1 Kings 3:1–4:34, Mark 3:1–3:35, Proverbs 1:13–19, Proverbs 4:23
I once thought a high IQ would help a person obey God, but
have learned that human wisdom doesn’t even come close to the grace and wisdom
of God.
King David’s son Solomon had a dream in which God offered
to give him whatever he wanted. Solomon asked for “an
understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and
evil . . . .” a request that greatly pleased the Lord.
He said, “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.” (1 Kings 3:9–14)
The Bible says Solomon had “wisdom
and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the
seashore.” His wisdom “surpassed the wisdom
of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt . . . . His fame was
in all the surrounding nations. He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs
were 1,005 . . . . And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of
Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.”
(1 Kings 4:29–34)
Prior to this dream, “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 3:1-3)
As the rest of his life shows, Solomon loved God, was
wise, yet he had a divided heart. He married many wives and worshiped their
gods. At the same time, he wrote this advice to others:
“If sinners entice you, do not
consent. If they say, ‘Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us
ambush the innocent without reason’ . .
. . Do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths, for
their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood . . . . They set an
ambush for their own lives. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for
unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.” (Proverbs
1:10–11, 15–19)
Solomon avoided the wars and violence of his father’s
generation, but he lived in spiritually enslaving sin. He exemplified Jesus’
words, “If a kingdom is divided against itself,
that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house
will not be able to stand.” (Mark 3:24–25) People with conflicting
desires in their hearts cannot stand either.
Today’s devotional reading points to forbidden alliances
and desires and their long-term effects. It also stresses the reality that
satisfying one’s own greed will always ruin something far more important, even
the lives of others. Those desires begin in the sinfulness of the human heart,
but if given any consideration, they will do to my life what Solomon’s
double-mindedness did to his. It didn’t matter that he was wise and blessed by
God, because those blessings did not keep him from disobedience and disgrace.
This man learned the hard way the truth of another of his
own proverbs: “Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)
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