  I’ve went from coast to coast, Georgia to California, playing baseball in college.  I’ve traveled from top to bottom, North Dakota to Texas, and points in between preaching the gospel.  I’ve toured the castle of Vlad the Impaler (from whence the legend of Count Dracula came from) in the Transylvanian Alps of Romania, walked on Red Square in Moscow while in Russia to teach the Bible to a bunch of former communists, prayed at the Western Wall in the old city of Jerusalem in Israel, and stumbled right in the middle of two gang bangers shooting it out on the streets of Little Rock.  But I had not seen it all until I saw him in the middle of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana.  

If you’ve been, you know you can indeed see it all in the French Quarter, including some things you’d rather not see.  Andrea and I used to go once a year, mainly for the food, and to break up our long drive to Florida for summer vacation.  I actually enjoyed the atmosphere, the weirdness, and, once again with emphasis, the food.  Andrea went begrudgingly just to please me.  So, she was relieved, after I saw him in the middle of Bourbon Street.  That’s when I told her we did not have to come back to New Orleans anymore, because I had finally seen it all.

There he was, back in the summer of ’21.  He was one of a number of posers, people who paint themselves silver or wear outrageous costumes to lure tourist to take their picture for tips.  But he topped them all by being a minimalist of sorts.  He was an old man who bore a strange resemblance to my late father, with a cigarette dangling from his lips like Dad used to do.  But all he was wearing was a pair of black dress shoes, some ragged tidy whitey underwear briefs, a tiara, and a crooked smile.  “I’ve seen it all,” I said to Andrea, and we haven’t been back since.

There is a much more important man in the Bible who really did see it all in his lifetime.  He was “The Preacher,” the nickname King Solomon chose for himself, and the summary of what he saw is the book of Ecclesiastes.  The chapter which starts off the second half of the book can be summarized in these four verses.  

Solomon Saw It All

He said so himself.

In my vain life I have seen everything.

“Everything” is first word of the Hebrew text, “vain” in this context means brief or short, and “seen” is a deep word in the perfect tense to which I’ll offer this interpretation.  Taken altogether and read backwards, which is the way to read Hebrew, Solomon literally said, “Everything, I have seen and done everything, from high to low, in my short life, and the lesson learned is burned in my mind.”

While King David’s biography is extensive among the Old Testament pages, King Solomon’s is scant.  All we have is a short outline that fits well into a three-part lifetime.  Let me summarize in the three paragraphs to follow.

Solomon was born the second son of Bathsheba and David, then raised during his father’s most repentant and faithful years.  David had exerted some bad influences on Absalom and the other brothers, but with Solomon it was all good.  When David died, probably before Solomon’s twentieth birthday, Solomon became the young, wise, good, and godly king.  He married Pharaoh’s daughter, as it was the custom in those days for a king to take a queen from a nearby powerful nation, and their torrid love affair is described in “Song of Solomon.”

Solomon’s second phase of life, from about age 20 to 40, was when he wisely wrote most of the “Proverbs.”  He spent these two decades building the temple and the king’s palace.  The fact that he spent 7 years on the former and 13 years on the latter shows he was beginning to think more of himself than of God.  Fortune and fame does that to a man.  Slowly he drifted into life in the fast lane, where pit stops included sexual immorality and outright idolatry.  

Solomon’s death came after another approximate 20 years, likely before he reached the age of 60.  Somehow, someway, sometime before he died, the prodigal king returned to God the Father.  We gather this from “Ecclesiastes.”  It is here where the fear of God, the repentance and faith and respect and devotion and worship and obedience and love for God, is firmly established as the prioritizing principle of life.  However, like his father before him, some of Solomon’s forgiven sins still came home to roost and wreak havoc upon his family and the nation of Israel.  

Is this not a typical experience of the Christian life?  Someone brings you to God, parent or pastor or friend, and you start off on fire for the Lord.  Then comes compromises, be it sex or money or some other worldly thing.  Then there is the test.  False professors of faith never come back, while true believers always do.  But learn from Solomon, sins forgiven still cut others to the quick, so it would be better not to drift in the first place by keeping God in first place, from beginning to end.

