Richard Davenport

January 5, 2025 – Second Sunday after Christmas

1 Kings 3:4-15

                The story in 1 Kings today is one that’s always interesting to me.  Granted, Solomon’s life is quite a bit different than one most any of us are familiar with.  He’s grown up in the shadow of his heroic father, David.  David has had his troubles and family squabbles, but he’s been a faithful man throughout.  Solomon has been a prince all his life.  He isn’t the eldest, so he wouldn’t normally be the one to take over the throne, but David had made a promise that Solomon would be the heir and would be king after he had gone.  Israel is at peace and is already starting to see the prosperity that comes from God’s promises coming to fruition.  Solomon is blessed in ways that are hard to imagine.

                Still, for all of that, he gets a true “Aladdin and the lamp” kind of moment here.  He’s already king, now that David has passed away.  By all accounts, David raised him to be a faithful, God-fearing man, and Solomon is doing what he’s supposed to do to the best of his ability. Then God appears to him.  We aren’t really told all of the details of this dream or how Solomon knew it was God, but none of that is the real substance anyway.  God made it clear this wasn’t just Solomon’s imagination.  “You get one wish.  Anything you want.”  The chronicler writing 1 Kings doesn’t indicate that God put any caveats or stipulations on this wish.  It really sounds as though it could have been anything at all.

                At this point, Solomon is likely in his late teens/early 20’s.  Now, it might be a little difficult to put yourself into Solomon’s shoes.  Maybe someone who grew up as a prince and probably had everything he could need or want as he grew up would think a bit differently, but still.  You’re a young adult.  God comes to you and tells you he’s going to give you whatever you want.  Nothing seems to be off limits.  What do you wish for?  Presumably God isn’t going to grant a wish for something sinful, but even with that aside, there is a lot of room for consideration.

                If you’re an impulsive sort, you might just blurt out the first thing that comes to mind.  You might be the sort that agonizes over this question, thinking through every possibility to make sure you’re getting the absolute best outcome for your wish.  Thinking back to myself in those days, I really have no idea what kind of answer I would have come up with.  A nice car that never runs out of gas and never breaks down?  A good job that pays really well, doesn’t stress me out and is one that I’ll be able to enjoy until I retire?  Perhaps I’d go for the ever popular, “More money than I know what to do with.” 

How do you choose?  How do you choose and not have regrets the next day that maybe you chose the wrong thing? God offered you anything and you chose that, but you could have chosen this other thing instead and that’s what you really need right now.  There’s probably some temptation in there to get mad at God for even letting you choose something that didn’t deal with the problem you currently face.

It's important to remember that there’s nothing necessarily wrong with having a car that never breaks down, or a cushy job, or tons of money.  All of those things can be received with thanks and used responsibly for the work of God’s kingdom and service to others.  You might say Solomon didn’t pick anything like that because he already had all of those things, but greed and selfishness aren’t so straightforward.  Somone who is driven by greed will never look at his bank account and think, “I guess that’s all I really need.  I can already buy anything I want without a second thought.  Why do I need more money?”  The greed itself is its own motivation.  The desire isn’t for money.  It’s for more money. 

Solomon is given this opportunity, and he chooses wisdom.  Obviously, God, in his divine foreknowledge, knew what Solomon would pick before he even asked the question, but that doesn’t take away from Solomon’s answer.  God didn’t prompt him or correct him.  God gives him the honest opportunity to ask for what he wants.  And then God gives him exactly what he asks for.  God didn’t promise to give him all of that other stuff beforehand and Solomon had no reason to expect he would riches and a long life.  God gives it to him anyway.

This whole interaction with God comes as odd to us because of how we usually view God and his blessings to us.  We want things.  We constantly ask God for things.  Most of the time there isn’t anything wrong with what we’re asking for.  Yet, it isn’t about what we are asking for, it’s why we’re asking for it.  We tend to assume that just because we’re asking God for something that he hasn’t expressly forbidden, that everything’s ok and if he doesn’t grant it, then he’s the one who is in the wrong.  God’s the one being stingy or cruel. 

