WISE MEN STILL FIND HIM (1 KINGS 3:3-28)
What do sages and philosophers have to say about wisdom?
Philosopher Cicero: “The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.”
The philosopher Immanuel Kant distinguishes between science and wisdom, saying: “Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.” Martin Fischer: “Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.”
Socrates: “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
Other sayings on wisdom by achievers of all sorts include:
Robert Green Ingersoll: “It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.”
Sam Levenson: “It’s so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and say the opposite.”
Theodore Roosevelt: “Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time.”
http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_wisdom.html
Anonymous: “Age doesn’t always bring wisdom. Sometimes age comes alone.”
http://home.att.net/~quotations/wisdom.html
Naguib Mahfouz: “You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.”
The new king Solomon took office by stating his devotion to God in the most dramatic fashion. He sacrificed 1,000 burnt offerings (v 4) to express his devotion and thanksgiving to God. The sacrifices were continuous, extraordinary and spectacular. It was close to a three years’ sacrifice for a commoner offering a sacrifice a day. The flames blazed in intensity, the smoke filled the temple and the aroma pleased the Lord. In a night dream God gave Solomon a blank check: “Ask for whatever you want me to give you” (v 5). What would you want if you were given your heart’s desire? Would you want: gold, glory, greatness? Do you desire fame and fortune, power and prosperity or longevity and looks? None of the above for Solomon, who asked for wisdom.
What is wisdom? What makes a person wise beyond his age, background and circumstances? What separates him from others?
Wisdom is Comprehension: Understand Past Conditions
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, O 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?” (1 Kings 3:5-9)
Gen. Colin Powell had risen to the top in all his professions. He occupied the nation’s highest military position as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and was the US Secretary of State in George W Bush’s administration, but Powell started from the very bottom. He learned a valuable lesson as a young man mopping floors at a local soft-drink bottling plant. His belief was: “No matter what you do, someone is always watching.
Powell recalled his early working experience: “I set out to be the best mop wielder there ever was. One day someone left 50 cases of cola crash to the concrete, and browns sticky foam cascaded across the floor. It was almost more than I could bear. But I kept mopping, right to left, left to right. At summer’s end, the foreman said, “You mop floors pretty good.” The next summer, he had me filling bottles. The third summer, I was deputy foreman. As I have learned, someone is always watching.” (Reader’s Digest 4/93)
Solomon wisely appreciated all that was handed to him. He began by praising God for His faithfulness and remembering His great mercy to David, his father. There are 247 occurrences of the Hebrew word “mercy” or “hesed,” but only four references to His “great mercy”(gadol hesed) are recorded in the Bible - twice in verse 6 of Solomon’s prayer and once in the corresponding 2 Chronicles 1:8 version. The verse 6 phrases “great mercy” and “great kindness” are identical in Hebrew. The only other mention of God’s great mercy outside of Solomon’s prayer is from David’s psalm in 145:8 extolling God’s mercy, paraphrased as “rich in love” by NIV. So, all four Scriptural references to God’s great mercy were related to David’s life and reign. The enthroned king rightly recognized God had shown great mercy only to his father and none other. David, as readers know, at his best was probably deserving of praise, honor and mercy, but not “great mercy.” The great mercy afforded David was not only unprecedented, but also unmerited and unmatched.
One of the reasons for Solomon’s ascension was that he, more than any of his ambitious brothers, was the only potential candidate that understood his father’s unique role in history and extraordinary relationship with God. By extension, he cared more for his father than his fortune, was more concerned for the king than for his kingdom, and understood his legacy was more than luck. Also, unlike his brothers, Solomon did not eye his father’s throne, deem his father dead and usurp his father’s power.
Solomon was a man of extraordinary rhetoric and melodious praise. To further praise God, twice he called the people God had raised a “great people” (vv 8, 9). This word “great” is different from the word “great” describing God’s great mercy (v 6). The great in verse 6 has to with supremacy, the verse 8 “great” has to do with quantity of the people and the verse 9 “great” has to do with majesty or glory, from the Hebrew word “kabod.”
In humility, Solomon considered himself God’s servant (v 9), a vessel for God’s use on earth - the last king to call himself as such. Such humbling vocabulary was missing from the kings that succeeded Solomon. Thus, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
Wisdom is Conditional: Make Personal Choices
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 riches and honor-so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. 14 And if you walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.”15 Then Solomon awoke-and he realized it had been a dream. He returned to Jerusalem, stood before the ark of the Lord’s covenant and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then he gave a feast for all his court. (1 Kings 3:10-15)
Famed tenor Luciano Pavarotti told of the choices he made as a young man and the slow progress he made in his field: “When I was a boy, my father, a baker, introduced me to the wonders of song. He urged me to work very hard to develop my voice. Arrigo Pola, a professional tenor in my hometown of Modena, Italy, took me as a pupil. I also enrolled in a teachers’ college. On graduating, I asked my father, ‘Shall I be a teacher or a singer?’
‘Luciano,’ my father replied, ‘if you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them. For life, you must choose one chair.’
