Morning Light – July 17th, 2015: Receiving the Wisdom of Solomon

Morning Light – July 17th, 2015
Today: [1 Kings Chapter Three]: Receiving the Wisdom of Solomon. In this chapter Solomon goes up to Gibeon to the altar that Saul built there and has a dream. The Lord comes to him and asks him what he would have in life. Dreams are important more than we know. In the modern world view we dismiss dreams as figments of imagination but for Solomon this was a life changing moment.
[1Ki 3:1-28 KJV] 1 And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem round about. 2 Only the people sacrificed in high places, because there was no house built unto the name of the LORD, until those days. 3 And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places. 4 And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that [was] the great high place: a thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar. 5 In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. 6 And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as [it is] this day. 7 And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I [am but] a little child: I know not [how] to go out or come in. 8 And thy servant [is] in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. 9 Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? 10 And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.
Solomon’s kingdom is established and his renown begins to be known throughout the ancient world. In those days and even up through the middle ages it was politically expedient to intermarry between kingdoms in order to foster peace. Solomon establishes diplomatic relations with Egypt by entering into an arranged marriage with Pharaoh’s daughter. This is Solomon’s second marriage. He reigned a total of 40 years and his son Rehoboam will then become king at the age of 41. Rehoboam was born to a Moabitess named Naamah who by implication and the time frames involved was Solomon’s first wife.
Multiple marriages and marriages to foreign women was a common reality in the royal houses of ancient times yet it will prove disastrous for Solomon. Nehemiah centuries later in dealing with intermarriage of his fellow Jews with foreign wives made this statement:
[Neh 13:25-27 KJV] 25 … Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves. 26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin. 27 Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in marrying strange wives?
God has something to say about our marriages. Paul commanded the Corinthians:
[2Co 6:14 KJV] 14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
Where misguided choices in this area are concerned we sin in haste and repent at leisure and as a result suffer greatly in a broken relationship. Our children likewise are affected as will Solomon’s children be as well. Solomon’s heart is seduced by his foreign wives to commit idolatry and in the very first generation after him his son is such a poor king that the kingdom of Israel becomes irrevocably divided.
Nonetheless God receives Solomon and sees in his heart that he loves the Lord and desires to be a good and a just king. Solomon goes up to Gibeon where there is a great altar erected. This is the altar where Saul inquired of the Lord in the time of his reign. The Lord appears to him by night and asks him what he would desire. Solomon doesn’t ask for himself a great kingdom – rather he asks for wisdom and he does so in humility and contrition. He realizes there is a great deficit in his heart and he has seen in his father David the consequences of poor choices. So he cries out to God to be given an understanding heart that he might not repeat the errors of the past. All of this happens in a dream. We tend to see dreams as ethereal trivialities that don’t matter much in waking life but all of human history and the history of Israel itself pivoted on this one dream of Solomon and his sober response to the experience. Joel 2:28 and Acts 2:17 emphasis the importance of dreams for those of us who are living out the Spirit led life. We should take heed to our dreams. What if Solomon had awakened and dismissed this visitation? In what dreams has God visited us and we knew it not because we chose to dismiss the experience as inconsequential? In Acts 10:13 the entire question of whether Gentiles could be saved was not answered in a theological synod but by a dream given to Peter as he napped on the roof of his house. God give us all grace and wisdom to hearken to what the Father is saying in our dream life.
11 And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment; 12 Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. 13 And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days. 14 And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days. 15 And Solomon awoke; and, behold, [it was] a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.
We can see from this passage that wisdom is not just about human intellect or something that can be learned by experience or academic instruction. God heard the request of Solomon and responded by imparting to him in answer to prayer a capacity and a wisdom that otherwise would not have been installed in his heart. This tells us that wisdom can be for you an I a matter of impartation and not something that can only be naturally acquired. The most important aspect of receiving this wisdom as Solomon did is knowing you need it in the first place. Solomon is remarkably self aware in that he can identify this need in himself. All of us need wisdom but most people are not aware of it. We can be so outwardly oriented and so shallow that even though we suffer from the consequences of foolishness we never stop to realize that there is a path of progress.
For you and I we are not limited or restricted in that wisdom which God makes available to us. You can have installed in your life the same wisdom in fact greater than that which God granted to Solomon. The wisdom of God for you and I is not some mystical impartation but rather it comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ Himself. Paul reveals this in 1 Corinthians 1:30:
[1Co 1:30 KJV] 30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
Your wisdom is not based on experience or mysticism. There is no hidden gnosis that you must acquire to be wise and discerning in life. Your wisdom is given to you in Christ. Just as Jesus is our way, truth and life He is likewise our wisdom. You can have the intellect of a turnip and still demonstrate the wisdom of Solomon because Jesus lives in your heart. Jesus accessed the wisdom of the Father in His earth walk by only doing what He saw the Father do (John 5:19). You and I access the wisdom of the Father by virtue of the person of Christ who lives in us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Our wisdom is a person and we need only learn and become sensitive to hearing His voice to make decisions of a caliber on a par with that of Solomon in ancient times.
16 Then came there two women, [that were] harlots, unto the king, and stood before him. 17 And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. 18 And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we [were] together; [there was] no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. 19 And this woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid it. 20 And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. 21 And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear. 22 And the other woman said, Nay; but the living [is] my son, and the dead [is] thy son. And this said, No; but the dead [is] thy son, and the living [is] my son. Thus they spake before the king. 23 Then said the king, The one saith, This [is] my son that liveth, and thy son [is] the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son [is] the dead, and my son [is] the living. 24 And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. 25 And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. 26 Then spake the woman whose the living child [was] unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, [but] divide [it]. 27 Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she [is] the mother thereof. 28 And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God [was] in him, to do judgment.
When Solomon awakes from his dream the Jewish mystics believed the result was profound. They held that he could understand the language of animals like our modern day Dr. Dolittle. They held that when the two women contended over the surviving baby in the above passage that Solomon actually heard a voice speak to him saying “She is his mother …” indicating the truth of the situation. God’s wisdom is wrapped up in His voice. It is not a capacity given to us to use within ourselves. It flows through listen and total dependence upon the Father. In Isaiah we read the following:
[Isa 30:21 KJV] 21 And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This [is] the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.
John the Beloved spoke of the wisdom of God as an inward teacher that would reveal all that was needed:
[1Jo 2:27 KJV] 27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
So in your life know that you do not need to strain to learn or apply yourself to understanding convoluted spiritual principles that will give you success. The wisdom of God is simple and uncomplicated. It does not install itself in your mind it dwells in your spirit and comes forth in the still small voice to guide you in every decision in life.