And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore,
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?
Wisdom Measured to the Need
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.
W. W. FeredaySolomon 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".)
What This Wisdom Was
Wisdom here is not information. It is the ability to tell good from evil. And it does not stand on its own.
H. L. RossierGod 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."
A Heart Wide as the Shore
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.
H. L. RossierUnderstanding 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.
Given Again for Each New Task
The same writer notes that God gave Solomon wisdom more than once in these chapters. Each grant came for a new task.
H. L. RossierHe 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.
The World Comes to Listen
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.
Leslie M. GrantThe 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 Gift That Could Not Guard Him
The man with this gift ended badly, and one writer refuses to soften it. His lesson is about where safety lies.
William KellyIt 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.
Summary
- 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.