sign in sign up
<<
Home , 1 Kings 3, 1 Kings 7

1 Kings 3:1-15 “Ask For Wisdom”

Privilege bears responsibility Access bears responsibility • Honor is earned • Respect is earned • Trust is precarious – takes years to gain and seconds to lose. • said: Proverbs 3:5–7 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil.

Jeremiah 33:2–3 2 “Thus says the LORD who made it, the LORD who formed it to establish it (the LORD is His name): 3 ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

1 Now Solomon made a treaty with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and married Pharaoh’s daughter; then he brought her to the City of until he had finished building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall all around . • What? o A Treaty with Egypt that included his daughter and all of her pagan gods? o Idols of animals, humans and ½ animals – ½ humans? o Purely for politics – who marries a woman for that? o Was Solomon speaking of his Egyptian wife when he compared Abishag to her? Song of Solomon 1:9 I have compared you, my love, To my filly among Pharaoh’s chariots.

• Notice his priority list: 1. House for me 1 Kings 7:1 But Solomon took thirteen years to build his own house; so he finished all his house. 2. House for God 3. Security for the rest of the people.

• Notice that it was AFTER he married this pagan woman that he goes to the Lord for wisdom and help.

1 Kings 3.1-15 1

o Oh how much we could save ourselves the agony and heartache of past mistakes if we had just gone to the Lord for wisdom first. • Solomon will marry many pagan women in the future – this would become his eventual undoing. o Solomon did not have a heart after God’s own heart like David. :1–10 1 But King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites— 2 from the nations of whom the LORD had said to the children of , “You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. 3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. 4 For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6 Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not fully follow the LORD, as did his father David. 7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon. 8 And he did likewise for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. 9 So the LORD became angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned from the LORD God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, 10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not keep what the LORD had commanded.

2 Meanwhile the people sacrificed at the high places, because there was no house built for the name of the LORD until those days. 3 And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places. • It was not right to offer sacrifices in any place but where the tabernacle and ark were; and wherever they were, whether on a high place or a plain, sacrifices might be lawfully offered, previously to the building of the temple. 1 • Since the days of the Judges the people of Israel used the ancient pagan places of the Canaanites to offer their incense to the Lord – against His instructions. o The Ark is in a special tent on Mt. Moriah – the Temple Mound – placed there by David o The wilderness tabernacle – placed there by Moses – in is , without the Ark, without the Mercy Seat of God. Deuteronomy 12:1–5

1 B. Blayney, Thomas Scott, and R.A. Torrey with John Canne, Browne, The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, vol. 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Software, 2009), 233. 1 “These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. 4 You shall not worship the LORD your God with such things. 5 “But you shall seek the place where the LORD your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go.

• Why didn’t Solomon go to the Tent of the ? o It wasn’t the popular place? o It wasn’t the cool church? o None of his friends went there? o Going with the flow?

4 Now the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place: Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. :3–6 3 Then Solomon, and all the assembly with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon; for the tabernacle of meeting with God was there, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness. 4 But David had brought up the ark of God from Kirjath Jearim to the place David had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it at Jerusalem. 5 Now the bronze altar that Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, he put before the tabernacle of the LORD; Solomon and the assembly sought Him there. 6 And Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before the LORD, which was at the tabernacle of meeting, and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.

1 Kings 3.1-15 3

5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask! What shall I give you?” • Jon Courson: “God doesn’t just tuck you in and tune you out. Rather, I believe it’s often His desire to minister to us in the night hours because, for most of us, it’s the only time we’re quiet enough to hear Him!” 2

• How would you respond if God asked you tonight what it is you want the most? • What do you dream about? o That new boat! o That new car! o That new house! § Most of us are so bent on the temporary rather than the eternal.

6 And Solomon said: “You have shown great mercy to Your servant David my father, because he walked before You in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You; You have continued this great kindness for him, and You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. 7 Now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king instead of my father David, but I am a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. which can refer to a dependent child (cf. Exod 2:6; 1 ,נַעַר קָ ט ֹן Solomon uses the term • Sam 1:22) or to a youth not yet fully responsible for his own financial support (Gen 19:4; Hos 11:1). Jeremiah uses similar phrasing in Jer 1:6. Solomon acknowledges his utter dependence on God here.3 • It was God’s intention that the King of Israel would be the godly example to all the people of Israel. Deuteronomy 17:14–20 14 “When you come to the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations that are around me,’

2 Jon Courson, Jon Courson’s Application Commentary: Volume One: Genesis–Job (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2005), 966. 3 Paul R. House, 1, 2 Kings, vol. 8, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995). 1 Kings 3.1-15 5

15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses; one from among your brethren you shall set as king over you; you may not set a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. 16 But he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall not return that way again.’ 17 Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself. 18 “Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. 19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, 20 that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

8 And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people, too numerous to be numbered or counted. 9 Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” • This phrase literally means “a listening heart” or “an obedient heart.” In the “hearing” and “obeying” come from the same word, a linguistic trait with practical implications. 4 James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. • 574. ἁπλῶς haplṓs; adv. haploús (573), sincere, uncompounded, clear, without duplicity. Bountifully, liberally (James 1:5). 5 • 3679. ὀνειδίζω oneidízō; fut. oneidísō, from óneidos (3681), reproach. To defame, disparage, reproach. Used in an absolute sense with a neg., to not upbraid with benefits conferred (James 1:5). 6

10 The speech pleased the LORD, that Solomon had asked this thing. 11 Then God said to him: “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked long life for yourself, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice, 12 behold, I have done according to your words; see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. 13 And I have also given you what you have not asked: both riches and honor, so that there shall not be anyone like you among the kings all your days. 14 So if you walk in My ways,

4 Paul R. House, 1, 2 Kings, vol. 8, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 110. 5 Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000). 6 Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000). to keep My statutes and My commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” 15 Then Solomon awoke; and indeed it had been a dream. And he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, offered up burnt offerings, offered peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants. • Notice that God places His wisdom above the treasures of the world Proverbs 2:3–6 3 Yes, if you cry out for discernment, And lift up your voice for understanding, 4 If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; 5 Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, And find the knowledge of God. 6 For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;

Proverbs 1:20–23 20 Wisdom calls aloud outside; She raises her voice in the open squares. 21 She cries out in the chief concourses, At the openings of the gates in the city She speaks her words: 22 “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, And fools hate knowledge. 23 Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.

• The Lord wants us to call on Him for wisdom: Psalm 84:11–12 11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly. 12 O LORD of hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in You!

1 Kings 3.1-15 7