“I will do what you have asked, I will give you a wise and discerning heart”
(1 Kings 3:12)
King Solomon is revered for receiving wisdom from God (1 Kings 3:3-14); hence the simile “as wise as Solomon”. The first judicial challenge King Solomon faced was the well-known story of two prostitutes both claiming maternity of an infant boy (3:16-28). Solomon’s verdict was right and Israel was in awe because “he had wisdom from God to administer justice”.
Indeed there was much about King’s Solomon reign one could admire; he maintained unity between the often fractious Northern and Southern tribes, his taxation system and profitable bi-lateral trade agreements would be the envy of any modern finance minister (1 Kings 4, 5) – Solomon and the nation prospered. His greatest achievement was building the Temple in Jerusalem (1 Kings 8). Yet 1 Kings is, at best, ambivalent about King Solomon; we are told how his own palace dwarfed the Temple and descriptions of taxation and forced labour reveal the seeds of dissent amongst his people.
Ultimately the narrator declares that Solomon failed to follow the Lord (11:6). The story entices us into an attractive idea of a wisdom that guarantees prosperity only to leave us disillusioned, wondering where life-giving wisdom is found.
Christ, “the wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1:24) answers our longings. May we feed on God’s “living bread” (Jn. 6:51) such that God’s wisdom lives in us.
God Bless,
Sean