Today Solomon’s gift of wisdom shines when two harlots come to him with a dispute. One rolled over on her baby during the night, killing her son. Then she switched her dead child with the other harlot’s baby. Now both women are standing before Solomon claiming to be the mother of the live child.
Solomon uses his wisdom to flush out the liar as he orders the baby to be cut in half, and half given to each woman. The real mom is identified as she is the one who pleads for her baby’s life. Solomon returns the child to her. “And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had rendered; and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.”
So God uses a dispute between two harlots to bring all of Israel together in agreement over their new king. God could have chosen any way to show the world Solomon’s wisdom, but He chose to use these two harlots in His story. Isn’t that something?! The Lord wastes nothing and uses the unlikely to accomplish His purposes!
Solomon then builds a relationship with Hiram, king of Tyre, as his father, King David, had done. Solomon says to Hiram, “You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the warfare with which his enemies surrounded him, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet. But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side. There is neither adversary nor misfortune. And so I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord said to David my father, ‘Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, shall build the house for my name.’”
Solomon arranges a business deal with Hiram for cedar and cypress logs from Lebanon. And the Lord says to Solomon, “Concerning this house that you are building, if you will walk in my statutes and obey my rules and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will establish my word with you, which I spoke to David your father. And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.”
“Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. He began to build in the second month of the fourth year of his reign.” And seven years later, the temple is complete!
Tomorrow, Solomon builds his own house and furnishes the temple. Keep reading. (1 Kings 3:16-28, 1 Kings 5:1-18, 2 Chronicles 2:1-18, 1 Kings 6:1-13, 2 Chronicles 3:1-14, 1 Kings 6:14-38)
Chronological Bible in Layman's Terms 