PRACTICAL WISDOM. 1st Kings 3:16-28 Truth is what I know to be a fact. What is said isn’t true if the words I use differ from the truth of God’s word, which is always right; there is no allowance for deviation from the truth. To walk with Jesus is to walk with Truth; he is the Way, The Truth, and the Life that brought God’s salvation to us; how I testify to what I believe is shown in how I live. To live and walk righteously reveals what I have. This can only be consistent if God’s righteousness is given to me. That is how those who live around me can know I’m going to heaven.
Knowing the truth and living it out starts with an upright heart. This change of heart from being deceitful begins when the Holy Spirit convicts of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Then, the soul is stirred to seek relief by admission of guilt and repentance of sin. Then, personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ brings the new birth. These three together form a unity that brings life to a dead spirit. Truth, righteousness, and an upright heart affect all who use them. God’s mercy and kindness are evident when we care enough for others’ welfare and share His message of grace with them.
It is something to consider; those most impacted are close to us. Often, it is through parents that children learn to curse or bless. May my children, and theirs too, be people of understanding. May they be wise enough to judge with grace and truth, and may their will command them rightly. Like Solomon of old, my work is to build for God. His ways were the statutes and the laws; mine obedience to God’s Word. His worship was with great ceremony; mine was worship from the heart. His wish was for understanding, mine not to depart from the Lord. God gave him special wisdom; I’m just a common man. Solomon built great edifices; I do what I can within the boundaries of my limitations. By the wisdom God gives me and my desire to please Him, I’ll trust God to allow me to finish what He wanted me to begin.
Solomon, acting intellectually but not intelligently, chooses spontaneously, which creates a strange affinity. Deciding independently and choosing what to him was expedient; even though he loved the Lord, he made mistakes. He lay down silently after thinking prayerfully, conversing with God solitarily, and began listening expectantly. He now hears considerately and recognizes an opportunity, like those who love the Lord are ready to hear. He thinks spiritually and no longer independently and evaluates himself honestly, knowing his inability. Acknowledging God’s sufficiency, His Lordship, and His deity, Solomon and those who love the Lord listen to Him. Solomon was asking in humility, addressing God reverently and assessing realistically his insufficiency. He was speaking to God respectfully and honoring Him with dignity.
Those who love the Lord do not want to hide their needs from Him. Any person who knows themselves emotionally can rationally make their requests. Honesty enables simplicity to turn into maturity, so decisions are made wisely. Judgments are solved satisfactorily, and he responds to God thankfully with relief and joy. Those who love the Lord know their need of Him.
Everyone knows about deceitful hearts because everyone has one. However, most people are not open about that problem because we want others to think well of us. The two prostitutes in the incident that first publicly demonstrated Solomon's wisdom open our eyes to how far a deceitful heart can go. One of them wanted to live without the responsibility of caring for a child. Who knows what would have happened to the second child if Solomon had given it to her? Likely, it would have soon died just like her own did. The appeal to the king was a normal action on the part of a mother who was in danger of being investigated as to why her child died. Rumor and innuendo would follow the life of a woman who lived as these two did. Deception and false accusation go together to hide a guilty person's sin. That practice is common to humanity because "the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked..."
When Solomon suddenly called for the sword, things were no longer just a dispute. He had quickly made this a life-or-death matter. The whole matter was changed from a common problem to something as serious as life. A true mother wants her child to survive, even if she has to die to make that happen. The cost of keeping her child alive supersedes anything and everything to that mother.
Wisdom isn’t found in a study of all kinds of books from different writers with different opinions from which you choose to make your own opinion. Wisdom is the knowledge that comes from understanding and the ability to understand what is right, true, and lasting. God gives wisdom to those who ask God for it. Reverential respect for God (“the fear of the Lord”) is where wisdom begins in a child of God. The Holy Spirit gives us wisdom to do what we could not do naturally.
Wisdom stands confidently and decisively at the place where decisions have to be made. Wisdom is not reclusive but openly reassuring that God is there to give us the wisdom we need when we are in doubt. Our part in gaining wisdom is to keep our minds, hearts, and spirits in fellowship with God through reading and meditating on His word. Then, when the occasion arises when wisdom is needed, the storehouse has the information in us, and the Holy Spirit of God can bring it to our minds and enable us to express or do what is needed.
For that young man who was newly made king, to make that decision in the way Solomon did was radically different from the standard way of making and passing judgments. He bypassed the charges and countercharges and immediately went to the root of the matter. Which woman was the true mother of the child? The external evidence was not easy to see, nor was it easy to make a sound judgment. It was not a common "he said, she said" judgment. By immediately going to the source of the problem - the human heart and emotions, he eliminated all the deception and countercharges.
There are areas of judicial practice where it is hard to determine right and wrong because human beings quickly deceive even judges and law enforcement officers. Hearing testimony from conflicting points of view is very common. To find the truth of a matter, a judge has to watch facial expressions, hear the tone of voice of each person, carefully observe body language, and determine if deception and lies or truth are being told. More communication is nonverbal than verbal.
With this wise act and the decisions made following it, Solomon not only settled the immediate problem but also set a precedent that made the entire nation aware of the wisdom of their new king. That would keep people from making spurious charges and thinking they would get away with them. Solomon's wisdom was one thing and was important to the rule of the nation of Israel, but more importantly, all Israel saw the "wisdom of God" in him. His wisdom was a reflection of divine wisdom.
Ezra also showed God's wisdom [Ezra 7:25] by establishing an orderly society according to God's laws. When Israel returned after the years in Babylon, the people needed to understand he had the authority to set up a judicial system again under divine direction. This was not only to govern in an orderly way but also to punish disobedience.
The Lord Jesus referred to the "wisdom of God" in Luke 11, verse 49. The word of God itself is called the wisdom of God and is the source of true wisdom in every matter. The Lord Himself is the wisdom of God, who has the right to expand on the scriptures and make them plain because He is the "Living Word."
Paul referred to the "wisdom of God" in contrast to human wisdom in 1st Corinthians 1:21,24 and 2:7. He also referenced the wisdom of God being demonstrated to angels and demons through the church [Eph.3:10].
The lives and words of God's people are important to nations, the Lord, the Lord's people, the unsaved, and angels, even when we gather publicly to worship and remember our Lord. "For this cause ought a woman to have power on her head because of the angels." When a child of God is available, humble, and conscious of God with him or her, God can use that person to pass on His wisdom to those in our sphere of influence.