DAY THIRTY-SEVEN: 

King Solomon 

1 Kings 2:1-3:28 

David and Bathsheba's son died, as the Prophet Nathan had foretold. While the baby clung to life David fasted and mourned, knowing that it was he, not this innocent child, who deserved to die. His servants were afraid to reveal the boy's death when it came, fearing that David would go off the deep end and harm himself. But David did just the opposite. He washed up and ate and went on with his life. When asked why he replied, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, 'Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?'  But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me." (2 Samuel 12:22-23) This is yet another glimpse into David's heart, and shows his deep trust of and love for God.

David's affair with Bathsheba bore bitter fruit, yet God brought something good out of it. Bathsheba conceived once more and bore David a son. David named him Solomon, which comes from the Hebrew word shalom, meaning peace. We're told that the Lord loved Solomon, and through the Prophet Nathan called him Jedidiah, which means "beloved of the Lord." God had big plans for this child, and we will see them unfold today.

When David saw that his time on earth was drawing to an end, he chose Solomon to be his heir. Solomon was barely out of his boyhood and very inexperienced. David knew this and gave him some advice from his deathbed. "I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn..."

Solomon had challenges from the very beginning, but the Lord gave him victory over his enemies and firmly established him as king. In gratitude Solomon went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices. Everyone was offering their own sacrifices on the tops of hills, and our passage makes it sound like Solomon was just going to a particularly high hill. But 2 Chronicles 1 tells us that he went to the Tabernacle, which was pitched at Gibeon. His father David had taken the Ark to Jerusalem, but the Tabernacle was the place where God said all Israel should offer sacrifices. He wanted to be obedient to God in every detail.

That night God appeared to him in a dream and asked Solomon what he wanted. Solomon could have asked for anything- riches, power, long life. But he asked for none of those. Instead he asked for wisdom. "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?" God was so delighted with Solomon's request that He gave him that wisdom, plus all the other things he didn't ask for. He would become the richest man who ever lived. He would craft a number of political and trading alliances that gave him control of most of the Middle East. And he got that long life (but maybe that wasn't such a blessing- we'll talk about that tomorrow).

Our passage ends with the most famous example of Solomon's wisdom. Two prostitutes came to him with one baby. One woman claimed that the other woman rolled over on her own baby and suffocated him, then took her child and left the dead one. Of course the other denied the charge and claimed the baby was hers. Sounds almost like an episode of Judge Judy, doesn't it? But instead of saying "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining," Solomon asked for a sword. He proposed to settle the case by dividing the baby and giving each woman half. One woman said "Go ahead! If I can't have him neither will she." The other fell before Solomon and begged that rather than kill the baby that he give him to the other woman. Solomon put down the sword and gave the baby to the woman who would rather give him away. Only the true mother would respond that way. Wow! Word spread of Solomon's amazing wisdom and soon all of Israel was coming to him with their problems.

1 Kings 4:29-34 gives us an excellent summary of Solomon's wisdom: "And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore, so that Solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all other men, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol, and his fame was in all the surrounding nations. He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish. And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom." Next week we'll look at a few of Solomon's proverbs.

Solomon's asked God for wisdom, and we should too. God promises us wisdom, and even goes out of His way to offer it to us. Proverbs 1:20-23 says, "Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: 'How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.'" James 1:5-6 says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind." God's wisdom is readily accessible for any who will search it out.

We desperately need wisdom, both as individual Christians and as a church family. As I write this I'm staring at a book on my bookshelf, Deep Change, by Robert Quinn. He argues that we live in a time of, as the title suggests, deep change. He wrote,

"Incremental change is usually limited in scope and is often reversible. If the change does not work out, we can always return to the old way. Incremental change usually does not disrupt our past patterns--it is an extension of the past. Most important, during incremental change, we feel we are in control... Deep change differs from incremental change in that it requires new ways of thinking and behaving. It is change that is major in scope, discontinuous with the past, and generally irreversible. The deep change effort distorts existing patterns of action and involves taking risks. Deep change means surrendering control."

The mainline churches, like ours, have been in decline for half a century. In recent years the same decline has begun to hit the conservative churches, like the Southern Baptists, who seemed to buck the trend. The world around us has changed radically but our thinking has remained the same. We do what we already know how to do, and it doesn't work like it used to. We are facing adaptive challenges, entering situations where we don't know what to do. This is a time to seek God like never before and to ask Him for His perfect wisdom. Our world needs Christ, and we're charged with introducing those around us to Him.

Here's a beautiful contemporary hymn from Keith and Krystyn Getty: