Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-august-31-2023
I Kings 3:4-28
Solomon Asks for Wisdom
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 honor—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.” 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.
A Wise Ruling
16 Now two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 One of them said, “Pardon me, my lord. This woman and I live in the same house, and 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 deeply moved out of love 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.”
28 When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice.
In the first part of the Old Testament reading we’re thinking about today, God came to Solomon in a dream soon after he was crowned king of Israel and Judah. God invited Solomon to ask for whatever he wanted. Rather than asking for wealth or power or long life or the death of his enemies, Solomon asked for “a discerning heart, to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.” In other words, Solomon asked for wisdom. And God was so pleased by Solomon’s request that he granted that request, and added all the more typical worldly things on top of the wisdom.
The second part of our reading is the famous story about two women claiming the same baby, and it seems that we’re meant to see this story as a demonstration of the wisdom Solomon has asked for and received from God.
Aside from making Solomon look good, it seems to me this story has two major points for us as followers of Jesus 3,000 years later.
The first is that God is pleased when one of his servants is more committed to serving others well than to serving their own interests. I think we’re meant to see that it brings joy to God’s heart when his servants ask for gifts that can be used to help other people flourish.
It’s not great revelation to say that human nature tends to be pretty selfish – our default setting is to pursue our own comfort and pleasure and glory. But in our story for today, Solomon set aside his human self-interest and asked for the ability to bring glory to God by serving his people.
As it turns out, Solomon wouldn’t always be so wise. Later on in life, Solomon would become more consumed with seeking his own wealth and glory. He collected an absurd number of wives and concubines and a staggering amount of wealth. And he ruled the country less and less wisely, taxing the country ruthlessly to support his lavish royal court. Eventually, his selfish reign created economic and political strains that caused the country to break apart. It would never be fully reunified.
The second idea I think this story raises for us is that the Bible (and especially the Old Testament) presents wisdom as one of the most important manifestations of God’s presence and work in the world. Many places in the Old Testament – the Book of Proverbs is probably the best example – wisdom is portrayed as a female presence of God who functions something like the Holy Spirit. The point seems to be that when people allow God to guide their words and actions, those words and actions come to be characterized by wisdom.
It seems to me that one of the biggest problems we face is a failure to appreciate wisdom – or even to understand the difference between wisdom, knowledge, and information. The vast majority of people now carry around a smart phone that gives them access to a staggering amount of information. But that information doesn’t have a great deal of value unless someone has the knowledge to use it in a meaningful way. And wisdom raises knowledge to another level – wisdom is the ability to use knowledge in a way that adds to human flourishing. Wisdom takes knowledge and puts it to use in service to other people and to God.
All of which probably helps to explain why the Holy Spirit has taken such pains to promote wisdom among God’s people – because loving God and loving your neighbor isn’t just a matter of having warm feelings toward them. Loving them as the Bible presents the idea means working to advance the interests of others. And the truth is that it takes some wisdom to make that happen.
So the point of this story, it seems to me, is that Solomon was at his very best when his focus was on being of service to God and contributing to the flourishing of God’s people. In those circumstances, Solomon demonstrated a dazzling level of wisdom – as he showed in this story, which is one of history’s greatest examples of the exercise of that gift.
Let’s pray. Lord, we invite you to move in our hearts, and to give us a greater and greater hunger, not for the things of this world and for worldly pleasure and glory, but rather for greater gifts that allow us to serve you and help your children everywhere to flourish. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 126 and 127; Acts 27:27-44; and Mark 14:12-26. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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