the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 2 of 5
1 Kings 3:16-28
In Israel the king was also the supreme judge, a type of Christ who will personally exercise both functions. The young king Solomon has that much greater need of divine wisdom for this double task: to rule and to judge the people. But God’s promise is fulfilled without delay, and the famous verdict Solomon gives in the case of the two women makes him known in all Israel as having received "the wisdom of God . . . to do judgment" (v. 28). This was not the way in which Absalom had endeavoured to establish his reputation as a judge (2 Samuel 15:4). How could righteousness have reigned if this impious man, a rebel and a murderer, had succeeded in grasping the throne that God had destined for his young brother Solomon?
One man only has ever been wiser than Solomon. Consider Jesus, as a child "filled with wisdom", astonishing the doctors of the law by his understanding (Luke 2:40; Luke 2:47); then in the course of His ministry answering each one according to the state of his heart, discerning the pitfalls prepared for Him, and confounding His adversaries. He is particularly to be admired in the incident in which He gives His judgment upon the woman taken in adultery: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her", he replies to her accusers (John 8:7). "What wisdom is this, which is given unto him?" they asked (Mark 6:2).
