1 KINGS 10:23-24: So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. And
all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.
An American arriving in England for postgraduate study went to visit Nobel Prize-winning poet T. S.
Eliot. As the student was leaving, Eliot remarked, “Forty years ago I went from Harvard to Oxford.
Now, what advice can I give you?” There was a prolonged pause as the younger man waited
breathlessly for the great poet’s words of wisdom.
Finally Eliot said, “Have you any long underwear?” Good advice for someone going to a cold, damp
climate, but hardly the life-shaping wisdom the student hoped for from someone of Eliot’s stature.
The poet’s visitor may have gone away disappointed, but no one who comes to God for life-changing
wisdom ever will go away disillusioned. Solomon, the embodiment of God’s wisdom, quickly became
a magnet for people all over the known world who were seeking to find meaning in their lives.
In a day when travel was both a hardship and extremely dangerous, people nevertheless flocked to
hear Solomon speak the wisdom of God.
You can still benefit from Solomon’s wisdom. It exists today in such books as Proverbs and Song of
Solomon. But Christians have access to much more than the wisdom of the wisest king who ever
lived.
We have 66 books of wisdom in the Bible, revealed to us through more than 40 Spirit-inspired writers
(2 Pet. 1:21). What people in Solomon’s day had to travel hundreds of miles to receive, you and I can
have simply by opening our Bibles.
Don’t neglect the wisdom God has made available to you in Scripture. Find a time every day to read a
portion of God’s Word. Let the Holy Spirit impart to you practical applications of God’s Word to your
life. You don’t need to cross oceans or climb mountains; just open God’s Book.
WISDOM IS AS NEAR AS AN OPEN BIBLE, AS DISTANT AS A CLOSED ONE.