1 Kings 4:29-34
"29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, 30 so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. 31 For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. 32 He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. 33 He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. 34 And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom."
These verses show the manner in which God keeps His Word to those who trust Him. In 3:9-11, we have the record of the assurance He gave to the king in his dream; here we see how God implemented it to him. 'God gave Solomon wisdom'; not in any niggardly fashion but so super-abundantly that he became a by-word throughout the nations of the earth. This teaches us not only about the royal bounty of God but also how much God can do with a man who submits himself to divine control. For, whatever else can be said about Solomon's after-life and its tragic decline, this much is obvious, that at the beginning of his reign he was in a place of true and humble dependence upon God (3:7). This is the attitude that God honours and uses for His glory, and it is this lesson in particular that we need to take from the passage. The truth is, God can do so little with us and in us because we are so unwilling to humble ourselves as Solomon did and give Him the undivided submission and surrender of our hearts. There is a word from the epistle of James which fits well here (4:5); we give it in a Chinese translation: 'The Spirit within us yearns for the entire devotion of our hearts.' Well?