Previous Chapter We begin with the wonderful story found in 1 Kings 3:16-28. It happens in Israel, among the people of God. However, the two main characters are prostitutes. For some reason they have ignored God’s law regarding the sanctity of marriage and, with men who were also willing to ignore the law, had committed sinful acts. One upshot of this is that both become pregnant. Their prostitution is thus put to an end, at least for a time, and they decide to live together, just these two, in the same house, where both have their babies within three days of each other.
Shortly after the happy arrivals, one woman makes the mistake of rolling onto her baby during the night and suffocating it. Whether she was drunk or not we do not know. Aghast at her tragic loss she decides to sneak over to the other bed and exchange babies – her dead one for the still living one. When the other mother wakes the next day she goes to feed what she assumes is her baby only to see that it is dead. On closer inspection she realises that this is not her baby after all. Finding that the living one, her own baby, is with the other woman, she quickly guesses what has happened and they fall into a fierce dispute.
Because no-one else was in the house and the woman who now has the live baby is determined to go on in her lies they are at loggerheads. What can they do? In those days you could go to the elders at the city gate. Perhaps they tried that but got nowhere and so decided to go higher up the judicial ladder. The Supreme Court of the day was the Royal Court, the court of the king himself. We do not know how far from Jerusalem they were or how long they had to wait before they could see the king but eventually they are able to stand before him. In a remarkable example of most profound wisdom Solomon solves their wrangle once and for all – at a stroke, or rather with the mere threat of a stroke.
The story is what we call an epitomising one. It sums up the wisdom of Solomon. It is a carefully chosen example to give you some idea of the depths of his wisdom. We still do this today. Sometimes one telling incident can sum up a person’s character for you. So for example there are many such stories of the great 19th Century preacher C H Spurgeon. You have to be careful, of course, as some are apocryphal. I like the stories of how he dealt with people who claimed to be sinless – rousing them to anger adn so showing their lack of perfection. I also like the story of a madman who came into the vestry at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. He shut the door and declared that he had come to cut Spurgeon's throat. "I would not do that," said Spurgeon. "See what a mess it would make on the carpet.""Oh, I never thought of that!" said the man and was quietly led out of the room!
Shortly after the happy arrivals, one woman makes the mistake of rolling onto her baby during the night and suffocating it. Whether she was drunk or not we do not know. Aghast at her tragic loss she decides to sneak over to the other bed and exchange babies – her dead one for the still living one. When the other mother wakes the next day she goes to feed what she assumes is her baby only to see that it is dead. On closer inspection she realises that this is not her baby after all. Finding that the living one, her own baby, is with the other woman, she quickly guesses what has happened and they fall into a fierce dispute.
Because no-one else was in the house and the woman who now has the live baby is determined to go on in her lies they are at loggerheads. What can they do? In those days you could go to the elders at the city gate. Perhaps they tried that but got nowhere and so decided to go higher up the judicial ladder. The Supreme Court of the day was the Royal Court, the court of the king himself. We do not know how far from Jerusalem they were or how long they had to wait before they could see the king but eventually they are able to stand before him. In a remarkable example of most profound wisdom Solomon solves their wrangle once and for all – at a stroke, or rather with the mere threat of a stroke.
The story is what we call an epitomising one. It sums up the wisdom of Solomon. It is a carefully chosen example to give you some idea of the depths of his wisdom. We still do this today. Sometimes one telling incident can sum up a person’s character for you. So for example there are many such stories of the great 19th Century preacher C H Spurgeon. You have to be careful, of course, as some are apocryphal. I like the stories of how he dealt with people who claimed to be sinless – rousing them to anger adn so showing their lack of perfection. I also like the story of a madman who came into the vestry at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. He shut the door and declared that he had come to cut Spurgeon's throat. "I would not do that," said Spurgeon. "See what a mess it would make on the carpet.""Oh, I never thought of that!" said the man and was quietly led out of the room!
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We are still at the beginning of Solomon’s reign over Israel. He is about 20 or 21, still young and inexperienced. He has been given this almost overwhelming commission to lead the people of God as their king and to build a temple to the glory of Almighty God according to the God-given plans provided by his father.
We have looked at the first part of 1 Kings 3 and how God granted him wisdom. Here we consider the last part of the chapter and the epitomising story of how that wisdom manifested itself. In light of this incident, we want to ask three questions.
We have looked at the first part of 1 Kings 3 and how God granted him wisdom. Here we consider the last part of the chapter and the epitomising story of how that wisdom manifested itself. In light of this incident, we want to ask three questions.
Why do we need wisdom?
This is one thing we can explore here. Wisdom, of course, is not the same as knowledge. Wisdom is applying knowledge. It is a little like the difference between learning and teaching, between science and technology – the appliance of science. It is like the difference between a recipe and cooking a cake, an instruction pamphlet from IKEA and the completed kitchen, a sermon and the actual preaching, hearing a sermon and doing it. So why do we need wisdom?
1. Because of our ignorance
The reason this case came before Solomon is because no-one knew exactly what had happened. The one woman who saw what happened was not telling the truth. The woman disputing her claim had worked out the story but she had not actually seen it happen. None of us are God. He alone knows and sees all things. There are many, many things that we have not seen and that we do not know. Because we are so ignorant we need something more than knowledge. We need wisdom. Indeed, one of the first steps to it is to realise how ignorant we are. One of Solomon’s Proverbs (26:12) says ‘Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.’ See also 1 Cor 8:2 ‘The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.’
2. Because of conflicting opinions
There are some people who think they can be wise simply by seeking the opinions of others. Proverbs 19:20 does say ‘Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise.’ However, simply listening to the opinions of others is not enough. The writer and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg is an example of a man who seems to work on this erroneous principle. If you ever listen to his programmes you will notice how his procedure with a subject is to bring in the recognised experts and from them to try and gather the evidence to gain an informed understanding. It seems to be the obvious way forward.
He would get nowhere with these two women, however. He would have them on his programme; he would interview them. He would probe them a bit and maybe he would be more sympathetic to one or the other. It would make an interesting programme, perhaps. The problem, however, would not be solved. Canvassing opinion is all very good but it will not make you wise. This is the dilemma (as Solomon puts it in verse 23) ‘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.’
Many things are like that. This one says, ‘The Bible is true and trustworthy’; that one says, ‘No! It is not’. This one says, ‘There is a God’; that one says, ‘No! There is no God’. This one says, ‘Jesus is just a man’; that one says, ‘No! He is God come in the flesh.’ Obviously arguments need to be probed but sometimes it is very difficult to be sure who is right. We are not and cannot be omniscient.
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