And God gave Solomon wisdom and very great understanding and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore.
Here God answers Solomon's prayer with one sweeping gift. It comes at the high point of a reign already marked by peace and wealth. Three questions follow. Where did this wisdom come from? What is a heart like the sand on the seashore? And what did Solomon do with it?
Solomon once told God that the people he had to govern were too many to count. He asked for a heart able to handle them. One writer places the two facts side by side — the size of the nation and the size of the gift.
Solomon pleaded that Israel was "so great": how could he carry the responsibility of guiding such a nation? Now compare verses 20 and 29 of 1 Kings 4. Judah and Israel were as many as the sand by the sea. And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore. Wisdom according to the need!
(The ESV reads "breadth of mind"; the older translation quoted here has "largeness of heart".)
Wisdom here is not information. It is the ability to tell good from evil. And it does not stand on its own.
God had given Solomon wisdom. This is the moral discernment that applies to all things — to the good, to the evil, to every circumstance of man. With it came the knowledge of how to behave in each case. This moral discernment is never found apart from the fear of God. As we have seen, that fear marked Solomon at the start of his career. God's Word is how this wisdom reaches us. That is why Solomon asked God for "an understanding heart."
The second and third terms of the verse are not repetitions of the first. One describes what a man can take in and pass on. The other describes how many people his heart can hold.
Understanding is the power to take in the thoughts of God and make them one's own, so that one can pass them on to others. Beyond that comes a heart wide enough to hold all his people. Solomon identified Israel with himself, met all their needs according to his love, answered all their interests and made them his own. Does this not speak to us of Christ? He will show it in full when He brings us into the glorious rest of His presence, and His heart, divinely large, will embrace us all.
The same writer notes that God gave Solomon wisdom more than once in these chapters. Each grant came for a new task.
He had received wisdom (1 Kings 2:6) to purify his kingdom by judgment. Then (1 Kings 3:12) he received it to discern rightly in governing his people. Then (1 Kings 4:29) it was for leading and instructing the nations, the peoples and the kings of the earth. Finally, he received wisdom to build the temple, the great work which was to mark his glorious reign.
Solomon's wisdom did not stay inside his own borders. One writer reads that flow of visitors as a small picture of something later and larger.
The fame of his wisdom spread throughout the world, so that from all nations people came with the one object of hearing the wisdom of Solomon (v. 34). The nations will be drawn far more strongly in a coming day. The Lord Jesus, the King of kings, will take His great power and reign in His millennial kingdom! Jerusalem will be the centre. The nations will come there to worship Him and learn the wonders of His unequalled wisdom (Zech. 14:16).
The man with this gift ended badly, and one writer refuses to soften it. His lesson is about where safety lies.
It is written for our wisdom, for our learning, for our warning, that we should beware of slipping in the very thing which God singles out. There is no strength in wisdom or in anything else. Our strength is only in the Lord, and the only way to make it good is in dependence upon Him. It was not so with Solomon. He rested in the fruits that God had given him. He enjoyed what came from God, but turned aside from the living source.
- Given, not earned. Every word of the verse hangs on "God gave" — the wisdom came down to Solomon, it did not rise up out of him.
- Given to size. The people were as numberless as sand, and so was the heart granted to hold them; the supply matched the burden.
- Given in parts. Wisdom came for judging, for governing, for teaching the nations, and for building. Each new task got a fresh grant.
- Given to overflow. The nations travelled in to hear him, a small foretaste of the day when a greater King draws the nations to Himself.
- Given, but not a guarantee. Solomon rested in the gift instead of the Giver. There is no strength in wisdom itself — only in dependence on the Lord.
And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the sons of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt.
Solomon's fame rested on something he never trained for. His wisdom outclassed the two great centres of learning in the ancient world. Two questions follow: who was he measured against, and what does a man do with a gift that size?
Verses 29-33 describe the gift God gave Solomon. This verse measures that gift against two rivals.
In 1 Kings 4:29-33 we learn something more of the wisdom that God gave to Solomon, for it surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. The east has long been famed for its wisdom, as was also Egypt, but the wisdom given to Solomon surpassed all.
Why single out Egypt? One writer explains what Egypt relied on, and what it left out.
No country in the early history of men was so distinguished for the wisdom of nature as Egypt. Greece and Rome rose later, long after the time in view here... Egypt depended mainly on good counsel, as if there were no living God. It depended on the counsel of man sharpened by long experience, for it was one of the oldest powers to reach greatness.
Solomon did not out-study these men. The wisdom came to him from outside himself. The record can name the great experts of his own day and then leave them behind.
Solomon's wisdom was a gift that came straight from God. It surpassed all the wisdom of men of the east and of Egypt, for there were men of outstanding wisdom in these places (v.30). The chapter names four men whose wisdom must have been great, but all of them ranked below Solomon. Ethan the Ezrahite wrote Psalm 89, and Heman the Ezrahite wrote Psalm 88.
What did that wisdom actually cover? The answer reaches back to the first man.
Solomon had asked God for wisdom and an understanding heart to judge God's people, and to tell good from bad. We see in the details mentioned here the breadth of this wisdom. Solomon's understanding of biology reminds us of Adam. God gave Adam dominion over the earth, and Adam's first task was to name the animals. In Scripture, naming someone or something usually goes with knowing that person or thing and holding a position above it. How interesting it would be to have a biology textbook written by Solomon. It would certainly have given glory to the great Creator-God.
Word of this wisdom did not stay inside Israel. Commentators see in its spread a preview of something larger.
Solomon's wisdom was not limited to a few subjects, for he spoke of trees, from the greatest to the lowest, and of animals, birds, creeping things and fish (v.33). The fame of his wisdom spread throughout the world. People came from all nations with one object — to hear the wisdom of Solomon (v.34). The nations will be drawn far more when the Lord Jesus, the King of kings, takes His great power and reigns in His thousand-year kingdom! Jerusalem will be the centre. The nations will come there to worship Him and learn the wonders of His unsurpassed wisdom (Zech. 14:16).
The queen of Sheba brought Solomon her hardest questions and got answers. Commentators point past him to One who is greater and who is alive now.
Now He lives as greater than Solomon. He is the One to whom we may turn for all direction in life, the very wisdom of God for us. He can solve all our hard questions, as Solomon solved the Queen of Sheba's. And He can so captivate our hearts by His personal greatness and glory that we desire nothing apart from Him.
The greatest wisdom on earth did not keep Solomon safe. That raises a question about what wisdom really is.
What is wisdom? Wisdom is not mere knowledge. The more knowledge a man has, if he has not wisdom, the greater mess he can make of things. Wisdom is the right use of knowledge in the circumstances of life. Learning a lesson from Solomon, we find that even wisdom is not a strong enough safeguard.
- Given — the wisdom came straight from God. Solomon never earned it, and the famous experts of his day were left behind.
- Greater — it passed the two great centres of learning, the east and Egypt. Egypt stood for counsel that runs as if there were no living God.
- Wide — it covered creation itself, from trees to fish. Like Adam naming the animals, it pointed glory back to the Creator.
- Global — the nations travelled to hear it. That was a preview of the day when the King of kings reigns and the nations come to Jerusalem.
- Not Enough — knowledge is not wisdom, and even Solomon's wisdom did not keep him. The One greater than Solomon is Himself the wisdom of God for us.