ASK WHAT GOD SHOULD GIVE YOU
1 Kings 3:3-14
8/17/2003
If God offered you any one wish, what would you ask for? Suppose God says to us that we can have anything we want, or always wanted.
So we say to God: "Uh, I'd like wisdom."
Hello!
Would we really say that?
Most of us would probably respond like we've hit the lottery and ask for things like money, prestige, power or some other form of instant gratification.
This morning I would like to speak from the Old Testament lesson in 1 Kings 3:3-14 (READ)
In the Old Testament, God rarely appeared to people. However, King Solomon had a number of direct encounters with God and this was one of them. Solomon could have asked for riches, but rather he asked for the ability to fulfill his God given calling - to be a fair and just governor in Israel. Solomon wanted the things of God ahead of any riches and honor for himself.
He wanted a discerning heart to be able to be a good governor of God’s people.
Just by asking for wisdom, Solomon shows himself to be wise: wise enough to remember what the Lord has done in Solomon’s father, David’s life, wise enough to know that he lacks experience, wise enough to ask the Lord for an understanding mind. Asking for wisdom actually shows just how smart Solomon really was! He’s not asking to be radically transformed into something other than what he already is. He is not like the student who fails to crack open a book until the night before an exam, and then prays for an "A".
Young Solomon has done his homework. He is already wise. For him to ask for an understanding heart is to ask God to bring to fulfillment what has already clearly begun in Solomon. Here is an example of what theologians sometimes call "grace perfecting nature." In other words, in granting his request, God builds on what He had already given to Solomon.
Today we have knowledge beyond Solomon's wildest dreams. Humanity has never had so much knowledge, so many facts, so many experts. We surf the Net, mining info-nuggets in databases that grow and multiply. Yet our knowledge so often seems to lack substance.
We are drunk with knowledge, and yet we're starving for wisdom.
Did any of you read “Jurassic Park” or see the movies made from the book? Although it wasn’t a story I thought I would enjoy at all, I read the book when a chance encounter in a book store with a pastor I hold in high esteem told me to. It’s been at least 10 years since I read that book, a story about men who created dinosaurs for an amusement park but then all kinds of bad things happened when the dinosaurs began behaving like—dinosaurs!
Sometimes we're like the scientists in the Jurassic Park story. They have an abundance of knowledge: they can create dinosaurs from broken strands of DNA. But they lack wisdom. They fail to understand that just because they want to make dinosaurs and know how to make dinosaurs doesn't mean that they should actually make dinosaurs. Being able to do something and wanting to do something doesn’t make it good or wise. What happened at Jurassic Park is a perfect illustration of knowledge without wisdom. It’s a clear warning not to tamper with nature just because we can, because what we create might eat us.
With wisdom, knowledge is a blessing -- a blessing that can draw us closer to God as we unlock the secrets of the world he created. Without wisdom, knowledge can be a curse. And it is on the topic of life and its beginnings that our knowledge today seems to be hurtling down the path of curse with some of our brightest minds leading the way.
Compared to some of the decisions our leaders have to make today, Solomon had it easy. For example, there is a story of two prostitutes who came to Solomon, each claiming custody of an infant son, wanting him to decide which of them was the rightful mother. Today we could solve that one easily with a simple DNA test.
But it seems in our society today, we have outsmarted ourselves. And it will take the wisdom of Solomon and the grace of God to sort out things like:
* Surrogate mothers battling biological mothers over their children.
* Husbands and wives fighting over frozen embryos in divorce settlements.
* Genetic engineers cloning human beings and physical spare parts for human beings.
These are moral issues crying out for wisdom. Christians must never accept the idea that the creation of a human person is simply a matter of the manipulation of genes and gametes and zygotes. God is the author of life. God entrusts us with the gift of life, which at every stage has a spiritual dimension.
Unfortunately, too often we forget to remember who God is and what God has done for us. Even Solomon forgot. In his later life, he built shrines and altars to strange gods, sealed many foreign agreements, married ungodly women and then allowed them to sway his loyalty away from God, and ended up taxing his people into poverty.
