To Encourage You

1 Kings 3:26-27 “Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, ‘Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.’ But the other said, ‘He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.’  Then the king answered and said, ‘Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.’”

In the passage above we have an excerpt from one of the best-known stories in the entire Bible about the wisdom of Solomon.  Soon after he became king and God had promised him great wisdom, Solomon was confronted with a problem involving two prostitutes. These two women lived together and both of them had newborn sons.  During the night one of the children died. One of the women alleged that while she was asleep the woman with the dead child had exchanged the baby with the other woman’s live son.  The women then went to Solomon, both alleging that the live child was hers.  Solomon’s response was to ask that a sword be brought to divide the child in two and give half to each mother.  This elicited the exchange in the passage above.  The woman who had been telling the truth pleaded that the child be given to the other woman rather than the child being killed, for “her heart yearned for her son.” Conversely, the other woman, who could care less, was perfectly ok with the death of the child.  It was with this action that Solomon exposed the truth of the matter that was hidden in the hearts of the two prostitutes.  And so, “all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.” Obviously, Solomon was a very wise king.

In the New Testament we are told of an even wiser King.  Jesus, speaking of Himself, said, “something greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:42).  How much greater and how much wiser? Infinitely, for Jesus is the Son of the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God.  And God the Son is exactly as great and powerful as His Father.  Unlike Solomon, who had to resort to threats to expose the truth, Jesus knows all truth immediately. He sees beyond the outer façade we may put up, for He sees our heart.  He knows everything about us, including things we don’t know ourselves.  For you see, there are times when we fool ourselves with the lies we tell ourselves.  Often, we don’t know our own hearts.  The prophet Jeremiah put it this way: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” The answer? No one can – except God.  And just like Solomon confronted the two prostitutes with his wise words to expose the truth of their hearts, God will expose the truth of our hearts with His Word if we will but go to Him.  

You see, we are told that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). That’s why we should expose ourselves to it. That’s one of the great benefits of God’s holy Word. It has great power to expose our foolishness and, beyond that, it has the power to make one wise.  It is as we spend more and more time in God’s presence, reading, meditating, and walking in obedience to His Word, that His wonderful wisdom, in effect, rubs off on us, for “whoever walks with the wise becomes wise” (Proverbs 12:20). And obviously, there is no one we could ever walk with who is wiser than God.  It is as we fill our hearts and minds with the awesome wisdom of our heavenly King that we can live a life of wisdom and share that wisdom with others as God opens those opportunities day by day in our lives. 

So, isn’t that something you want in life? Don’t you desire to walk with the wise? Don’t you want to know the truth about your own heart and have the foolish notions to which we are all prone be replaced with the wisdom of almighty God. For you see, that’s the very thing He has for us if we will but sit at His feet and hear Him speak.  It’s an awesome privilege that’s available to every single one of us if we would but consult the one and only infinitely wise King.