A HIGHER HOPE | Answering the Greatest Question
Can you believe this?
Two women – desperate – desperate to take the baby home. Two women brought before you and told that you will decide who will be the mother. Both women claim to be the baby’s mother. Both women beg you to look at them and say they can take the baby home.
What would you do? What would you decide?
Solomon was asked this and he decreed that the baby be cut in two and each woman receive a half of the baby. As he expected, the real mother of the baby relented from her demands and suggested the baby be given to the other woman, so that the baby would not be killed. Such wisdom – Godly wisdom. Wisdom that Solomon is known for, across the ages.
Solomon is also known for his extreme wealth, power and splendour but these are things that he didn’t ask for. These are things he was given on top of the wisdom which he actually asked for.
But, back to the beginning. At the beginning of Solomon’s reign, God appeared to him in a dream and said, “Ask. What should I give you?” (1 Kings 3:5), Solomon was being tested for what he really wanted during his reign. He could have asked for fame, fortune, power, splendour, influence, and riches beyond our imagination.
Solomon was the second son of David and Bathsheba, a relationship which began in murder and adultery (David murdered Bathsheba’s first husband). Growing up, he followed his father’s advice but also sacrificed and burned incense to other gods, showing a divided heart. With all this, God appeared to Solomon in a dream and asked him what he wanted, asking Solomon for the deepest desires of his heart.
In his answer, Solomon thanked God for His faithful love to his father, David and for making him King in David’s place. He acknowledged his youth and lack of experience in leadership and asked for an obedient heart to judge and discern between good and evil.
Because of his humility, God loved Solomon’s answer. He loved it because Solomon admitted his greatest need – that he needs God to fulfil the task God gave him – of leading and governing wisely as King.
In humbleness, Solomon acknowledged to God, ‘You are God, and I am not.’ He stated how much he needed God to accomplish what the nation of Israel needed.
If God asked you the same question, what would you have answered? Would you have asked for help with your finances, or money to pay off your house, a large superannuation balance? Would you have asked for healing or salvation for a family member or friend? There are many things we could ask for. What would be your answer?
With Solomon, God saw that he had laid his heart bare, admitted his raw need and asked for the most foundational assistance – wisdom and discernment. God responded with love and the empowerment of His Spirit. His grace was shining through.
At a time when Solomon was low in hope, God showed him grace and built him up, responding to Solomon’s willing heart and eager obedience.
God’s grace came to Solomon that night in a dream at the most important, pivotal time in his kingship, leadership, and personal life. He extends that same grace to us today, always at just the right time too.
Just as when the two women were brought before him, and he exercised the wisdom God graciously bestowed on him, so we can operate in the love, power and grace that God graciously gives us on a daily basis.
May we seek His wisdom every day to guide us in extending His grace to all those around us in our Christian communities.