Great. Thanks, John.
We've been looking forward to this series for a little while.
Solomon's a fascinating figure,
and we're hoping that the next four sermons spread over five Sundays,
because there's a break in the middle,
will be a real help to us all.
And we thought it would be a good plan to spend just a few minutes
then setting up not just this evening's sermon,
but the series as a whole.
As John said, who's Solomon, where does he fit into things,
and why construct a series with John's wonderful alliteration
called Solomon's Slide.
So it's not just the W's, it's also the S's.
So just a few minutes then about Solomon and where he fits
and why Solomon's Slide.
Well, kingship came late to Israel.
I mean, I think we'll all be.
If you're familiar with the story of the Old Testament,
you'll be familiar with the fact that all the nations seem to have kings,
but Israel doesn't have a king.
And in fact, historically, that seems to be the case.
Lots of the surrounding nations for hundreds, if not thousands of years,
had had kings, and Israel wanted a king too.
They didn't have a king because the Lord was their king.
But it's anticipated in the law of Moses that there would be one day a king,
and it's an unusual law in all of ancient literature.
There is no other constitutional monarchy,
no other law relating to the king outside of the Bible.
And it comes in Deuteronomy 17.
So we'll just read it briefly now.
There's a block of legislation in Deuteronomy that governs...
Where are all our civil servants tonight?
That governs a sort of civil society and how the law courts should work
and administration and so forth.
And as part of this, in chapter Deuteronomy 17,
we have this law, and it begins at verse 14.
When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you
and have taken possession of it and settled in it,
and you say,
Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us.
Then be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God chooses.
He must be from among your fellow Israelites.
Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite.
The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself
or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them.
For the Lord has told you, you are not to go back that way again.
He must not take many wives or his heart will be led astray.
He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.
When he takes the throne of his kingdom,
he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law,
taken from that of the Levitical priests.
It is to be with him,
and he is to read it all the days of his life,
so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God
and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees,
and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites,
and turn from the law to the right or to the left.
Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.
So there we have it, quite a special law concerning the rise of kingship
and its role in Israelite society.
And Israel took hesitant steps towards having a king.
If you know your book of Judges quite well,
you'll notice there's some hesitant steps towards kingship there.
And certainly the way the book of Judges ends anticipates the coming of a king as a good thing.
Israel is falling apart morally.
And it finishes with the words,
Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.
There was no king in Israel.
And when kingship finally arrives, it is with God's choice, with Saul,
around the year, what, 1020 B.C.
And Saul, if you're taking a sort of X-factor, people's choice king,
Saul might well have won.
You know, a great strapping guy, head and shoulders over everyone else.
So maybe the kind of people's ideal king, they got what they wanted,
but they didn't quite get what God finally wanted.
And that came in the person of David.
So Saul's successor.
Saul didn't place his son on the throne.
David was anointed king, a king to be after God's own heart,
as the book of Samuel has it and is repeated in the sermons of Acts.
And it's David then who sort of consolidates kingship in Israel
and has a son follow him onto the throne.
So there is with Solomon, David's successor, a hereditary kingship.
And that's the way that we tend to think about kingship.
David comes to the throne around 1000 B.C.
I think that's an easy name to remember for me, David.
Easy year to remember, 1000.
works pretty well.
And that's a nice sort of chronological peg to hang the stories of the Old Testament on.
Around 960 then is when Solomon comes to the throne
as the sort of culmination establishing kingship in Israel.
Well, Solomon in many ways was a great king.
Solomon had great achievements, monumental building projects.
He built cities, fortified them.
He built a palace.
He built famously the temple in Jerusalem.
With Solomon, we have the rise of arts and literature in Israel.
Many scholars think that the first court historians
that wrote up the history of David's reign
were the court historians of Solomon's court.
His administration was wonderful.
Again, civil servants tonight.
David left a great kingdom in extent,
but he didn't pass on a civil service, taxation, and so on.
But Solomon implemented all these wonderful things.
Exploration and trade.
Ships sending out explorers and traders.
And with all of this activity in Solomon's reign,
there's also, we speculate, we don't have direct evidence,
but where were the scribal schools for the accountants,
the diplomats, the architects that were at work
doing all this activity in David's kingdom?
And of course, as John mentioned,
he himself was world-renowned for wisdom,
the first theme that we tackle this evening.
So a lot of Solomon's reign gets a nice summary
in 1 Kings chapter 4.
We'll just read those verses briefly now.
So it's the end of the chapter, 1 Kings 4, 29 to 34.
God gave Solomon wisdom and great insight
and breadth of understanding as measureless
as the sand on the seashore.
Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom
of all the people of the East
and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.
He was wiser than anyone else,
including Atha and the Ezraite,
wiser than Haman, Calcol, and Darda,
the sons of Mahol.
And his fame spread to all the surrounding nations.
He spoke 3,000 proverbs,
and his songs numbered 1,005.
Gotta love that number.
He spoke about plant life,
from the cedar of Lebanon
to the hyssop that grows out of walls.
He also spoke about animals and birds
and reptiles and fish,
kind of proto-natural scientists.
And from all the nations,
people came to listen to Solomon's wisdom,
sent by all the kings of the world
who had heard of his wisdom.
Fantastic!
You can tell there's a buck coming,
but there were problems.
Perhaps, as a foreshadow of things to come,
there were complications already at David's birth,
at Solomon's birth.
Now, David had an affair with Bathsheba
and had her husband killed.
Now, the child of that union died.
But in that period, David and Bathsheba married,
and Solomon was their son.
Well, in 2 Samuel 12,
we read the birth notice of Solomon.
So 2 Samuel 12, verses 24 and 25.
Then, so this is after the death of their first child,
David comforted his wife, Bathsheba,
and he went to her and made love to her,
lay with her.
She gave birth to a son,
and they named him Solomon.
Solomon.
The Lord loved him.
And because the Lord loved him,
he sent word through Nathan the prophet
to name him Jedidiah.
Just pause for a moment on this.
So this child gets a name from father and mother, Solomon.
Now, to this day, scholars argue about
the meaning of the name of Solomon,
where it comes from.
It is, in fact, the name of one of the Assyrian deities.
It was the name of a Syrian king.
It might mean his substitute.
That is the substitute for the dead child.
Or it might have something to do with peace.
You'll know the word shalom.
And maybe that word is in Solomon's name.
Well, whatever Solomon's name means,
the Lord's love for him
led to the Lord sending the prophet Nathan
with another name.
And that name was Jedidiah.
Now, the did in Jedidiah
is actually David's name.
And it means beloved.
And when you put it in that form, Jedidiah,
it means beloved of the Lord.
But he doesn't bear that name.
He bears the name Solomon.
He comes to the throne eventually amidst conflict
and a bit of real politique,
knives not in the night but in the day,
knocking off rivals and political enemies.
He amasses fabulous wealth,
a vast array of wives and concubines.
And having had most of his reign,
long reign, in peace,
towards the end of his reign,
he develops both personal and political enemies.
And the temple that he built for the living God
is joined by a number of shrines in Jerusalem
to the gods of the surrounding nations
who now had their daughters
as his wives and concubines in Jerusalem.
At the end of his reign,
we hear the voice of a prophet.
For the first time,
he faces prophetic opposition.
Now, this is interesting.
This is the first time in Solomon's reign
we've heard a prophet's voice.
There had been prophetic voices
all through his father's reign.
Samuel spoke prophetically.
Nathan spoke prophetically.
God spoke prophetically.
No prophetic word in Solomon's reign
until the very end,
when the end of Solomon's kingship was announced.
After his death,
the kingdom falls apart.
And so we really need a new summary now
to think about what's happened
at the end of Solomon's reign.
This comes in 1 Kings 11, verses 9 and 10.
1 Kings 11, 9 and 10.
The Lord became angry with Solomon
because his heart had turned away from the Lord,
the God of Israel,
who had appeared to him twice.
Although he had forbidden Solomon
to follow other gods,
Solomon did not keep the Lord's command.
So the one that at birth the Lord loved,
at the end became one
with whom the Lord became angry.
So this is Solomon's puzzle then.
How did one of the greatest kings of Israel,
who started so well,
and as we'll see in a few moments
with such a generous gift
of divinely given wisdom,
how did this king who started so well
end so badly?
Solomon's slide.
And so we examine Solomon's slide
in four parts.
As John said,
wisdom tonight,
worship next week,
and after a break,
Solomon's wealth
and Solomon's women.
It won't be
the same sermon four times.
But a certain pattern
may emerge.
And just before we consider this passage
and a couple others,
let's just pray once more.
Our Heavenly Father,
we thank you for your word.
We thank you for your living word.
And we thank you
that the word came
and dwelt among us.
So we pray that you would open
our hearts and minds tonight,
that you would direct us
in your ways,
in your will,
and for your glory.
And we ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, on to Solomon then.
And although Solomon
is one of the marquee kings of Israel,
I mean,
if we were going to name off
all the names of the kings of Israel,
well, actually,
this group might know
all the names of the kings of Israel,
but Solomon would be near
the top of the list
of the ones we would get.
And his wisdom is proverbial
to this day
in the research
I did for this evening's sermon.
I checked the Guardian website.
And as you do,
it seems that
something to do
with the wisdom of Solomon,
about once a month,
if the search was correct,
appears in the pages
of the Guardian.
It's a fairly current notion,
even in today's society.
But for all of his fame
to this day,
he's only named
a handful of times,
I mean,
five or six
in the New Testament.
And his wisdom
only appears once.
And that is
in the Gospels.
In Matthew chapter 12,
and it's parallel passage
in Luke 11,
so we maybe count those as one,
some scribes and Pharisees
come to Jesus
asking for a sign.
And Jesus says,
I'm not going to give you the sign.
The only sign I'm going to give you
is the sign of Jonah.
But to the sign of Jonah,
Jesus adds this one,
and it's Matthew 12,
verse 42.
The queen of the south
will rise at the judgment
with this generation
and condemn it.
For she came from the ends
of the earth
to listen to Solomon's wisdom.
And now,
something greater
than Solomon is here.
So Solomon's wisdom,
and this particular instance
with the queen of the south,
who we know
as the queen of Sheba,
we'll be looking at this story
in just a moment,
she comes as a sign of condemnation
to those who don't recognize
God's servant and king
in Jesus Christ.
The queen's seeking,
finding,
affirming,
and confessing
the Lord's wisdom
as she sees it in Solomon
condemns
the sign-seeking generation.
Solomon was not
the end of the story.
But Solomon is deeply,
wisdom is deeply associated
with Solomon.
The words for wise or wisdom
appear 21 times
in the books of Kings,
1 and 2 Kings,
that cover the whole history
of Israel and Judah.
21 times.
All 21 of those
appear in Solomon's reign
between 1 Kings 2 and 11.
Solomon was the wise king.
So,
in looking at Solomon's wisdom
in relationship
to his slide,
we're going to look at
three stories this evening.
Solomon's dream,
Solomon's judgment,
and the queen,
as we've just mentioned.
And in each of these stories,
we'll look at them
in terms of what's right there
and what's wrong there.
because in each of these stories,
we see something good
to affirm
some right thing.
And in each of these stories,
if we read them carefully,
listen carefully,
we'll hear things
that should set
alarm bells ringing,
things that are somehow
wrong.
And as we look through
these three stories,
we'll see that God blessed Solomon
with a good gift,
a good gift of wisdom
to rule his people.
Now,
his,
you can have with a little H
or a big H,
a good gift of wisdom
to reign his,
that is God's people.
But as we just read
a moment ago
in the story
of Solomon's dream,
a good gift of wisdom
to rule Solomon's people.
But it was faithfully distorted
by Solomon's disobedience
with destructive results
for king and people alike.
So,
the first of these three stories
is the story of the dream,
and it's the one that Solomon,
that John read for us
just a moment ago
in 1 Kings chapter 3.
And here,
our pair of right and wrong
is the right picture,
but in the wrong frame.
So,
what's right
about this picture?
Well,
not to belabor the obvious,
but Solomon
asks for the right thing.
In the dream,
God appears to him,
ask me anything.
And what he asks for
is a discerning heart.
You see in verse 9,
so give your servant
a discerning heart
to govern your people,
to distinguish between
right and wrong.
And right away,
this tells us something
about biblical wisdom.
Because biblical wisdom
isn't just about being smart
or being able to
answer riddles
very cleverly.
It's about
skillful living.
It's about living
one's life
in accordance
with the way
God has structured
the world.
Skillful living.
And for a king,
skillful living
is that capacity
to make
right judgments.
To have
this capacity
for discerning
right and wrong
that Solomon
mentions here.
It's what he needs
as a king
to rule.
That's right
in this picture.
And just to confirm this,
verse 10 follows,
the Lord was
pleased
that Solomon
had asked for this.
This is a good
request
on Solomon's part.
And not only that,
but the Lord
adds more besides.
And perhaps you
noticed this.
Because you haven't
asked for
long life
or wealth,
nor have you
asked for the
death of your enemies.
I'm not looking
at the negative
side yet,
but the skeptical
person might say,
that's because
he's killed them
already.
I will do
what you have
asked.
I will give you
a wise
and discerning
heart.
So this is
good.
That's the picture.
And as we
generally do
with the picture,
we see the
picture first.
And if we
notice the frame,
we'll stand
back and see
the frame
around it.
And in this
case,
as we look
at the frame
around it,
we start
to see that
maybe the
picture is
a little bit
tilted.
So look
back at
verse 1.
I should say
you should
have your
Bibles open
in front of
you to
1 Kings
chapter 3.
We'll be
spending a
little bit
of time
in it.
And it
begins,
as you'll
have noticed,
Solomon made
an alliance
with Pharaoh
king of
Egypt and
married his
daughter.
So as
the story
begins,
the frame
around the
dream,
Solomon's
just got
married.
In fact,
the Hebrew
here is
quite compressed.
It's Solomon
became son-in-law
to Pharaoh
king of
Egypt.
That implies
two things.
It implies
marrying an
Egyptian
princess,
but it
also implies,
as the
NIV has
it here,
forging a
political
alliance with
Egypt.
And this
is not
good.
Maybe you'll
remember in
the law we
read just a
moment ago
from Deuteronomy,
the king must
not acquire
great numbers
of horses
for himself
or make the
people return
to Egypt
to get more
of them.
for the
Lord has
told you
you are
not to
go back
that way
again.
Yet as our
story begins,
Solomon's
forged a
political
alliance
by marriage
with Egypt.
Now,
Solomon's
impulse and
intention here
is the
right one.
He's asking
for a
listening heart,
but the
last time
we'll hear
of Solomon's
heart,
it's a
heart that's
been led
astray.
In the
frame again,
we see
something good.
Solomon's
gone to
worship.
Verse 3,
Solomon showed
his love
for the
Lord by
walking
according to
the instructions
given him
by his
father David.
So that's
a good
thing.
Except,
the text
goes on,
except that
he offered
sacrifices
and burned
incense on
the high
places.
So,
in fact,
he's being
obedient except
for this
distorted
worship that
he's offering
the living
God.
Now,
we're going
to say more
about worship
next week,
so I won't
pause on this
here,
but clearly
as we start
on the
dream then,
things are
not all
well in
Solomon's
life.
Right at
the other
end of the
story,
so this is
verse 15,
Solomon awoke
and he
realized it
had been
a dream.
So we're
at the
other part
of the
frame now.
He returned
to Jerusalem,
stood before
the Ark of
the Lord's
Covenant,
and sacrificed
burnt offerings
and fellowship
offerings.
He's worshipping
again now in
Jerusalem,
seems good.
As it
finishes,
then he
gave a
feast for
all his
court.
We'll see
a bit more
about Solomon's
feasting in
just a few
moments,
but there
is something
a little
bit
incommensurate,
I think,
with the
way the
storyteller
tells us
that he's
sacrificing
one moment
and having
a great
banquet
the next.
There's
something a
little bit
incommensurate
about
attending to
God and
then immediately
indulging
self.
Perhaps
is that
overreading?
Well,
I think as
the story
unfolds,
we'll see
that this
is part
of a
pattern.
But this
is about
as good
as it
gets,
I think,
for Solomon
in wisdom.
This is
already a
high point.
It's a
positive
picture,
although as
we put the
frame around
it,
we see
there are
some hints
that suggest
there's just
something about
this picture
that's a
little bit
out of
kilter.
So that's
the dream.
The second
of the famous
stories that
displays Solomon's
wisdom is the
one that
follows in
1 Kings
chapter 3.
The story
of a wise
ruling,
a judgment
that he
makes.
And we'll
read that
together and
then a few
comments.
So this is
1 Kings 3
beginning at
verse 16.
2 Kings 3
Now two
prostitutes came
to the king
and stood
before him.
One of them
said,
Pardon me,
my lord.
This woman
and I live
in the same
house,
and I had a
baby while she
was there with
me.
The third
day after my
child was born,
this woman
also had a
baby.
We were
alone.
There was no
one in the
house but the
two of us.
During the
night,
this woman's
son died
because she
lay on him.
So she got
up in the
middle of the
night and
took my
son from
my side
while I,
your servant,
was asleep.
She put him
by her breast
and put her
dead son by
my breast.
The next
morning I got
up to nurse
my son and
he was dead.
But when I
looked at him
closely in the
morning light,
I saw that it
wasn't the
son I had
born.
The other
woman said,
No, the
living one is
my son, the
dead one is
yours.
But the
first one
insisted, No,
the dead one
is yours, the
living one is
mine.
And so they
argued before
the king.
The king
said, This
one says my
son is alive
and your son
is dead, while
that one says
no, your son
is dead and
mine is alive.
Then the
king said,
bring me a
sword.
So they
brought a
sword for
the king.
He then
gave an
order, cut
the living
child in
two, give
half to one
and half to
the other.
The woman
whose son was
alive was
deeply moved
out of love
for her son
and said to
the king,
Please my
lord, give
her the
living baby,
don't kill
him.
But the
other said,
Neither I
nor you
shall have
him, cut
him in
two.
Then the
king gave
his ruling,
give the
living baby
to the
first woman,
do not
kill him,
she is
his mother.
When all
Israel heard
the verdict
the king
had given,
they held
the king
in awe,
because they
saw that he
had wisdom
from God
to administer
justice.
Well, it's
a famous
story, but
it's also a
complex story,
and it's a
more complex
story than
our translations
let on.
