1 Kings 3:1-15--Solomon's Prayer for Wisdom

1 Kings 3:1-15
English Standard Version

Solomon's Prayer for Wisdom
3 Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the LORD and the wall around Jerusalem. 2 The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the LORD.

3 Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places. 4 And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” 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. 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. 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. 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?”

10 It pleased the LORD that Solomon had asked this. 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, 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. 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. 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.”

15 And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.

---

While our heading for the last couple times spoke of Solomon's throne being established, he seemed to really be carrying out the dying wishes of his father, and had yet to really "establish" how his reign would be different than that of David's.  I think we start to see him choosing his own style and path here in this passage, first by marrying the daughter of Pharaoh in order to make a political alliance (that would be something he would do a lot of, and marrying a lot of foreign, pagan women would get him and all of Israel in a lot of trouble).  The people already were abandoning the commandments of the LORD to worship the LORD and serve Him only, to have no other gods before or besides Him, and to never make for themselves any idols or other graven images of anything that He had created.   They are doing exactly the things that the LORD told them not to do in the book of Deuteronomy and the curses of the Law are sure to come upon the people.  However, the LORD will choose not to execute judgment on the people during the reign of Solomon for the sake of David, but the reader who is familiar with the Law knows that judgment has to be coming when they read of the people engaging in idol worship and the king marrying foreign women who would turn the king's hearts towards idolatry.

Solomon has had enough passed onto him from his father David though so that he does love the LORD and desires to keep the statutes of his father David (notice it doesn't say the Law or the LORD or the statutes of the LORD....it seems Solomon only knows the Law because of what he saw his father do, but doesn't have a personal connection with it himself).  Solomon went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices for that was the greatest of high places at that time, and they though that by being somewhere higher up in altitude that you were closer to heaven and closer to God (a pagan practice that had infiltrated the minds of the Israelites).  The LORD chose to speak to Solomon there even though Solomon had not come to him and sacrificed to him in the manner prescribed by the Law (taking his sacrifices to the priests at the Tabernacle, and later the Temple).

The LORD asks Solomon to ask for anything that he wants and it will be given to him because the LORD loved David and He would give Solomon any good thing he asked for because of his father David.  Solomon asked for wisdom, which is not typically how kings would respond to such an offer.  The LORD emphasizes things that Solomon didn't ask for that would have been "normal"--to be rich or to have his enemies killed (like David just asked of Solomon).  This so pleased the LORD that Solomon was humble enough to ask for help in leading the LORD's people, for it was a great and difficult task, that the LORD said he would also give him riches, and land, and peace and prosperity--all the things that he did not ask for, but for the sake of David, the LORD would give them to Solomon anyways.  This will lead to a "problem" though as the people who are living in the sin of idolatry will not have the punishment of the LORD there to correct them, and they will assume they are doing the right thing or that the LORD no longer cares about them worshiping idols and falling into pagan practices, and they will use God's blessings as a license to sin, keep on sinning, and even become more sinful than ever before so that it will become hard to tell the difference between the people of Israel and the pagan nations around them in the near future--there may even be times when Israel is worse than its pagan neighbors.

When Solomon woke of from his dream, he came back to Jerusalem where the Ark of the Covenant was and he offered sacrifices before the LORD the right way.  At least this dream helped him figure that much out that he should have been offering sacrifices the way that the LORD prescribed and not in the way that the world around him did.  We hope when we read this that the people take note that Solomon worships the LORD in the prescribed manner and that they will want to follow the king's example, though I've already given away several times that the hearts of Solomon and the people will be compared by the LORD to that of a harlot who has cheated on Him.  The LORD is a jealous God and will not share glory with false gods who are demons trying to take that which belongs only to the LORD.

Next time we'll study an example of Solomon putting the wisdom that God gave him into practice in deciding a difficult court case that was brought before him.  Even if you don't know the story itself you probably know a figure of speech or two that come from that passage.