A Word to the Wise

“Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people: for who can judge this Thy people, that is so great.”  II Chronicles 1:10

King Solomon, son of King David of Israel, is known as one of the wisest humans who has ever lived.  God came to him one night and told him that he could ask for whatever he desired for God to give him.  As Solomon thought about the overwhelming responsibility of leading the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people, he decided that he needed wisdom and knowledge in order to lead them successfully.  (I wish all politicians would sincerely pray that prayer!)  God granted him his desire, and, because he had not been selfish and asked for riches, God also gave him a tremendous amount of wealth.  In I Kings 10:1-7, the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon and how God had blessed him and came for a visit to see for herself.  Every question that she asked, he was able to give an answer.  He showed her all of the magnificence of his kingdom, and she was astounded.  She said that she had not believed what she had heard until she saw it for herself and remarked that “the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceeds the fame which I heard.”

One of Solomon’s most well known decisions concerned two prostitutes who both had babies within three days.  One woman rolled over on her baby in the night, and the baby suffocated.  She got up and swapped the dead baby for the other woman’s baby, but the other woman awoke and knew that was not her baby.  They went before King Solomon who offered to cut the living baby in half and give each woman one half.  He actually asked for his servant to bring him a sword because he knew that the real mother would rather give up the baby than to see it killed.  The real mother spoke up and was willing to relinquish the baby to save his life, but Solomon had the baby presented to her.  The other woman told Solomon to go ahead and divide the baby (I Kings 3:16-28)  (Since the other mother didn’t care any more about the life of the baby, why did she even bother to swap them?  Human nature is weird sometimes, well, actually, a lot of the time.)  She thought that if she couldn’t have him then the real mother shouldn’t have him either.

While Solomon was a very wise man, we can’t help but wonder why he didn’t use wisdom in his personal life.  He allowed his wives to turn his heart to idolatry.  I suppose his drifting from the God of Israel to idols shows how vulnerable we all are to sin unless we remain vigilant.  The world can draw us into its web of apathy and/or idolatry if we are not careful.  It’s much more difficult for Satan to deceive those who are wise to his tricks.