Every English
translation makes
adjustments to
try to clarify
who's speaking
when, and
I'd encourage
you all to
take a Hebrew
course, but
were we to
read it in
Hebrew, we'd
find out that
the identity
of the woman
speaking as
the argument
unfolds is
not always
clear.
And in
fact, when
we have in
our text in
verse 23,
this one says
my son is
alive, that
one says
no, your
son is
dead.
In fact,
Solomon's
language doesn't
even distinguish.
It's literally
this one says
and this one
says, without
referring to
them differently
at all.
So, it's,
and in
fact, if you
are going to
look on the
many, read
through the
ink that's
been spilled
on this
story, you
will find
arguments for
either one of
these women,
however you
identify them
being the
right mother.
So, it's a
complicated story,
which is perhaps
fitting as the
first event
following the
divine giving
of wisdom to
Solomon, the
most wise
king ever.
one of the
things that
is right and
wrong in
this story
then.
Well, here we
see some
right judgments,
but some
wrong morals.
So, let's
look at the
right thing.
What goes
right in
this story?
And we
won't be
attending to
all the
complexities.
For all
those complexities,
it's pretty
clear what
happens.
Solomon gets
it right,
doesn't he?
Yes, he
does.
And these
are some of
the good
things that
emerge in
this story.
I mean, it
begins, now
two prostitutes
came to the
king and
stood before
him.
Now, is
that a
surprise?
I think
it's a
surprise.
I think
it's a
surprise that
two prostitutes
have access
to the
royal court
for adjudicating
their dispute.
But what it
suggests right
away is
that even
the most
despised,
and the
lowest in
the society
have access
to royal
justice.
Now,
prostitution in
the Bible,
it's pretty
clear, is a
negative thing.
It's not a
good thing,
prostitution,
in the
scriptures.
It's not
quite forbidden
in biblical
law.
We'll look at
this a little
bit more in
just a moment.
But the
Bible's also
clear that
it arises
when something
goes wrong.
There seems
to be a
recognition
that
the poorest
and most
desperate
women
can be
driven to
sell access
to their
own bodies
if that's
the only
means they
have to
live.
And these
two women,
presumably the
lowest of the
low in
Israelite society,
come to the
king for
justice.
Now,
it's also
very hard to
tell these
two apart,
as I mentioned
just a moment
ago.
Solomon,
though,
is scrupulously
even-handed.
He doesn't
play favorites.
He doesn't
try to get
them apart.
He simply,
as I said a
moment ago,
says this
one and
this one.
He takes
both their
testimonies
at face
value,
scrupulously
even-handed.
And this is
just as well
because,
as many
note,
trying to
get at the
truth in
this story
by interrogating
the only
witnesses
is going
to be
hopeless.
Testimony,
in this
case,
is at
best an
ambiguous
route to
justice.
You'll have
noticed that
the first
woman who
speaks makes
it very
clear.
We were
alone.
There was
no one in
the house
but the
two of
us.
There's
no witness.
There's
only one
word against
the other.
So there's
only claims,
to deal
with no
witnesses.
But as
one of the
feminist
commentators
on this
passage points
out,
in ancient
texts,
prostitutes
are notorious
and habitual
liars.
And her
point is
that Solomon's
got little
chance of
getting the
truth by
interrogating
women such
as these
who in
that society
would be
regarded as
simply
habitual
liars.
And so
Solomon does
the right
thing.
He adopts
a ploy
which elicits
the truth
and the
right judgment
is given.
All Israel
hears.
This is a
famous judgment
and they held
the king in
awe.
So that
goes right.
The right
judgment is
given and
the poor
are given
justice.
So what's
wrong with
this picture?
Well, there's
something wrong
about the
morals in
this picture
for all of
that.
It's just
a curious
fact of the
way this
story is
told and I
think it
just puts
us on
alert.
How many
personal names
did you see
as we read
this story?
Did you see
Solomon's name
appear at
all?
In fact,
it doesn't.
The women
are not named.
Solomon is
not named.
He only
appears as
the king,
the king.
So it
underscores
here that
we're seeing
Solomon not
just in his
personal capacity
but as the
great judge
king,
administering
justice over
Israel.
And like
English,
Hebrew has a
variety of
words for
prostitution.
And the
particular word
used in
this story,
now two
prostitutes,
came to
the king,
is the
word that's
routinely used
in the
prophetic
texts for
spiritual
apostasy.
When Israel
is described
as a
prostitute,
it's one
who has
turned away
from the
Lord,
routinely
associated
with falling
away and
abandoning
the true
God.
I mentioned
a moment
ago in
biblical
law,
prostitution
has a,
perhaps not
an obvious
place because
there isn't a
law that says
there shall
not be
prostitution.
But it's
interesting what
there is.
Leviticus 19.29,
do not degrade
your daughter by
making her a
prostitute or
the land will
turn to
prostitution and
be filled with
wickedness.
