The wisdom of God is too wonderful, too mysterious, too overpowering for us mere mortals to fully comprehend with human ear and mind. Our ability to understand the full meaning of the holy word of God is overshadowed by our human shortcomings: the need to seek personal comfort and pleasure too often detracts us from the holy instructions to forget about ourselves and to help and to serve others; the need to have power or to be in a position of authority too often obscures the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves; even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ are too frequently forgotten: If you would be great among men, you must become their servant."
Perhaps the most well remembered story about King Solomon is the story of the two women who come before Solomon to settle a dispute. Each woman had given birth to a male child within three days of each other. One of the woman tells the story that the other woman, during the night, rolled over on her child and the child died. The mother of the dead child then took him and placed him in bed with the other woman and took the living child as her own. When the first woman awoke, she soon discovered that the dead child, who she at first though was her own child, became aware that it was not. The second woman then declares before Solomon that the deceased child was most certainly the child of the first woman, and that the living one was her own. Thus the two women argued back and forth before King Solomon.
Finally King Solomon responds: Let's look at the facts which you present. Both of you claim that living child as your own, and each insists that the dead child belongs to the other. Then Solomon does a very strange thing. He calls for a sword to be brought to him. Turning to the women, he instructs that the living child should be cut in two and that half should be given to each woman.
Immediately the woman who was the real mother of the child spoke out. Oh please, my Lord, my King, give this other woman the child! Please do not harm him! Please, do not kill him!
But the other woman responded: All right, do it. He will be neither hers nor mine; go ahead and divide him between us.
Wise King Solomon. At once he counters his command: Do not kill the child, but give the baby to the woman who has pleaded for the life of the child; her desire for him to live is proof that she is his mother!
How did Solomon become so wise? The passage read from the Old Testament book of First Kings gives us the answer.
David, the shepard boy who slew a giant with a simple sling, had ruled the nation Israel for many years. He was considered the greatest of all their kings. David had declared before his death that Solomon, the son delivered by Bathsheba, would be King in his stead. When David died, and Solomon had won the battles for the throne which ensued after David's death, King Solomon offered sacrifices and burnt offers to the Lord God at the altar at Gibeon. That night, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said to Solomon: "What do want? Ask, and I will give it to you!"
Solomon's reply is such a wonderful tribute to the glory of God and the blessings which had been bestowed upon King David.
"You were wonderfully kind to my father, David, because he was honest and true and faithful to you. And you have continued this great kindness to him today by giving him a son to succeed him. O Lord my God, now you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn't know his way around. And here I am among your own chosen people, a nation so great they are too numerous to count! Give me and understanding mind so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great nation of your?
God was pleased with Solomon's reply. God was glad because Solomon had asked for wisdom. In responding to Solomon, God praised the new King of Israel: "Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people and have not asked for a long life or riches for yourself or the death of your enemies – I will give you what you asked for! I will give you a wise and understanding mind such as no one else has ever had or ever will have! And I will also give you what you did not ask for – riches and honor! No other king in all the world will be compared to you for the rest of your life! And if you follow me and obey my commands as your father, David, did, I will give you long life."
There is the answer, plain and simple, directly to the point. Out of all that Solomon could have asked for, he sought that he might be given wisdom that he could rule among God's people justly, with the ability to discern the difference between good and evil. Yes, he could have asked for riches, either for himself, or for the enrichment of the nation, Israel. After all, he was the now King of Israel. Or he could have asked for honor, for power, for himself, or for the people of Israel. Let's face it, he was the ruler of the very people whom God had chosen to be his own. But he did not. He asked for the one thing that made him truly great: he asked for wisdom and the ability to judge and rule fairly and equitably. He asked for that which pleased God, and thus enable God to freely give even those things for which Solomon had not asked.
But how often do we choose to ask good for what is best for us? Yes, on Sunday mornings we pray and confess our sinfulness; we ask for mercy and forgiveness, also asking for guidance in our daily lives. But how many of us ask for God to bestow us with the wisdom to get through each day? How many of us even give a hint of admitting our true nature in our prayers and really seek the knowledge that would sustain for the day? I know, Solomon asked for wisdom to rule a nation of people, and he asked not for just a day's worth of wisdom, but simply for wisdom to be able to rule justly and with equity. We seem to beg for God to make US powerful, so we may dominate, not to make us wise, so that we may govern and guide. We tend to hear one side of a story, and make a decision; wise king Solomon insisted on knowing the whole story, then used that knowledge to insure that the right person was acknowledged
When we pray, and when we, as the church minister to those around us, for whom are we ministering? Is what we do to please ourselves? Is it to please someone who is in a superior position to us? Or is it to please God? Are we caring toward others because it is the proper thing to do? Or do we perform these acts in order to receive accolades and praises from others?
Solomon did not ask to be made king; he was proclaimed the successor king by his own father. When he found himself in this situation, he turned to God to give thanks for the example of his father, and for the blessings which God had provided for David as king of the Israelites. He then confessed his own poverty of knowledge; exposed his own weakness; and prayed for the wisdom that would void his poverty and weakness.
We do not need to ask for more. There is nothing that cannot be overcome, if we but choose to receive God's wisdom every day. For with wisdom comes knowledge; with wisdom comes strength; with wisdom come the ability to love and to interact with others justly and earnestly.
Dare to be a Solomon. Dare to confess all to God, then seek only one thing from God – Wisdom, that you may serve God rightly, and justly, and with honesty.
Amen.