There are a lot of bright people in the world. Some are so brilliant it’s a wonder all those filaments don’t ooze out their sockets! You would naturally expect that the most brilliant would act the most brilliant. That rule of thumb might actually work in the animal kingdom, but when it comes to humans…nothing could be further from the truth.
Scripture gives us several examples of those with extreme higher intelligence and the predictable results one might expect from cranial overload. Because the Bible is a book about people in all their complexity, it dares to mention one man in particular who was Michelangelo, Newton, Einstein, and many others all rolled up into one neat package. This person was an authority on the subject of deuterocanonical matters. In truth he was well acquainted with history, botany, government, astronomy metallurgy, farming, architecture, and numerous other subjects covered by Webster’s dictionary. You see, one day God approached this man and asked him what he wanted. God said that He would give him whatever he asked for. This man could have asked for great wealth, or great power, or great anything and it would have been given to him.
This special man, the son of David, King of Israel, was appointed to be the next leader of Israel. This humble son of David knew his abilities were limited and he asked God for wisdom! Wisdom to govern the people of Israel, wisdom to discern good from bad and wisdom to do the right thing before God and everyone. God was very impressed with this young man’s request. God granted him several things—wisdom to rule, and wealth, and long life, and His blessings! Who could ask for more?!
It is clear that God’s gift of wisdom to Solomon did not mean that he couldn’t make mistakes—because he did. He excessively taxed his people and drafted them into a labor and military force, married the Pharaoh’s daughter for political reasons and sealed many foreign agreements by marrying pagan wives. He allowed his pagan wives to affect his loyalty to God. Wisdom is only effective when it is put into action. Effective leadership can be nullified by an ineffective personal life. Even though Solomon failed to obey God completely, he did learn the lesson of repentance late in life. The book of Ecclesiastes records Solomon’s reflections on life. In that book we find a man proving through bitter experiences that finding meaning in life apart from God is a vain pursuit.
Solomon asked God for wisdom to carry out his job—he didn’t ask God to do the job for him! God wants to work through us. To this day none has come along smarter than Solomon. Proverbs 9:10 puts it this way, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
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