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Reading: 1 Kings 2: 10-12, 3: 3-14
10 Then David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David.
11 He had reigned for forty years over Israel – seven years in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem.
12 So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his rule was firmly established.
Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.
4 The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.
5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, ‘Ask for whatever you want me to give you.’
6 Solomon answered, ‘You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.
7 ‘Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number.
9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?’
10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.
11 So God said to him, ‘Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.
13 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for – both wealth and honour – so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings.
14 And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.’
Teaching:
I’m sure you are all aware that there’s a big difference between what you want and what you actually need. I know that watching our boys grow up, this was a constant battle. Daddy, Mummy, I want this, I want that. But what is it that they want and is it the same as what they need?
If I was to ask you now to note down what you feel you want at this time in your own life, what would it be?
Now imagine God comes to you, and God asks you that question that he asked Solomon – what is it the one thing, anything, that I can give you, what would it be? For me it might be that the 115 financial allegations made on Man City would just disappear. For some of you you might ask God for a long life, or God I want a financial stability the rest of my life, or you might say God can you give me faith to trust in you through the difficult times. What would it be for you?
Today we are looking at how God has this conversation with King Solomon. And in this conversation God asks him what is it that he truly wants.
Our story begins with King David who is very old, and it’s time for him to announce a successor which is Solomon. Now Solomon is only 19 years old. Think back to when you were 19. How good were you at making decisions? Imagine therefore being handed the mantle of a kingdom. Would you trust yourself to be a leader at such a young age? Well let’s zoom into Chapter 3 and see how the Lord is working in Solomon’s life.
So, we read in verse 3 of chapter 3 that Solomon sacrificed and made offerings at the high places. You see there wasn’t a temple yet. David wanted to build a house for the Lord, but God had decided that David wasn’t the man for it – it would be his son. So the tabernacle of the Lord was in a place called Gibeon. When Israel moved into Canaan, they took over many of the worship high places that were there for idols and replaced them for the worship of God. Now God wasn’t at all happy about this, but God overlooked it although it will eventually come back to bite Solomon.
So Solomon is going to Gibeon, and there they sacrifice 1,000 offerings at the altar. And so Solomon stays the night, and it was there that the Lord would appear to him in a dream. Verse 5 “At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
What would you answer the Lord with if he said to you, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you”. Now it’s important to recognise that Solomon didn’t prompt God. It came out of the blue. But God knew Solomon’s heart. He knew that there were things on this young man’s mind, and God was drawing near to give him help.
Just before I go on any further, I want to speak directly into the lives of our young adults this morning. Some of you will be the same age as Solomon was – 19 – and this past week you’ve received exam results that are making you think about your future. Some of you are beyond that stage and are already at university but you’re thinking ahead. And for others you are in your first job and your mind is thinking ahead to your future relationships, your choices about homes, all kinds of things. Remember today that the Lord knows your thoughts. He knows your situation. God knew that Solomon would need that assurance that God was there. And for each of you, know God is there with you. But maybe today, he’s prompting you with that same question – “ask whatever you want me to give you”. Don’t be afraid to ask, and I suppose more importantly, don’t make any decisions without asking him for his direction.
So how would you answer the Lord. Honestly, how would you respond as a 19 year old? I think if it was me, I’d initially turn to the material need almost like I’ve got a genie beside me granting me wishes. As a King what would you ask for? Would it be power, a great army, riches? But notice Solomon’s heart to God in verse 6 – 9 “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day”.
And then in verse 9, Solomon says :
9 “So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
Instead of giving God a list, Solomon declares how faithful God has been in his kindness to his father David. And he declares how faithful God has been to Solomon. He recognises that God is in control. Solomon knows that the task of leadership is huge, and he needs God.
He’s seeking wisdom, but it’s important at how he defines it. He doesn’t say “God give me experience for all of this”. He defines wisdom as an understanding mind. And also, he defines wisdom as a discerning heart to govern God’s people, and also wisdom is being able to distinguish between right and wrong. Or as the King James version puts it, to distinguish between good and evil.
