| "The LORD possessed me in the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, From the beginning, before ever the earth was. When He prepared the heavens, I was there, when he appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him; Rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth; and my delights were with the sons of men" Prov 8:22-31 "But unto them who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God" . 1 Cor 1:24,30 "For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them" Luke 10:24 | | Solomon ascended the throne after David. He was quite young, maybe late 20’s or early 30’s when he ascended the Throne. It was an immense responsibility to oversee David’s vast kingdom. So the Bible tells us that when he became King, he prayed unto God and the Lord appeared unto him, and asked him what he wanted. Solomon replies that he wants wisdom to govern, so the Lord grants him a wise and understanding heart. 1 Kings 3:3-12. | The Bible records for us a court case at Solomons throne, where two prostitutes give birth in a night and one baby dies, so they fight for the one living child. See painting above (The Judgement of Solomon 1649 by Nicolas Poussin, in Louvre). | Bible also tells us that Solomon was a very wise man, learned in poetry, arts, botany, zoology, administration, trade and such. Many Kings and Queens came from afar to listen to his knowledge and counsel. Excellence is to be the hallmark of every Christian. He wrote three books of the Bible – Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of songs. | Proverbs is a book of a collection of hundreds of Proverbs. In this he employed great literary devices - Poetry, Parables, contrast etc. The theme of the book from beginning to end is Wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding (Prov 9:10). In Chapter 8, Solomon talks of a Person called Wisdom who was with Father God from the beginning. Both of them created the Heavens and the earth together. But this Wisdom-Person always likes to be with other human beings and lives on earth more than in Heaven. Basically the wise king was employing a parabolic form to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. To understand Proverbs, you should understand that Solomon’s God was not very different than that of David. Their hope was in the Messiah to come; in fact since 2 Samuel 7, all the Davidic line was waiting for the birth of Christ. I urge you to read Prov 8 a few times to understand this truth and analyze scripture for yourself |
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