God will help the ones who try In their work to please him well; Others then will glorify Him, and of his goodness tell.
Solomon was not like his elder brothers, Absalom and Adonijah. Instead of wishing to seem great in the eyes of every one, he felt that he was too much like a child to know how to rule wisely over his people. He remembered that God had helped his father, David, and he wanted God to help him, too.
One day soon after he became King, Solomon took one thousand burnt offerings to Gibeon, where a great altar stood, and there he sacrificed them to God. All day long he watched them burning; and While the smoke rose from the altar toward the sky, he sent an earnest prayer up to God for help. When darkness came he lay down to rest, but still he longed to have God speak to him. Finally sleep came to his weary eyes, and while he slept he had a wonderful dream. He saw God standing near his bedside, and he heard God’s voice saying, “Ask whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.”
Solomon was just a young man, and there were many things that he might have desired. If he had been a selfish young man he would have asked for pleasure, or for great honor and riches. But Solomon did not ask for these things. At onee he thought of the great work that was his to do, and he remembered how childlike he felt. So he answered, “Q Lord my God, you have made me to be King instead of my father, David, and I am only a child; I do not know how to rule these people. They are the people whom you have chosen to call your own, and now I ask you to give me an understanding heart so that I may know how to rule them well, and that I may know right from wrong.” God was well pleased with Solomon’s desire, and he said, “Because you have asked for wisdom instead of asking for selfish things, I am going to give you much wisdom, until you will be known in every nation round about because of your great understanding. And I will also give you what you have not asked for: great riches and honor I will give you, so that no king in any other land while you live shall be as wise and rich and honorable as you.”
Solomon awoke and knew he had been dreaming. But he felt sure that God had spoken to him, while he lay asleep, and he rose and went back to Jerusalem to the ark of God. There he offered more burnt offerings and peace-offerings, and made a feast to all his servants. And he began at once to judge so wisely that all his people were sure God Was blessing their new King with great understanding. And they feared him and served him with willing hearts.
Soon the wisdom of Solomon was talked about in other countries. Down in Egypt, where many wise scholars lived, none were so wise as the new King of Israel. And visitors came from every land to hear him speak his wise proverbs, and to hear the wonderful songs which he wrote. In the Bible many of his proverbs and songs are written, and we may read them in the books called Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.
One day after Solomon had been King for a long time, and after he had built the temple that David planned and many other beautiful houses, a visitor came from a far-off country to see him. This visitor was a woman, and she was queen of a country called Sheba. In her home country she had heard much about the wise King who ruled in Israel, and she wished to find out for herself if he were quite as wise as people believed him to be.
There were no railway-trains nor automobiles nor aeroplanes in that long-ago time, and the Queen of Sheba had to travel the distance across the sandy desert with a slow caravan of camels, like the Arabs use for crossing the desert lands today. But when she came at last to the end of her tiresome journey and saw all the splendors of Solomon’s kingdom—his beautiful palaces and the wonderful temple;, which he had built for God’s worship, the great host of servants who waited on him, their rich garments and daintily prepared foods—when she saw all these things and heard the wise answers that Solomon gave to all her questions, then she was glad she had come to see these things for herself. She said, “I did not believe all the things I heard in my home country, but now I see that not half of your greatness and wisdom had been told to me.” And she blessed the God of Solomon, who had given him such great wisdom and riches and honor.
The Queen of Sheba brought rich presents to Solomon from her country, and he gave gifts to her from his kingdom!. Precious gifts they were; and she stored them away for safe-keeping when she started with her train of servants on the long, dangerous journey back to her own land.