So it's clear
that this is a
negative thing.
did you hear
who the law
is addressed
to?
It's not
addressed to
women.
Do not
degrade your
daughter.
It's addressed
to fathers.
And there's
other legislation
like that about
how priests
do not relate
to prostitutes
and so on.
Holiness and
prostitution do
not come
together.
They do not
work together.
And as one
commentator puts
it, when we
consider the
strictures found
elsewhere in the
text against
Solomon's own
interest in
women, the
reader may begin
to suspect that
it is not purely
accidental nor
entirely in
Solomon's favor
that he's given
such a setting in
which to exercise
his God-given
wisdom.
Because it's
worrying then that
if this is the
situation for
prostitution, both
sides of it, that
this is a sign of
the lowest of the
low in society,
women in extremis,
that in fact in
his judgment he
does nothing to
address the fact
that they're
prostitutes or
why they have
fallen into
prostitution.
And although it's
the thing that
elicits a true
judgment, it's
slightly worrying
that Solomon
says, bring me
a sword.
He has
previous.
As I mentioned
before, when he
comes to the
throne, it's
amidst conflict.
He has an
older brother who
wants to become
king.
And on a bit of
a pretext, he
has him killed.
Then David's
dying words to
Solomon are, make
sure you kill
Joab and you
kill Shimei.
And Solomon
duly obliges in
somewhat judicially
suspect circumstances.
So he comes to
the throne having
cleaned out his
political enemies.
And in his first
judgment after being
the gift of wisdom,
he says, bring me
a sword.
It's a little
ominous, especially
taken with that
other worry that we
have this sort of
moral problem of
why are two
prostitutes in
Solomon's court?
And why, if they're
there, does he not
deal with the root
problem?
Even the form of
the conclusion just
makes us pause.
When all Israel
heard the verdict
the king had
given, they held
the king in awe
because they saw he
had wisdom from
God to administer
justice.
Yes, he had wisdom
from God to
administer justice.
But the word for
awe here is the
word for fear.
They were afraid of
the king.
And it's not quite
like when it says
he administered
justice.
It's not like the
servant in Isaiah.
We read from Isaiah
to begin the
service.
The one who will
establish justice
but not break a
bruised reed or
quench a flickering
wick.
That's not the kind
of justice Solomon
does here.
So, even this
first expression of
divinely gifted
wisdom, Solomon's
techniques show a
lot of his old
man, if I can put
it that way.
And he fails to
grapple with the
deeper problems in
his kingdom.
So we've had a
dream, we've had a
judgment.
Thirdly, the third
place we see
Solomon's wisdom on
display is the
story of the
queen.
And that comes a
few pages over in
1 Kings chapter
10.
Again, we'll just
take a moment to
read the story and
then a couple of
comments on it.
If you've got your
Bible in front of
you, you'll see
just glancing at the
page in chapter 9
that it's all about
Solomon's
administration, about
how he's organizing
the kingdom, and
so on.
I mention that for
a purpose you'll see
in a moment.
So chapter 10
begins,
When the queen of
Sheba heard about
the fame of Solomon
and his relationship
to the Lord, she
came to test Solomon
with hard questions.
Arriving at
Jerusalem with a
very great caravan,
with camels carrying
spices, large
quantities of gold
and precious stones,
she came to Solomon
and talked with him
about all that she
had on her mind.
Solomon answered all
her questions.
Nothing was too hard
for the king to
explain to her.
When the queen of
Sheba saw all the
wisdom of Solomon
and the palace he
had built, the food
on his table, the
seating of his
officials, the
attending servants
in their robes, his
cupbearers, and the
burnt offerings he
made at the temple
of the Lord, she was
overwhelmed.
Literally, it took her
breath away.
She said to the
king, the report I
heard in my own
country about your
achievements and your
wisdom is true, but I
didn't believe these
things until I came and
saw with my own eyes.
Indeed, not even half
was told me.
In wisdom and wealth,
you have far exceeded
the report I heard.
How happy your people
must be.
Interesting that the
ancient Greek
translation of this
has how happy your
wives must be.
How happy your
officials who
continually stand
before you and hear
your wisdom.
Praise be to the
Lord your God who
has delighted in you
and placed you on the
throne of Israel.
Because of the
Lord's eternal love
for Israel, he has
made you king to
maintain justice and
righteousness.
And she gave the
king 120 talents of
gold, large quantities
of spices and precious
stones.
Never again were so
many spices brought
in as those the
queen of Sheba gave
to King Solomon.
Brackets.
Hiram's ships brought
gold from Ophir, and
from there they brought
great cargos of
almugwood and precious
stones.
The king used the
almugwood to make
supports for the
temple of the Lord
and for the royal
palace, and to make
harps and lyres for
the musicians.