So, although there are wonderful, positive lessons to be learned from Solomon’s life, we can also learn much from his mistakes. Wisdom is only effective when it is put into positive actions. We can still do dumb things. We can have wisdom and still make mistakes. God can give us some big possibilities that carry big responsibilities and we can mess up His plan when we think we know enough to go it alone.
I think to be truly wise is to admit that we don't have all the answers.
On the other hand, to be truly wise we've got to have at least some of the answers. And God provides us with many of the answers, doesn’t He? Such as:
* God created a good world and gave us the gift of life.
* God has a plan for each and every thing He created.
* We are all sinners who have rejected some portion of God's plan and so we stand in need of forgiveness.
* Forgiveness and the restoration of God's plan are offered to us through Jesus Christ.
*Wisdom is given not so much for miracles but like Solomon, wisdom is given and along with it, we are to do our homework and ask for God's help every step of the way.
*God’s help is nowhere more present than right here, where we encounter Jesus through his Church gathered in his name.
And finally, we may not always like the answers, but if we ask for his help and honestly and openly seek his plan, Jesus Christ will help us.
God has an individual, personal plan of ministry specifically for the Union Church of the Brethren. You and I must be as committed to God’s will in that plan as Solomon was committed to God’s will for him. Just like Solomon, you must decide for yourself that you will follow the ways of God.
We cannot make a commitment to God for anyone else except ourselves. We can pray for others, we can advise them but it is still THEIR decision whether or not they commit themselves to following God.
My father had a wonderful saying: “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.”
Solomon’s dad, King David, wanted his son to follow God’s ways, but Solomon still had to decide for himself. I want each of you to not only follow God’s ways for your individual lives, but I want you to also follow His leading for our congregational life. But you have to decide to do that for yourselves.
When we decide to walk in God’s ways, our goals change. We are not out to please ourselves but rather to serve God. As Christians we want to be committed to God, oh! We so want that in our lives! But the world requires so many commitments of us, doesn’t it? Our bosses require commitment, our children’s schools, our spouses. There’s always so much to do and so little time. Yet we could substitute our names in the verses of today’s scripture, couldn’t we? “Solomon (insert your name here) loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father, David (insert your father’s name here), YOU sacrificed and gave offerings at the church.” The Union Church loved the Lord…
And so, when the Lord appears to us and says, “Ask what I should give you,” what should our response be? Should we ask for a guitar players and drummers so we can have contemporary music? Should we ask for 10 new people to teach about Jesus? 20? 50? Should we ask for carpenters, to make our building attractive so people will want to come here to worship?
Solomon asked only for wisdom to be able to carry out his job as a king. He did NOT ask God to do the job for him. We shouldn’t ask God to do for us what he wants to do through us. We need to ask God to give us the wisdom to know what to do and the courage to follow through on it.
Have you ever watched an icicle form? Did you notice how the dripping water froze, one drop at a time, until the icicle was a foot long or more? If the water was clean, the icicle remained clear and sparkled brightly in the sun; but if the water was slightly muddy, the icicle looked cloudy, its beauty spoiled.
Wisdom is formed just like an icicle. Each thought or feeling adds its influence. Each decision we make — both great and small — contributes its part. Everything we take into our minds and souls — impressions, experiences, images or words — helps create wisdom.
Wisdom comes from God as a byproduct of right decisions, godly reactions and the application of scriptural principles to daily circumstances. Wisdom comes from being faithful to the obscure tasks few people ever see. Wisdom comes from living a disciplined life. Wisdom comes from keeping your eyes focused on God and his Word.
Jim Eliot, a missionary who died taking the Gospel to the Indians in Ecuador once said: “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” As we give up our desires and focus on following what Jesus has called us to do, we will be surprised to find what blessings God has in store for us.
Source:
—Rod Handley, “Wisdom,” in the book Character Counts for Quiet Time and Small Groups, Gospelcom.net. Retrieved February 24, 2003.
