(The sermon began with the Reader’s Theater piece ‘Wise for Awhile’ published by Carson-Dellosa Christian Publishing.)
(Slide 1)Have you ever gotten what you have asked for… and then had the experience of not getting what you expected?
I remember this feeling, and disappointment, with my first car. I was so excited with getting it and looked forward to many years of driving pleasure. Until, I hit a pothole in the middle of nowhere on the Illinois prairie which caused the right front wheel to break and fold under the car!
My joy and enthusiasm was dashed to pieces. Reality set in and I now was an adult faced with the adult responsibility of getting it fixed. (Reality stinks sometimes, doesn’t it?)
In our story and text for today, we find that while Solomon got what He asked for – namely, wisdom, he also got something that He did not ask for – wealth and fame. And eventually, as we read his story, spiritual decline and decay. Our text for this morning is 1 Kings 3:1-14, let us hear the word of God:
‘Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and married one of his daughters. He brought her to live in the City of David until he could finish building his palace and the Temple of the Lord and the wall around the city. At that time the people of Israel sacrificed their offerings at local altars, for a temple honoring the name of the Lord had not yet been built.
Solomon loved the Lord and followed all the instructions of his father, David, except that Solomon, too, offered sacrifices and burned incense at the local altars. The most important of these altars was at Gibeon, so the king went there and sacrificed one thousand burnt offerings. That night the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!”
Solomon replied, “You were wonderfully kind to my father, David, because he was honest and true and faithful to you. And you have continued this great kindness to him today by giving him a son to succeed him. O Lord my God, now you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t know his way around. And here I am among your own chosen people, a nation so great they are too numerous to count! Give me an understanding mind so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great nation of yours?”
The Lord was pleased with Solomon’s reply and was glad that he had asked for wisdom. So God replied, “Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people and have not asked for a long life or riches for yourself or the death of your enemies—I will give you what you asked for! I will give you a wise and understanding mind such as no one else has ever had or ever will have! And I will also give you what you did not ask for—riches and honor! No other king in all the world will be compared to you for the rest of your life! And if you follow me and obey my commands as your father, David, did, I will give you a long life.”
What have you been asking God for these days? Health? Wealth? A little peace and quiet? (Okay, a lot of peace and quiet?!)
How about fewer responsibilities? How about more responsibilities?
If you have been getting from God what you have asked for, is it what you have asked for? There is much from this text that we need and must pay attention to which requires us to read between the lines without reading into the text more than what is there or what God wants to be there.
(Slide 2) The first thing we need to pay attention to is that with the granting of our request comes a responsibility. God does answer our prayers, right? Not all of the time. But when He answers them, is there not some kind of responsibility on our part that needs to be done?
The president of a health care system in Georgia told the story of an experience in a hospital he once worked in where a patient knocked over a cup of water, which spilled on the floor beside the patient’s bed. The patient was afraid he might slip on the water if he got out of the bed, so he asked a nurse’s aide to mop it up.
The patient didn’t know it, but the hospital policy said that small spills were the responsibility of the nurse’s aides while large spills were to be mopped up by the hospital’s housekeeping group. The nurse’s aide decided the spill was a large one and she called the housekeeping department.
A housekeeper arrived and declared the spill a small one. An argument followed. "It’s not my responsibility," said the nurse’s aide, "because it’s a large puddle." The housekeeper did not agree. "Well, it’s not mine," she said, "the puddle is too small."
The exasperated patient listened for a time, then took a pitcher of water from his night table and poured the whole thing on the floor. "Is that a big enough puddle now for you two to decide?" he asked. It was, and that was the end of the argument.
Now I am not sure that it was the patient’s responsibility to prove his point. But I think that we can relate to his frustration!
Solomon had a very large and awesome task before him and he had come to realize, as our text points out in verse 3, in part by watching his father David grapple with the challenges of governing, in part by living a life of humble obedience to and love for God, and in part by his obedience to his father, that he needed God’s wisdom to lead and govern and to build the temple.
But, as Solomon asked for wisdom and God graciously granted that request, the responsibility for governing wisely was part of the equation as well. God was not granting wisdom to Solomon so that he would not simply show off but govern wisely.
