2026-09-25
1 Kings 4:29 And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breath of mind like the sand on the sea shore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt.
In 1 Kings 3:5, God appears to Solomon at Gibeon in a dream and asks him, “What shall I give you?” I have been awed by the fact that God would put a question like that so directly to a man: “What do you want? Tell me, I’ll give it.” But I am equally awed by the wisdom that led Solomon to choose, of all things, wisdom. He said: “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind, to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” (1 Kings 3:9)
Solomon could have asked for so much else. In primary school there used to be these stories about genies appearing to people and granting them wishes, usually three. Mostly, these people would somehow end up bungling all the wishes by asking for the wrong things. The wishes even sometimes ended up being more of a curse to them than a blessing. Solomon request, and manner of answering, however, turned out to be his greatest blessing. His answer pleased God so much that he gladly gave him what he had never asked for: “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” (I Kings 3:13). By asking for one thing, wisdom, Solomon had in a sense asked for all else, and God was pleased to give it. In his answer, it has felt to me as though Solomon was already making use of that wisdom which God was afterwards to grant him in abundance.
In the Bible we are encouraged to ask– ‘through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests known to God’, ‘ask and you will receive…’ – but the Bible does also find fault with the things we ask for, and our manner of asking: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3). God promises to grant us everything we will ask him in his will , never withholding any good thing from those who walk uprightly (Psalms 84:11). God is honored when he ask him for our needs, for our wants, and for our sustenance in prayer, as it shows our dependence and reliance on him. He really could grant them without us asking (and surely, without us ever asking, he has granted us great grace and bestowed favour which we likely know nothing about) for he knows all that we need before we ask him. But our asking, it seems, pleases him. There’s a beautiful illustration of this in C. S. Lewis’s The Magician’s Nephew:
“Well, I do think someone might have arranged about our meals,” said Digory.
“I’m sure Aslan would have, if you’d asked him,” said Fledge.
“Wouldn’t he know without being asked?” said Polly.
“I’ve no doubt he would,” said the horse (still with his mouth full). “But I’ve a sort of idea he likes to be asked.”
Often however, because of our sinfulness, selfishness, and self-centredness, our request, as James puts it, are usually of the sort that are meant to serve us and our own purposes, rather than God, or God’s people. Solomon wanted wisdom, but it wasn’t so that he would speak the 3000 proverbs that he later did in his lifetime (1 Kings 4:32), or so that he would be hailed as a wisdom-machine. It was so that he would wisely govern God’s people, being able to discern between good and evil. His request pleased God, and God gladly gave him everything else.
There’s a wisdom to choosing and asking which only God in his grace can grant. Like Solomon, there clearly is a way of choosing just one thing, and in that one thing finding that we have chosen everything. Unfortunately, we, most of the time, choose another thing and forfeit all else. Interestingly too, we find that we have lost even that which we chose. One of the things Scripture constantly and explicitly warns us against choosing is ourselves; “Whoever will save his life will lose it”, “Don’t think only of your own interests, but those of others too”, “Have this mind in you, that is Christ’s, who though being God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself and took the form of a servant”. It’s C. S. Lewis (again!) who says: “Aim at heaven, and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth, and you will get neither.” When we choose to satisfy our pleasures and to indulge our longings, whatever they might be, we find that we are not at all satisfied. Rather, we are left guilty, bitter and broken; we have had what we desired, but despair along with it.
Jesus has promised to give us the life-giving water, if only we will come to him; “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again” (John 4:14). All that we seek and desire; love, peace, wealth, health, joy, victory, success, salvation, healing, all of it has a name, and it spells J-E-S-U-S. JESUS! To choose Jesus is to choose the ultimate good. It is to choose just one thing, and in that one thing to find that we have chosen everything else, even those things we wanted but never knew we did. In practicality, to choose Jesus comes down to loving him more than anything else, not even ourselves, nay, especially not ourselves; it means treasuring him above all else, gladly obeying his commandments even when there appears to us a better and easier option; it means continuing to hope against hope and to go on trusting even while life looks all so bleak and even threatens to fall apart; it means to lay down your life for the sake of the Gospel, and for a friend, because Jesus has himself laid down his life for us.
God has today set before you life and death, which will you choose?
Prayer:
Dear Lord, thank you for the promise of supplying every need we have according to your riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Thank you for the great privilege we have of being able to make our requests known to you in prayer and for the assurance that we have whatever we ask if we ask it in your will. May your giving us our daily bread serve the coming of your kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven. In your mercy, do not grant those thing that we ask for in our ignorance and foolishness and selfishness. Thank you for all those times you have given us bread when we asked for a stone. May our asking glorify your name, and may we await with rejoicing and great expectation the granting of our requests. In Jesus Name. Amen.