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SOLOMON’S WEALTH AND WISDOM

—OCT. 18.—1 KINGS 4:25-34.—

IF, as already shown, the wealth of Solomon and his peaceful reign prefigured the glory and peace of Christ’s Millennial reign, so also Solomon’s wisdom prefigured the all-comprehensive wisdom of Christ. And as representatives of many nations came to hear Solomon, so when the Kingdom is the Lord’s, and he is governor among the nations, all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto him, as the Prophet declares. They will say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.”—Isa. 2:3.

It is well to remember that the wisdom of Solomon which attracted the attention and admiration of the world (Vss. 29-34), was not the heavenly wisdom, not spiritual understanding such as is now enjoined upon the saints, which can only be spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:8-14), and which is never popular with the world. Solomon’s wisdom was but an imperfect realization of the wise and understanding heart suggested in his dream-prayer (1 Kings 3:9), which will find its full realization in Solomon’s antitype.

It was Solomon’s worldly or secular wisdom which impressed the world. By nature and through God’s providential blessings in making of him a type, Solomon’s mental faculties were large and well developed; and these he exercised in many directions with marked success;—as a statesman, judge and financier. The statement that his wisdom excelled that of the Chaldeans, etc., seems to imply that his wisdom was along the line of the sciences and philosophies popular with them. But although “he spake 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1005,” they were not all deemed of the Lord worthy of a place amongst the sacred Scriptures.

The heavenly wisdom of the books of Ecclesiastes, Proverbs and Solomon’s Song we accept as of divine direction, as were the words of the prophets who frequently wrote things they did not comprehend.—1 Pet. 1:10-12.

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— October 15, 1896 —