Solomon Asks for Wisdom
Introduction:
The transfer of leadership in Israel had gone from David to Solomon. Solomon described himself “like a little child who doesn’t know his way around”.
Solomon had a lot to learn. He was making some good choices and good decisions, but at the same time some of his decisions would have disastrous consequences in the long run.
1 Kings 3:1-15 NLT
Solomon Asks for Wisdom
3:1 Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and married one of his daughters. He brought her to live in the City of David until he could finish building his palace and the Temple of the Lord and the wall around the city. 2 At that time the people of Israel sacrificed their offerings at local places of worship, for a temple honoring the name of the Lord had not yet been built.
3 Solomon loved the Lord and followed all the decrees of his father, David, except that Solomon, too, offered sacrifices and burned incense at the local places of worship. 4 The most important of these places of worship was at Gibeon, so the king went there and sacrificed 1,000 burnt offerings. 5 That night the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!”
6 Solomon replied, “You showed great and faithful love to your servant my father, David, because he was honest and true and faithful to you. And you have continued to show this great and faithful love to him today by giving him a son to sit on his throne.
7 “Now, O Lord my God, you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t know his way around. 8 And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted! 9 Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?”
10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom. 11 So God replied, “Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people with justice and have not asked for a long life or wealth or the death of your enemies— 12 I will give you what you asked for! I will give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else has had or ever will have! 13 And I will also give you what you did not ask for—riches and fame! No other king in all the world will be compared to you for the rest of your life! 14 And if you follow me and obey my decrees and my commands as your father, David, did, I will give you a long life.”
15 Then Solomon woke up and realized it had been a dream. He returned to Jerusalem and stood before the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant, where he sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then he invited all his officials to a great banquet.
Examine the Scriptures
1 Kings 3:1-15 NLT
Solomon Asks for Wisdom
3:1 Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and married one of his daughters.
- Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh King of Egypt.
Pharaoh’s daughter was the most politically significant of Solomon’s 700 wives.
Solomon strengthens his kingdom through marriage diplomacy.
Marrying Pharaoh’s daughter was politically wise, but spiritually questionable
Consider the following:
Israel had been told not to return to Egypt:
Deuteronomy 17:16 NLT
16 “The king must not build up a large stable of horses for himself or send his people to Egypt to buy horses, for the Lord has told you, ‘You must never return to Egypt.’
Israel had been told not to intermarry with people of other nations:
Deuteronomy 7:1-4 NLT
7:1 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away many nations ahead of you: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. These seven nations are greater and more numerous than you. 2 When the Lord your God hands these nations over to you and you conquer them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaties with them and show them no mercy. 3 You must not intermarry with them. Do not let your daughters and sons marry their sons and daughters, 4 for they will lead your children away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and he will quickly destroy you.
Looking ahead:
1 Kings 11:3-4 NLT
11:1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides Pharaoh’s daughter, he married women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, Sidon, and from among the Hittites. 2 The Lord had clearly instructed the people of Israel, “You must not marry them, because they will turn your hearts to their gods.” Yet Solomon insisted on loving them anyway. 3 He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. And in fact, they did turn his heart away from the Lord.
4 In Solomon’s old age, they turned his heart to worship other gods instead of being completely faithful to the Lord his God, as his father, David, had been.
Not all wise political decisions are spiritually wise.
He brought her to live in the City of David until he could finish building his palace and the Temple of the Lord and the wall around the city.
1 Kings 7:8 NLT
8 Solomon’s living quarters surrounded a courtyard behind this hall, and they were constructed the same way. He also built similar living quarters for Pharaoh’s daughter, whom he had married.
This could have been as much as 20 years later before she would have moved into her house.
- This alliance would benefited both Solomon and Pharaoh.
1 Kings 9:16 NLT
16 (Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had attacked and captured Gezer, killing the Canaanite population and burning it down. He gave the city to his daughter as a wedding gift when she married Solomon.
Gezer was a major Canaanite city guarding an important trade route (the Via Maris).
*Spiritual growth is weakened by disobedience.
2 At that time the people of Israel sacrificed their offerings at local places of worship, for a temple honoring the name of the Lord had not yet been built.
ESV The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the LORD.
NIV The people, however, were still sacrificing at the high places,
- When Solomon began his reign, Israel did not yet have a single, permanent central place of worship like the Temple that would later be built in Jerusalem.
The Ark of the Covenant was in Jerusalem, having been brought there by David (2 Samuel 6).
The main worship site—where sacrifices were regularly offered—was still at the Gibeon, where the tabernacle (the portable tent of meeting from Moses’ time) was located (see 1 Kings 3:2–4).
Worship was divided between locations:
Jerusalem → housed the Ark (symbol of God’s presence)
Gibeon → housed the altar and tabernacle (place of sacrifices)
Because of this, people still sacrificed at “high places” (local worship sites), which is noted early in Solomon’s reign (1 Kings 3:2–3).
The open-air, hilltop worship centers that the Israelites inherited from the Canaanites had been rededicated to the Lord.
The Canaanites felt that the closer they got to heaven the more likely was the possibility that their prayers and offerings would reach their gods.
