Friday, July 2, 2010

The Reign of Solomon

First Kings
Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Thinking Outside the Box
(I Kings 3:16-28)

There’s more than one way to skin a cat. When we face the conundrums of life, it’s good to step back and consider non-conventional solutions. There are some situations that defy personal experience and comparisons to similar circumstances. When these arise, divine wisdom is the only sure guide. Precedent-setting events call for responses directed by the Lord. Nothing short of divine intervention can win the day. Take, for example, the presidency of Ronald Reagan. While reading The Reagan Diaries, I was impressed with his repeated appeal to divine wisdom. Reagan’s burdens had never been born by any man in history. His pressures were unique to his time. He had no clear precedent to follow. He quickly learned to depend upon God.

In answer to Solomon’s request, God bequeathed upon him unique wisdom. Solomon’s method of determining the rightful mother of the child, while unorthodox, produced unquestionably the desired result. Interestingly, he did not focus on the object of the problem (the child) but rather upon the reactions of the women. Most interrogators would have focused on distinguishing physical characteristics in the children. Solomon went to the heart of the matter—the women’s emotional responses. His approach was certainly “outside the box.”

Solomon’s proverbial wisdom was not native to his intellect. It was a gift from God. His abilities were so stunning that the entire nation recognized that “the wisdom of God was with him” (28). In his wisdom, the people saw the Lord.

Christians should, like Solomon of old, demonstrate the Lord’s wisdom to a clueless society. The principles of Scripture, when scrupulously practiced, demonstrate God’s wisdom. Since the Bible addresses every issue of life, we need only turn its pages to find God’s answer to every conceivable problem. The answers are right at our fingertips, on the pages of the Word of God!