SOLOMON WAS A YOUNG MAN OF ABOUT 20 YEARS, QUITE SERIOUS AND DEDICATED TO HIS POSITION AND RESPONSIBILITY BEFORE YAHUAH. HIS HEART WAS CERTAINLY IN THE RIGHT PLACE AS HIS MIND HAD TO WONDER HOW HE COULD POSSIBLY GOVERN SUCH A HUGE GROUP OF PEOPLE, WHO (SINCE THE DAYS OF JOSHUA) HAD DIVIDED THEMSELVES UP INTO FACTIONS AND COALITIONS. IN ADDITION, DAVID’S CONQUESTS OF FOREIGN NATIONS HAD NOT YET BEEN BROUGHT TOGETHER AND (AT THE MOMENT) KING SOLOMON’S MEANS TO DEAL WITH THESE DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL MATTERS OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE, WERE QUITE LIMITED. YET SOLOMON IS YOUNG, ENTHUSIASTIC AND HIS HEART IS STILL TENDER AND NOT ONLY OPEN BUT YEARNING FOR YAHUAH’S LEADING.
WISDOM (1 KINGS 3)
Solomon made a peace treaty with the Pharaoh, King of Egypt, by marrying his daughter. And Solomon brought her to the City of David, until he had finished building his palace, the Temple of YAHUAH, and the wall around Yerushalim.
THE FIRST IMPORTANT STEP THAT SOLOMON TOOK AS UNDISPUTED KING OF YISHARAL, WAS TO CREATE ALLIANCES WITH SURROUNDING NATIONS, AND THIS WAS ACCOMPLISHED BY MARRYING INTO THE FAMILY OF THE HOPED FOR ALLY. IN THIS CASE, THE HOPED FOR ALLIANCE WAS WITH EGYPT SO SOLOMON MARRIED THE PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER, CONNECTING THE FAMILIES.
BUT WAS THIS A GOOD IDEA?A GOOD UNION? ESPECIALLY WHEN WE KNOW LATER ON THAT THE LOVE OF MANY WOMEN (ALONG WITH THEIR IDOLATROUS PRACTICES) WAS SOLOMON’S DOWNFALL? SHOULD HE BE `TAKING HIS PEOPLE BACK TO EGYPT’ (SO TO SPEAK) THROUGH THIS UNION WITH THE VERY NATION THAT HATED AND ENSLAVED YAHUAH’S PEOPLE?
SOLOMON HOWEVER WAS NOT IN VIOLATION OF YAHUAH’S TORAH-LAW, SINCE THE ONLY NATION YISHARAL WAS FORBIDDEN TO INTER-MARRY WITH WERE THE CANAANITES … AS WE KNOW, ALL GENTILES AND FOREIGNERS WERE WELCOME TO ENGRAFT INTO YISHARAL … ONLY IF THEY RENOUNCED THEIR FORMER CUSTOMS AND DEITIES AND SWORE ALLEGIANCE TO THE ALAHIM OF YISHARAL (BUT WE KNOW THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN TOO OFTEN!)
The Temple to honor YAHUAH had not yet been finished, so people were still making animal sacrifices on altars at the High Places (ELEVATED LANDMARKS WHERE ALTARS WERE SET-UP FOR SACRIFICE IN THE ABSENCE OF A TABERNACLE). Solomon was loyal to YAHUAH and obeyed everything his father David told him to do, and he continued to go to the High Places to offer sacrifices and to burn incense.
YAHUAH’S COMMANDMENT TO SACRIFICE ONLY AT THE PLACE HE RESTED HIS NAME ON WAS NOT BEING ENFORCED (WHICH AT THIS TIME WAS IN GIBEON, EVEN THOUGH DAVID HAD TAKEN THE ARK TO THE PRAISE TENT). SO THE PEOPLE FELL BACK INTO ANCIENT MIDDLE EASTERN CUSTOMS AND BUILT THEIR OWN ALTARS AT THEIR HOMES, MAKING THEIR SACRIFICES (NO MATTER HOW EXPENSIVE) UNACCEPTABLE TO YAHUAH. EVERYTIME THEY OFFERED AN ANIMAL UP ON THEIR PRIVATE ALTAR, OFFICIATED BY A FAMILY MEMBER OR A HIRED LEVITE, THEY SINCERELY BELIEVED THAT THEIR SINS WERE BEING ATONED FOR ... BUT THEY WERE WRONG! ... THEIR WAY - NOT HIS!
