1 Kings 3:9-12
King Solomon prayed, “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.”
Ecclesiastes 2:11-16
“I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. So, I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. Then I said in my heart, ‘What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?’ And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool!”
Luke 2:40
“And [Jesus] grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.”
Luke 2:52
“And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”
Luke 11:31
Jesus said, “The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”
Cogitations—
In Steven Weitzman’s 2011 biography of Solomon in the Jewish Lives Series, he wonders aloud: “So what was it that Solomon knew that the rest of us do not? It is commonly assumed today that wisdom comes from experience… but experience isn’t the source of Solomon’s wisdom. He acquired his wisdom while still a young man and all at once, after a single night. His wisdom likewise does not reflect disciplined study, late-night reading, rigorous training, or the influence of a wise mentor — [or] other ways in which [a] would-be sage might gain a measure of understanding. Solomon’s wisdom is unique, unparalleled, and uncanny… leaving us awestruck and puzzled just as it did the world of Solomon’s day.” (Solomon: The Lure of Wisdom, Yale University Press, p.53)
Weitzman believes that during Solomon’s dream sequence in 1 Kings 3, in reply to his request for wisdom, God affirms the freshly minted king, (3:11-12) “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.” Gifted of God: a “listening heart” – an “obedient mind.” Bequeathed that night via supernatural means, God gave it… so how, Weitzman inquires in the quote above, how could Solomon go so wrong at the end? With the gift of God’s wisdom, supernaturally infused, so to speak, this wasn’t supposed to be possible. However, the very first verse of the chapter wafts a scent of sin pre-heating on the stovetop— (3:1) “Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt.” Ten chapters later at the end of the Solomon saga, the first verse of chapter 11 brings it to a sorry end: “Now King Solomon loved many foreign women…” Short and not-sweet: his heart turned away from God to the gods of his many wives.
Many excuses have been made for Solomon over the millennia. Some rabbis said Solomon fell off the wagon towards the end of his life, derailed by dementia. Some claim he was just too smart for his own good, looking for loopholes in God’s Law, discerning God’s condemnation and warning pertained mainly to the sin of idolatry, and not so much the number of wives he took. But of course, the many foreign wives were exactly what blew up his faithfulness. I’m not convinced by either theory.
I am rather convinced that Solomon is proof positive that no matter how smart, how clever one may be, total depravity is insurmountable in this life. Total depravity doesn’t mean that we are necessarily bad people— it means humanity is fallen in every aspect of life: mind, will and actions. There is no part of our human make-up unstained by the fall. (cf. 1 John 1:8-10)
We do not know much about Solomon outside what we find in Kings and Chronicles. However, there are three other Old Testament books claiming Solomonic authorship: Song of Solomon, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Some sages have suggested these three books were written at various stages in the king’s life– early, mid and late- enabling us to track with his thinking over time. The Song was penned when Solomon was a young man, full of passion and erotic imagination. The Proverbs were written and compiled at the apex of his glory as King of Israel. But as the years ebbed away, and the reality of life in the harsh world took a toll, the humbled king writes in Ecclesiastes 2:11-16— “I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun… The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. …For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool!” Vanity, vanity, vanity!
Nevertheless, the last words of Ecclesiastes are helpful and incisive: (12:12-13) “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Perhaps waxing a bit prophetic here, for although Solomon himself was gifted with wisdom from above, he was unable to keep this straight-forward command; and yet, there would be a Son of David; a King of kings to come who would be able to honor God and keep His commandments (perfectly). I find it telling that Luke in his Gospel, emphasizes the wisdom given to Jesus early on, just like Solomon, the original Son of David. An adolescent Jesus is introduced in Luke 2:40— “And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.” And his youth is summarized at the end of the chapter to drive the point home. (2:52) “Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”
Years later during his ministry in Luke 11:31, Jesus cried out to his hard-hearted hearers who should’ve known better: “The queen of the South [Sheba] will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.”
It is Jesus, who is Wisdom personified, fulfills everything Solomon was supposed to be. Many, if not most messianic psalms in the Old Testament were written with King Solomon in mind, but it is King Jesus who brings it full circle. May we cast our crowns at his feet!
Art: “The Queen of Sheba” in the Upper Chapel of the Ethiopian Monastery of Dayr al-Sultan in the Holy Sepulcher, Jerusalem.