So much almugwood has
never been imported or
seen since that day.
King Solomon gave the
queen of Sheba all she
desired and asked for,
besides what he had
given her out of his
royal bounty.
Then she left and
returned with her
retinue to her own
country.
So again, there's a
rightness and a
wrongness in this story.
And I think we see the
queen of Sheba drawing
the right conclusion,
but we wonder if she's
actually got the wrong
evidence.
So it's important to
see for the right
conclusion that she
draws, what's primary
for the queen of Sheba.
What has she heard?
She's heard of the fame
of Solomon and his
relationship to the
Lord.
I think that's quite
significant in verse 1.
And she comes to test
and see for herself.
And the implication that
she's deeply interested,
she came to test
Solomon with hard
questions at the end
of verse 1.
And in verse 3,
Solomon answered all
her questions.
Nothing was too hard
for the king.
And the implication
here isn't just that
these are difficult.
It's harder than 2
plus 2.
It's like the square
root of 2 to so many
decimal places.
It's that they were
deep.
They were perhaps
hidden.
And that's the kind
of, it's that depth
of hardness that's
what's in mind in
this probing that the
queen of Sheba brings
in her questions to
Solomon.
And he responds to
her.
And again, we remind
ourselves that biblical
wisdom is more than
simply being clever.
It's not even about
being clever, but it's
about skillful living.
And so for Solomon,
as we noted before,
this includes royal
administration.
And so she not only
hears Solomon's wisdom,
but as you'll have
noticed a few times,
it says she sees it.
Verse 4, when she saw
the wisdom of Solomon,
his palace, the food,
the seating arrangements,
the waiters, the waiters'
outfits, his cupbearers,
and the burnt offerings he
made at the Lord's
temple.
That's what took her
breath away.
Well, this is those
state dinners that I
mentioned just a few
minutes ago.
His banqueting is on a
completely different,
this puts, you know,
MasterChef just to shame.
We're on a different
plane here.
And she's utterly amazed.
The queen of Sheba
finds it so.
But her conclusion
is an affirmation that
doesn't find its end
point on Solomon,
but on Solomon's God.
In verse 9,
praise be to the Lord your
God who's delighted in you
and placed you on the throne
of Israel.
In a sense,
she discerns in Solomon
and the Lord's gifts to
Solomon,
the very relationship that
Nathan saw at Solomon's
birth,
that this was a child of
favor and that God had
gifted this king in a
remarkable way.
And so rather than praising
Solomon,
she praises the Lord.
She comes questioning.
She comes interested.
She comes curious.
And it seems she leaves a
believer.
She knows who the true and
living God is.
So what's negative in this
story then?
What's gone wrong?
Well, it's not so much what is
said is what is not said.
Solomon answered all her
questions and so on.
But the balance of the story is
about Solomon's court and
Solomon's wealth rather than
about Solomon's wisdom per se.
And we noted already the fact
finding comes to its culmination
in verse 5 with the palace,
the food,
the seating,
the servers,
their robes,
the cupbearers,
and so on.
So we have here something much more
about his wealth and about Solomon's
grandeur than about God.
Much like the queen of,
much like the dream at Gibeon,
the story is placed in an awkward
frame as we read the brackets at
verse 11.
Hiram's ship's,
where does that come from?
Well, it comes from just before
chapter 10.
Chapter 9 finishes,
King Solomon also built ships and
Hiram sent his men,
sailors who knew the sea to serve
and the fleet.
So the narrator is inviting us to
join the dots that there's
something about the story of
Solomon with the queen of Sheba that
fits into Solomon's wealth
generating schemes.
And there's something awkward about that
in terms of Solomon's own character.
And there's a final thing to notice
about the queen of Sheba.
We're going to hear in the fourth part
of this series about Solomon's wives.
He has many, many foreign wives who
turn his heart away from the Lord.
And this queen comes,
she inquires and recognizes the Lord,
praises the Lord,
and she leaves.
Is she the one that got away?
How wise was Solomon?
Well, our three stories then.
Solomon's dream,
Solomon's judgment,
and Solomon's audience
with the queen of Sheba.
The last mention of wisdom
in the book of Kings
and the history of Israel,
as far as the books of Kings are concerned,
comes at the end of chapter 11,
as we get the notice of Solomon's death.
So 1 Kings 11, verse 41.
As for the other events of Solomon's reign,
all he did and the wisdom he displayed,
aren't they written in the book
of the Annals of Solomon?
And yet as he dies,
his kingdom breaks up.
Well, I think the overall exploration
of Solomon's wisdom
leads to a negative result.
Solomon was on this slide,
and how do we understand it?
I think we understand it this way.
Godly wisdom
without a Godward life
invites God's wrath.
