Skeptics 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:<\/p>\n
\nIn one of my last street meetings, during my college years, a heckler kept shouting, \u201cWhere did Cain get his wife?\u201d When I could ignore the disturber no longer. I replied, \u201cWhen I get to heaven, I\u2019ll ask him!\u201d \u201cSuppose he isn\u2019t in heaven?\u201d parried the disrupter. I retorted. \u201cThen you can ask him!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
While that is a rather harshly humorous illustration, Jesus did warn us not to waste our time spreading \u201cpearls 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.<\/p>\n
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\u201314).<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n
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1 Kings 10 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1<\/sup>\u00a0And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the\u00a0LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions.\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not\u00a0any\u00a0<\/em>thing hid from the king, which he told her not.\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon\u2019s wisdom, and the house that he had built,\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the\u00a0LORD; there was no more spirit in her.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen\u00a0it:\u00a0<\/em>and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard.\u00a0\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0Happy\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>thy men, happy\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>these thy servants, which stand continually before thee,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>that hear thy wisdom.\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0Blessed be the\u00a0LORDthy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the\u00a0LORD\u00a0loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice.\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones.\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0And the king made of the almug trees pillars for the house of the\u00a0LORD, and for the king\u2019s house, harps also and psalteries for singers: there came no such almug trees, nor were seen unto this day.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0And king Solomon gave unto the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside\u00a0that<\/em>which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold,\u00a015<\/sup>Beside\u00a0that he had\u00a0<\/em>of the merchantmen, and of the traffick of the spice merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the country.\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0And king Solomon made two hundred targets\u00a0of<\/em> beaten gold: six hundred\u00a0shekels\u00a0<\/em>of gold went to one target.\u00a017<\/sup>\u00a0And\u00a0he made\u00a0<\/em>three hundred shields\u00a0of\u00a0<\/em>beaten gold; three pound of gold went to one shield: and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon. 18<\/sup>\u00a0Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold.\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>round behind: and\u00a0there were<\/em>stays on either side on the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a020<\/sup>\u00a0And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps: there was not the like made in any kingdom.\u00a021<\/sup> And all king Solomon\u2019s drinking vessels\u00a0were of\u00a0<\/em>gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon\u00a0were of\u00a0<\/em>pure gold; none\u00a0were of\u00a0<\/em>silver: it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.\u00a0\u00a022<\/sup>\u00a0For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.\u00a0\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom. 24<\/sup> And all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.\u00a0\u00a025<\/sup>\u00a0And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments, and armour, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year. 26<\/sup>\u00a0And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots, and with the king at Jerusalem.\u00a027<\/sup>\u00a0And the king made silver\u00a0to be\u00a0<\/em>in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he\u00a0to be\u00a0<\/em>as the sycomore trees that\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>in the vale, for abundance.\u00a028<\/sup>\u00a0And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn: the king\u2019s merchants received the linen yarn at a price.\u00a0\u00a029<\/sup>\u00a0And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred\u00a0shekels\u00a0<\/em>of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty: and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, did they bring\u00a0them\u00a0<\/em>out by their means.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Skeptics 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. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6732"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6732"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16244,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6732\/revisions\/16244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}