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THE STORY OF SOLOMON'S WISDOM
From the Old Testament Book of First Kings
When David, the great King of Israel, died, his young son, Solomon, was proclaimed king.
There was peace in his kingdom, and good government, so that the people could enjoy their homes and their vineyards and fields without fear of enemies.
Soon after Solomon came to the throne, he held a great feast to the Lord, and the night following God spoke to him in a dream, and said:
“Ask what I shall give you.”
The young King did not take long to make up his mind. He had already found out that it was a great task to rule over such a mighty kingdom, so he said:
“O Lord my God, you have made your servant king instead of David my father; and I feel as a little child. Give therefore your servant an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil.”
The Lord was greatly pleased with Solomon’s choice, and answered:
“Lo, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you; I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days.”
So Solomon returned to Jerusalem and went to the tabernacle which had been set up there by King David, and he offered peace-offerings and made a great feast for his servants.
But after the feast, as Solomon sat on the judgment seat, two women came before him to ask him to settle their quarrel. They lived together quite alone in the same house, and they each had a little baby.
One of the women now told the King that at night the other woman had accidentally smothered her own baby and had then crept out of bed and put the dead baby in her arms and stolen her living baby. When she herself woke up in the morning to feed her baby, she found it was dead; yet when she looked closer at the poor little thing, she found that it was not her baby at all.
But the minute this woman finished speaking, the other woman, who had the living baby in her arms, cried out to her:
“Nay! But the living is my son, and your son is dead!”
But again the first cried out:
“Nay! But the dead one is your son, and the living is mine!”
All the servants standing round heard the two stories, and wondered how the King would find out which woman was speaking the truth. To their astonishment, King Solomon ordered a sword to be brought.
“Now,” said he, “divide the living child in two, and give half to one and half to the other.”
A soldier sprang forward to do his master’s bidding and tore the tiny baby from the woman’s arms.
But when the real mother saw her precious baby seized by the rough soldier, and saw his sword raised to cut it in two, she cried out in agony:
“O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it!”
Solomon raised his hand to stop the soldier and waited to hear what the other woman had to say. There was no trouble in her face, only cruelty, and she said scornfully:
“Let it be neither mine nor yours, but divide it!”
Then the King knew for certain that the first woman was the true mother, and he said:
“Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it!”
From that time Solomon’s fame spread through the country and through the whole known world, even as far to the south as Sheba, where there lived a mighty queen.
The Queen of Sheba was very wise and thoughtful, and wanted to know a great many things which no one could tell her; and she made up her mind that she would go to this great king, and see the wonders of his kingdom, and find out if he could answer her questions.
There was intense excitement in Jerusalem when the Queen arrived, for she brought multitudes of servants, and camels laden with spices, and gold and precious stones. King Solomon received her in full state and glory in his magnificent palace.
He sat on an ivory throne overlaid with pure gold and descended to meet the Queen down six wide steps, on each side of which was a beautiful carved lion.
He took her to see the great Temple and other beau¬tiful buildings and the Queen marveled at the wonderful pillars and walls of cedar-wood overlaid with gold, all carved out in lovely patterns of flowers and leaves, lilies and pomegranates.
Every day there was feasting and gladness, and the Queen was amazed at all she saw. On the banqueting-tables all the dishes were of solid gold, for gold was so plentiful that they reckoned nothing of silver.
The Queen of Sheba did not forget her hard questions, but asked them all, and Solomon answered every one. And at last she said to him in her amazement:
“It was a true report that I heard in my own land of your acts and wisdom. I believed not the words, but your wisdom and prosperity exceeds the fame which I heard. Happy are your men, happy are these your servants, which stand continually before you and that hear your wisdom. Blessed be the Lord your God, which delighted to set you on the throne of Israel.”
Then, having given Solomon a magnificent present of gold and precious stones and spices, she returned to her own land.
THE STORY OF RUTH AND NAOMI
From the Old Testament Book of Ruth During the days of the Judges, there was a terrible famine in the land of Canaan. A man named Elimelech, who lived in the little town of Bethlehem, decided to take his wife and his two boys a long journey into the land of Moab, where there were rich grainfields and plenty of food, but where, alas! the people were heathen and worshipped false gods.
So away they went. But trouble soon followed them, for Elimelech died, and poor Naomi, his wife, was left in a strange land with her two young sons. She loved her sons dearly, and when they grew up, and married two Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth, Naomi loved them also as her own.
But trouble followed trouble, for, soon after their marriages, Naomi’s sons fell ill and died.
Naomi began to hate this strange land of Moab where she never heard her own God spoken of except with scorn.