King Solomon went to (the actual tabernacle) at Gibeon to offer a sacrifice because that was the most important High Place. He offered a thousand Ascending-Near (burnt) offerings on that altar.
THE LEADERS OF YISHARAL HAD ASSEMBLED TO CHEER AND VALIDATE SOLOMON’S CORONATION AS KING OF YISHARAL (COMPLETE WITH FABULOUS NUMBERS OF PRIESTLY SACRIFICES AND INSPIRING SPEECHES ALL DESIGNED TO PRAISE YAHUAH ON BEHALF OF YISHARAL’S NEW LEADER). THEN THEY WERE GONE, HEADED BACK TO THEIR 12 TRIBAL DISTRICTS, AND AS SOLOMON WATCHED THEM DEPART, HE MUST HAVE PONDERED WHAT LAY BEFORE HIM TOMORROW ?
While Solomon was at Gibeon, YAHUAH came to him at night in a dream, saying, “Solomon, ask me what you want me to give you.” Solomon answered, “You were very kind and loyal to Your servant, my father David. He walked before You in truth and in uprightness of heart. And you showed him the greatest kindness when you let his son take his place as King. YAHUAH my Alahim, you have made me the King in my father’s place, but I am still like a small child with no clue what I'm doing. I don’t have the WISDOM I need to do what I must. I'm your servant here among Your chosen people, and there are so many that they cannot be counted. So I ask you to give me the WISDOM to rule and judge them well and an UNDERSTANDING heart to help me know and discern the difference between right and wrong. For without such great WISDOM, it would be impossible to rule this great nation.”
And YAHUAH was happy that Solomon asked for wisdom. So YAHUAH said to him, “You did not ask for a long life and riches for yourself. You did not ask for the death of your enemies. You asked for the WISDOM to listen and make the right decisions. So I will give you what you asked for, and I will make you wise and intelligent, with an understanding heart. Infact I will make you wiser than anyone who ever lived or who ever will live. And I will also give you what you didn’t ask for. You will have riches and honour and esteem throughout all your life. There will be no other King in the world as great as you. And I will give you a long life IF you follow Me and obey My Divine Laws and Commands as your father David did.”
Solomon woke up and behold it was a dream! But Solomon knew that YAHUAH had spoken to him in the dream. So Solomon went to Yerushalim and stood before YAHUAH’S Ark of the Blood-Covenant Witness, and he offered an Ascending-Near (burnt) Offering and Intimate-Peace Offerings to YAHUAH and then held a huge banquet for all of his officials and servants.
SOMETHING FAR BETTER THAN JUST THE DENSE SMOKE OF ALL THOSE BURNT-UP ANIMALS WAS PRODUCED HERE; AS THE ALAHIM OF YISHARAL WHO LED HER OUT OF BONDAGE IN EGYPT, WHO HOVERED PROTECTIVELY OVER THEM FOR 40 YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS, ACTUALLY APPEARED TO SOLOMON IN A DREAM, IN ASSURANCE THAT HE STILL WATCHES OVER HIS PEOPLE. SOLOMON MUST HAVE CONCLUDED THAT BEING A GOOD SHEPHERD OVER YAHUAH’S KINGDOM WAS GOING TO HAVE TO BEGIN WITH ADMINISTERING RIGHTEOUS JUSTICE. AND SO THAT WAS AT THE HEART OF HIS REQUEST.
One day two prostitutes came to Solomon and stood before the King. One of the women said, “Sir, this woman and I live in the same house. We were both pregnant and ready to give birth to our babies. I had my baby while she was there with me. Three days later she also gave birth to her baby. There was no one else in the house with us, just the two of us. One night while this woman was asleep with her baby, and the baby died for she laid on him. And that night while I was asleep, she took my son from my bed and carried him to her bed. Then she put the dead baby at my bosom. In the morning I woke up and was about to feed my baby when I saw he was dead. But when I looked at him more closely, I saw that he was not my baby.”
But the other woman said, “No! The dead baby is yours, and the alive one is mine!”
But the first woman said, “No, you are wrong! The dead baby is yours! The one that is alive is mine.” So the two women argued in front of the King.
Then King Solomon said, “Each of you says that the living baby is your own and that the dead baby belongs to the other woman.” So King Solomon sent his servant to get a sword. He then told the servant, “Cut the living baby in two and give one half of the baby to each woman.”
The second woman said, “Yes, cut him in two. Then neither of us will have him.” But the first woman, the real mother, loved her son and said to the King, “Please, sir, don’t kill my baby! Just give him to her instead, but please don’t kill him!” Then King Solomon said, “STOP!! Don’t kill the baby. Give him to this woman. For she is the real mother.”
