12 February 2014 - open source

12 February 2014 - open source

Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report I heard.

But what is it about the wisdom of Solomon which is so impressive? Somehow it draws the Queen of Sheba from praising Solomon to praising his God.

Blessed be the LORD, your God,
whom it has pleased to place you on the throne of Israel.
In his enduring love for Israel,
the LORD has made you king to carry out judgment and justice.”

There is something in the wisdom of Solomon which points back from Solomon to its source in God.  Human wisdom is always partial, in specific knowledge domains, creating subject matter experts.  It is because his wisdom is from God that "there remained nothing hidden from him that he could not explain to her."  It is because his blessings flow from God that his palace, his foot, his ministers, and all of the details the queen of Sheba sees cause her to be "breathless."  More than the material prosperity or intellectual knowledge she sees an underlying order in the way these things are used that points to the LORD.  She sees Solomon's stewardship of the gifts he has been given.

Commit to the LORD your way;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will make justice dawn for you like the light;
bright as the noonday shall be your vindication.

If we use the blessings we have been given well, if we use them to build the kingdom, if we commit them to the LORD we will be able to live our call to be the light of the world.  People around us will see this light shining and, like the Queen of Sheba, they will be moved to bless the God we follow.

Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.”

It isn't prosperity itself that defiles us.  It isn't the food at our table which makes us unclean.  Even an elaborate banquet, with well dressed waiters, and with carefully seated ministers might be called for rather than being excessive. 

“But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him.
From within the man, from his heart,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.

So we must be diligent about what we allow to come from within, from our hearts.  We should heed the proverb, "Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life" (cf. Pro. 4:23).  Solomon must be doing this, at least thus far, as we can see from the results.  Is there a hint in the passage as to his secret?  The first thing the Queen of Sheba notices is Solomon's wisdom.  What is the last thing she notices before ultimately being left breathless?  She notices "the burnt offerings he offered in the temple of the LORD".  The priorities of Solomon's heart are evident in his actions.  In burnt offerings he recognizes that all that he has ultimately belongs to the LORD.  These are no mere rituals for him.  They are so essential as to impress the visiting Queen.  She sees in them a glimpse of the source of all that impresses her about this kingdom.

Yet try as we might we cannot bring forth this level of goodness from our hearts.  The more we try the more frustrated we get, seeing the evil thoughts that we can't keep inside.  The point of Jesus is that we need to face up to this.  We need to accept that external solutions can't fix us and external factors aren't bringing us down.  It is our own hearts that are insufficient.  This is why Jesus tells us that living water (the springs of life mentioned above) flow from the heart of he who believes (cf. Joh 7:38), he who trusts in Jesus. When we realize this we are able to turn to God and to rely on him just as Solomon does.

The salvation of the just is from the LORD;
he is their refuge in time of distress.
And the LORD helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.