"King Solomon" by Philip Graham Ryken

The story of King Solomon of Israel is a fascinating one.  The child of King David and Bathsheba whose husband was essentially murdered as a result of a one night stand.  He grew up, then, with the promise of being the next King of Israel, in the palace and watched his father be blessed and favored by God.  He takes the throne and only increases the nation's (and his own) wealth, their land, their allies, and builds the most magnificent temple and palace in the world all the while leaders of other nations are flocking to learn from you.  And it is all thrown away in the vain pursuit of more money (didn't he have enough), more sex, and more power.

In his new book King Solomon: The Temptations of Money, Sex, and Power (Crossway, 2011), Wheaton College President Philip Graham Ryken tells this fascinating and heartbreaking story of one of Israel's greatest kings.  Solomon had everything, but it still wasn't enough in the end.  How many of us could tell the same story in our own lives?

Ryken is a scholar, but this book is not written in such a way.  Ryken tells the story of Solomon with the purpose of pointing the reader to Christ.  It is a classic example of what Spurgeon encouraged:  read and exegete the text and then make a beeline to the cross.  Ryken seeks to do just that.

I say that this isn't a scholarly book, but that does not mean that Ryken is unwilling to do with some of the difficulties of the text.  Ryken does shy away, however, from letting such difficulties from distracting him. His purpose is to show the reader how the temptations of money, sex, and power consume us all.  The story of Solomon is too often our story.  Here we have a guy who had everything and was blessed by God in ways we can only dream of.  But slowly, the narrative shows how easily Solomon surrendered all of it in his pursuit of more.  We do the same today.

For those who love biblical biographies that are very practical, much in the tradition of Charles Swindoll's Great Lives Series, then this is a good one to read.  This is not a book in Old Testaments studies, but a practical book to guide the reader through how God blessed and then judged the son of David and how we can fall into the same traps.  It is also a book about Christ and makes it well worth the read.


This book was given to me free of charge for the purpose of this review.


For more:
Reviews - "Life's Biggest Questions" by Erik Thoennes 
Reviews - The Old Testament Documents: Are They Reliable and Relevant?  

Reviews - "History of Israel"  
Reviews - "A Sweet & Bitter Providence" by John Piper 
Reviews - "A Theological Introduction to the Book of Psalms"