What Gift to Ask For

Lets Pray

Introduction

I don’t know about you, but whenever December rolls around, I get excited. December is my birthday month, as well as Christmastime, and I get really excited about that. Not only do I get to give gifts to others and show them how much I love them and care about them, but I get to receive gifts! It’s one of the only times during the year when asking for almost anything I want is acceptable. I’m sure we can all relate to that on some level. Whether you’re asking your parents, your significant other, or a close friend or relative, we all have a desire in our hearts for something or some gift that we would love to have that we can’t get on our own. We are relying on these people to hopefully give us the gift that we desire.

Explanation

1 Kings 3:1–15 ESV

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. The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the Lord. Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places. 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. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” 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. 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. 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. 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?” It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 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, 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. 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. 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.” 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.

2 Chronicles 1:1-13 is a parallel passage to this text, and while for the sake of time I won’t read it, there are some details that I will mention throughout that i will reference from 2 Chronicles.

Vs. 1-2

So Solomon, the Son of David from his wife Bathsheba, is about to become the newly appointed King. In 1 Kings 2, some of David’s final words to his son were for him to bring their gray hair to the grave with blood. After David passes, Solomon officially becomes King. Then, Solomon’s half-brother tries to undermine Solomon’s throne, and Solomon has him killed, along with Abithar the priest, David’s general Joab, and a man named Shimei, all for going against him and his father David. So just after his coronation, he already had four people executed.

We then arrive at 1 Kings chapter 3, a parallel passage with 2 Chronicles 1. Solomon decides to make a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Egypt is in a weak position politically, so Solomon allies with them, receiving his bride and the city as a dowry from his bride Gezer, while Epypt gets a strong ally. Solomon is using this marriage to gain a political advantage.

So he brings her into Jerusalem until Solomon’s house, the temple, and the wall around Jerusalem are finished being built. And that’s one issue that the author of Kings is setting up for the rest of the book: the location of worship and sacrifice. You see, there’s no temple, no house for the Lord built yet. The people of Israel are sacrificing on the high places, shrines for worship and sacrifice to gods. Some may have been devoted solely to Yahweh, while others allowed the worship of many gods and idols. But the law is clear in Deuteronomy 7 that the tabernacle with the ark of the covenant is the central place where sacrifice to Yahweh is appropriate, excluding some particular circumstances that God allows.

The author of Kings is starting to plant these seeds in the readers’ minds to show the beginning of the downfall of Solomon’s faith. He’s making political moves, marrying foreign women, and the people are using the high places to atone with God instead of the tabernacle or the ark of the covenant.

Vs. 3-5

Solomon loves Yahweh and follows him like David. He really does! Yet, he is making sacrifices and offerings at the high places. There’s a lack of zeal and passion, but he does love Yahweh.

This is an interesting time in the life of Israel. You see, the dwelling place of God has been somewhat divided. The ark of the covenant was in Gibeon within the Tabernacle, but after the Philistines stole it in battle, David brought it to Jerusalem and set it up with its own tent. And even long after that, the two are still separated, with God’s presence not filling his tabernacle.

So Solomon goes to Gibeon, known as the great, or most significant, high place, probably because it was the site of the tabernacle. He brought a thousand burnt offerings to be sacrificed on the bronze altar that was made for the tabernacle. Such a large amount of sacrifices could indicate the initiation of covenanting with Yahweh as Solomon begins his reign. So he sacrifices all these animals, and that night while he is asleep, Solomon sees the Lord appear to him in a dream. God says, “Ask what I shall give you.” He is basically saying, “What do you want? What do you desire from me?” He got God’s attention and seeing his many sacrifices, God comes to him, asking what he desires.

Vs. 6-9

Solomon can tell God anything he wants, and God will may it to him. What will Solomon ask for? Money? Political power? Long life? Nope.

First, Solomon praises God. He says, “you have shown me great, steadfast love. This is God’s graceful, merciful love, his faithful love. It is a word from Exodus 34:6-7 that God himself uses to describe himself. God has shown this steadfast love to David, Solomon’s father, because David was faithful, righteous, and upright in his heart. David loved God and followed him, and God showed him that love in return. He showed David steadfast love by giving him a son to take over his throne. Solomon treats God with honor, respect, worship, and praise and even speaks about his late father, David, with integrity and respect, despite David’s late-life failures and disappointments. Solomon is pointing the glory and praise to God, recognizing just how great and good God is and has been.

Next, Solomon is humble. He says you’ve made me, your servant, king in place of my dad David, even though I’m a child who doesn’t have it all together. He says he doesn’t know how to go out or come in, a saying that is just referring to his daily tasks, his day-to-day responsibilities. Even though Solomon is young, probably about as old as many of us, God made him king of Israel. Not only that, but he is the king of a great nation, a nation large and many. Solomon doesn’t just recognize that God was faithful to him, but also Abraham, because he promised Abraham that he would be the father of many, that his descendant would be too many to count, and now they are! Solomon recognizes all that; he acknowledges his unworthiness and inadequacy and praises God for how good and faithful he is to all he covenants with. He is acting in humility and ultimately is still praising God in it.

And now he makes his request. As he thinks about his weakness and inadequacy, Solomon asks God for an understanding mind. He wants to be a good king; he wants to be wise, knowing the difference between right and wrong so that he can be a godly judge for God’s people. It’s not just that he asks for wisdom; it’s that he asks for wisdom for a reason: to be a good, just king for the people of God. But what even is wisdom? Wisdom is not knowledge or education. It is understanding, good judgment, and maturity. God is the giver of wisdom, and James, the half-brother of Jesus, says that God gives wisdom in James 1:5. Then in James 3:17, he says that wisdom is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial, and sincere. Solomon is seeking God to help him be all these things because God is all these things.

Application 1

Imagine God appeared to you in a dream and asked YOU what you wanted, so he could give it to you. I imagine many of you might jump to material things. You would ask for the new iPhone, or a new car, or a nice big house. Or maybe you’re not so direct in your greed. Maybe what you want is for your student loans to be paid off in full, or to have a nice, well-paid job after graduation, or a free ride to seminary (which by the way, go to seminary). I know that if God said he’d give me anything I’d ask for, I wouldn’t have asked for wisdom. I’m married with a baby on the way, and I would love for God to give me a full-time ministry position with healthcare, a free ride to an SBC seminary, a nice big house with at least 2 acres of land, and maybe a new laptop too. What would you have in your heart? What Would you ask God to give you a girlfriend? Would you ask God to be married by the end of the year? Friends, these are not bad things to have, or even to ask God for. It IS bad if this is where your priorities lie, and it is worse if you ask seeking selfish gain.

Solomon’s response to God is threefold: praise, humility, and request. This should be our approach to God as well. God the Father has given us the same opportunity through Christ, to boldly come before his throne and ask for anything we desire. Yet when we approach, we must not approach with an attitude of apathy, pride, or entitlement. Come to God in praise, humility, and pleading, with a goal not to satisfy all your pleasures, but to be a better servant of King Jesus.

Vs. 10-15

Now how does God respond to Solomon’s request? The Lord is pleased! God loves when his people approach him seeking him in humility, desiring wisdom to be good people. Yahweh says to Solomon, “Since you asked for an understanding mind instead of long life, riches, or the life of your enemies, I’ll give it to you.” It seems, then, that God wasn’t just going to give Solomon whatever he wanted. He might not have given it to him if he had asked for those bad things. But because the king had in his heart a desire to be wise and understanding, not greedy or vengeful, Yahweh gives him his desire. Instead of asking for a hit list like David did before his death, Solomon seeks wisdom from above. So God makes Solomon unique in his wisdom, so no one before or after Solomon will ever be wiser. God makes him the man of most excellent understanding. And to reward Salmon for his good desire, Yahweh also makes him the wealthiest man ever. And Yahweh promises that if Solomon is faithful to him, he will lengthen his days, allowing him to live a long life.

Solomon responds to God’s generosity and blessing with gratitude. He goes to Jerusalem, stands before God’s presence, and offers up more burnt offerings and peace offerings! What are peace offerings? A peace offering is an offering of an unblemished animal, often in response to unexpected blessings, answers to prayer, or expressions of thankfulness. Solomon responds to God’s gift with thankfulness and praise. And his public display of gratitude and devotion to God is then celebrated with a feast for his servants! He immediately acts as a benevolent, wise king.

SIS

Ask God for the gift of wisdom.

Illustration

I think we all can relate to having difficulty understanding some concepts and points of view, especially in some of our classes. Whether it’s election, eschatology, gifts of the holy spirit, or even methods of preaching and church ministry, the truth can be hard to discern. But as we wrestle with these views, we seek other’s opinions and convictions, whether we are asking Dr. Scarlett his position on premillennialism (the historic position of the school) or Dr. Small’s approach to canonical context, we ask them because we know they are wiser than us. We ask those who are older, more experienced, more educated, and greater than us because we respect them and they know more than us. In a similar way, we seek God for his wisdom and understanding because his is infinitely greater, stronger, mightier, and wiser than we ever will be.

Argumentation

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”

These are Jesus’s words in Matthew 7, as he ends his sermon on the mount, challenging the crowd to seek the Father for good gifts.

His half-brother James said something similar that I mentioned earlier, written in James 1:

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

Final Application

Our priority, our main desire, our sole want, should be godliness. And the only way to godliness is living out wisdom from above. Ultimately, the Lord gives us wisdom. He is the one who gives generously to all, and all we must do is simply ask, like a child asking their Father for a gift. And best of all, God has already blessed us with so much of his wisdom in his scriptures. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs are full of wisdom of course, but so is God’s perfect law in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, as well as New Testament books like James and Hebrews. Seek God’s wisdom in his Scriptures written first for Israel and the early church, yet today still applicable and relevant to us. Submit to the Holy Spirit, given to those of us in Christ, to live holy, godly, wise lives. And when the Father blesses you with wisdom and understanding, respond with more praise and thankfulness! Do not take for granted the immense blessings he bestows upon you. Thank him for it.

Conclusion

The greatest blessing of being in Christ is that we have already received the greatest Christmas gift, the salvation offered by the Son of God. And He has the best resource we could ever receive: the wisdom of God.

The way to receive it is simply to ask.

So pray for wisdom, seek wisdom from God. Ask him to give you an understanding heart and understanding mind, not so you can benefit, but so you can serve his kingdom better, just as Solomon sought to be a good king of Israel. Ask him for wisdom, for maturity as you go in and come out. Rely on him to provide for you insight so you can live, every day, a life of worship and praise to the perfect Father, because of the perfect Son, through the perfect Spirit.

Let’s Pray.