1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 John 6:51-58 Ephesians 5:15-20
There are several internet memes that have a humorous take on our understanding of wisdom and the one that have in mind says that “The reason that I am old and wise, is that God protected me while I was young and stupid.” I still don’t consider myself to be “old and wise,” but I have realized that somewhere during the years that I have lived and the many miles that I have traveled, I learned a few things. Sometimes that amounts to wisdom, and sometimes I just know stuff, but there are still a great many things that I do not know. The truth of the internet meme is that for most of us, wisdom isn’t something that you can learn in a book, although books can help. Most often, wisdom is the hard lesson that we learn after we make poor decisions, or when we remember the poor decisions that we have witnessed in others.
I have often remembered the scene in our office on Friday the 13, 1989 when there was a significant crash in the stock market. One of our managers, Chuck, who was only a few years older than me, and in is late 20’s or barely into his 30’s, was absolutely panicked and continually tried to reach his investment people on the telephone, but because this was national news, the phone lines were, of course, constantly busy. But while this 30-year-old was freaking out, another of our department members, Charlie, who was at the time only months from retirement, sat at his desk by the window, continued working, and appeared to be completely unconcerned. And this was even though he had, that afternoon, lost more of his invested retirement funds than Chuck had invested or earned in an entire year. But Charlie knew what Chuck did not. Markets are cyclical. They go up, they go down. And Charlie had seen enough stock market crashes and recessions over his 30- or 40-year career, that they no longer excited him. He had learned a little wisdom.
And the lessons of wisdom are what we will search for today in our scripture lessons. We begin today with the end of King David, the beginning of the reign of his son Solomon, the wisdom that Solomon had, the wisdom that God added to his life, and the wisdom that all of us can learn from him. And for that, we begin this morning by reading 1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14 where we hear this:
10 Then David rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. 11 He had reigned forty years over Israel—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. 12 So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his rule was firmly established.
3 Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.
4 The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
6 Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.
7 “Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 8 Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
10 The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. 11 So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, 12 I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. 13 Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. 14 And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.”
The phrase “rested with his ancestors,” is an often-used biblical euphemism that meant that David’s bones had been buried in a common crypt or pit with the members of his family that had died before him. In any case, David had died, and Solomon became Israel’s next king. At this point, Solomon was not a child. If David had ruled for thirty-three years in Jerusalem, Solomon could not have been more than a few years younger than that. We know that David first saw Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, from the roof of his palace, and that David had built the palace after he had conquered Jerusalem, it would seem that Solomon’s age could be estimated by starting with David’s thirty-three years of rule and subtracting the time that it took to build a palace. Based on that, estimates vary from twenty-eight down to twelve, but my guess is that it’s toward the high end of that range somewhere in Solomon’s twenties.
But regardless of his age, Solomon had already distinguished himself by his love of God and his obedience to both God and his father David. The exception, according to the history written by the priests in Jerusalem, was that Solomon offered sacrifices in the “high places,” which were centers of worship and sacrifice for Israel’s God that were outside of Jerusalem (and not under the control of Jerusalem’s priests), often these high places were so far from Jerusalem that it was difficult or inconvenient to travel there regularly. But upon David’s death, Solomon offers a thousand sacrifices to God, and after doing so, God appears to Solomon that night as he slept and told him to ask for whatever he wanted.
And this is where we begin to see Solomon’s wisdom even before God gives him any additional gifts. First, Solomon has already demonstrated his faithfulness, and he recognized that his father had become king only because of God’s kindness. But next, Solomon also recognizes that God’s people are “too numerous to count or number” and by saying so, recognizes, not that it was impossible to count them, but that God had prohibited them to be counted, and that David had sinned against God by taking a census to do so. Thus, Solomon demonstrates his wisdom by learning from one of his father’s biggest mistakes. And finally, as we all know, Solomon shows wisdom by recognizing that he doesn’t know everything and would need wisdom to be a good leader, and so, he asks God, not for wealth or long life, but for wisdom.
The next lesson in wisdom for today is found in John 6:51-58 where we hear Jesus say:
51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
52 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
When the doubters of Jesus asked how he could give them flesh to eat, Jesus simply said that whoever did would have eternal life and that he would raise them up on the last day. His explanation was that those who ate his flesh and drank his blood were the people who remained faithful to him. It is in that explanation that we find another of today’s pieces of wisdom. But if you didn’t quite get that one, there will be a summary at the end.
Our last lesson in wisdom comes from the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:15-20, where he says:
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, 16making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. 18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, 19speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, 20always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul’s warning is that the church in Ephesus, and ours today, was, and is, surrounded by influences that intend to distract us from our faith and lead us away from God. His example is that while getting drunk is easy, and not necessarily a sinful action by itself, getting drunk often leads to debauchery or other sins because it lowers our inhibitions, reduces our self-control, and causes us to make poor choices. His advice then is not just to avoid sin, but to avoid the things that lead to sin.
Taken together we heard at least six lessons in wisdom today.
First, it is wise to live a life that is faithful and obedient.
Second, there is wisdom in remembering what God has done and to be grateful for what God has done for us.
Third, it is wise to learn from the mistakes of others, as Solomon learned from the mistakes of his father David.
Fourth, learning, and practicing, discernment leads us to make good choices.
Fifth, if we want to be the people that eat Jesus’ flesh, drink Jesus’ blood, and receive eternal life, then we must live a life of faith that shares in the ministry and the suffering of Jesus every day. Jesus said that the one who feeds on him will live, and if we are to feed on him, we must be faithful in consuming his word and doing his work.
And finally, because we live in a world, and in a culture, that surrounds us with influences that distract us from our faith, we must avoid the things that lead to sin rather than simply trying to avoid sin. If drinking leads us to sin, stop drinking, if certain friends lead us to do things that we should not do, then we need to start avoid those friends and make new ones, and if going to certain places and doing certain things lead into temptation and sin, we should stop going to those places and doing those things. In short, this sixth lesson says that rather than attempting to avoid evil, we must avoid the offramps that lead to evil.
We aren’t born wise.
Few of us will be given a sudden gift of extra wisdom by God upon our ascension to the throne.
But all of us, with care, persistence, and faithfulness, can learn wisdom and, although few of us are likely to ever be a threat to Solomon, we can, and should, ask for God’s help in doing so.
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