1 Kings 3:4-15
Mark 6: 2b.
Wisdom
If God gave you a wish, what would you wish for?
Money? Good health? To be young again?
In the Old Testament, God rarely appeared to people,
but once He appeared to King Solomon, recorded in 1st Kings 3:4-15.
I have often wondered how I would have responded if I had heard, like Solomon,
the voice of God saying to me:
"Ask for whatever you want Me to give to you?" (I Kings 3 verse 5).
If God had said this me when I was in the RAF, I might have said ‘To be a pilot’.
If God had said this to me when I was a teacher,
I would probably have asked to become a Head.
If God gave me a wish today, I would say for this church to get 50 new members,
have heating that always works,
and a pitched roof covering the hall and the main sanctuary, that doesn’t leak.
I know, that’s 3 wishes! (so if God gave me one wish, I’d have to wish for 3 wishes.)
Anyway, how do you think you would have replied if God had asked you that question?
In the account in 1st Kings, Solomon could have asked for riches,
and most people of his time, and even our times,
would have considered that sensible;
pay off the mortgage, and all the bills, and set up our children or relatives;
but instead Solomon asked for 2 things: (like me, he cheated)
1. the ability to fulfil his God given duties,
to be a fair and just governor of people who he acknowledged
were not just the inhabitants of Israel,
but God’s people, that God had entrusted to his rule;
and 2. the ability to distinguish between right and wrong.
Solomon didn’t really cheat, turning one wish into two,
he just wanted the things of God more than riches and honour for himself.
What was most important for him at that time was to be able to walk in God’s ways.
Because Jesus walked in God’s ways, and more so than Solomon or any human being,
Mark 6: 2 records people saying of him ‘What’s this wisdom that has been given to him’
Most of the Proverbs contained in the OT are attributed to Solomon,
the wise son of David,
the king of Israel at the time of its greatest wealth, size and power.
Proverb 1 verse 7 says: ‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom’,
preferring power or status or money to the exercise of common sense.
These words of Solomon echo the words of his father, David, in Psalm 14 verse 1:
‘The fool says in his heart, “There is no God”.’
There are a lot of clever people around today, like Richard Dorkins,
who are proud to proclaim their atheism.
If they are right then there is no meaning to life:
‘eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die’,
but if he is wrong, then those who gamble on atheism
will have all eternity to rue their mistake in rejecting God’s love.
The wisdom that the Bible talks about, the wisdom that Jesus so obviously possessed,
was based on His 100% trust in God,
which is different to the wisdom the world outside this church talks about.
Outside the church wisdom takes the form of wise sayings, such as:
We could learn a lot from crayons; some are sharp, some are blunt,
some are bright and some are dull, and all are different colours;
but they all have to learn to live in the same box.
It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.
My mind works like lightning...one brilliant flash and it is gone!
You are not fully dressed until you wear a smile.
We all love a good loser – as long as it isn’t us.
A smile happens in a flash, but the memory of it often lasts for ever.
The best thing about air travel is that it lets you pass motorists at a safe distance.
The average shopping trolley holds one child and a week’s wages.
A man cannot live by chocolate alone, but a woman can!
People who say they sleep like a baby usually don’t have one.
The secret of dealing successfully with a child is not to be its parent.
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I wondered WHY Solomon made such a good and wise choice
in response to God’s question: “"What can I give you? Ask for whatever you want."
I can think of three reasons:
The first reason must have been his father’s influence,
the good influence of David his father,
the shepherd boy who had killed Goliath and gone on with God’s help to become king.
We read in 1 Kings 2:1-3 of David giving Solomon a solemn charge
“I am about to go the way of all earth” (David) said,
”So be strong, show yourself a man and observe what the Lord your God requires:
Walk in his ways and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and his requirements …” (2 Kings 2: 2-3)
As parents we all have a big influence on our children,
as our parents had a big influence on us,
and our influence continues even when they grow up and leave home.
"When I was a boy of 14," wrote Mark Twain,
"my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around,
but when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned
in seven years."
It takes time for children to appreciate their parents’ concern and advice,
and unfortunately some times they never do, and go off the rails,
to the despair of their parents.
As a good parent, David was especially keen to encourage his son Solomon
to follow the ways of God.
As a good Son, Jesus, in His humanity,
would always have wanted to display the wisdom His heavenly Father endowed Him with.
David’s influence must been of the determining factots
why Solomon made such a good choice in response to God’s question:
“What can I give you? Ask." (I Kings 2:5).
However, godly parental influence is not enough to ensure Christian success.
The company our children and grandchildren keep
will have an IMPORTANT influence also, for good or bad,
which is why churches have Sunday Schools and Youth Fellowships.
We read in 1 Kings 11 that Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines
and sadly, over the years, Solomon’s commitment to the Lord waned
BECAUSE of his foreign wives who introduced their foreign gods into Israel.
We read in 1 Kings 11:4 - “As Solomon grew old,
his wives turned his heart after other gods,
and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God....”
It is not right to blame his wives, or women for Solomon’s trouble,
it was because they belonged to pagan religions,
which caused him to make compromises to keep them all happy.
If we want to keep our Christian faith strong and on-going,
we need to spend as much time as we can with the people who we worship with,
our Christian brothers and sisters, those who are likeminded;
but this does not mean that we should cut ourselves off from all who are non-Christians,
for how then could we witness to them about Jesus and the Gospel.
The 2nd reason why Solomon made the right wish
was because Solomon was committed to God’s will for him.
Apart from the good influence of his father,
Solomon made a wise choice because he actually decided for himself
that he would follow the ways of God,
who was not just his father’s God, but His God too.
Someone once said: God only has children, not grandchildren.
We cannot make a commitment to God for anyone else except ourselves.
We can pray for our children, we can advise them, but it is still THEIR decision
whether or not they commit themselves to following God.
As the wise saying goes: “You can take a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.”
David wanted his son to follow God’s ways,
but Solomon still had to decide to do so for himself.
Jesus in His humanity could have sinned,
which is why Satan tempted Him, but He did not give in.
I hope we are all here not just because of our parents’ faith or influences,
but because we believe, and because we have committed ourselves to serve God.
Solomon was wise because he chose to put God first,
and in Mark 6 Jesus is regarded as wise for the same reason..
The 3rd reason why Solomon answered wisely when God asked him,
"What can I give you? Ask."
was because he knew what God had called him to do and be,
the leader of Israel, God’s chosen people, for a certain period of history.
Solomon knew that it would be an impossible task
without God giving him the wisdom to carry it out.
So he asked for the ability to do God’s will in his life
and that is why God was pleased with him. And God went on to say:
‘I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart,
so that there will never be anyone else like you.
Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for, both riches and honour,
so that in your lifetime you will have no equals among kings’ (1 Kings 3: 12-13).
Jesus also needed heavenly wisdom to carry out His task,
which would lead to Him being crucified.
We will never be as wise as Solomon
and we will never be as wise as Jesus
but if we can focus on following what God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit
have equipped us to do and have called us do,
we will find that God has many blessings in store for us,
as He had for Solomon.
Let us thank God for all that we have learned so far, from our parents, our teachers,
the Bible and from experience,
and let us pray that God will help us to learn from the mistakes we have made in the past,
appreciate more His grace and strength
and be wise with the wisdom that comes from trusting Him
with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind, and all of our strength.
In Jesus’ name, Amen; and the peace ............................................
