Sermon Tone Analysis

Apes and Peacocks

*A study from the book of Ecclesiastes *

 

       *The Magnificence of Solomon *

       It’s very interesting that right in the middle of the Bible there is an “income tax return” It isn’t very long, but it is rather impressive.

Sources of income are shown and then some entertainment items, apparently to be deducted, /“Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six/ /hundred and three-score and six talents of gold/ (2Ch 9:13).

In our monetary standard, this adds up to $20,479,500; and even by modern standards and inflation, this is not bad!

/“Beside that which chapmen and merchants brought ....”/ “Chapman” is an old English word for people who were conquered and taxed.

Solomon engaged in various businesses, and the merchantmen who were in business with him also brought in money./

“And all the kings of Arabia and governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon.

And King Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold: six hundred shekels of beaten gold went to one target.”/

( 2Ch 9:14-15)

       When you get so much money, you have to do something with it.

The ancient Greeks had a custom of converting a large accumulation of gold into shields and spears or other paraphernalia.

Following this custom, Solomon made “three hundred shields of beaten gold; three hundred shekels of gold went to one shield.

And the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon” (2Ch 9:16).

This was one of his out-of-town hunting lodges.

/“Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold”/ (2Ch 9:17).

The man about whom this is written was a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Obviously, he was the most glamorous king that the Jews ever had.

While we do not know exactly when he got out of fellowship with God, there are one or two passages of Scripture that give us some indication.

One thing is clear from verse 17: an ivory and gold throne was not for comfort.

For this, he would have chosen something like a rocking chair!

Anyone who makes for himself an ivory chair overlaid with gold does so for one reason only — for a status symbol to satisfy the ego.

Now the throne itself was only a part of it./

“And there were six steps to the throne, with a footstool of gold fastened to the/ /throne....”/ In other words, if you got that close to Solomon, you got there by kneeling.

That footstool was for people to kneel in front of him!

/“...and stays (vials) on each side of the sitting place, and two/ /lions standing by the stays: and twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps.

There was not the like made in any kingdom”/ (2Ch 9:18-19).

Solomon also went in for some rather beautiful appointments for his banquet tables./

“And all/ /the drinking vessels of King Solomon were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold: none were of silver; it was not any thing accounted of in the days of Solomon.

For the king’s ships went to Tarshish (Spain, one of the famous smeltering centers of the ancient world) with the servants of Huram (Hiram, king of Tyre); every three years once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes and peacocks”/ (2Ch 9:20-21) Not elephants and lions, not tigers and pythons — but APES AND PEACOCKS!

Can’t you just see one of these ships unloading?

Peacocks strutting down the gangplank, each with a slave leading it; and large cages with apes scratching, howling (for they are not people, and never will be — there is a great gap between them)!

The apes and peacocks were the ultimate in status symbols, the final touch in Solomon’s extravaganzas./

“And King Solomon passed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom”/ (2Ch 9:22)

       Now, this wisdom was from God:

/       “And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom that God had put/ /in his heart (mind)/ (2Ch 9:23).

*       A Guarantee For Happiness *

       As Solomon had approached the throne, he recognized immediately the magnitude of the task ahead of him.

He sought the Lord, and offered burnt offerings unto Him at the brazen altar of the Tabernacle (2Ch 1:6).

As a result, God appeared to him and offered him whatever he should ask (2Ch 1:7).

Solomon answered, /“Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in/ /before this people: for who can judge this thy people, that is so great”/ (2Ch 1:10)?

God was pleased with his request and granted him his desire above anything he could have dreamed: /“Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee; and I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honor, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like.”/

(2Ch 1:12).

Then God added a promise, which would be a guarantee for happiness: /“And if thou wilt walk/ /in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days” /(1Ki 3:14).

Solomon was to function daily under the “grace apparatus perception” — that is, he was to take in Bible doctrine, transfer it by faith to his human spirit, and exhale it toward God and toward man.

Although Solomon was granted divine wisdom, like the Lord Jesus Christ (Luk 2:40-52), it had to grow and develop under Bible teaching, just as does ours (1Ki 2:1-4  Pr 1:1-5).

Solomon started out great: from Bible doctrine in his human spirit, he began to erect an “edification complex” in his soul.

He was grace oriented: “Who am I, “he said, “that I should build him (God) a house....” (2Ch 2:6)?

He had the mastery of the details of life: “Because....thou hast not asked riches, wealth, or honor...” (2Ch 1:11).

He had a relaxed mental attitude, free from mental attitude sins: “There hath not failed one word of all his good promise, “Solomon declared (1Ki 8:56); and he admonished his people, “Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God.… to keep his commandments...” (1Ki 8:61).

He demonstrated the capacity to love God when he determined “to build a house for the name of the Lord.”