When one day a message came through some travelers that there was now plenty of food in Canaan, Naomi’s longing for her own town of Bethlehem grew so intense that she rose up and cried out that she must return. Orpah and Ruth determined that they would go with her.
At first Naomi let Orpah and Ruth walk with her, but at last she turned to them and told them to return to their own land, so that they might find husbands amongst their own people.
But as her daughters clung to her affectionately, and she kissed them, they both burst into tears and cried out:
“Surely we will return with you to your people!”
But Naomi implored them to leave her, and at last Orpah made up her mind to return; so she went back to the land of Moab. But Ruth would not go with Orpah but stayed clinging to her mother-in-law.
Ruth said: “Entreat me not to leave you, for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried: may the Lord smite me if anything but death parts you and me.”
As Naomi and Ruth came in sight of the dear home-city, the people came hurrying out to give her a welcome.
But poor Naomi was so changed with her grief that they hardly knew her, and they whispered together, saying: “Is this Naomi?”
But she heard them and answered: “Call me not Naomi, (meaning pleasure), but call me Mara (meaning bitter), for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.”
When Ruth rose up next morning, she wandered out on the sunny hill-side, and saw that the reapers were busy with the barley harvest; so she hurried back to Naomi, and asked whether she might go out and glean, that she and her mother might have bread to eat. Naomi consented, as she was very poor; for though her husband had had some land which he had sold, Naomi had no money to buy it back.
Ruth wandered shyly about, collecting the barley that had been missed by the reapers; and she presently happened to glean on some land that belonged to a man named Boaz, who was a relation of her dead father-in-law Elimelech.
The people watched Ruth with great interest, for she was a beautiful woman, and had a sweet, trustworthy face. Besides, the story of her kindness to her broken-hearted mother-in-law had spread.
So when the master of the reapers, Boaz himself, asked who Ruth was, they told him her story.
Boaz went up and spoke kindly to her; and told her to keep by his reapers, and not to go to any other field.
Poor shy Ruth was so overcome by such kindness that she fell on her face and thanked him from her heart. But Boaz answered her:
“It has been told me all that you have done for your mother-in-law. May a full reward be given you by the Lord God of Israel.”
That was indeed a very happy harvesting for Ruth, as she gleaned in the fresh air amidst so many kindly friends. Boaz had told his servants that they were to let her glean right in amongst the sheaves, and to drop handfuls of grain on purpose, so that she might get plenty; and every day Ruth followed the reapers of Boaz until all the barley was gathered in.
Ruth was very happy, for everyone was kind to her, and Boaz, the master, was the kindest of them all.
Boaz determined to make Ruth his wife, and to buy up the family land which ought to have come to Naomi’s sons. So one day he went to the gate of Bethlehem, where the people always did their business, and he told the elders of the city that he wished them to be witnesses that he had bought all the land which had once belonged to Naomi’s sons, and that he intended to take Ruth the Moabite, to be his wife.
Everyone was delighted to hear what Boaz said, and the elders rose up and blessed Boaz and the wife he was going to marry.
How happy Ruth was to have gained as a husband the man who had been so kind to her in her loneliness! And how happy Naomi was to think that God had given her a kind and generous son! And how well God had planned all this, for the Moabite Ruth became the ancestor of David the king, and through him of our Lord Jesus Christ.
THE STORY OF MARTHA, MARY AND LAZARUS
From the Gospel of John
Jesus often used to stay near Jerusalem, in the little town of Bethany, with a great friend of His, named Lazarus, whose sisters, Mary and Martha, kept house for him. One day a message came to Jesus from Martha and Mary saying:
“Lord, behold, he whom you love is sick.”
We should have thought that Jesus would have hurried away at once to go to His friend. But He knew that His Father wished Him to show all the people clearly that He was really the Son of God, by performing the most wonderful miracle He had yet done. So, instead of going to Bethany, Jesus stayed two days in the place where He was.
But when at last He told His disciples that He was going to Bethany, they were horrified at the idea, for only a short time before, the Jews in that part had wanted to stone Jesus; so they tried hard to persuade their Master not to go. But Jesus answered them:
“Our friend Lazarus is asleep; but I go that I may wake him.”
Then said His disciples:
“Lord, if he is asleep, he shall become well!”
Then Jesus told them plainly:
“Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that that you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go to him.”
The disciples knew that what Jesus commanded must be done, but Thomas said to the others:
“Let us also go, that we may die with Him,” for they all knew the terrible risk they were running by going to Bethany, which was only two miles from Jerusalem, where the Scribes and Pharisees and priests were plotting how best they could catch Jesus and put Him to death.
