'In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God
said, Ask what I shall give thee. 6. And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed
unto Thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked
before Thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart
with Thee; and Thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that Thou
hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. 7. And
now, O Lord my God, Thou hast made Thy servant king instead of David my
father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come
in. 8. And Thy servant is in the midst of Thy people which Thou hast
chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for
multitude. 9. Give therefore Thy servant an understanding heart to
judge Thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is
able to judge this Thy so great a people? 10. And the speech pleased
the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. 11. And God said unto him,
Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long
life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of
thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern
judgment; 12. Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have
given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none
like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto
thee. 13. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked,
both riches and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings
like unto thee all thy days. 14. And if thou wilt walk in My ways, to
keep My statutes and My commandments, as thy father David did walk,
then I will lengthen thy days. 15. And Solomon awoke; and, behold, It
was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the
covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace
offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.'--1 KINGS iii. 5-15.
The new king was apparently some nineteen or twenty years old on his
accession. He stepped at once out of seclusion and idleness to bear the
whole weight of the kingdom. The glories of David's reign, his brother
Adonijah's pretensions to the crown, the smouldering hostility of
Saul's old partisans, made his position difficult and his throne
unsteady. No doubt, 'the weight of too much dignity' pressed on the
youth, and this dream found a point of origin in his waking thoughts.
God does not thus reveal Himself to men who seek Him not; and the offer
in the vision is but the repetition of what Solomon felt in many a
waking moment of meditation that God was saying to him, and the choice
he makes in it is the choice that he had already made. He who seeks
wisdom first is already wise.
I. Note the wide possibilities opened by the divine offer. Our
narrative brings that gracious offer into connection with Solomon's
lavish sacrifice before the Tabernacle at Gibeon. 'God loveth a
cheerful giver' and because these thousand burnt offerings meant
devotion and thankfulness, therefore He who lets no man be the poorer
for what he gives to Him, and is honoured most, not by our givings to,
but by our takings from Him, comes in the quiet night, and puts the key
of all His treasures into the young king's hands. In a very real sense
this divine voice is but the putting into words of the fact as to every
young life. The all but boundless possibilities before every young man
and woman give solemnity to their position, which they too often do not
recognise till youth is past. The future lies blank before them, ready
to receive what they choose to write on its page. Once written, it is
indelible. They are still free from the limitations of habit and
associations. They have still the capacity and the opportunity of
choice. There are limits, of course, but still it is scarcely
exaggeration to say that a man may become almost anything he likes, if
he strongly wills it when young, and sticks to his resolve. When the
liquid iron flows from the blast furnace, it may be run into any mould;
but it soon cools and hardens, and obstinately keeps its shape, in
spite of hammers.
If young men and women could but see the possibilities of their youth,
and the issues that hang on early choice, as clearly as they will see
them some day, there would be fewer wasted mornings of life and fewer
gloomy sunsets. But the misery is that so many do not choose at all,
but just let things slide, and allow themselves to be moulded by
whatever influence happens to be strongest. For one man who goes wrong
by deliberate choice, with open eyes, there are twenty who simply
drift. Unfortunately, there is more evil than good in the world; and if
a lad takes his colour from his surroundings, the chances are terribly
against his coming to anything high, noble, or pure. This world is no
place for a man who cannot say 'No.' If we are like the weeds in a
stream, and let it decide which way we shall point, we shall be sure to
point downwards. It would do much to secure the choice of the Good, if
there were a clear recognition by all young persons of the fact that
they have the choice to make, and are really making it unconsciously.
If they could be brought, like Solomon, to put their ruling wish into
plain words, many who are not ashamed to yield to unworthy desires
would be ashamed to speak them out baldly. Let each ask himself,
'Suppose that I had to say out what I want most, dare I avow before my
own conscience, to say nothing of God, what it is?
Looked at from a somewhat different point of view, God's offer to
Solomon presupposes God's knowledge and approval of his wishes. He does
not give blank cheques to those whom He cannot trust to fill them up
rightly. When James and John tried to commit Jesus to a blind promise
'that Thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall ask of Thee,' their
answer was a question as to what they wished. 'Delight thyself also in
the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.' God loves
us too well to let us have _carte blanche_ unless our wills run
parallel with His. He is a foolish and cruel father who promises
compliance with all his child's unknown wishes. Not such is our
Father's loving discipline. It is to those who 'abide in Christ,' and
have Him abiding in them, moulding their longings and prayers, that the
great promise is sealed: 'Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be
done unto you.'
II. Note next the wise choice of wisdom. 'Had not Solomon been wise
before, he had not known the worth of wisdom. The dunghill cocks of
this world cannot know the price of this pearl; those that have it know
that all other excellencies are but trash and rubbish unto it.'
Solomon's prayer shows the temper with which he entered on his reign.
There is no exultation; his serious and clear-eyed spirit sees in rule
a heavy task. He contrasts his inexperienced rawness with the 'truth
and righteousness' and veteran maturity of his great predecessor, and
trembles to think that he, a mere lad, sits on David's throne. But he
pleads with God that He has made him king, and implies that therefore
God is bound to fit him for his office. That is the boldness permitted
to faith,--to remind God of His own past acts, which pledge Him to give
what He has put us into circumstances to need. With beautiful humility,
Solomon dwells on his youth and inexperience, and on the vastness of
the charge laid on him. All these considerations are the motives for
his choice of a gift, and also pleas with God to grant his request.