Even something as beneficial and pure sounding as “wisdom” could be used for all sorts of selfish reasons.  But, that isn’t what Solomon wants it for.  God offers him anything and Solomon could have asked for more power, wealth, or anything else.  Instead, he looks at what God has given him.  God has put him in a position to care for people, for being their leader. He has to tend to their needs.  He has to organize them and administrate the various issues that need to be dealt with.  He needs to bring justice and peace.  Managing food, managing the army, managing taxes, managing law enforcement, managing diplomacy, all of that and more falls into his lap.  Many would look at the position of king and think about the power and privilege it grants you.  He looks at the position and sees the difficulty that comes in doing the job well.  God gave him this job and he doesn’t know how to do it.  Solomon’s first thought isn’t for himself, but for God and the work he gives to us to do. 

When we were up in Kansas City checking out our new used car, we ran into a number of problems with the dealership.  The salesman we were working with had proven to be pretty accommodating and wanted to make compensate us on the delays they had caused.  They offered to deliver the car down here.  After checking out the car, we decided it would do what we wanted and looked like a pretty solid deal.

The dealership delivered the car a couple of days later and when it arrived, we were told that the engine light was now coming on in the car.  We hadn’t formally taken possession of the car yet, so the dealership asked us what we would like to do.  Had they left it an open ended question, then the possibilities would be interesting.  Perhaps we’d ask for some shiny new wheel rims as compensation.  Maybe we ask for a new paint job.  A gift card for gas?  A year’s worth of car washes?  None of those are necessarily bad things, but none really help the car do what the car needs to do right now. 

We hear about the prosperity preachers who tell you that God promises to shower you with wealth and we turn up our noses at them, and rightly so. That isn’t what the Gospel is about at all.  At the same time, we hear Jesus telling his followers to ask the Father in Christ’s name and it will be given to us, and we wonder why we don’t receive what we ask for. God has given you many important gifts, all related to the work he has given you to do.  To be husbands, wives, parents, children, citizens of this community, this nation, brothers and sisters in Christ, members of this congregation, and every vocation given to you is good, and comes with many responsibilities. 

The hidden theme in Solomon’s conversation with God is sin.  Had Solomon been perfect, he would have no trouble at all doing the job he had been given.  But, he realizes he is inadequate to the task.  He lacks the most basic skills and abilities necessary to do the work he has been given because he is a sinner.  His own sin prevents him from being able to do what God has told him to do. So, Solomon asks that undo some of the effects of that sin, to restore him, to make him a little more like the person he would be if he were perfect and sinless.  In essence, Solomon asks to be more like the man God created him to be.

Here in the Christmas season, we talk a lot about the arrival of the savior. We look at how he came to earth as a tiny baby.  We hear the story about his humble birth to humble parents.  The question that always circulates around this story is, “Why? Why this way?  Why like this?”  God becomes man.  Not just a man, but a perfect man, a man like we were all intended to be.

Jesus comes to earth as a perfect man so that man, through him, may be made perfect.  The system is broken, because the one piece necessary for the system to work is broken. From the moment Adam and Eve disobeyed God they gave up both the wisdom and the ability to do the job God had given to them.  Now and for the rest of this world’s existence, nothing would work the way it was supposed to.  Christ becomes one of us, God becomes man, that, like Solomon, his wisdom would become our wisdom and his life would become our life.  Where we cannot function, he stands in our place.  In him, we are restored and made whole once more.

While we are still sinful and imperfect here, God’s perfect wisdom and life already flow into our lives now.  We are both forgiven and made more and more into his likeness, more and more like the perfect creations we were meant to be.  We give thanks to God that he comes to earth, not to just shower us with gifts, but to give us new life, renewed life, to make us whole once again, to give us the wisdom we have given up and the life we have lost.