Ecclesiastes 12 is the final chapter in the book of Ecclesiastes and summarizes Solomon's thoughts on the purpose of life. Solomon summarizes his message by concluding that our sole duty is to respect God and follow His commandments. When put into words, it sounds easy, but in action, it's a lot harder!

These 3 chapters of Ecclesiastes hold some oft forgotten wisdom along with a few popular quotes. My favorite quote from Ecclesiastes is found in chapter 9, verse 11: "I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."

In Ecclesiastes 4, Solomon reminds us of how much better life is with two (or more) people, rather than one. Friendship is the one trait, Solomon never writes off as vanity, which means it must be worth a lot! Before jumping into friendship, Solomon discusses power and watching the evils of the world.

Proverbs is a great book for introspection. As I read Proverbs, I started to think of how these nuggets of wisdom applied to my own life. Am I the fool or the wise man in Solomon's examples. As much as the truth hurts, sometimes I'm the fool, but with the wisdom given, I can work to improve myself and so can you!

as No one is perfect, but Proverbs 31 gives women a glimpse down the road of perfection. We find her several virtues we should strive for to make us better women. These help us to strengthen our relationship with God, which subsequently, strengthens our relationships with those around us.

People aren't really sure who Agur was, but he took the time to pen a chapter of proverbs for us. He makes mention of God's son, which is definitely something to discuss! Agur's proverbs give us concrete examples of the values and concepts he's discussing, which is helpful in understanding his point.

Proverbs 23 and 24 contain more wise sayings by Solomon. In this post we discuss a few of them and how they apply to life today.

Solomon tells us that it is better to be hated than to be without bread. He didn't say this because he was obsessed with the rolls at his favorite restaurant, either. In the Bible, bread always represents substance. Jesus tells us the bread it His body and what is the Body of Christ? His believers, who sustain His Kingdom on earth. Solomon is telling us that substance (both literally and spiritually) is more important than being liked an accepted by the world.

The first 9 chapters of proverbs are basically an address to the audience by King Solomon. He warns us about the traits of the wise versus the unwise and gives us advice on how to find wisdom. Did you know Solomon personifies wisdom as a woman? That's pretty important when interpreting passages about women in these chapters.

Chapter 32 introduces us to the one person who seems to understand what's happening with Job's life. The following chapters lead up to the resolution of Job's crisis.

Chapters 28-31 cover Job's final word to his friends about his predicament. In these chapters, Job discusses the power and riches God had given him and the importance of wisdom.

The most important event in Israel, is the building of the temple. Chronicles focuses on this heavily, with most of 1 Chronicles discussing David's preparation and the first 7 chapters of 2 Chronicles discussing Solomon actually building the temple.

Solomon's great wisdom is granted and tested.