Now when you think about wisdom, what comes into your mind? You see we equate wisdom as being gained as a result of age and experience. Wise people over the years have gained insight and experience from many decisions they have faced. So can we gain wisdom from experience – definitely – but today from our reading we can see that it’s much more.
It was Albert Einstein who said that “Any fool can know. But the point is to understand”. And that’s so true if we look at our own lives. For example, yesterday I knew when I was playing golf that I needed to chip the ball gently onto the green. I knew the right answer, but I made the wrong choice in the club I used. And why was that? Well, it was because I didn’t understand. But we don’t like the idea that we might not understand, and so we often blatter on regardless thinking we know it all.
Solomon is 19, and he’s quickly working out that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Whilst he can gain wisdom through experience, he know he needs the wisdom of God.
Aristotle said that knowing yourself is the beginning of wisdom, however what God says is this, when he revealed this to Solomon in Proverbs 1:7, that the fear of (or the respect of , the loving of , the going deeper with) the Lord is the beginning of all knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction’. God is saying that we need, and we should want divine wisdom.
So our starting point with wisdom is to know our need of God’s supreme guidance, and not think we can do this all ourselves.
For some of you who have just received A Level results, for those getting GCSE results next week, but also many of us at different stages in our lives, you have a decision to make and you’re trying to work out what to do. To determine how to respond, you need more than just worldly wisdom, you need God’s wisdom. So, Solomon’s request shows that he knew his need to remove all pride from his life, and that he would not be complete without God’s direction.
So notice now how God responds. Verse 10, ‘The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this’. And that shows the relationship that Solomon had with the Lord – Solomon wasn’t there to use God for his own advantage. He wasn’t selfish in his requests to God. You know, sometimes we can be annoyed at what other people ask us to do because we know they are asking for their own benefit and gain. In recent months, Nathan now as a 17-year-old will ask me for certain things or to go certain places, and usually he wants an instant answer. And for me I get annoyed at the fact he’s asking for it and how he’s asking for it. But then there will be times where Nathan will ask me if I can come to see his football matches, and as a father it pleases me that still he wants to have his dad there.
When Solomon asked for God’s wisdom, verse 10 tells us that God was pleased, because Solomon could have asked for so many other worldly things that ultimately wouldn’t last. And so we really must think about what we ask God for. You see God delights in giving his wisdom to us, because it means he sees that we want to align to his plans for our lives, it’s his blueprint for our future and it leads to a life that truly will flourish and gives us a complete life. James wrote this in James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom [that’s all of us], let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him”. God is just waiting to give us his wisdom.
And so verse 11, ‘So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be”.
God says that because Solomon has asked for wisdom rather than anything else, his request will be granted. He will be the wisest person around, and we see throughout the bible that Solomon is referred to as the wisest person who lived. In chapter 4 we read about this – it says Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs, and he wrote 1,005 songs, plus much more. He earned respect from all the known world, not because he had gained such knowledge and understanding of things, but because God had given him wisdom from heaven, wisdom that this earth would never be able to offer. You see the amazing thing is that when you ask God to guide you and you see his wisdom in situations, God doesn’t just stop there, he gives you even more than that. God does this with Solomon – in verse 13 we see that God gives him also what he hasn’t asked for – for wealth and honour.
So, here’s a question that arises from this. Is God saying that when we seek divine wisdom, then God is going to give us wealth also? If he gave it to Solomon, then why wouldn’t he make us rich? Well, we know that God in his love for us will bless us, and he blesses us in many ways. Yes, some will be blessed with wealth, but like all gifts, they are not to be used for our own benefit – they are there to bless others. Solomon was given wealth and honour and in return the entire kingdom was blessed through it. And yet when we look at the disciples and the apostles that took the message of the Gospel out into the world, all of them were not wealthy, many went from place-to-place seeking refuge. But they were richly blessed with gifts of healing, they were rich in faith, they were rich in the gifts of evangelism, they were rich in community. So God always gives more than we ask for, but he gives so we can bless.
