The Solomon Story

As King David was about to die, he charged his son, Solomon, to keep God’s instructions. After David died, Solomon became king. In a dream God offered Solomon anything he wanted. Solomon asked for wisdom. God gave Solomon wisdom, and Solomon was wiser than anyone else in the world.

Other nations heard about his wisdom and sent ambassadors to learn from him. The queen of Sheba, heard of Solomon’s wisdom and wanted to hear it for herself. She came and asked him many difficult questions. He was even wiser than she thought possible. She was so impressed with his wisdom that she told him of how blessed everyone who knew and served him were. Because of this she gave him many expensive gifts and then returned to her land.

In God’s instructions that he had given Moses, he said that the king was not to have many horses from Egypt, the king must not accumulate too much gold or silver, and the king must not marry many wives. Unfortunately, Solomon broke all these rules. Because of Solomon’s disobedience, God promised that the kingdom would split and the majority of it would be given to his servant.

Meaning: At one point it looked like Solomon was fulfilling the third and final promise to Abraham by blessing other nations with his wisdom. The Queen of Sheba episode (in my opinion) is the pinnacle of the Old Testament storyline – the point of highest hope and expectation that finally the Savior/King/Son-of-David had come who would bless the nations by drawing them in and pointing them to God.

However, like Adam and Noah and so many others, he started well but finished poorly. Though Solomon was a son of David who reigned well for a little while, Israel continued waiting for the true and righteous Son of David who would reign forever. All hope of Solomon being the snake-crusher and world-blessing-bringer came to an end. And with that, all hope that the savior would come soon was diminishing.