The wisdom which God gave to Solomon was the wisdom to learn. Solomon said, "A wise man will hear, and will increase learning . . . but fools despise wisdom and instruction" (Pro. 1:5,7). God showed to Solomon that a wise man is the man who can still be taught, while a fool is one who cannot. "Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning" (Pro. 9:9). Men may define a wise man as one who has the answers. The truth is that no one but God has the answers, and a wise man is one who is able to perceive the answer that God gives. Solomon was gifted with the ability to learn of God from every element of creation.

Everything in creation bears witness to the Creator. "The heavens declare the glory of God;" wrote King David, "and the firmament showeth his handiwork" (Ps. 19:1). Every grain of sand is a testimony to the creative power of God; every flower sings of the lovliness of His holiness; every field of grain is irrefutable proof of His goodness; every note of every bird is a word of praise for His love and grace. Everything everywhere is crying out, clearly and loudly, to every being who inhabits this creation, that God is God. "The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made", wrote the Apostle Paul. So, God intended for us to learn about Him by observing the universe around us. "Consider the lilies", exhorted Jesus, and "behold the fowls of the air" (Mt. 6:26-30). Obedience to the Lord includes making time to get alone with God and His creation, to see and to listen, and to be instructed by what God has done. If you are too busy to go for a quiet walk, or to sit still and observe a sunset or the clouds, you are too busy. Solomon was made wiser by observing the ant (Pro. 6:6-11). And Paul pointed the saints at Corinth to nature, in order to resolve a doctrinal dispute (1Cor. 11:14). Everything in nature speaks to us about God, and everything it says is absolutely trustworthy. Creation itself offers us knowledge of God.

Paul, in a letter to the saints at Corinth, rightly observed that knowledge has a tendency to "puff up"; that is, the acquisition of knowledge can make a person proud (1Cor. 8:1). But pride itself is unteachable. It will block the heart from learning, because in order to learn anything, one must be willing to receive. One must be humble. If you know how to drive a car, it is only because you humbled yourself to be taught how to drive. And now that you can drive, you will only improve your driving skills if you stay humble. Becoming proud of your abilities will prevent you from acknowledging a better way when it is offered to you. Without humility, you will never improve. If you know how to bake a cake, it is only because, at some time in your life, you humbled yourself to receive that knowledge, either from a person or a recipe book. You were not born with that knowledge. And you will not improve on your baking skills, if you have become so proud of what little you know, that no one can add anything to you. Have you had a wonderful experience with God, by which you gained some real spiritual insight? Virtually every person in the kingdom of God has. I know that I have. The question, then, is not whether we have been blessed by God, but how proud have those blessings made us? Are we still open to what God has yet to teach us? The greatest trial of faith is not suffering, but blessing. Can we be blessed, and remain humble enough to continue to receive blessing?

In Jesus' parable of the Four Kinds of Soil, those who overcame hardship and persecution later fell victim to pleasures and earthly gain. It seems much easier to remember our dependence upon God's mercy when life is difficult. A life of ease has destroyed more souls than a life of hardship. Before the Israelites were brought into the land of Canaan, the Lord repeatedly pleaded with them not to forget Him when their wandering days were over, and the good times had come:

[7] "For the LORD they God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and deptsh that spring out of valleys and hills;
[8] A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey;
[9] A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.
[10] When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.
[11] Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:" Deut. 8:7-11

The wisdom which God gave to Solomon taught Solomon to be humble, after being greatly blessed, to remain fearfully obedient to God, and to know that what we do know is little in comparison to what there is to be known. As Paul wrote, "If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know" (1Cor. 8:2). God granted to Solomon a vision of the vastness of his own ignorance. Solomon knew how very little he did know. And knowing that, he possessed a depth of humility matched by no one in human history, until the coming of our Lord Jesus to earth to show us a life of absolute submission to the will of God. And possessing such a humility, Solomon was able to learn from anything and anybody. Even fools were able to add to Solomon's wisdom, and he listened to and observed them carefully. He wasn't too proud to continue to be taught.

Pride usually doesn't interfere with intellectual and spiritual growth until after some knowledge is acquired. The man who will come to know God best, then, is the man who learns, and retains humility. This was Solomon's gift. God reversed, in Solomon's heart, the effect of knowledge. Rather than being made ever more proud by each revelation of truth, his heart was humbled by them; therefore, he was ever more open to God - and more able to learn AFTER he obtained a piece of knowledge than he was before! As he increased in knowledge, he increased in humility. As he increased in humility, he increased in knowledge. Had God not added mercy with the wisdom He gave to Solomon, Solomon would not have been able to contain the knowledge he received.

"A wise man's eyes are in his head," wrote Solomon, "but a fools' eyes are in the ends of the earth." With this odd statement, Solomon tries to show us that true wisdom is simple, easily understood once it is believed, and not hidden. A fool is always in a strain to appear to be "deep." We Gentiles have always been impressed with intellectual somersaulting. Paul said that the Gentiles' problem is a straining at wisdom (1Cor. 1:22). This "must be deep" sickness is what Solomon described as having your eyes "in the ends of the earth." You need go no further than where you are right now to learn the truth of God. It is being offered you right now, right there, and if your eyes are in your head, to see (really see) what you see, you will be made wise! A wise man's eyes are in his head, because he sees creation the way it was intended to be seen. He doesn't waste his life searching for truth in the pits of pitiful human intellectualism. There is no greater wisdom than Christ, the wisdom of God (1Cor. 1:24). The holy Ghost is the wisdom which Christ died for us to possess, and no man is wiser than the one who receives and follows after it. Let us pray, my dear, dear friends, that we be given the grace to possess that wisdom and not become so proud of what we do know of the Spirit that we do not listen any more to what He has to say.

For a more complete Biblical account of Solomon's wisdom, and what he learned of God from this creation, send for the two books in my ALL THINGS series. In story form, Israel's history from the time of the judges to the collapse of Israel is told, including, of course, Solomon's story. If you have difficulty reading and comprehending the Old Testament, this could help. The price is only $6.00.