“Indeed, a greater than Solomon is here.”

What does it take to have faith, faith in God or his messenger?  Paul said the Jews prefer a sign (1 Corinthians 1:22).  Being one, he would know.  And the gospels certainly record it.  In Matthew 12 the scribes and Pharisees ask for a sign from Jesus, ostensibly to confirm his messianic claims, but perhaps more so, to satisfy their own twisted curiosity.  You’d think this was the perfect opportunity to settle the issue and shut them up.  But no, he wouldn’t bite, saying, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sigh will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” (Matthew 12:39).  Everyone knew that sign: 3 days and nights in a fish’s belly.  Every school-aged child in Israel could tell you that story.  But did he have to include that nasty comment (v. 41) about the men of Nineveh rising up “in judgment with this generation and condemn it”?  That wasn’t exactly comfort food for their ears.  But he didn’t stop there; he kept it up: “The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here” (v. 42).  Ouch!

Once is an incident, twice or more a pattern.  We have two very blunt, cutting remarks here against his own generation and his own people.  In short, they won’t believe…him or his message.  And to make sure they didn’t miss the point, he affirmed that Gentiles — goyim, no less! — would judge God’s covenant people.  It doesn’t get much lower than Ninevites.

This may have been the first recorded instance where they asked for a sign, but it wouldn’t be their last (John 6:30).  In both cases he had already done numerous miracles earlier.  The signs were already there.  Evidence of divine intervention and power were not in short supply, but their faith was…despite the evidence!  It is the same with any unbeliever who either refuses to acknowledge or even consider the facts.

Jesus compared himself — if it can really be called comparing — with Solomon, David’s son, the third and last king of a united Israel.  What did Solomon have going for him that he would be included in such an illustration?

1 Kings 4 starts us off.  “And God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, and largeness of heart like the sand on the seashore.  Thus Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt.  For he was wiser than all men—than Ethan the Ezrathite, and Heman, Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the surrounding nations” (vs. 29-31).  That’s a lot of wise men and royal advisors all lumped together!  “[Solomon] spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were one thousand and five” (v. 32).  Have you ever tried to create your own proverb? How about 100 of them?  But 3,000?  That’s more than just impressive.  How about writing an original song?  But over 1,000?  Unbelievable!  He was also a naturalist who studied first and then “spoke of trees…animals…birds…creeping things, and fish” (v. 33).  In other words, he was an expert’s expert, a walking encyclopedia.  It’s no wonder that “Men of all nations, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom, came to hear the wisdom of Solomon” (v. 34).  After “King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom…all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart” (10:24-25).  Needless to say, this is an exceptional résumé.

Jesus compared himself to Solomon probably because Solomon was a man whom God blessed undeservingly.  But he was a man that later generations could say, “He was one of ours.  Maybe someday we’ll have another.”  In other words, it was attainable, at least in their thinking.  But how greater is Jesus than Solomon?  Let’s let Paul answer: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.  All things were created through him and for him.  And he is before all things, and in him all things consist” (Colossians 1:15-16).  He is so superior that without Jesus Solomon would have been just another fallen man fortuitously born in a kingly family.  That’s it.

Greater than the greatest king, only Jesus is worthy of worship.  Have you worshipped him lately