I Kings 3:5-12 * August 16, 2009 * Pentecost 11 * Pastor Pagels
In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
Solomon is one of those Old Testament names that are recognized by believers and unbelievers alike. Even if you aren’t a Bible scholar, even if you have never opened a Bible, you probably know a thing or two about Solomon.
But how well do you know him? Besides the fact that he was the wisest man who ever lived, besides the fact that he was one of the wealthiest men who ever lived, what else do you know about him? To test your knowledge I have devised a short quiz about Solomon’s life, and you might be surprised at how much you don’t know (or maybe how much you have forgotten).
Let’s start with an easy one. Who were Solomon’s parents? Answer: Solomon’s father was
Question #2 is a little tougher: What was Solomon’s other name, the name the Lord gave him through the prophet Nathan? The answer is: Jedidiah, a name that means “loved by the LORD” (II Samuel 12:25).
Question #3 is also a test of your general Bible knowledge: It is believed that Solomon was the author of at least parts of which Old Testament books? Answer: Solomon penned two psalms (72 and 127), much of Proverbs, and there is strong evidence that he wrote Songs of Songs and Ecclesiastes as well.
All of these writings belong to a type of literature known as wisdom literature, and that makes sense. Solomon was known for his wisdom. Solomon was known around the world for his wisdom. Look in the dictionary and you will find a word that describes a person who possesses great knowledge and understanding. That kind of person is said to be “Solomonic.”
There is much that we can learn from the Spirit-inspired writings of Solomon, but this morning we will take a little different approach. Instead of studying some of the things he wrote, we will examine some of the things he did. And the Lord will teach us some real life lessons through the real life experiences of…
SOLOMON: KING OF WEALTH, WISDOM AND
WONDER
At the beginning of his reign the Lord appeared to Solomon while he was sleeping, but it wasn’t just a dream. God came to the young king and said: “Ask for whatever you want me to give you” (I Kings 3:5). With that offer God was essentially handing Solomon a blank check. There were no limits. There were no restrictions. Solomon could have absolutely anything he wanted. So what did he ask for?
Solomon replied: “O
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. Your servant
is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count
or number. So give your servant a
discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and
wrong” (I Kings 3:7-9).
Even before Solomon asked for wisdom he demonstrated that he was wise beyond his years. He didn’t ask for anything for himself. With his request he wasn’t thinking of himself. His primary concern was for God and God’s people. And so Solomon asked God for a discerning heart (literally a “listening” heart) so that he could govern God’s people wisely.
The Lord was so pleased with Solomon’s request that he gave him what he asked for and much, much more. He gave Solomon riches and honor the likes of which the world had never seen before. And God promised to give Solomon a long life as long as he continued to follow in the footsteps of his father David.
How wise was wise King Solomon? His proverbs numbered in the thousands. He was knowledgeable about all kinds of plant
life and every kind of animal. His wisdom was greater than the wisdom of the
East and
I don’t want you to get the impression that Solomon only used his high IQ to impress people. Remember the reason he asked for wisdom in the first place was to help people, to help him rule God’s people. And Solomon demonstrated his God-given ability to distinguish between right and wrong in one particular court case.
The dispute involved two women, actually prostitutes, each of whom had a baby boy. As they slept with their children one night tragedy struck when one of the mothers suffocated her baby and he died. The mother of the living child claimed that the mother whose boy had died switched babies in the middle of the night, but the accused mother insisted that the woman with the dead child in her possession made the whole story up.
It was a classic case of “she said, she said.” With emotions and tensions running high, Solomon did a most unusual thing. Instead of examining the evidence, instead of asking questions, the king declared, “Bring me a sword” (I Kings 3:24), and he ordered that the living child be cut in two and that each mother be given half.
The baby’s real mother objected. She decided that it would be better to lose her son than it would be to watch him be killed. The other mother wasn’t filled with the same kind of compassion. She accepted the king’s judgment. She even demanded that the order be executed. And that was all the evidence Solomon needed. With one simple command Solomon identified which woman was telling the truth, and he gave her back her son.
Solomon’s wisdom was unparalleled among the people of his
day. The only thing that even came close
to matching his wisdom was his enormous wealth.
How wealthy was Solomon? In those days silver was considered to be a semi-
precious metal (much like it is today), but not in Solomon’s kingdom. It was said that silver was as common as
stones in
The only metal that amounted to anything was gold, and the amount of gold that came into the treasury every year was 666 talents, or approximately 25 tons (I Kings 10:14). That’s hard to imagine, almost as hard as it is for us to imagine the huge building project that this huge amount of gold was used to finance.
The Lord gave Solomon the privilege of building the temple
in
He proclaimed: “Praise
be to the LORD, who has given rest to his people
If only Solomon would have followed his own advice. The Lord had given him everything a king could want, wisdom and wealth and peace and prosperity. The only thing God asked for in return was for Solomon to follow him with his whole heart, a command that proved to be too difficult for Solomon to obey.
You see, Solomon loved women, lots of women, foreign women who worshiped foreign gods. He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. And even if you try to give Solomon the benefit of the doubt, even if you say that most of the marriages were arranged to solidify political alliances, the argument doesn’t hold up.
Way back in Exodus God warned his people not to intermarry
with their heathen neighbors (34:15,16) because they would lead them into idolatry. And as intelligent as Solomon was, even
though he was well aware of the warnings and the dangers, that was exactly what
happened. We are told that “as Solomon grew old, his wives turned his
heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his
God” (I Kings 11:4).
It is interesting to note how the Bible describes Solomon’s sin. It wasn’t a momentary lapse in judgment. It wasn’t a matter of Solomon getting soft in his old age. No, we are told that “Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD” (I Kings 11:6). And that brings us back to the theme of this sermon: Solomon: King of Wealth, Wisdom and Wonder.
The wealth and wisdom parts aren’t too hard to understand, but what makes Solomon a king of “wonder?” While it is true that people looked at Solomon’s wealth and listened to his wisdom with wonder and amazement, the final chapter of his life makes us wonder about something else. We are left wondering what happened to Solomon’s soul when he died.
Did the false gods Ashtoreth and Chemosh and Molech take the place of the one true God in his heart? Or was the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon’s personal memoir in which the aged ruler looked back on his life and confessed that life apart from the Lord is utterly “meaningless” (the word appears at least 35 times in the book)?
I would like to think that Solomon saw the error of his ways. I am hopeful that Solomon is among that great cloud of witnesses who followed God on earth and are now dwelling with God in heaven, but honestly I don’t know. I can’t say for sure where Solomon is, but if he were here today I know that he would have some words of wisdom to share with us, not just facts, not just proverbs, but the kind of wisdom that he gained by personal experience.
The first thing Solomon would say to all of us is: “Be content.” Solomon literally had it all, but he came to understand that without God in his life everything was nothing. He learned that lesson the hard way, and maybe we need to learn it too.
You don’t have to bow down to an idol to be guilty of idolatry. Maybe your idol is “more,” more money, more security, more toys, more time off, more praise. Maybe you need to re-examine your priorities. Maybe you need to sit down and ask yourself if God is your top priority.
The second piece of wisdom Solomon would share with us doesn’t directly apply to all of us. For all the young people who are here today, and for everyone who is searching for a spouse, Solomon says to you: “Be selective.”
Life is filled with many important decisions, where you will go to school, where you will live, what you will do for a living, etc, but perhaps the most important decision you will ever make is selecting your future spouse.
What will you look for in a mate? Looks? Brains? A strong work ethic? A good sense of humor? Those traits may be important, but by far the most important quality to look for in your search for Mr. or Mrs. Right is someone who is in a right relationship with God.
And that kind of relationship comes only through one person, a man who spoke with divine wisdom when he pointed to himself and declared that “one greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:42), the God-man whose blood is more precious than all the gold in the world.
Jesus shed his blood on the cross to take away the sins of the world, Solomon’s sins, your sins, my sins, every sin. The Holy Spirit works through the Word to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. The Lord has prepared for us an eternal inheritance that will never perish, spoil or fade.
Because God has lavished upon us the riches of his grace, because God has filled our hearts with wisdom from on high, we believe. We believe that we are forgiven. We believe that we will live forever in heaven. And by applying to our lives the lessons learned by Solomon we believe that even if we have nothing, through faith in Jesus we have everything. Amen.