I Kings 10:1 And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions.
King Solomon was a man of extraordinary wisdom, a man of God-given savvy for life, a wise leader. The fame of this wisdom spread to other kingdoms. The Bible says in I Kings 10:1, “And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions.” She came to test him, to put his wisdom to the test. The Bible goes on to say, “And Solomon told her all her questions…and when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon’s wisdom…there was no more spirit in her.”
So, here is a man of God-given wisdom and a queen who is amazed at that wisdom. It reminds me that the wisdom we need is the wisdom that comes from God; the wisdom to discern right from wrong. In Proverbs 10:1 it says, “The proverbs of Solomon,” and what follows are a lot of contrasts. For instance, verse 1 says, “A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.” Again, Proverbs 10:4 says, “He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.”
You have the entire chapter of Proverbs 10, the proverbs of Solomon, where the most prominent word is the conjunction “but.” In other words, you have alternatives. Alternatives mean you have choices, and choices mean you need distinctions. You need to be able to discern between right and wrong.
In I Kings 9, God said, “And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked…then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom.” God was talking to Solomon. Solomon had a choice. It was an if/then or this/that proposition. So, differences mean that we need discernment to know one answer from another, to know right from wrong.
So, what do good choices demand? Well, life will prove you. The queen of Sheba proved or tested Solomon, and life will do the same to you. You are going to have alternatives. You can do this or do that. There are two things to keep in mind.
First, you are a free agent. Now, God is in control. There is no doubt about that, but you do have choices. God has given you the ability to ask for His wisdom, to learn His Word, to know His truth, and to make the right decisions. We are living in a day where it is so easy to just claim oneself a victim and to lay blame anywhere and everywhere except with oneself. We need to have a sense of responsibility, the ability to respond to what happens to us with discernment and wisdom. When the Bible says in Proverbs 10 that you have a choice between this and that, for example, “he that gathereth in the summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame,” those are two alternatives, two choices. When the queen of Sheba came to test Solomon, she was testing him between choices he could make. You are a free agent.
Second, you can make choices by yourself or by God’s grace. God is in control, but God is also a God of wisdom. He is willing to share this wisdom with you when you ask and when you need it. Now, I can appeal to God’s sovereignty and oftentimes I do. God is in control and I am not. “God, this is your day. These are your people and your problems. God, I give them to you.” That is a wonderful thing to be able to do, but we should not do that as an alibi for not asking for wisdom that God will give us to make the decisions that we ourselves are responsible for making by the grace of God.
So, life will prove you. The queen of Sheba tested Solomon. Life tested Solomon. Life will test you. But you can pass the test each day as you realize that you have a choice and as you make choices by the wisdom that God gives and the grace that is available to you.