And so we finish in verse 14 with something a little different. God says, “And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.” So far God has given Solomon what he needs without any condition, but this one is different. This is all about remaining faithful to God. We learn that God is most concerned with our character – he’s not concerned about what we have – he’s concerned about our character. So let me ask you this. When you are thinking about what to ask God for, when you think about what you want and what you need, how often are you thinking about character? When you’re praying or speaking to God, and you are saying to God, “I need these things”, how often are you thinking about the way you live. Are you praying, “God I really need you to help me with this job, God I really need you to help me get out of this debt, God I need your help with this relationship?” Or are you praying, God help me to live a life that honours you, help me to be more holy, help me to say no to temptation, God help me to be a person of integrity. And you see throughout the scriptures this is a theme that runs through everything – it’s teaching us about the way in which we live. Paul instructs the Church in Ephesus Chapter 5, “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the Lord’s will is”.
So are we walking in a way that brings honour to God? When we are striving for the next thing in our lives, when we are planning our life ahead, are we really considering that greater than all of this is whether our lives reflect God’s will and we bring honour to him in it? God is saying to Solomon that your way of life needs to reflect so much of me.
Yesterday as I was putting the finishing touches to this talk, I realised that that’s a major issue for me. I’m sure I’m not the only one, chasing after the next thing; trying to meet the next objective. And yet God’s will is that we would see the need to walk in step with him, and that everything else is utterly meaningless. Solomon on his own reflection would at one point state the same thing in Ecclesiastes 2 when he would declare “when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun”.
And this is the warning for us today. Solomon was King for 40 years, and his nation was a world power. He built an incredible temple in honour to God. But as he got older, other things crept in – his downfall was that he had a divided heart. He had so many wives, many were foreign, and so he starts sacrificing to other gods. And so has he stepped in the wrong way, the generation next were a bit of train crash through his son Rehoboam.
So what do we learn? All of us have a choice to make. You have the divine wisdom of God that is going to show you the best plan for your life, and then you have the wisdom of the world and culture which is all about what you can get out of this life. And we will always be tempted to be guided by the world, rather than trusting in the Lord. When we start believing that culture or our opinions are right, we inevitably will walk into an ambush.
So are you following Jesus, are you walking through life with divine wisdom? You see at the beginning I got us to think about what we need and what we want. And actually, Godly wisdom is the only thing that we need, but we have to also want it in our lives. We need to seek after it.
So, folks, remember that Godly wisdom is something that we must continually seek in our own lives and decisions every day. How are you doing that? Are you spending time in his word, are you spending time with other believers to help guide you?
There is an incredible temptation to sort everything out ourselves. You might think that experience has taught you how to deal with different situations. But when we do that, we are removing God from our decisions, our dependency on his divine wisdom is out the window.
Finally, remember that the true path to wisdom comes by following Jesus. Unless you have a relationship with Jesus, then you can read all the wisdom literature and recite it off, but walking with Jesus means he journeys with you, and you know your reliance on him to guide you – you don’t need anything else in this world.
What today are you using to feed and sustain you through the decisions of life? Where are you getting your wisdom from? If it’s experience, if it’s knowledge, if it’s qualifications, if it’s your reputation, if it’s friends. Well folks, know that it will never truly sustain you and feed your soul. Come to Jesus – he gives you everything you need. As we allow Jesus to come into our space, then God’s wisdom transforms us, and we become people who live out the kingdom in Godly living and divine wisdom.
I don’t think it’s right to finish with my own words, but instead I feel I need to leave you with the wisdom of Solomon who wrote this in Proverbs 3 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding [your own earthly wisdom or knowledge]; in all your ways acknowledge to him, and he will make your paths straight”. This week seek the divine wisdom of God in all the decisions you make.