When I came to be your pastor, I had the experiences of a pastor – sermons, meetings, visitation, funerals, weddings, administration, but I had not had the responsibility that comes with being the pastor of a church. There is a major difference between the two and I remember telling the former pastor that I worked with in Michigan before coming here, that I had begun to understand why he responded to certain situations the way he did that, at the time, I could not understand.
But we do not have to be a pastor or a king to understand that with requesting something from God also brings some level of responsibility. Being a parent, an employee, or a student also brings with it responsibilities.
Where then does wisdom fit in here? (Slide 2a)Wisdom is part of God’s ‘tool kit’ for us so that we use our abilities wisely and responsibly. God does not give us abilities to be used however we see fit.
(Slide 3) The second thing that we need to notice in this passage is that we need to pay attention to the alliances that we make as we discharge our responsibilities. This past week at Siblings camp a ‘Survivor’ theme was used as part of the camp experience.
Now if you are familiar with the TV show of the same name you know that making, and keeping, an alliance is part of ‘surviving.’ Well, in our setting that meant coming together as counselors and making decisions on which campers to vote for so the could experience the pleasure of getting, for example, a pie in their face (Slides 4 and 5) or being doused with things like prune juice, ketchup, raw eggs, and pop (Slide 6). And, I think, that the campers did the same for we counselors. With the alliances came the responsibilities that also brought messes!
(Slide 7) At the beginning of our text, there is a foreshadowing of what would prove to be Solomon’s downfall. Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and married one of his daughters.
Now it is easy to understand that two heads of state would meet to discussion common concerns. In fact, we expect, for the most part, that our Presidents will meet with other heads of state throughout their terms.
But, as history reminds us, some of those alliances can come back to haunt us. Iran is a case in point. Up to 30 years ago, we were close allies. Now we are enemies warily eyeing each other.
As human beings, we need each other. We have been created to live with others. But, sometimes the agreements and the alliances that we make with others prove to be our downfall.
Such as it was with Solomon because his alliances that included marriage to many women, caused him to compromise his faith and loyalty to God and deeply affect his wisdom. Many Biblical scholars have, over the centuries, believed that Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes toward the end of his life as a reflection of the life he had created.
God gave Solomon a depth of wisdom that few people I know have. But the Lord gives us wisdom as well and we need to be responsible for it and evaluate how well we use our wisdom.
(Slide 7a) But in this aspect of our alliances and our choices, wisdom, most importantly God’s wisdom, is a filter through which such important choices must pass as we take action.
Have you ever gotten what you have asked for… and then had the experience of not getting what you expected? We all have, haven’t we?
Looking back on our lives, we have had all kinds of unexpected twists and turns. Some of them, as we now admit, came when we did not get what we thought we were getting.
But God gives us wisdom, His wisdom, much of which, I believe is hindsight that develops our foresight, though we cannot see or know the near future as it develops in front of us. William V. Pietsch gives us the picture of being on a ship in this regard as he wrote, ‘someone once compared God’s guidance to the experience of being on a boat in a broad expanse of water. By looking ahead it is difficult to tell where we are headed, but by looking back at the wake of the ship we get a sense of direction by seeing where we have been.’
As I consider that picture I can look back and see that, thank God, I am not where I used to be, but as I look forward, I am yet where I am going.
The subtitle of this series is ‘God is.’ In the first sermon, we took time to consider the story of the Israelites as the crossed the desert to the Promise Land. I would suggest as we think about God’s care and provisions for them that God provides for us throughout life even when we are ungrateful and demanding. God is our provider.
Our second stop took us to the tense and exciting story of David and Goliath and the faith of a young man who believe that with God’s help he could defeat a mocking and godless giant and he did. I would suggest that in that story that God is powerful and gives us the strength and faith we need to defeat our giants. God is our source of power, strength, and hope.
And this morning I would suggest that God is the giver of many gifts that are given to help us live wisely and live for God. Let us use them for His honor and glory throughout our lives. Amen.
Sources: Pietsch quote is found in his book, The Serenity Prayer Book on page 71.