After the building of the Temple, worship at the high places was condemned.
Deuteronomy 12:1-5 NLT
The Lord’s Chosen Place for Worship
12:1 “These are the decrees and regulations you must be careful to obey when you live in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You must obey them as long as you live.
2 “When you drive out the nations that live there, you must destroy all the places where they worship their gods—high on the mountains, up on the hills, and under every green tree. 3 Break down their altars and smash their sacred pillars. Burn their Asherah poles and cut down their carved idols. Completely erase the names of their gods!
4 “Do not worship the Lord your God in the way these pagan peoples worship their gods. 5 Rather, you must seek the Lord your God at the place of worship he himself will choose from among all the tribes—the place where his name will be honored.
- Worship at the high places was condemned.
3 Solomon loved the Lord and followed all the decrees of his father, David, except that Solomon, too, offered sacrifices and burned incense at the local places of worship.
- Solomon loved the
“except”
Solomon continued worshipping at the high places.
“High places” were unauthorized worship sites, even if used for the Lord.
The temple had not yet been built, which partly explains this practice.
Solomon loved the Lord, yet still participated in these imperfect forms of worship.
Compromises?
*Spiritual growth is weakened by compromise.
4 The most important of these places of worship was at Gibeon,
Gibeon was the most prominent high place.
1 Chronicles 21:29 NLT
29 At that time the Tabernacle of the Lord and the altar of burnt offering that Moses had made in the wilderness were located at the place of worship in Gibeon.
A town about 7 miles northwest of Jerusalem, where the tabernacle of Moses and the original Bronze altar were located.
so the king went there and sacrificed 1,000 burnt offerings.
Read how this event is recorded in Chronicles.
2 Chronicles 1:2-6 NLT
2 Solomon called together all the leaders of Israel—the generals and captains of the army, the judges, and all the political and clan leaders. 3 Then he led the entire assembly to the place of worship in Gibeon, for God’s Tabernacle was located there. (This was the Tabernacle that Moses, the Lord’s servant, had made in the wilderness.)
4 David had already moved the Ark of God from Kiriath-jearim to the tent he had prepared for it in Jerusalem. 5 But the bronze altar made by Bezalel son of Uri and grandson of Hur was there at Gibeon in front of the Tabernacle of the Lord. So Solomon and the people gathered in front of it to consult the Lord. 6 There in front of the Tabernacle, Solomon went up to the bronze altar in the Lord’s presence and sacrificed 1,000 burnt offerings on it.
That is a lot of offering.
5 That night the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!”
The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream.
God initiates the encounter—this is grace, not earned favor.
God often gave revelation in dreams.
This dream was unique. This was a two way conversation between the Lord and Solomon.
- The Lordappeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!”
Clearly, God was not upset with Solomon.
6 Solomon replied, “You showed great and faithful love to your servant my father, David, because he was honest and true and faithful to you. And you have continued to show this great and faithful love to him today by giving him a son to sit on his throne.
- Solomon recognized and remembered God’s faithfulness to David.
7 “Now, O Lord my God, you have made me king instead of my father, David, but I am like a little child who doesn’t know his way around.
- Solomon recognized God’s sovereignty.
8 And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great and numerous they cannot be counted!
The total population was estimated to be over four million people.
God’s promise to Abram:
Genesis 13:16 NLT
16 And I will give you so many descendants that, like the dust of the earth, they cannot be counted!
9 Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?”
Solomon’s response:
Solomon acknowledged God’s faithfulness to David.
Solomon recognized his own inexperience.
Some commentators say that Solomon was about 20 years of age (MacArthur being one of them.)
Solomon felt inadequate for the great task of leading Israel.
- Solomon recognized his dependence on God.
- Solomon asked God to give him an understanding heart so that he could govern God’s people well and know the difference between right and wrong.
10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom.
The Lord was pleased.
11 So God replied, “Because you have asked for wisdom in governing my people with justice
and have not asked for a long life or wealth or the death of your enemies—
Typical desires many others in Solomon’s position would have asked for.
12 I will give you what you asked for! I will give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else has had or ever will have!
This wisdom is a supernatural gift from God.
13 And I will also give you what you did not ask for—riches and fame! No other king in all the world will be compared to you for the rest of your life!
Solomon was one of a kind.
- God was pleased with Solomon’s request.
God gave Solomon a wise and understanding heart.
God gave Solomon things he did not ask for-riches and fame.
- God gave Solomon a wise and understanding heart and God gave Solomon things he did not ask for-riches and fame.
14 And if you follow me and obey my decrees and my commands as your father, David, did, I will give you a long life.”
“if” – conditional
Blessings can be conditional on continued faithfulness.
Unfortunately Solomon did not remain obedient to the covenant as his father David had.
Because of his disobedience, Solomon dies before reaching the age of 70.
Psalm 90:10 NLT
10 Seventy years are given to us!
Some even live to eighty.
15 Then Solomon woke up and realized it had been a dream. He returned to Jerusalem and stood before the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant, where he sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings.
This was a proper place of worship.
The Ark of the Covenant sat in David’s tent in Jerusalem before the temple was built.
Then he invited all his officials to a great banquet.
