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The Story in Review- Chapter Thirteen
Chapter 13 records the life of the wisest man to ever live. We’re all familiar with the Genie in a bottle story. What 3 wishes do you make? What if the Genie is having an off day? What if you only get one? Solomon asked for wisdom. Perhaps what you ask for reveals what you want; perhaps it reveals who you are. Solomon, according to his request, must have been both humble and content. He didn’t ask for more stuff and he didn’t assume he knew enough to run the kingdom. Of all the things Solomon said and wrote perhaps among the most well known is the simple assertion that we need ask of a Genie nor even of God to get a start on wisdom for its beginning is the “fear of the LORD.”
Solomon’s story is magic, by that I mean it starts off as
an account of a King that can do no wrong:
A kingdom is built, an empire established, a treasury amassed and a
temple erected.
Solomon’s story is tragic, by that I mean it ends with a King who has failed to do the most important thing right by failing to practiced what he himself preached. Solomon loses the fear of the LORD. In the long run because he lost the fear of the LORD, he lost everything. The kingdom would be torn in two, and Israel’s “magic” age would be short lived.