1 Kings 3:3-5 - Ask for whatever you want

3:3

“Solomon showed his love for the Lord ...” Having had two negatives, we then gen a sudden jump to a positive. Solomon showed his love for the Lord by his obedience “except he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places”. So even here we see the conflict within Solomon.

3:4,5

It seems that Solomon worshipped in style, offering a thousand burnt offerings. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and told him to “ask for whatever you want me to give you”. If you try to make a nice neat case for or against Solomon, you will not succeed. What does all this tell us? Man is a mixture, we were created in the image of God, and so are able to do amazing things, but we are also corrupted by sin, so we are able to do terrible things, and unable to always do the right thing.