I chose one. It took seven years of study and frustration before I made my first professional appearance. It took another seven to reach the Metropolitan Opera. And now I think whether it’s laying bricks, writing a book—whatever we choose—we should give ourselves to it. Commitment, that’s the key. Choose one chair.” http://net.bible.org/illustration.php?topic=1430
Solomon’s request for discernment (v 11) was unusual of a commoner or a king. Kings ask for greatness, glory or gold. Solomon’s Hebrew word choice of discernment was the discernment manifested in individuals such as Joseph (Gen 41:33, 39), Eli (1 Sam 3:8), his father David (1 Sam 16:18), but God gave him more. God made him not only discerning, but wise and discerning (v 12). God gave him the best model possible – the example of Joseph, who rose to the top and took charge of everything in Egypt. The duo words “discerning” and “wise” apply only to Solomon and Joseph (Gen 41:33, 39), not even to David. Joseph spoke wisdom, commanded respect and governed millions.
God gave Solomon also more things than he could imagine when he wisely chose discernment in administering justice – riches and honor (v 13). However, there is a limit to what God gives. The free ride stops at the door of the heart. God cannot pour willingness, faithfulness and obedience into a person. That will have to come from a man’s heart. God in all his wisdom still make relationship with Him and submitting to Him a question of choice, an option to take and a decision to make.
At best Solomon was an obedient son who walked according to the statutes of his father (v 3). That was a good start and a big step, but not an end by itself. It’s been said, “God has no grandchildren.” God is our Father, not our grandfather. He has only sons and daughters, no grandchildren. Everyone has to come to personal faith and choose God for oneself. One can be born into a religious family on earth, but one cannot be forced into a personal relationship with God. Faith is guided, and not given. It is teachable, but not transferable. Laurence J. Peter mused, “Going to church does not make you a Christian anymore than going to the garage makes you a car.”
God’s requirement for Solomon was to follow “my ways,” “my statutes” and “my commands” (v 14). God left the door open and invited the young king to take the direction his father took, but He did not push him in, slam the door and throw the key. The most God could do for Solomon was to walk him in, not carry him in.
Wisdom is Concrete: Read Present Circumstances
16 Now two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 One of them said, “My Lord, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby while she was there with me. 18 The third day after my child was born, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one in the house but the two of us. 19 “During the night this woman’s son died because she lay on him. 20 So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I your servant was asleep. She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast. 21 The next morning, I got up to nurse my son-and he was dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t the son I had borne.”22 The other woman said, “No! The living one is my son; the dead one is yours.”But the first one insisted, “No! The dead one is yours; the living one is mine.”And so they argued before the king. 23 The king said, “This one says, ‘My son is alive and your son is dead,’ while that one says, ‘No! Your son is dead and mine is alive.’”24 Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.”So they brought a sword for the king. 25 He then gave an order: “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”26 The woman whose son was alive was filled with compassion for her son and said to the king, “Please, my Lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!” But the other said, “Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!”27 Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother.”(1 Kings 3:16-27)
The Americans and Japanese decided to engage in a boat race. Both teams practiced hard and long to reach their peak performance levels. On the big day they felt ready. The Japanese won by a mile.
The American team was discouraged by the loss. Morale sagged. Corporate management decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found, so a consulting firm was hired to investigate the problem and recommend corrective action.
The consultant’s finding: The Japanese team had eight people rowing and one person steering: the American team had one person rowing and eight people steering.
After a year of study and millions spent analyzing the problem, the consultant firm concluded that too many people were steering and not enough were rowing on the American team. So as race day neared again the following year, the American’s team management structure was completely reorganized. The new structure: four steering managers, three area steering managers, and a new performance review system for the person rowing the boat to provide work incentive. The next year, the Japanese won by TWO miles!
Humiliated, the American corporation laid off the rower for poor performance and gave the managers a bonus for discovering the problem.
Wisdom that cannot be applied is nonsense.
At first sight, Solomon’s decision seemed to be pure magic. However, wisdom is not about pulling a rabbit out of a hat or conjuring a trick out of thin air. It is about making sound and not snappy decisions, to be thorough-thinking and not trigger–happy. Wisdom is not about information or instinct, but about investigation, insight and integration. A wise person is attentive to details, patient in learning and slow in deliberation.
Solomon carefully listened to both sides, not one side of the story, before deciding. He studied people’s body language, observed human interaction and examined personal feelings to his advantage. The wise king did not allow his heart to rule his head. Instead, he scrutinized all involved, covered the angles and exposed any weaknesses, listening not only to the words that mouth it but the heart that spoke it. He took his time, dissected the problem and judged the intent.
The biggest myth about wisdom is that it is dreamlike and surreal. Dreams are made for the night, but wisdom is for the day. Biblical wisdom is not in the mind; it is in the act. Wisdom is practical, not philosophical or polemical. It is timely and not theoretical, and it is realistic and not idealistic. Wisdom is action and not abstract; sensible and not scholarly; not learned but lived; teachable and not just talk; applicable and not just academic. Of course Solomon was not about to divide the child in two, but he was not beyond using tests, tricks and teasers to get the right result.
Conclusion: Have you done the wisest thing in life - to accept Christ for oneself? Jesus is the only person who was filled with wisdom (Luke 2:40) and growing in wisdom (Luke 2:52). Do you fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom and not an end in itself? Wisdom has to be continually sought and is not permanently caught. Do you make wise choices, choose wise company and seek wise counsel?
Victor Yap
Other sermons in the series and other sermon series:
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