It may be helpful to understand the last chapter of Proverbs to consider the last chapter of Genesis.
Genesis climaxes with the story of Joseph. In that story, Joseph seems to be or experience the solution to problems that start in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve find they are naked by grabbing at forbidden wisdom-fruit. Joseph does not grab anything that is forbidden, but gets stripped and cast out twice. Yet, Joseph remains patient. He is eventually given authority over the world because of his wisdom. God promised Abraham and Sarah that kings would come from them (Genesis 17:6, 16). Joseph tells his brothers, “So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt” (45:8). Genesis began with a faithless man demoted, consigning humanity to privation, and it ends with a faithful man elevated, feeding the world.
And then he dies a slave in Genesis 50.
Perhaps you think “slave” is unwarranted, but something has already changed in Egypt for the worst when Joseph is on his death bed. He was able to bury this father in his family grave in the Promised Land. But now his family cannot do the same to him. He has to plead for them to remember his bones when God eventually releases them from Egypt (50:25).
That last chapter informs readers that there is more to come. Genesis 3 has not yet been solved. There is another King yet to come from Abraham and Sarah.
KING SOLOMON’S FOLLY
I wrote Solomon Says (Amazon, Kindle) as a practical book, so I didn’t delve into Solomon’s shortcomings. After all, Proverbs doesn’t mention them…
Or does it?
The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him: What are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb? What are you doing, son of my vows? Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings.
Proverbs 31:1–3 ESV
Proverbs 31 is that last book that makes up Proverbs. We don’t have an official timeline for its inclusion, but an earlier book has input from King Hezekiah (see 25:1). So it is likely that this later book also dates to later than Solomon’s reign.
So everyone knows how Solomon declined into foolishness in his later years.
For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.
1 Kings 11:4–8 ESV
Proverbs 31:1-3 does not explicitly mention Solomon’s fall, but there is no way this could be added to his book of wisdom without that coming to mind. In the rest of First Kings 11, we are told the story of how God weakened Solomon’s kingdom. He gave his strength to women, his ways to those who destroy kings. Proverbs begins with Solomon warning his son against foolishness. It ends with King Lemuel’s mother warning her son to not be like Solomon.
SOLOMON’S FAILURE TO CALL HIS SON
That brings up the other failure of Solomon. As I have written, Proverbs is Solomon pleading with his son. “The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel… Hear, my son, your father’s instruction…” (Proverbs 1:1a, 8a ESV). So, one way this book demands to be understood is as an open letter to Prince Rehoboam. And what a son he turned out to be!
Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. And as soon as Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt. And they sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam, “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.” He said to them, “Go away for three days, then come again to me.” So the people went away.
Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” And they said to him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.” But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?” And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us,’ thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s thighs. And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”
So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king said, “Come to me again the third day.” And the king answered the people harshly, and forsaking the counsel that the old men had given him, he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.”
1 Kings 12:1–14 ESV
So Solomon gave his strength to women and his son tried to recover his declining strength by force. He didn’t treat his nation like a bride–”an excellent wife”–but like a slave.
THE WISE SON AND FAITHFUL HUSBAND
Solomon’s call for a son went unheeded, probably at least in part because he didn’t issue a clear call. Proverbs 31 reminds us of all that. It sets us up to understand that Wisdom’s call for a son was never answered in Solomon’s lifetime.
Hundreds of years later, the call of wisdom was answered by someone “greater than Solomon” (Matthew 12:42), “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).