(2Ch 2:1); capacity for friendship (1Ki 2:7); and he even had the capacity to love the opposite sex until promiscuity destroyed it.

Finally, we see the “top floor” of his edification complex in the statement of the Queen Sheba in 2Ch 9:7-8 - inner happiness: “Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom.

Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee...” In other words, the Queen of Sheba realized that it is the wisdom of God which makes people happy.

She saw the reflected glory of God through Solomon’s edification complex, and she believed in the Lord! (Mt 12:42)

       Unhappily, there came a time when Solomon’s head was turned, and he went on a carnal binge./

“And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and raiment, harness, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year.

And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses (quite a rancher!), and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; whom he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem.

And he reigned over all the kings from the river (Euphrates) even unto the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt.

And the king made silver in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar trees made him as the sycamore trees that are in the plains in/ /abundance.

And they brought unto Solomon horses out of Egypt, and out of all lands” (2Ch 9:24-28).

From this passage, you get the impression that Solomon was not only rich, but getting richer by the minute: yet somewhere along the line, the mental attitude sin of pride started him on a downward path.

Now remember, he is born again; he is a saved man; but he got out of fellowship and failed to rebound.

I don’t know exactly where or when; but I can tell you he was out from the “apes and peacocks.”

Now there is nothing wrong with having an income of twenty million dollars a year — even for a believer — provided he comes by it honestly.

It is not a sin to be rich; but 1Ti 6:9-10 says you have to be careful that money doesn’t turn your head.

Two things got to Solomon money and women!

He had a thousand women and twenty million a year income, and the result was that he got out of fellowship; he quit functioning on the “grace apparatus for perception", and the erection of his edification complex came to a screeching halt!

*       The Grace Apparatus For Perception *

       God gives every believer a “grace apparatus” by which to learn and understand doctrine and by which to live in the angelic conflict.

Although it was somewhat different in the Old Testament, every believer in the Church Age is the recipient of the human spirit and the indwelling Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation.

This is strictly grace; no believer earns or deserves such a gift!

The human spirit is the means of storing and using doctrine; the Holy Spirit is the means of understanding doctrine.

God has further provided by grace the completed canon of Scripture, which is the “mind of Christ” (1Co 2:16); He has authorized the local church (Heb 10:25) and the gift of Pastor-teacher (Eph 4:11) to communicate doctrine in the local assembly by isagogics (historical background), categories and exegesis.

It is generally assumed that human I.Q.

also determines the ability to learn in the spiritual realm.

But grace would not be grace if every believer did not have the same ability to learn and understand doctrine.

The difference in believers is in volition — whether they are positive or negative toward doctrine!

When the grace apparatus is functioning properly, doctrine goes into the perceptive lobe of the mind in the filling of the Spirit; here it becomes “gnosis", or knowledge understood.

This, however, is not the final target in “GAP”; for at this point you neither agree nor disagree — you merely understand what is communicated.

Now volition becomes an issue.

Before doctrine can do any good, it must be believed.

Positive volition expresses itself in a way compatible with grace, and that way is FAITH!

Therefore, when the doctrine is believed, it is transferred automatically from the perceptive lobe of the mind to the human spirit, where it is stored and becomes “/epignosis/,” or knowledge fully understood and possessed (Eph 3:16-19; Col 1:9-10).

Now, naturally, doctrine is not just to be categorized and stored in the human spirit and left there; it must be utilized.

It must be cycled back into the conscience or norm and standard lobe as a frame of reference for new norms and standards and for more advanced doctrine.

“/Epignosis/,” or knowledge believed and fully understood, must also be exhaled toward God and toward man.

When this grace apparatus for perception is functioning daily, the believer is built up in the faith and an edification complex is erected in the soul (Eph 4:12-13; Col 2:7).

Sin — mental attitude sin, overt sin, and sins of the tongue — put us out of fellowship with the Lord and shut down the function of the grace apparatus.

However, the whole grace process can get cranked up again very simply by “rebound”: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1Jn 1:9).

At this point we are filled with the Spirit again; and as we resume the inhale of doctrine, the grace apparatus functions.

Solomon failed to rebound.

As a result, he went on a carnal binge greater than any of the three or four in which his father, David, engaged.

Yet out of his carnal binge came a message for us: the message of the “apes and peacocks.”

The Bible indicates that Solomon was the wealthiest man in the world in his day; yet eventually, he came to the place where everything bored him.

He began to look for entertainment in strange and devious ways.

Now it is a mater of speculation as to why the apes and peacocks; but here’s a man who had to have peacocks around like Chicago has pigeons; he had to have apes like people have dogs and cats.

Why? Somewhere along the line, Solomon got out of fellowship and failed to rebound, with the result that he lost his perspective.

As people move on in the carnal binge, they have a tendency to begin to think and to act just like any unbeliever.