Book of Ecclesiastes 1-3 Wisdom Excelleth Folly

Ecclesiastes 1-3

The author of this book (Solomon?) seems to enjoy life and encourages others to do so.  He's also very reflective about his life and work.

He also totally ripped off the Byrds!

One of the most interesting things I've read so far comes at 3:19-3:22.  The author clearly states that the beasts of the earth and man will share the same fate.  That both will return to dust and that he/we can't know that there is an after life.
His philosophy? Enjoy life while you're here.  Sounds like an Atheist to me!

Between Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, the Bible seems to be turning into a more positive book.  Quite the change from the killing and mayhem of the first half of the Old Testament.

Why the change?  I think it's because God has had no direct input for the last several books.  Humans seem to be very pleasant when he's not around! ;-)

Book of Proverbs 1-4 I will laugh at your calamity

Proverbs 1-4

I'm not sure who's supposed to be the voice in the first proverb.  Is God or Solomon or ?
Who ever it is, they're not very compassionate in the last half are they?

Proverb 2 has some really great writing and some interesting imagery using woman to represent [evil, corruption form good, ?].

Proverb 3 switches it up and 'she' becomes wisdom.

4:14-15 has some words of wisdom we can all follow!

1 Kings 11-14 Wash, Rinse Repeat

1 Kings 11-14
Turns out Solomon is a slut.
All his whoring turns him away from The LORD, which makes The LORD mad (talk about a steep learning curve).  Solomon dies.  God abandons Israel and bad things happen.

Good God!  Again?!?!  Does every story in the OT end with the leader or the people turning against God?
Is this storyline going to run through the rest of the books?
When will these dense Israelites get it?

Then we get the idiot plot of Jeroboam.
How many bad choices can one man make?
This guy reminds me of Todd Stroger, former president of Cook County, Illinois.
His father,  John Stroger was the president  for many years and well liked until he passed away from a stroke.  The younger Stroger was elected to replace him  and seemingly did everything he could to screw up what his father had accomplished.

But I digress.

Jeroboam and his brother rule their respective parts and then die.

1 Kings 8-10 Politics-The more things change...

1 Kings 8-10

Solomon proves himself to be quite the politician.  He would have done well in Chicago.

The ark is brought to the temple and God unleashes his "cloud" immediately (insert fart joke here).

At the dedication of the new temple, Solomon rededicates the Israelites to The Lord.
This came off (to me) as a politician making a speech.

The Queen of Sheba shows up because she doesn't believe how great Solomon is (?).   When she sees his greatness he gives him a shitload of gold.  Could political favors be far behind?

1 Kings 4-7 God's House is a Very, Very Fine House

1 Kings 4-7

Bummer my first day back and all we get to read about is about a couple of houses getting built.

My question is;  Did the Israelites/God purposefully abandon the tabernacle tent set up once they reached the promised land?  Is the "House of God", as a permanent structure supposed to represent an established nation of Israel?

Bonus question;  What is a molten sea?

Below is a 3D reconstruction of Solomon's Temple.

1 Kings 1-3 Solomon Moves In and Cleans House

1 Kings 1-3

When I read chapter one, when Adonijah assumed he was getting the throne, this popped into my head.

I had surgery to repair a hernia last friday.  All is well but the Vicodin is making it near impossible to read more then two sentences without completely zoning out.

What was I saying?

Anyway, Let's start on Kings so we don't get any further behind.  It stars Solomon, a very wise man who liked to chop up babies.