In Second Chronicles, chapter one, verse ten, wisdom is a wise and discerning heart that sees and evaluates everything from God’s point of view and His Word, one of the greatest treasures in life, as in Proverbs three, verses thirteen through fifteen. God desires to give every believer this wisdom. It comes to us through prayer, as in verse seven, and James one, verse five, the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, as in Romans eight, verses five through fifteen, Galatians five, verses sixteen to twenty-five, Ephesians five, verses seventeen through eighteen, and a diligent search of scripture to learn God’s ways, as in Psalms twenty-five, verse four, chapter one-hundred and nineteen, verses two through three, and Acts seventeen, verse eleven, respectively.
Like a genuine son of David and Abraham, Solomon chose spiritual blessings rather than temporal ones. David’s son needed a proverbial speech to govern the people at home and abroad, in peace and war. Among such numerous people, he knew there would be so many, and so various, and, many times, complex cases brought before him that it would be impossible for him to hear them and judge aright without wisdom more than human. Solomon gave details to God that would help him as King. “Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this so great a people?” Solomon seems to have remembered the prayer by his father, as in First Chronicles twenty-two, verse twelve. It is refreshing to revisit the times when the most exalted nominal ruler was also the ruler, being the leader, the judge, the teacher in the highest sense, and “the feeder” of his people. Solomon chose justice to judge just judgment to begin as King of Israel.