I think that's Solomon's story
in a nutshell.
Godly wisdom
without a Godward life
invites God's wrath.
Well, what do we do with that
as we try to take some stories
from Solomon's wisdom?
Well, when we observe
that Solomon consistently
confused the divine gift
by putting himself
in the place
that God should have held,
it gives us some direction
to learn about Solomon's mistakes.
And here's just a few
brief thoughts in closing.
First of all,
I think it's important to note
that even though we're following
Solomon's journey down the slide,
that all God's gifts
are good gifts.
There is no doubt
and no denying
in Solomon's story
that this wisdom
is a gift
that God has given him.
That's affirmed
at a number of places.
Scripture's clear
that whatever Solomon's
natural gifts,
this wisdom
is a divine endowment.
And Solomon's misuse of it
doesn't change that.
It makes me wonder
how do we perceive
God's gifts in others?
Can we perceive
God's gifts in others
when it's like this?
But I think it's important
just to register the point
that God is at work
in surprising ways.
God's gifts just might be
in surprising people.
Think building on that,
we see a second thing,
that broken people
can still be instruments
in God's hands.
I think Solomon's
not the only example
of this.
Think Samson,
some of the judges
who actually do God's work,
he was a pretty nasty piece
of work himself.
But that broken people
can be instruments
in God's hands,
I think,
is a sign of God's
gracious mercy.
It's not only a sign
of God's gracious mercy,
it's a sign that something
has gone wrong.
And the recognition
that God graciously
uses broken instruments
is not an invitation
to complacency.
At least one of the prostitutes
benefited from
Solomon's judgment.
The Queen of Sheba,
whatever they talked about,
whether it was politics,
accounting,
or something deeply theological,
she was moved by that
to praise the living
and true God.
So they benefited
from Solomon's exercise
of his divine gift.
That's not a cause
for complacency
or to say that
Solomon's exercise
of his wisdom
could not have much more
glorified the one
who gave it.
A third thing,
going back to the verse
we began with,
Solomon's failure
makes Jesus' observation
even more urgent.
One greater than Solomon
is here.
Jesus points out
how the Queen of the South,
the Queen of Sheba,
recognized God's wisdom
in Solomon.
If she recognized
the Lord's wisdom
in Solomon,
Jesus is saying,
we should recognize
God's presence
in David's greatest,
greater son,
in Jesus himself.
And I think it invites us
to think about wisdom
in a way that we see it
elsewhere in the Old Testament.
that the fear of the Lord
is the beginning
of wisdom.
And I think this is
the absent element
from Solomon's story,
from Solomon's wisdom story.
If Solomon shows us
that godly wisdom
without a Godward life
invites God's wrath,
then how do we turn that
into something true
and positive?
It would be something like
true wisdom
comes in being
rightly related to God
and so doing his work
in his ways.
And for me,
that points to,
well,
a number of New Testament texts,
but one that comes to mind
in particular
is the end of Ephesians
chapter 2.
It's Ephesians 2
verses 8 to 10.
For it is by grace
you have been saved
through faith.
And this is not
from yourselves.
It is the gift of God.
Not just Solomon
received a gift from God.
Not by works
so that no one can boast.
For we are God's workmanship.
Another translation has it.
We are God's work of art.
It's that wisdom as skill here.
We are God's workmanship
created in Christ Jesus
to do good works
which God prepared
in advance for us to do.
So there is
skillful living
in God's wisdom,
in God's kingdom.
I think it has this kind of shape
not in
exercising wisdom
with a God-less life,
but in exercising wisdom
in a God-word life,
in a God-enabled life
for His glory
which God has prepared
in advance
for us to do.
And so we see
that as Solomon's
wisdom
and methods
in his wisdom
never quite rose
above the wisdom
of the world,
we call to mind
one last verse
for the foolishness
of God
is wiser
than human wisdom
and the weakness
of God
stronger
than human strength.
May we learn
to live in God's wisdom
and God's strength.
Let's pray.
Our Heavenly Father,
we thank You
that You are the giver
of every good
and perfect gift.
And we thank You
for the gift
of Your Spirit
who turns us to You
and turns us away
from sin.
We thank You
for Your scriptures
which hold up character
so unflinchingly.
And as we see
the complexities
of Solomon's life,
Lord,
we are called
and invited
to reflect
on the complexities
of our own.
We confess the ways
in which we have
clung in our pride
and selfishness
to the gifts
that You have given,
have not exercised
them rightly
for Your glory.
So we pray
that as You turn
our lives to You,
teach us
to walk with Jesus
and to know
that all Your promises
are sure,
that You will enable us
also to grow
in wisdom
as You glorify Yourself
in our lives.
And it's in Jesus' name
we pray.
Amen.