Now, in the house at Bethany, Martha and Mary were sitting in deep sorrow, and it was all in vain that their friends tried to comfort them for the loss of their beloved brother. But presently someone whispered to Martha that Jesus was coming. Quickly she rose and hurried forth along the dusty road to meet Him. At the sight of she cried out:
“Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now, whatsoever you ask of God, God will give it.”
Then Jesus said quietly:
“Your brother shall rise again.”
But still poor Martha did not understand what Jesus was meaning to do, so she answered:
“I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
But Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Then Martha answered:
“Yes, Lord; I believe that You art the Christ, the Son of God, who has come into the world.”
Then Jesus spoke to her kindly and asked after Mary, so Martha hurried home again, and whispered to her sister:
“The Master is come and is calling for you.”
Quickly Mary rose to follow Martha, and the Jews thought that she was going to the grave to weep, so they followed too. But Mary did not go to the grave, but along the high road, until she found her Lord where Martha had left Him. Then Mary flung herself down at Jesus’ feet and cried out:
“Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
Jesus, at the sight of her weeping, had a great sorrow grip His tender heart. He groaned deeply as He saw what death meant in this world which once His Father had made so beautiful.
“Where have you laid him?” He asked the sisters.
But all they could answer in their grief was:
“Come and see.”
And at that, Jesus joined the sisters in their sorrow, and wept aloud. Then the Jews, watching, whispered: “Behold how He loved him!” and: “Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?”
Lazarus had now been dead four days.
As they reached the grave, which was a cave in the hill-side, with a great stone rolled up against the entrance, Jesus commanded that the stone should be rolled away. How anxiously all the crowd watched what He would do! Then Jesus lifted up His eyes to Heaven and said:
“Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard Me, and I knew that Thou hearest Me always; but because of the people that stand by I have said it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent Me.”
Then Jesus went to the entrance to the cave, and cried with a loud voice:
“Lazarus, come forth!”
And the dead man came forth fully alive, bound round with the grave-clothes.
Then Jesus said: “Loose him and let him go.”
This was the very greatest miracle Jesus had done yet; and there were two kinds of people in that crowd who watched what happened.
Some of them believed in Jesus and loved Him for evermore; but some of the others hated Him passionately and hurried off to Jerusalem to tell the priests and Pharisees what He had done.
Then these wicked people talked together, and planned how they might put Jesus to death.
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THE STORY OF DEBORAH, PROPHETESS AND JUDGE
From the Old Testament book of Judges If only the Children of Israel had been true to God, when they reached the promised land of Canaan, He would have subdued their enemies, and given them the land to possess in peace and quietness for ever.
But they grew tired of fighting, and more than once they turned away from God and worshipped idols, and mixed with the people of the land, and copied their evil deeds.
So to punish them, and to seek to bring them back again to Himself, God allowed their enemies to conquer and oppress them.
But when they were sorry, and showed that they repented, God had pity on them, and sent some brave captain to deliver them. These captains are called “judges” in the Bible.
At one time a great king called Jabin conquered the Israelites. He took their sons and daughters as slaves, and stole the best of their grain and fruit and vineyards. The people were so terrified that they dared not walk on the open road, but had to creep along in by-ways and through the forest paths.
For twenty years he oppressed the Children of Israel, for he had a great army and nine hundred chariots of iron, and over this army there was a mighty captain named Sisera.
But at last the people cried to God in their trouble, and God always listens when people cry to Him, even though they have done wrong.
The Children of Israel had no king at that time, but there lived in the land a wise and noble woman named Deborah. She was a prophetess, and at certain times she sat out under a palm-tree and judged the people, and settled their quarrels and gave them wise advice.
God now spoke to Deborah, so she sent for a brave soldier named Barak, who lived in the north, and whose name meant “Lightning”.
Barak came at once to her call, and Deborah told him that he must gather together ten thousand men, and make them ready instantly for battle. God was going to draw Sisera and his chariots and his great army to a wide plain through which the river Kishon ran, and here Barak was to fight and conquer him. But Barak, though a great warrior, was afraid, for he knew he could get no army equal to Sisera’s trained men.
“If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, then I will not go!” he said.
And Deborah answered: “I will surely go with you; however, the day shall not bring you honor; for the Lord shall sell Sisera into the hands of a woman.” And Deborah rose and went with Barak to Kadesh.
So away they journeyed northwards and collected ten thousand men. They might have gathered far, far more, but numbers of the Children of Israel were so fainthearted and selfish that they refused to come. So Deborah and Barak returned to encamp on Mount Tabor, and get ready for the battle.
But as they passed through the country, a man named Heber the Kenite saw them, and as he was a friend of King Jabin’s he sent off a message to Sisera, to betray them.
So it happened that by the time Barak’s army reached Mount Tabor, and looked eastwards across the wide plain below, towards the sea, they saw that Sisera’s hosts had already collected in the plain.