And the people of Yisharal had great awe and respect for the King when they heard about this decision, and they saw that he had the WISDOM and UNDERSTANDING of YAHUAH to make right decisions.
HEBREW UNDERSTANDING :
Search results for "WISDOM" :
998 understanding, knowledge, reason, perfectly, illumination, light.
2449 to be wise (in mind, word or behaviour)—exceeding, teach wisdom, be (make self, show self) wise, deal (never so) wisely, make wiser.
2451 skilful, wisdom, wisely, wit.
2942 flavor, judgment (both subjective and objective); hence, account, chancellor, + command, commandment, decree, + regard, taste, wisdom.
3820 the heart; the feelings, the will and even the intellect; likewise for the centre of anything:--+ care for, comfortably, consent, considered, courageous, friendly, broken, hard, merry.
4726 something dug, i.e. a (general) source (of water, even when naturally flowing; also of tears, blood (by euphemism, of the female pudenda); figuratively, of happiness, wisdom, progeny):--fountain, issue, spring, well(-spring).
6195 trickery; or (in a good sense) discretion:--guile, prudence, subtilty, wilily, wisdom.
7919 to be (causatively, make or act) circumspect and hence, intelligent:--consider, expert, instruct, prosper, (deal) prudently, (give) skillful, have good success, teach, (have, make to) understanding, wisdom, (be, behave self, consider, make) wisely, guide wittingly.
8394 intelligence; by implication, an argument; by extension, caprice:--discretion, reason, skilfulness.
8454 to substantiate; support or (by implication) ability, i.e. (direct) help, (in purpose) an undertaking, (intellectual) understanding:--enterprise, that which (thing as it) is, substance, (sound) wisdom, working.
SCRIPTURE UNDERSTANDING :
PROV 2:6 For YAHUAH gives wisdom; from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding.
ISAIAH 55:8 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says Yahuah.
PROV 4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all your getting, get understanding.
IN 1ST KINGS 3 YAHUAH TOLD SOLOMON THAT BECAUSE HE CHOSE TO BE A SLAVE FOR HIM INSTEAD OF TO MONEY, HE WAS GOING TO ADD MONEY AND LIFE. YAHUSHA PARALLELED THIS EXACTLY (ESSENTIALLY REPEATING) WHAT YAHUAH TOLD SOLOMON SO LONG AGO :
MATT 6:24 No one is able to serve two masters, for either he shall hate the one and love the other, or else he will cling to the one and despise the other. You are not able to serve Alahim and riches. Because of this I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than the food and the body more than clothing? …. But seek first the Kingdom of Yahuah, and His righteousness, and all these matters will be added to you.
JAMES 3: 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
WE HAVE THE SPIRIT OF ALL WISDOM INSIDE US - WHICH IS YAHUSHA'S LIGHT TO UNDERSTANDING ALL SITUATIONS. THE DIRECTIONS YAHUSHA GIVES US DAY TO DAY ARE USUALLY NOT OUR WAY OF DOING THINGS ... QUITE THE OPPOSITE! BUT HIS WISDOM IS FROM ABOVE AND IT ALWAYS WORKS. 'UNDERSTANDING' CAN BE EXPLAINED ALSO IN TERMS OF `LETTING SOMEONE HAVE IT' ... THINKING OF THEM AS GREATER THAN OURSELF IN ORDER TO SHOW LOVE, KINDNESS AND `UNDERSTAND THEM' ...
SOLOMON CHOSE TO `SEEK FIRST' THE WISDOM AND RIGHTEOUSNESS OF YAHUAH ABOVE ANY REQUEST FOR SUCCESS OR RICHES ... HE WANTED YAHUAH'S LOVE AND TO PLEASE HIM MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE (AT THIS STAGE OF HIS LIFE) ... YAHUSHA ALSO ASKED PETER A SIMILAR QUESTION ("DO YOU LOVE ME? .... THEN FEED MY SHEEP!")
WITH ALL THIS `OLD-COVENANT' BACK-STORY AND FOUNDATION BEHIND HIM, ISN'T THIS HOW YAHUSHA CHOSE TO BEHAVE THE WISDOM OF YAHUAH PRACTICALLY WHEN HE CAME TO EARTH ??
WHAT'S THE POINT OF HAVING ANY WISDOM IF THE BEHAVIOUR ISN'T LOVE?