A Foolish King

What do you do about a foolish ruler? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

In Ecclesiastes 4:13-16, we read about a wise boy who goes from poverty to wealth and a foolish king who doesn’t take advice. As I wrote about this:

Verses 4:13-16 describes a boy who gets a following when a king refuses a warning, a possible hint at what happened in Solomon’s life if he thinks about how he refused to repent after his failure of having multiple wives and concubines. Goldingay thinks this is a parable, but it could have some historical referent.[1] The story also contains similarities to the story of Joseph in the sense of a young boy who gains the power of the throne. Either way, the Teacher says that all those born under the sun followed the king’s successor. Those who came after found no pleasure in the successor, which he describes also as meaningless and chasing after the wind.

[1] Goldingay, 252.

There are two figures that could fit. One could be Joseph who though he was wealthy with his father, when he got sold into slavery in Egypt, he was poor and wound up in prison. It was through his wisdom and his faithfulness to YHWH that he came to be second in command to Pharaoh, definitely a position of wealth and honor.

By contrast, we can look at bonehead Rehoboam, as I prefer to call him. Some could think that this writing could indicate a later writer than Solomon who has witnessed Rehoboam. I’m still inclined to think Solomon wrote this and it was just a tragedy that it happened in the life of his own son.

By contrast, Joseph was a constantly godly figure who suffered though largely innocent. ( I say largely because flaunting the position he had with his Dad and talking about his dreams with his brothers was probably not the wisest move on his part.) He was sold into slavery and from there, he went into prison. While one would think he would meet his end there, unbelievably, his next stop was being put second in command to Pharaoh.

Such a figure should be remembered forever in the land of Egypt!

Alas, Exodus tells us what happened. Eventually, a Pharaoh came around and the legacy of Joseph was not remembered by the Egyptians. While the Israelites were still present on the sands of Egypt, the sands of history had lost record of the great leader. Of course, God brought His people out of Egypt, but the point is Solomon knew that in the land that God had done so much for previously through Joseph, he was a forgotten figure.

In the end, the sad reality is that Rehoboam and Joseph are both known to students of Scripture for different things, but while one had an effect for good and the other had an effect for evil, both of them by the mainstream culture are largely forgotten about. This does not mean that their effects ceased to exist, but it does mean that their names like Ozymandius’s, can disappear.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)