Suddenly God sent down a fearful storm of rain, hail, and wind, and the River Kishon began to swell and roar, and overflow its banks, and turn the hard, dry plain into a marshy swamp. Then Deborah cried out to Barak: “Up, for this is the day in which the Lord has delivered Sisera into your hand!”
So Barak and his men rushed down the mountainside, making so sudden an onslaught that Sisera’s army fled in a panic. The Israelites pressed forward triumphantly, following the heavy chariots, which plunged helplessly in the bogs and quicksands and were swept away by the River Kishon.
So the Lord scattered Sisera and all his chariots and all his hosts with the edge of the sword before Barak, so that Sisera fled away on foot. But Barak pursued after the chariots, and after the host, and all the host of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword, and there was not a man left.
But Sisera turned back westwards, and in his distress he made for the tent of Heber, the Kenite. Heber was not in his tent, but his wife, Jael, who was a friend of Barak’s and the poor oppressed Children of Israel, came out to meet Sisera, and said to him: “Turn in, my lord, turn in to me; fear not.”
So Sisera thankfully entered the tent, and Jael covered him with a rug. Then he begged for a little water, but she gave him instead some refreshing buttermilk. Before he slept, he implored her to stand in the door of the tent, so that if any pursuer came and asked if there were a man in the tent, she could answer “No”.
As soon as Sisera was asleep, Jael took one of the tent-pegs and a heavy mallet, and then crept softly up to the sleeping man and drove the peg through his temples, and fastened him to the ground, killing him instantly.
A little while afterwards, as Jael watched from the tent door, she saw Barak and his men hot on Sisera’s track. Then she came out to meet them and cried: “Come, and I will show you the man whom you seek.”
And when Barak came into her tent, behold, Sisera lay dead.
Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of Deborah concerning how the victory would come about. The land of Israel then had peace for forty years.
THE STORY OF ISAAC
From the Old Testament book of Genesis
God had changed Abram’s name to Abraham, and one day, as he sat at his tent door, sheltered by trees from the burning heat of the sun, he looked up and saw three men standing by him.
Abraham rose and went to meet them and bowed himself to the ground.
He asked them to rest, and fetched water to wash their feet. Then he hurried into the tent to ask his wife, whose name had been changed to Sarah, to make some cakes of fine meal on the hearth; for food in that hot country had to be made fresh for every meal.
Then Abraham ran to the herd and fetched a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man to make ready.
When all was ready, Abraham took the calf, and the bread, and butter and milk, and set them before the men. Then he stood under the trees and waited upon his guests himself.
Now Abraham and Sarah had one great trouble. Though God had promised that one day all the land should belong to their children, as yet they had no son, and it was very hard for them to keep on believing that God would do as He had said. Presently one of the men said to Abraham:
“Where is Sarah, thy wife?”
And he answered:
“Behold, in the tent.”
Then the man told Abraham that his wife should have a son by the following spring. Abraham realized that his visitor was not a man, but the Lord from Heaven, with two of His angel servants.
At first, when Sarah heard about the son, she laughed, for she could not believe such good news; but afterwards, when the Lord reproved her, she was ashamed and believed what He said.
So it came about that within a year God did indeed send a son to Abraham and Sarah, and they called his name Isaac.
But when the boy, Isaac, had grown to be a young man, God sent Abraham a trial, to make quite sure that he believed in Him with his whole heart.
God called to Abraham and said:
“Abraham! Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”
What a terrible command this was! But Abraham made haste to obey God.
He rose up early in the morning, and saddled his donkey for a long journey, and took two servants with him, and his son Isaac, and some wood and fire and a knife. They travelled for three days; then Abraham left the servants with the donkey, and told them to remain where they were while he and Isaac went up to the mountain to worship God.
Thereupon Abraham took the wood, and gave it to Isaac to carry; and he took the fire and a knife, and together they went up the hill.
Isaac said: “My father, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
Abraham said: “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.”
We do not know whether Isaac quite understood that he was to be killed, but when they came to the place, Abraham built the altar, and made ready the wood, and then bound Isaac and laid him on the wood upon the altar.
We must remember that Isaac was a trusting son; for he was a strong young man, and could easily have refused to be bound if he had chosen to do so.
Then Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
And just at that very moment, the Angel of the Lord called to him out of Heaven, and said:
“Abraham! Abraham!”
And Abraham said:
“Here am I!”
Then the Angel said:
“Lay not your hand upon the lad, neither do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
When Abraham looked round, he saw, to his joy, a ram caught in a bush by its horn, and he offered it up instead of his son. Then God promised more blessings to Abraham, and afterwards he and Isaac returned down the hill to the servants they had left and went home to Sarah.
