My initial interest in Solomon began as I studied his father, David. My soon to be published book examines David's desire to build a temple for God and the circumstances around God telling him 'no', and instead giving that assignment to Solomon. As David was well known for his heart, his son, Solomon was well known for his head. Solomon is known as the wisest man that ever lived.
Queen of Sheba
1 Kings 10:1, 3 "When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's fame, which brought honor to the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions....nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her." NLT
She was totally amazed at his wisdom and even overwhelmed when she realized just how wise he really was. Back in her land, she had heard of his wisdom and prosperity but her testimony was that she had not heard 'the half of it'.
She saw Solomon as God's gift to women. Well, actually as God's gift to Israel because of his love for Israel. She saw it as a happy privilege for his servants to be in the position of hearing his wisdom continually.
So, how did a man full of so much wisdom turn into a whimp? We will explore what happened to Solomon on our next post.