True wisdom

1 Solomon son of David established himself firmly over his kingdom, for the Lord his God was with him and made him exceedingly great…

⁷ That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

⁸ Solomon answered God, “You have shown great kindness to David my father and have made me king in his place. ⁹ Now, Lord God, let your promise to my father David be confirmed, for you have made me king over a people who are as numerous as the dust of the earth. ¹⁰ Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?”

¹¹ God said to Solomon, “Since this is your heart’s desire and you have not asked for wealth, possessions or honour, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king, ¹² therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you. And I will also give you wealth, possessions and honour, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have.” 2 Chronicles 1:1-12

God is a gracious and generous God to his faithful people… that is the essential message of this story of how Solomon, the new king of Israel, entered his reign as successor to great King David.

We read that God appeared to him at night – presumably therefore in a dream – and invited him to “ask for whatever you want me to give you”. If that’s not generous, I don’t know what is. Solomon famously asked for one basic thing: “wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people…” And God, true to his promise, fulfils his word.

But that’s not all: he then goes on to itemise some of the things Solomon didn’t ask for, and says, in effect, “you shall have them too”. And so he grants him the panoply of things that kings were normally expected to have: “wealth, possessions, honour (or reputation)”. No further mention here of long life or victory in battle, but such splendour and dignity as to make him virtually a wonder of the world, drawing visitors from far away to see his magnificence and to sample his fabled wisdom.

(The most famous of these visitors was the Queen of Sheba, 2 Chronicles 9 – though notice that there is no suggestion of a romance between the two of them: how history has loved to embellish the Bible!).

Well, I imagine that most of us live a long, long way from Solomon, in terms of geography and history, not to mention situation. Yet his experience paints for us a very clear picture of the kind of God God is.

Let’s take  a look…

1 He is all grace and generosity.

Like Solomon in his day we too are helplessly inadequate for the task and privilege of following Jesus; so, like him also, we depend totally on these divine qualities.

I knew someone once who held back from choosing to follow Jesus on the grounds (all credit to him for his honesty!) that “I knew I would be bound to fail”. At the time I was myself a very new Christian, and sadly I didn’t have the wisdom to tell him about God’s generous and never-ending love, and to advise him to trust to that as he embarked on the Christian life, and not to worry about his own shortcomings. I have sometimes wondered how things might have turned out differently if I had given him this reassurance.

2 He is a God who cares more about justice and truth than about the outward trappings of power.

This episode gives us a perfect illustration of these as God’s priorities, and so also of what kind of rulers he wants governing the nations.

Oh yes, the worldly trappings may have their place – a little pomp and ceremony may be appropriate - but they come well behind the “wisdom” and “knowledge” that Solomon, in his humility, put first.

Wisdom is a big theme in the Old Testament, associated especially with the books Ecclesiastes and Proverbs (great dipping in books, by the way). But it is not primarily an intellectual ability; it is more a matter of hands-on know-how, the ability to size up a situation or assess a problem and come up with practical solutions.

C S Lewis had an almost frightening intellectual power (as well as a wonderful imagination), but I can remember him declaring somewhere  that he “couldn’t succeed in managing so much as a hen-coop”. A perfect example of the difference between “wisdom” and “intellect”!

James 1:5 holds out an invitation to the humble Christian: “If anyone lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” - not all at once, perhaps; but that promise stands firm, as King Solomon could have told us.

James 3:13-18 follows this up with a perfect little paragraph on the nature of wisdom: I encourage us to reflect on it for five minutes.

But there is something we must add…

3 Solomon lost his way.

One of the paradoxes of the Bible is the fact that Solomon – yes, humble, childlike Solomon – tragically went astray as he grew older in years and more magnificent in kingly power.

There’s no space to go into it here, but if you would like to follow it up, turn to 1 Kings 11. This long chapter begins with the ominous words “King Solomon, however…” (verse 1), and continues with “The Lord became angry with Solomon…” (verse 9) followed by the story of how “the Lord raised up against Solomon an adversary…” (verse 14). Everything falls apart, and Solomon leaves behind him the legacy of a bitterly divided kingdom. How are the mighty fallen! – and, still worse, how they drag everybody down with them.

This reminds us that we should never take anything for granted. We are called to have confidence in God, of course – but never to be complacent. Sadly, Christians can fall away – Christian, take that possibility seriously!

To finish, why not ponder for a few minutes: If God came to me and asked what I would like him to give me, what would my reply be? Honestly, now!

Father, as I seek to follow Jesus, please help me to keep my eyes fixed on him, and to keep focussed until that day when I see him face to face. Amen.