He asks for the practical wisdom needed for ruling in these old days,
when the king was judge as well as ruler and captain. Was this the
highest gift that he could have asked or received? Surely the deep
longings of his father for communion with God were yet better. No doubt
the 'wisdom' of the Book of Proverbs is religion and morality as well
as true thinking, but the 'understanding heart to judge Thy people'
which Solomon asked and received is narrower and more secular in its
meaning. There is no sign in his biography that he ever had the deep
inward devotion of his father. After the poet-psalmist came the prosaic
and keen-sighted shrewd man of affairs. The one breathed his ardent
soul into psalms, which feed devotion to-day; the other crystallised
his discernment in 'three thousand proverbs,' and, though his 'songs
were one thousand and five' they touched a lower range, both of poetry
and religious feeling, than his father's, as may be expressed by
calling them 'songs,' not 'psalms.'
But though the request is not the highest, it may well be taken as a
pattern by the young. Note the view of his position from which it
rises. To Solomon dignity meant duty; and his crown was not a toy, but
a task. The responsibilities, not the enjoyments, of his station were
uppermost in his mind. That is the only right view to take. Youth is
meant to be enthusiastic, and to feed its aspirations on noble ideals,
and if, instead of that, it does as too many do, especially in
countries where wealth abounds, namely, regards life as a garden of
delights, or sometimes as a sty where young men may wallow in
'pleasures,' then farewell to all hopes of high achievements or of an
honourable career. Youthful ideals will fade fast enough; but alas for
the life which had none to begin with! Note the sense of insufficiency
for his task. Youth is prone to be over-confident, and to think that it
can do better than its fathers, who were as confident in their time.
There is a false humility which flattens the spirit and keeps from
plain duty; and there is a true lowliness which feels that the task
must be attempted, though the heart may shrink, and which impels to
prayer for fitness not its own. He who tells God his consciousness of
impotence, and asks Him to supply His strength to its weakness and His
wisdom to its inexperience, will never shirk work because it is too
great, nor ever fail to find power according to his need.
III. Note God's answer. Solomon gets his wish, and much which he had
not asked besides. The divine answer is in two parts. First, the
reasons for the large gift; and second, the details of the gift. His
not wishing material good was the very reason why he obtained it. That
is not always so; for often enough a man whose whole nature is
sharpened to one point, in the intensity of his desire to make money,
will succeed. But what then? He will be none the better, but the
poorer, for his wealth. But this is always true,--that the people who
do not make worldly good their first object are the people who can be
most safely trusted with it, and who get most enjoyment out of it.
Whether in the precise form of the gift to Solomon or not, outward good
does attend a life which sets duty before pleasure, and desires most to
be able to do it. All earthly good is exalted by being put second, and
degraded as well as corrupted by being put first. The water lapped up
in the palm, as the soldier marches, is sweeter than the abundant
draughts swilled down by self-indulgence. 'Seek ye first the kingdom of
God, ... and all these things shall be added unto you.'
Note the largeness of the gift. When God is pleased with a man's
prayers, He gives more than was asked, and so teaches us to be ashamed
of the smallness of our expectations, and widens our desires by His
overlapping bestowments. First, He gives the wisdom asked. Dependence
on God, rising from the sense of our own ignorance, has a wonderful
power of bringing illumination, even as to small matters of practical
duty. Solomon asked it, to guide him in his judicial decisions; and the
first case to which it was applied, when received, was a miserable
quarrel between two disreputable women. A devout heart, purged from
self-conceit, is often gifted with a piercing wisdom before which the
crafty shrewdness of the world is abashed. We cannot be 'wise as
serpents' unless we are 'harmless as doves.' The world may think such
'wisdom' folly, but she will be 'justified of her children.' Is the
saying of James's Epistle a reminiscence of Solomon's dream, 'If any of
you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, ... and it shall be given him'?
Then follows the grant of the unasked goods,--riches, honour, and
length of days. Surely we hear an echo of these promises in that
magnificent description of Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs: 'Length of
days is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honour'
These and similar gifts may or may not follow our choice of divine
wisdom as our truest good If we have really chosen it, we shall regard
them as make-weights, to be thankfully received and rightly used, but
not as indispensable. If we pursue wisdom for the sake of getting
these, we shall lose both it and them. If we have set our desires most
earnestly on the most worthy things, which are God's love and a
character hallowed by His grace, we shall be rich indeed, whether what
the world calls wealth be ours or no; and our days will be long enough
if in them we have been prepared for the fuller wisdom and undying life
of heaven.
Solomon realised his youthful aspirations. The only way to be sure of
getting what we wish, is to wish what God desires to give,--even
Himself,--and to ask it of Him. Solomon, like many a young man, outgrew
his early 'dream.' Was he happier or wiser when he was a worn-out
voluptuary, smiling with cynical scorn at his young self, or when, with
generous enthusiasm, he felt the solemnity of life and the awfulness of
duty, and asked God to help his insufficiency? Was not the dream truer
and more real than the waking hours of profligacy and unreal
'enjoyment'?