Wisdom Truck 13

 

I was helping Laurie with setting up her personal study when I came across something I hadn't expected.  When you see God move from one thing to the next, ask, "Why?".  God has a lesson in everything He does, and that sets the stage for the Truck's next stop.

1Ki 3:5  At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” 

1Ki 3:6  And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. 

1Ki 3:7  And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. 

1Ki 3:8  And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. 

1Ki 3:9  Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” 

1Ki 3:10  It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 

1Ki 3:11  And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 

1Ki 3:12  behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. 

1Ki 3:13  I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. 

1Ki 3:14  And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” 

Yeah, kind of a long passage, but all necessary to explain the 2 places we are going to go here.  Before I start, I will note you encounter this same story from a slightly different angle in 2 Chronicles 1.  But I think we get all we need here- except for one part we got last time...

1Ki 2:9  Now therefore do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man. You will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his gray head down with blood to Sheol.” 

David describes his son Solomon as wise BEFORE Solomon's encounter with God.  So why does Solomon ASK for wisdom? 

Jas 1:5  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 

Jas 1:6  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 

This may seem like a "no kidding" statement, but there is a connection between gaining wisdom and ASKING for it.  Solomon, being wise already, knew he needed more.  Why? 

-Because He knew God loved those who loved back, as his father had.

-Because he knew Israel was poised for explosive growth, and the challenges set before David were nothing compared to what he was going to face.

- And he would need greater discernment, to seperate good from evil in this changing environment.

Now note the way he asked it.  The ESV translation above says, "an understanding heart"... it really translates to a "hearing heart"- able to go to God and LISTEN to Him in the actions he would need to make.  So Solomon was already wise enough to pass this testing.  But look back at vv11-12.  Because Solomon passed this test, God was going to give him that which he asked, and MORE:

-Riches

-Honor

-and uniqueness in all history.

WHY?

Because this was to be the next test.  Was he going to continue to humble himself, given the greatest reasons NOT to be humble ever encountered?  Would he come out the other side of this walking in the ways that David did... or would he fumble the ball?

Remember, David failed.  A lot.  But his heart stayed true to God's own heart... "except", the writer says, "In the matter of Uriah the Hittite." Solomon sagged under his weight.  The riches came without hardly asking for them; yet, the people faced taxes that were onerous.  The honor led him to 700 wives and 300 concubuines, and "they turned his heart from the Lord. "  David never bowed to a foriegn god; Solomon couldn't say that.  And the uniqueness made him think he could challenge the wisdom of God, and he failed- that is the story of the Book of Ecclesiastes, where after a life lived in defiance, he finally had to say...

Ecc 12:13  The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. 

Ecc 12:14  For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. 

And that's just what God did, tearing the kingdom in two, and stripping it of the majority of the riches Solomon acquired.  In the end, he realized the failures, and personally turned back.  He tried, in Proverbs 1, to convince his son Rehoboam, "Do as I say, not as I have done"... and it was too late, because it was the very thing that Solomon warned him NOT to do that ripped half the kingdom out of Rehoboam's hands.

The lesson here, is as Jesus taught...

Luk 12:48b    ...From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from him who has been entrusted with much, even more will be demanded. 

Don't be afraid to ask for wisdom... don't be surprised if added wisdom leads to added challenges.