Solomon--Godly Wisdom from Seeking God's Heart

If you could have anything you wanted, what would you ask for? That was the dilemma that faced Solomon in I Kings 3:1-28.

1 Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt and married his daughter. He brought her to the City of David until he finished building his palace and the temple of the LORD, and the wall around Jerusalem. 2 The people, however, were still sacrificing at the high places, because a temple had not yet been built for the Name of the LORD. 3 Solomon showed his love for the LORD by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.
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.
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.

• What was Solomon blessed with?

Solomon was blessed with the wisdom of God. Because of Solomon's humility and the wisdom of his wish God also gave Solomon all of the things he could have asked for but didn't, mainly wealth and a long life.

• How would you feel if you were Solomon?

I would be very happy with all the God had given me and would try to use my gifts for God's glory.

• How would you use this gift?

I would try to help others.

Reading on in the First Book of Kings we find that as he got older Solomon's heart turned from God and instead of judging and ruling with fairness Solomon became greedy. He accumulates more and more wives, chariots, and silver. he is not leading God's people well and is using his position of power for personal gain and not for the good of the people.

In our world today we see many people who are like Solomon. The rich and powerful people of the world who have been blessed with so much but do so little for those in need. Many of the rich and famous do charity work and give to helpful organizations, but are they truly giving or is it just an act to look good in the public eye. Men like Bill Gates and Donald Trump many give hundreds of thousands of dollars to charity, but how much more do they have that they could give. As of 2009 the average household income in the United States was just under $50,000.00. How great would it have been if the wealthy of our nation had only keep $50,000.00 and gave the rest to be distributed among those who made less. What would our country be like if we all had the things we need to live. To determine the average income you take the total of the population over the age of 18 and divide it by the total amount of income reported. What would the new standard of living be if every person 18 and over received $50,000.00?

There are many ways that all of us are like Solomon. We have been given so much by God, but we share so little with those in need. Like the rich and famous, we may give some of what we have to those in need, but do we truly give all we could. How much of a difference could I make in my community if instead of sitting here writing this blog I went out and worked in my city. So what does God want us to do? He wants us to go out and work to help others.

Every day each one of us makes a choice. We choose whether we will fall in line with Solomon and serve primarily ourselves and our own interests, or whether we will follow Jesus in giving our lives away to swerve others.

Luke 4:14-19 says,

[14] Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. [15] He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
[16] He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. [17] The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
[18] "The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
[19] to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

• Where would Jesus go in our city/neighborhood to "preach the good news to the poor?"

In our city Jesus would go to the Homeless Shelter, Peppler Center, Long-term Care, Assisted Living Centers, or Physical Rehab to preach to the poor.

• Where is the nearest prison, jail, or other lock up facility to our church located? Does our church have a presence there? Why or why not?

The closest thing like this to our church is the County Jail. Sadly I am not sure if our church has any type of presence there.

• If Jesus left your church this morning after preaching the sermon, where would He go to heal the blind and others who suffer from physical limitations or sickness? Or put another way, where would we find sick people today? Again, what sort of presence does your church have in those places?

He would got to long-term care or the hospital, maybe even one of the assisted living centers in town.

• Who are the oppressed in you city? Where do they live? How are they treated?

Those living in the homeless shelter or staying at the Peppler Center. Many people in our town treat them poorly and look down at them. There are a few who are nice and treat those in need with kindness and compassion.

• Do you and your church respond to their extreme need more like Jesus or more like Solomon?

Our church responds more like Jesus, we have many different outreaches we do for those in our community.

• Where is one place you and your friends could go next week where you can imagine Jesus spending a lot of time at making things right?

We can go into our local schools and work to stop the bullying and mistreatment of the homeless who attend.