https://odb.org/2026/07/07/the-way-wisdom-works
1 Kings 3:24–28 (NIV): 24 Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword for the king. 25 He then gave an order: “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”
26 The woman whose son was alive was deeply moved out of love for her son and said to the king, “Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!”
But the other said, “Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!”
27 Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother.”
28 When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice.
The people in Israel learned a lesson on wisdom from King Solomon. Two women had delivered babies. One baby died when his mother accidentally “lay on him” (1 Kings 3:19). This mother then tried to claim the living baby as her own. The women went to Solomon to ask who should keep the baby. When he heard the complaint, he ordered that the living baby be cut in two so both women could have a half of the child (v. 25). The woman who was not the mother agreed to this order, but the true mother said, “Give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!” (v. 26). When she spoke up to save the child, Solomon ruled that she was the mother and said to give her the baby (v. 27). Solomon’s God-given wisdom was on full display. (Katara Patton, Our Daily Bread 7th July 2026)
As King Solomon began his reign, “The Lord appeared to [him] during the night in a dream” and told him, “Ask for whatever you want” (1 Kings 3:5). He asked for “a discerning heart to govern [God’s] people” (v. 9). God granted his request (3:10-14; 4:29-34), and he began well (3:28). Yet his personal life became a shambles due to his habit of marrying women who practiced other religions (11:2). He “loved many foreign women” (v. 1) and “as [he] grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods” (v. 4). Despite what God had given him, he disregarded his own wisdom. Today, we can ask God to direct our paths and help us walk in the way of wisdom. (Tim Gustafson, Insight, Our Daily Bread 7th July 2026)
One of the most famous story about King Solomon was the choice given to him by God to choose either wealth or wisdom and he chose wisdom. I learned this when young, years before I knew Jesus. Actually the true account was that God asked him to ask for anything and he chose a discerning heart to tell right and wrong. God commended him for choosing a discerning heart to administer justice, and not for wealth or long life or the destruction of his enemies. But because he chose wisdom and not wealth or long life, God granted him all three!
In the history of the kings in Israel (including the divided kingdom of Northern Israel and Judah), many kings were considered as bad. Solomon was however regarded as good although his passion for marrying foreign women brought foreign gods into Israel and caused Israel to drift away from God. Nevertheless in his book Ecclesiastes, as much as he dismissed much of life as meaningless (vanity), he concluded that life is meaningful only when we have God in our lives. That’s the true wisdom in life! If not, we would have lived and faded away like flowers across the meadow. After Jesus came into the world, we now are made more aware that there is life after death, and following and accepting Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour leads us to eternal life. A life after death with a resurrection one day that will usher us into the new heaven and new earth of Eden recreated, to be lived with God in all His glory. That is why we don’t just exist for a fleeting moment to fade away into nothingness.
If we trace the lineage of Solomon, we will discover that he is the second son of the adulterous relationship between David and Bathsheba (as mentioned in my yesterday’s post – King David’s sin and repentance – Ronnie’s Thoughts https://share.google/EhvlhMaU5Ca1ztkCU). It is tangible evidence of the forgiveness of God following David’s repentance of his sin.
Nowadays I always pray for wisdom and discernment for my wife and I and our children as we go to work each day. Not to administer justice like Solomon (haha) but to handle our work and interact with the people at work so that we are effective and successful in achieving our KPIs and goals. Wisdom is still the most valuable compared to wealth or long life because in the end, true wisdom is actually being able to choose God over all other things and that’s the right choice that will lead us to eternal life!
Ronnie's Thoughts 