Solomon Was Vexed By What He Saw

At some point in Solomon’s experience, something made him turn away from God.  Something hurt him, something confounded him, something gave him an excuse to blow off worship and devotion to God and God’s word.  Maybe it was this:

There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, 
and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing.

Perhaps Solomon had learned about his mother’s first husband, Uriah, “a righteous man” if there ever was one, faithful, loyal, courageous, sacrificial.  But his life was sacrificed on the altar of sex and the ensuing coverup by his commander and his king.  Surely Solomon looked in the mirror during his wandering years, and at his contemporaries, who like some kind of rat pack were living in godlessness while reaping great riches and other rewards.  

At some point theodicy hits us between the eyes all and we have to deal with it.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Why do good things happen to bad people?  And where is God when all these things are happening?

There are often no answers to such difficult questions.  There is only an outcome revealed in Romans 8:28-39.  But Solomon never read Paul.  So he walked away from God, for a while, but, again, true believers eventually return.  Asaph was tempted to walk away because of the same dilemma (Read Psalm 73), but never left the church.  Better to come back if you stray, better still not to stray at all.  

Do not be vexed by the fact God is not fair, for fairness is not His goal.  His glory through the redemption of His people is His goal.  He is the sovereign God, working out a master plan far beyond our pay grade to fully understand.  This is where true faith comes in.  This is what Solomon learned.  

Solomon Learned from What He Saw

Solomon lived a righteous life and Solomon lived a wicked life.  Both can be taken to unhealthy extremes.  Both can lead to separation from God and ultimate death.  

Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time?

Who are the “overly righteous.”  Picture in your mind the Pharisees.  Boo!  Solomon did not live to see them, but he obviously lived with people like them.  Haven’t we all?  

When you think it is your goodness or good works that are going to win you into Heaven with God, you are “overly righteous.”  When you think you are too good for anything bad to happen to you in this life, because God owes you something, you are “overly righteous.”  When you think you are in control of things and deny the sovereignty of God, you are “overly righteous.”  And, you are going to “destroy yourself.”  

Who are the “overly wicked.”  We are all wicked, meaning we are all sinners.  Salvation does not completely change this truth.  Saved people still sin, every day, in almost every conceivable way.  But saved people to not give in to sin, live in sin (ref. 1 John 3:9), and though they may backslide into a season of sin, saved people, like Solomon, always seem to find their way back to God.

When you vacation in sin for a season, then love it so much you decide to move there permanently, you are “overly wicked.”  When the dictates of your life are determined by what is physically or emotionally pleasing to you, rather than what is spiritually pleasing to God, you are “overly wicked.”  You are “a fool” who lives like there is no God (ref. Psalm 14:1), and when you “die before your time,” you will be permanently, eternally separated from God and all that is good and holy.

If Solomon could speak in New Testament terms, he would say he learned to lean on God’s imputed righteousness rather than his own.  This can be obtained only by grace through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  So for Jesus’ sake, Solomon might say, wherever you are in life right now, make sure you get to the place where you can be “the one who fears God.”  

Solomon Summarized What He Learned

The fear of God is the beginning and bottom line of the “Proverbs” and “Ecclesiastes,” including this summary statement.

 It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them.

“Take hold” of God’s righteousness, through Jesus Christ, because you cannot trust in your own.  “Take hold” of the sobering fact you are going to sin, but flee from it and do not live in it, else you will prove your utter lack of righteousness.  This is the way to be “the one who fears God,” the one who bears repentance and faith and respect and devotion and worship and obedience and love for God.  Only those who fear God will “come out” of this life into the next with the Lord.

When you get there, say hello to Solomon.  He’s going to tell you he’s seen it all.  Look over his shoulder, though, and there you’ll see the Lord Jesus Christ.  Only then will you be able to finally say, “I’ve seen it all!”