GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
2 CHRONICLES 1:7-10
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7 That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.” 8 Then Solomon said to God, “You have shown great mercy and faithfulness to David my father, and have made me king in his place. 9 O LORD God, let your word to David my father be now fulfilled, for you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth. 10 Therefore give me wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can govern this people of yours, which is so great?”
In the Old Testament, dreams were a place where one might sometimes speak with God. Such things were often confusing (Genesis 40:8; 41:8) or even terrifying (Daniel 4:5). But God promised to speak to his prophets through dreams from time to time (Numbers 12:6). When King Saul no longer had dreams from the Lord, and when his prophets stopped receiving dreams about him, he went into a panic (1 Samuel 28:8,15). Now Solomon received a dream from God on the night of or shortly after his coronation. And in the dream, he did what we can’t do in prayer: He spoke, and God answered him directly.
This was not an offer from God with only one correct answer. Solomon could have asked for one excellent and believing wife, and she could have been a great blessing to him, helping him to avoid the bizarre tangle of a thousand spouses later in his life. Or he could have asked for God’s help with an unwavering faith– this could have helped him, too, considering his struggle with idolatry later on in his reign. Then again, he could have asked for something like secure borders, or an end to war. Would any of those have been a poor request?
He could have asked for the success of God’s word in the world. Consider what it’s like to be told that the sin that crushes my heart, the shame that haunts my memory and makes sleep flee from my eyes, is not held against me by God! To be released and set free from that slavery! To be liberated from the awful sentence of hell. What happens when a whole nation is told about this? They bow down before God and praise him.
But Solomon didn’t ask for those national blessings. He could have, and God would have blessed him. He asked for something for himself, to help him rule– and here again it could have been something else, but he asked for wisdom and for knowledge. Another way of putting it would be shrewdness and understanding.
Solomon talks about these things in his writings. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7). That shows that he was also concerned about his faith, and knew the value of a faith that was exercised by prayer and meditation and also trouble, for trouble sharpens our confidence in God’s word and gives us practice using it for his glory and our own comfort. And again, knowledge and faith in God’s commands are a lamp; “this teaching is a light… keeping you from the immoral woman” (Proverbs 6:23-24), and therefore he had an idea that one can be led astray by the wrong sort of spouse.
He also said, perhaps late in life, “I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge,” but he added, “with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief” (Ecclesiastes 1:16,18). In this case, he is not talking about the wisdom and knowledge he received directly from the Lord, but that he also gained a lot of practical knowledge through experience, and the wisdom of long association in his royal court. What sorrow he saw! What grief he witnessed! Some of it was his own, but much of it was surely that of other people, such as the prostitute who would rather have given away her baby than have it killed (1 Kings 3:26). Yet the people recognized Solomon’s gifts, and praised God for them and for their new king.
Solomon also recognized that this gift he asked for was not an eternal blessing, but only for this lifetime; just to help him reign. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom” (Ecclesiastes 9:10). The blessings that accompany us into the resurrection are faith, and friendship, and love, and our loved ones. And perhaps music, or some other art. The other things remain behind.
Where does this leave me? Should I envy Solomon’s offer from God, like a Genie coming out of an oriental bottle? No. I should consider that Solomon could have asked for anything, but he thought about it and then did his best. I have a bunch of choices, too. So do you. Which one will you pray about? Will you pray for world peace, or will you pray for a new pair of shoes? If that seems silly, then ask: Does world peace mean the same thing as God’s holy will being done? On the other hand, do I need another pair of shoes in order to carry out my role in God’s kingdom? I am a forgiven Christian! I can pray for whatever I think that I need, that falls in line with God’s will. Maybe what I should pray for is that my own will would match God’s will, a little more every day. For that, I need to learn more about his will, and that is what I discover in his holy word.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 2 Chronicles 1:7-10 Ask for whatever you want