Ecclesiastes 10

“Sharper” as in “wiser.”

This doesn’t sound like a birthday party. It sounds like a party-hearty with dancing girls, strong wine, and manly talk from boys who can’t grow beards.

Maintenance was required. Most homes in Bible times had flat roofs made from branches covered with mud and sometimes with thin tiles. After a rain, the people needed to use a roller to compress the dirt and mud back into the branches. Jesus once healed a man whose friends dug a hole in a roof and lowered the man to Jesus, who was surrounded by a crowd (Luke 5:19).

“Freedom” isn’t the right word to describe life in Israel under wise King Solomon. Criticizing the rich and powerful could be as dangerous then as it is in authoritarian nations today. Solomon exploited the people. He drafted citizens to build his palaces and fortress cities. He taxed them so heavily that when he died his son and successor vowed to continue overworking and overtaxing the citizens, 10 of the 12 tribes left the United Tribes of Israel. They formed a nation they called Israel, in the northland. The king was left with only his tribe of Judah, along with its teeny, tiny neighbor, Benjamin. They called their southland nation Judah.