1 Kings 3 - Wisdom

We now come to Solomon's famous wisdom. Solomon is perhaps the most extreme example of a king who started off so well and then went so bad. However, the seeds of destruction and trouble are there right at the start. Solomon made an alliance with Egypt and married one of Pharaoh's daughters. Israelites were not meant to marry foreign women nor make alliances with Egypt. Moreover, the people were still worshipping at the high places. While David's rule had been effective in military terms, it had paid limited attention to the religious aspects, though of course the ark had been brought to its rightful place. However, there is some debate about whether they were allowed to worship at these places at this stage, ie since the temple had not been built. Once the temple had been built the "high places" were a definite no-no. Verse 3 does seem to indicate that they were a "bad thing" even a this stage, for Solomon's worshipping at the high places is given as a negative. Apart from this, Solomon was walking in obedience.

Solomon goes to Gibeon and offers many sacrifices to the Lord and the Lord appeared to him there. Gibeon was a "high place", so God responding positively to him further adds to the confusion. Perhaps we should take it as a warning that just because God blesses us in some way does not mean that what we are doing is good. The high places were definitely not part of God's long term plan. Today God may bless us in our denomination or church grouping, but denominations are definitely not part of God's long term plan. We may also find that we seem to "get away" with somethings for a while, and then later God insists that we get rid of them.

However, let's move on to the main point, Solomon's wisdom. God tells him to ask for whatever he wants. Solomon responds with humility and wisdom, recognising what God had done for David, his own weakness and what is truly important. So he asks for wisdom, or more accurately a "discerning heart".

God is pleased with Solomon's request, and promises to give him amazing wisdom, and with it wealth and honour as well. This is an example of seeking first the kingdom and all these things being added as well. 

Finally in this chapter we get the well known incident of the two prostitutes coming with a dispute of who the baby belongs to, and Solomon gets to the truth of the matter by using his wisdom. This served to establish Solomon's ability to rule the nation.