The wisest king of Israel.
Solomon was the son of King David and Queen Bathsheba, and the heir to the throne of Israel. In this day and age, we say “As wise as Solomon” because he was blessed with a great level of wisdom that no one else had ever known. This made him a great king to the people of God.
Solomon was not the first son of King David, but just as God chose David among his brothers, God also chose Solomon to rule Israel after his father. Likewise, just as King Saul tried to fight off David, Adonijah, Solomon's brother, did not want Solomon to be king. But with the help of Bathsheba and Prophet Nathan, Solomon became King.
God's promise to David stood, therefore Solomon was blessed and highly favored by God. He did not have to worry about enemies, and his reign was a peaceful one. Solomon decided to use his reign to build the temple of God as he had no worry fighting off enemies, and he began this work in his fourth year as king.
God made Solomon the wisest man in his time. He was not just wise; he was very rich too! While he was a king, he made things work peacefully among his people and with other kingdoms. He used his wisdom and riches to join forces with King Hiram of Tyre to build the temple of God.
However, Solomon did not remain on this path of righteousness and favor with God. He had a lot of wives and concubines (secondary wives), and this got him distracted from his obedience to God. He married women from nations that did not worship God, and as a result, he started worshipping other gods, the gods of his wives. This was the beginning of his downfall.
Solomon broke his part of the covenant—the agreement between him and God. He did not remain faithful to God. As a result, God’s favor began to leave Israel gradually. He was the king of Israel for forty years, and after he died, his son called Rehoboam became king.
King Solomon went up to a high place called Gibeon to worship God, and he gave a thousand burnt offerings on the altar as a sign of complete adoration of God. This moved God. While Solomon slept at night, God appeared to him in a dream and told him to ask for anything that he wanted, and he would be given.
Solomon honored God so much, just like his father David. He saw his Kingship as a privilege given to him by God to lead God's own people, and he cared about this job and wanted to do it well. Thus, Solomon asked God for the wisdom to lead and judge the people right. God was moved again that Solomon did not ask for long life or riches, so he gave Solomon the wisdom he asked for, and also a long life and the riches he did not ask for.
King Solomon knew that his father could not build a temple for God because of the many battles with his enemies. But as God fought all of Solomon’s enemies, Solomon wished to build the temple while he was King. Solomon hired skilled men to use cedar wood from Lebanon to build the temple. Hiram, King of Tyre, provided strong men to work for King Solomon, and in return, Solomon provided lots of food for the royal household of King Hiram. Thousands of men began cutting strong materials for the temple, and on the fourth year of King Solomon’s reign, they began building the temple.
Solomon was so eager to give the best for the temple that they spent seven whole years to build. The temple was built very high and wide, and only cedar was used to build it—not a single stone, and the inner sanctuary—the most sacred part—was made with pure gold.
Two women who lived sinful lives had an issue to solve. Therefore, they were brought before the king. They both lived together, and some days after the first one gave birth to a son, the second one also gave birth to a son. One night while they were sleeping, one of the women turned over and laid on her son until he died. When she woke up and saw this, she quickly swapped her dead son with the living son of the other woman. This was awful, but the woman denied it.
King Solomon asked for a sword, saying he would split the child in half and give one half to each woman, and the bad woman agreed to this. The real mother did not want her son to die, so she refused and said King Solomon could give her son to the other woman. This is how King Solomon knew she was the real mother of the living son!
God made Solomon extremely wise. In His promise to Solomon when He appeared to him in a dream, God gave him a heart of understanding and said no one like him would rise after him. That is, until this day, Solomon can be called the wisest man to have lived, except Jesus. Because of this wisdom, he became known all around for his leadership and his heart. Solomon wrote a lot of wise words called Proverbs out of the wisdom of his heart and many Kings came to Israel of hear his wise words.
Solomon is the author of many proverbs in the Book of Proverbs in the Bible, because he wished to share his wisdom and all that God revealed to him to the readers of the Bible.
Character appearances in Scripture.
Explore characters connected to Solomon's journey.
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