A Gift of Wisdom—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 13B (2 Kings 2, 3)

1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁰ Then David slept with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David. ¹¹ The time that David reigned over Israel was forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. ¹² So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his kingdom was firmly established.

³ Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places. ⁴ The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. ⁵ At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I should give you.” ⁶ And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you, and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. ⁷ And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. ⁸ And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. ⁹ Give your servant, therefore, an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil, for who can govern this great people of yours?”

¹⁰ It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. ¹¹ God said to him, “Because you have asked this and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or for the life of your enemies but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, ¹² I now do according to your word. Indeed, I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you, and no one like you shall arise after you. ¹³ I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; no other king shall compare with you. ¹⁴ If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life.”

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                As we saw in the readings from 2 Samuel, David’s reign was filled with ups and downs. He was a man who was close to God’s heart. He was also a man who may have committed rape and had rivals murdered. In other words, he had blood on his hands. Nevertheless, he lived a long life and passed the throne on to one of his sons. Of course, two of his sons, Amnon the oldest and Absalom, had died much earlier in his reign. Absalom killed Amnon after Amnon raped his sister Tamar, and then Absalom died at the hands of David’s general Joab after Absalom rebelled against his father. Now we move into the next book in a series known as 1 Kings. Like the two books of Samuel, the two books of Kings, are all part of a larger story that goes back to Joshua and Judges. In the Hebrew Bible, these books are known as the “Former Prophets.” As Walter Brueggemann points out the “material in the Former Prophets is theological testimony, that is, a believing effort to give an account of faith, an account of God, albeit a God who is said to be engaged in the lived processes of history.” Therefore, we should read the stories already encountered and the ones to come as an interpretive commentary on reports given elsewhere outside of scripture [Brueggemann, Hope Restored, p. 66].

                Now that we’ve turned the page from 2 Samuel to 1 Kings, the story moves from David’s long reign to the long reign of his successor, Solomon. As the story begins in 1 Kings, as David got older, another son, Adonijah, tried to position himself as David’s successor. However, in the end, the prophet Nathan and Bathsheba worked together to put Bathsheba’s son, Solomon, on the throne after David’s death (1 Kings 1). Then David “slept with his ancestors” and was buried in Jerusalem. According to the account in 1 Kings, David reigned over Israel for forty years, seven of which were in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. With David’s death, the throne passed to Solomon. With that statement we jump to chapter 3 and Solomon’s request of God.

                There are a few pieces of information that lie between the account of David’s death and burial and Solomon’s conversation with God about wisdom. For one thing, Solomon consolidates his rule by having his older brother, and rival, Adonijah killed. David’s old general Joab was also killed. In other words, Solomon consolidated his authority by having his rivals murdered. That might not be the vision of Solomon that many of us have, but there it is. Oh, and Solomon also married Pharaoh’s daughter and finished his palace, and we’re told that the people were still sacrificing on the high places because no central temple yet existed so that the religious life could be centralized (1 Kings 2:13-3:2).

                That brings us to Solomon’s conversation with God. We’re told in 1 Kings 3:3 that Solomon loved the LORD (YHWH) and he “walked in the statutes of his father David.” He also sacrificed on an altar at Gibeon, a city north of Jerusalem, which was the principal high place since the Temple had yet to be built in Jerusalem. In other words, unlike many of the people who were using high places all over the kingdom to offer sacrifices, he went to the proper place and offered the proper sacrifices. In this account beginning in verse 3, Solomon is depicted as the pious king, who loved God just like his father. That there was blood on his hands doesn’t seem to matter.

                So, on one occasion when Solomon went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, Yahweh appeared to him in a dream. God promised to give Solomon whatever he asked for. It’s important that we remember that the narrator has set up Solomon as a righteous king who loves God and follows the rules. Therefore Solomon, who first commends God for God’s steadfast love shown to David as David walked in faithfulness and righteousness and had given him a son to succeed him. This is the David who suffered the consequences of his unfaithfulness as described in 2 Samuel, but none of that matters now. David is righteous and Solomon has succeeded his father. Like his father, he seeks to be a man after God’s own heart, or so it seems.

                The righteous Solomon takes a humble approach telling God that his nothing more than a little child, and yet God had chosen him to rule this great people, a people so numerous they can’t be counted, so Solomon asks God: “Give your servant, therefore, an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people” (1 Kings 3:9). In other words, Solomon asking God to give him wisdom so that he can rule wisely.  With Solomon making his request of God, God responds by telling him “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word” (1 Kings 3:9-10a). God is impressed by Solomon’s request because he didn’t ask for worldly benefits. Therefore, God promises to give Solomon what he asked for. God tells Solomon “I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you” (1 Kings 3:12). The result is that Solomon is known for his wisdom. Indeed, no one is like him, at least that’s the story.

                Of course, Solomon also gets the things he didn’t ask for. That is, the riches and honors that go with being a king. There is a caveat, however. No one will compare with Solomon as long as he “will walk in my ways, keeping my statues and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life” (1 Kings 3:13-14). The lectionary passage ends with that caveat. The verse following, verse 15, which is not included offers an interesting addendum: “Then Solomon awoke; it had been a dream. He came to Jerusalem, where he stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. He offered up burnt offerings and offerings of well-being and provided a feast for all his servants” (1 Kings 3:15). Note that after he wakes up, he returns to Jerusalem, stands before the ark of the covenant, and offers more sacrifices. The question here, since he had been going to the high place of Gibeon to offer sacrifices, does this mark a change in venue? In any case, he offers more sacrifices and then throws a party (feast) for his servants.

                This party that the narrator mentions finds an interesting parallel in Proverbs 9, where Wisdom builds her house, slaughters animals, mixes the wine, and sets the table, inviting everyone who is simple and without sense to come and eat her bread and drink her mixed wine. Then, those who participate in the feast of Wisdom are called to “Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight” (Prov. 9:6). Juliana Claasens ponders the connection these two lectionary texts, 1 Kings 3 and Proverbs 9, and asks whether when we read of the two houses that Wisdom and Solomon build, “we rightly wonder whether this sanctuary will be open to all or only to the powerful and the privileged. Will this temple actually be turned into a site of injustice that continues to exclude the marginalized?” [Connections, p. 232].

                Solomon asks for wisdom. God promises to give it to him so he can rule with wisdom and discernment. Of course, there are few checks and balances on Solomon’s rule. Solomon’s wisdom is famously revealed in the following verses when two women approach Solomon when he takes on his role as chief judge. The two women are at odds over a child that both claim is hers. Solomon’s solution to the problem is to split the child in half and give each woman half the child. One of the women agrees to the terms and the other relinquishes her claim to save the child, revealing that she is the true mother. Thus, Solomon’s wisdom is revealed to great acclaim. As the narrator puts it:  All Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to execute justice” (1 Kings 3:16-28). A chapter later we are given an update on Solomon's reputation for wisdom:

God gave Solomon very great wisdom, discernment, and breadth of understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore, ³⁰ so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹ He was wiser than anyone else, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite and Heman, Calcol, and Darda, children of Mahol; his fame spread throughout all the surrounding nations. ³² He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five. ³³ He would speak of trees, from the cedar that is in the Lebanon to the hyssop that grows in the wall; he would speak of animals, and birds, and reptiles, and fish. ³⁴ People came from all the nations to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom. (1 Kings 4:29-34).

While we learned earlier that David would not be charged with building a house for God (2 Sam. 7:1-14), that job was given to Solomon. Solomon built a great house for God, a building project that took seven years to complete (1 Kings 7).  

                Of course, despite his reputation for being a wise and pious ruler, problems set in early that would be a constant problem for what followed his death. One of the problems that afflicted the wise ruler was that he married a lot of women as part of his diplomatic efforts. These wives brought their religious practices to the kingdom and Solomon allowed them to build their own temples, which proved to be a temptation to the people. That didn’t please God (1 Kings 11:1-13). Solomon’s reputation for wise rule would suffer further after his death, when his kingdom is split in two because his son and heir Rehoboam decides to outdo his father in enslaving his people. So, perhaps Solomon wasn’t as wise as advertised.

                So, what might we hear in this story of Solomon’s reign and his prayer that he might rule with wisdom? How might we embrace wisdom in our own lives? We might want to remember that Solomon, for all his wisdom, ultimately failed to live and rule wisely, leading to the demise of a united kingdom of Israel after his death.   

 Image Attribution: Malnazar. Solomon Writing, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55885 [retrieved August 8, 2024]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Malnazar_-_Solomon_Writing_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg.