Preached 7 August 2022 at Christ Church, Billericay
Title: Wisdom and
Wonder (Summer Series: Jesus our Jubilee)
Reading: 1 Kings
3v5-14; James 3v13,17; James 1v5
All a dream
“So it was all a
dream”. Don’t you just hate it when a story that you’re
enjoying uses this device to get out of a hole it had dug for itself!
Perhaps the most famous of these, if you’re a certain age, is
[play theme] Dallas. Bobby
Ewing was never run over, the whole of that series was a dream.
This
type of plot twist is a terrible way to tell a story. But the twist
we have today, is that the dream comes before the story, and to a
considerable extent tells us what is going to happen. That sort of
twist can only come in real life – because we know the truth is
stranger than fiction.
Dreams
Solomon's dream is not
an unusual event in the Bible, there are plenty of occasions where
God speaks to people through dreams. Perhaps the most well known
ones, are in Matthew chapters one and two. Here God speaks to Joseph
about Mary, and urges him to take Mary, who is now expecting the baby
Jesus, as his wife. Then in chapter two, the Magi are warned not to
return to Herod in a dream. So God has protected his Messiah, and
ensured that He can grow up to become the man that we read about in
the NT using dreams.
Dream?
I wonder if anyone here
has ever heard from God in a dream? I don’t remember ever
having such a dream, but it may still be possible because Joel
promises that ‘old men will dream dreams’.
Young Solomon
Solomon is not an old
man at this point. In verse 7 he says that he is only a little
child. This seems to be a figurative description of his ability to
rule, rather than referring to his physical age.
Cleverer people than me
have done the arithmetic. They have worked out when he could have
been born. He was one of David and Bathsheba’s children, but
not the first, because we know that he died. So calculating from the
time David stole Bathsheba, and murdered Uriah the Hittite, until
David’s death, gives us a possible oldest age of 24, with the
most likely age being about 20.
Beginnings of Wisdom
Solomon, has been
brought up in the ways of the Lord. He knows he has many things to
do – there is a temple to build, and the people have to be
stopped from worshipping other Gods. (1 Kings 3:2) says “The
people, however, were still sacrificing at the high places”, so
before the dream, the things that he knew he needed to do may have
been weighing on his mind. But his upbringing meant that he knew
where to turn. So when God comes to him in the dream, he is perhaps
more receptive than he would otherwise have been. Solomon already
has the beginnings of wisdom. Although he, too, was guilty of making
offerings in the high places.
The Dream
At Gibeon, the king
celebrates his succession to the throne with an enormous celebration.
It starts with a thousand burnt offerings. Gibeon is, at that time,
the most important religious city. It is therefore an appropriate
place for God to speak to Solomon.
What would you ask for?
God starts with, “Ask
for whatever you want me to give you.”
We know from our reading
how Solomon responded, and we will look at that in more detail in a
minute, but first, let's ask ourselves how we would respond.
What would you ask God
for?
What is your greatest
desire for yourself, or for others?
That is our activity
later, so we can start thinking about it now.
The response
Notice that Solomon does
not simply blurt out his wants, he starts by showing God his
understanding, because what he will ask for comes out of the
understanding that he has already gained. Lets look at verses 6-8:
Verse 6
You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David,
because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart.
You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a
son to sit on his throne this very day.
Firstly, he acknowledges
his roots. He is where he is because of God’s great kindness
(we might call it grace now) to his father, because of who his father
was. David was described as “a man after my own heart”,
by God (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22) because he was the person who
would do God's will. God’s kindness continues because David’s
son has succeeded him on the throne.
Verse 7
“Now,
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.
Next, he recognises his
limited abilities – he does not know how to rule, he has hardly
had any practice.
Verse 8
Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great
people, too numerous to count or number.
Finally, he acknowledges
God’s chosen people, and the fulfilment of the promise to
Abraham that they would be a great people who would be too numerous
to count. (Gen 15:5)
The request
All of these form the
basis for the request that is to follow – a discerning heart
and wisdom to rule. He wants to know, to be able to distinguish
right from wrong.
God’s response
God is pleased with
Solomon’s request, had he asked for the death of his enemies,
for wealth and a long life, they would no doubt have been granted.
But, Solomon asked for something better, and his request was granted.
He was also given wealth and honour. Conditionally, he was promised
a long life – all he has to do is “walk in God’s
ways and obey His statutes and commands” for the rest of his
life. (Easier said than done, of course.)
The Golden age
Solomon built the
temple, he was fabulously rich and Israel with him. His reign marked
a golden age (both literally and figuratively). You can read of his
wisdom in the next chapter.
Wisdom for us
None of us will ever
have to rule a kingdom, and even the Queen does not have the power
that Solomon had. She, too, was aware of the need for wisdom. I like
her quote that Catherine gave us last week.
At the start of her reign, “She was in her salad days – green and hard”
or something like that.
Her wisdom has served us
well, but for her, like us, the verses in James that we read are
probably more useful.
James 1v5
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives
generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to
you.”
Like Solomon, when we
lack wisdom, we should ask God. We don’t have to wait for God
to approach us in a dream. You realise what that means, we have
easier access to God than even Solomon.
James 3 verses 13, 17
Just like Solomon,
though, the wisdom we get is the wisdom to do the will of God.
“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by
their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from
wisdom. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure;
then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good
fruit, impartial and sincere.”
So when we ask for heaven's wisdom, as I’m sure we do from time to time, James has
provided us with a checklist, to ensure that we have been listening
to the heavenly wisdom correctly.
But
the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then
peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit,
impartial and sincere.
If what we hear doesn’t
meet these criteria, it’s not from God.
On youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldWF4cwCsDI
In the Beginning God?: Modern Cosmology and Biblical Creation Today - The Origin of the Universe According to Science and the Bible by David A. Wilkinson
