Get WisdomSpecial Lecture, CaliforniaSeptember 21st, 2008Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Proverbs 3:13-15What Solomon Asked ForAs we read the Bible, we come across a particular promise made by God; the promise of wisdom. When I consider “wisdom,” King Solomon comes to mind, and the book of Proverbs—the Book of Wisdom. Then First Corinthians chapters 1, 2, and 3 in the New Testament explain very clearly about “wisdom,” while James chapters 1 and 3 also provide a substantial definition of wisdom.In the book of Proverbs it says, “Do not toil to acquire wealth; be wise enough to desist” (23:4 [RSV]). It is easy to think that all “wisdom” is good, but there is also wisdom that is to be discarded. Also, Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children” (Matthew 11:25). From verses like this we can see there is wisdom that we receive in the way recorded in the Bible, and wisdom we receive in our own way. The Bible refers to many different kinds of wisdom. Amongst the various explanations of wisdom, there is one that is quite unique. It is in First Kings chapter 3.And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. 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?” It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants. verses 4-15But let’s see what happened before this.Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the city of David until he had finished building his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem. The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the Lord. Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places. 1 Kings 3:1-3At first, Solomon loved the Lord and walked in the way of David, but he offered sacrifices at the high places. Then, after he had this dream in which he asked for wisdom, he came to Jerusalem and sacrificed offerings before the ark of the covenant. When dream became a reality, Solomon’s actions went in a slightly different direction.Let’s think about this carefully. Solomon offered sacrifices at the high places, and, since there was no temple had yet been built at that time, he could have thought that as long as he offered the sacrifices it did not matter where he did it. Verses 2 and 3 refer to this matter. The Bible does not say that Solomon sinned in this respect, it merely says that “no house [temple] had yet been built.”But when Solomon asked God for wisdom when He appeared to him in a dream, he did not ask for a long life, riches, or the life of his enemies, but just asked for wisdom, and for this reason God granted Solomon all these things. Then when Solomon awoke from his dream, he went to Jerusalem and offered sacrifices in front of the ark of the covenant.The path that we walk in our lives in this world is just the same as this. In the course of our lives when we encountered some problem, fall ill, or go through some great difficulty, we may take a good look at our lives and make a few changes in them, but small changes also come about when we ask God for this “wisdom.” When we look at this close up, it may appear to make only a slight difference, but when viewed from a distance, it can be seen as a great change in our lives as a certain path is set out before us.What Is Wisdom?In First Samuel, we read that when Saul became king, he disobeyed the command God gave him through the prophet Samuel to completely destroy all the possessions of the Amalekites when he went out to war with them. Instead, he separated out all the good things. So Samuel passed on God’s decision regarding this matter to Saul, telling him, “You will be deposed, and your throne will be given to someone better than you.” Even so, intent on killing David, Saul pursued him to the end.How would you feel, if God were to appear to you and say, “In the future another person will do the work that you are now doing”? You might think, “Yes, of course, I will have to pass this work onto someone else,” but what about when it actually happens? Then you might refuse adamantly. Even though we know that there is a time limit to what we do, there is a power within us that makes us reluctant to stop.In First Samuel, the stories of Saul and David and the process by which David became king are set out at great length. At the beginning of First Samuel, we read how Samuel was born and how he became a priest. Then Saul appears, and we read about the clash between Saul and David. Second Samuel tells the story of David alone, but as we read through First Samuel, we may wonder if the battle between Saul and David is just a fight between two individuals and a matter of the feelings and emotions of these two people. What exactly is this battle?Then, First Kings begins by talking about with the account of Solomon. Solomon prayed to God and said, “Who is able to judge the multitude of Your people? Grant Your servant the wisdom to govern Your people and distinguish between good and evil,” so God said He would grant him the heart of wisdom and understanding. After God told Solomon He would give him a heart of wisdom and understanding, we read about the two women who brought a baby to Solomon. There were two women living in the same house and each of them bore a child. One of the women lay on the child as they slept, and the child died. So she swapped her dead child for the other woman’s child. When the other woman awoke, she saw that the child beside her was dead, but it was not her child. So the two women went before Solomon, each belligerently accusing the other, saying, “The living child is mine, and the dead child is yours.” So Solomon said the child was to be cut in two, and half given to each of the women. Thereupon, one of the women agreed that in this way neither of them would have a child, but the other woman asked that the child’s life be spared, saying it would be better for the other woman to have the child. From this Solomon judged rightly that the true mother was the woman who asked that the child’s life be spared. (see 1 Kings 3:16-28)What does this brief account signify? From a human point of view, we might say that Solomon was completely heartless when he commanded that the child be cut in two. The first judgment passed by this man who had received wisdom from God was to cut an innocent child in half, but is this acceptable according to human wisdom? What would happen if a judge in a court of law were to say something like this? People would say the judge was crazy. We accept these words in the Bible about an event that occurred three thousand years ago, but if this were to happen in today’s world we would most definitely not find it acceptable. This is where the wisdom of the world differs from the wisdom of God.We need to take a look at what this kind of “wisdom” does. Soloman passed the simple judgment that the child was to be divided in two. Yet, if you read the Bible carefully, you can see whose words these were that came from Solomon’s lips.And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice. 1 Kings 3:28It says here that the wisdom of God was in Solomon to do justice. This is a really wonderful expression.While Saul and David were in conflict with one another, David was constantly on the run from Saul. Yet when David was presented with a situation in which he might have killed Saul, he refrained from doing it, saying that Saul was also God’s anointed. When viewed from a human and political point of view, David had far more political power, but the wisdom of God was hidden behind all David’s political power and mental agility.Samuel told Saul that God intended to establish another person as king in his place (see 1 Samuel 13:13-14), and as Samuel also passed this same news to David (see 1 Samuel 24:20), Saul pursued David to kill him. Was the struggle between these two men whose thoughts were so clearly divided merely an emotional battle between individuals? Or was it an extension of what God has been going through from the beginning?As we read the books of Ezekiel and Psalm, we can see that before Adam ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, there was another incident in which God separat
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