In that night God appeared to Solomon, and said to him, “Ask what I shall give you.” And Solomon said to God, “You have shown great and steadfast love to David my father and have made me king in his place. O Lord God, let your word to David my father be now fulfilled, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can govern this people of yours, which is so great?” 2 Chronicles 1:7-10
In my Bible reading I wandered through 2 Chronicles 1-3 this morning. This narrative is so captivating because this is the inauguration of Solomon to the throne of David, his father. This transition is massive because failure to handle this kind of change well, can become the beginning of the end of some.
What an extraordinary meeting between God and Solomon. Solomon had finished establishing himself as king over all Israel. His reign was solid and firm. He was not engaged in triage or trying to keep the kingdom from falling apart. He had no enemies crouching at the door and there was no hint of internal conflict. He had successfully transitioned the reign of the kingdom from David to himself with few concerns. He was the established king of Israel.
God’s offer is unique. How many times have we wished God would offer us an invitation like this. Ask whatever you want so I can grant it to you. Wow! We would have the “magic wish” where God would give to us whatever we ask. This is generous and shows the exceptional generosity of God towards Solomon. This is not repeated anywhere else and appears to be unique according to God’s divine purpose with Israel. We do have similar statements in the New Testament but not quite with the flavor of this invitation. “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son (John 14:13). “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him (1 John 5:14-15). Clearly, Solomon’s request was a perfect match for these New Testament passages. He asked for wisdom so that he could shepherd God’s people well.
What is more profound is Solomon’s request. Solomon does not ask for possessions, wealth, honor, the life of those who hate you, but he asked for wisdom. God overwhelmingly blessed him with wisdom and all these other things. “Because this was in your heart,” God says, I will give you an overabundance of these other things. What an extraordinary request. I am not sure I would have made the same request. I assume my heart would be too deeply engrained in my own selfishness to ask for something so profound as wisdom. I might have camouflaged it with the appearance of good things for others but given the magnitude of his responsibility, I wonder if I would have made the same request. I am amazed at his request because what we need in today’s world is not great people that we can honor, we need wise people who will honor God.
There is a sobering warning in all this too. Obviously, we need to read ahead to see the outcomes. In spite of his great and astounding wisdom, Solomon still ended in a disappointing manner. He disobeyed the three things God said his king should not do (cf. Deuteronomy 17:14-20). He was not to multiply horses; he was not to multiply wives and he was to keep a copy of the Law constantly before him to keep on learning how to fear the Lord. Sadly, Solomon should have asked for a holy heart that would not wander from the Lord. It seemed to be his downfall. As wise as he was, his heart struggled.
All this goes to show me that the determining factor in my walk with God is not how smart I am, nor how much education I have, but how holy is my heart. How much does my heart belong to God, how much does my heart breathe the spiritual presence of His Son and how well do I walk with the Spirit of God. We live in a dangerous and precarious world. Lord, help me be faithful and true to love you with all my heart, all my soul and all my strength.
Pastor Brad
