1 Kings 10:3: “So Solomon answered all [the queen of Sheba’s] questions; there was nothing so difficult for the king that he could not explain it to her.”
July 13th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotionalSkeptics can be a distraction in our walk with the Lord. Some are not at all interested in truth. They are just being belligerent, trying to wear us down with vain disputes. As a college student, the theologian Dr. Carl F. Henry began preaching on street corners in LA and encountered a person like this. He wrote:
In one of my last street meetings, during my college years, a heckler kept shouting, “Where did Cain get his wife?” When I could ignore the disturber no longer. I replied, “When I get to heaven, I’ll ask him!” “Suppose he isn’t in heaven?” parried the disrupter. I retorted. “Then you can ask him!”
While that is a rather harshly humorous illustration, Jesus did warn us not to waste our time spreading “pearls before swine” (Matt. 7:6). But He does want us to “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear” (1 Pet. 3:15). We are to study and be ready to give honest answers to questions asked by honest seekers, like the queen of Sheba who came to Solomon. She came with hard but honest questions. She was not a heckler. God has answers for honest seekers.
Solomon was able to answer the queen’s questions because he had asked God for wisdom and God had given it to him. James tells us that God still gives wisdom to those that seek Him for it. God promised through Jeremiah, “you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD” (Jer. 29:13–14).
“LORD, that is our prayer. We ask for Your wisdom and not the wisdom of humans, so that those who ask us questions might find Your love and forgiveness. Give us all that we need to be useful to You in Your kingdom this day.”