CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
1 Kings 3:5. In Gibson the Lord appeared to Solomon—Probably during this sacrificial festival.
1 Kings 3:7. A little child: נַעַר קָטּן a weak boy; but it is an error to suppose him only twelve years of age (as say the Rabbins, and after them Keil); for David called him a “man” (1 Kings 2:9) before this incident, and after forty years’ reign he is called זַקִוִ “old” (1 Kings 11:4); hence he must have been at least twenty years of age. But he felt himself a mere “child” in matters of royal responsibility and national government.
1 Kings 3:9. An understanding heart לֵב שׁמֵעַ “a heart hearkening to the voice of God” (Keil); “obedient heart” (Luther); cordocile (Vulgate); literally, a hearing heart, not self-confident, but eager to learn.
1 Kings 3:11. To discern judgment—Lit., to hear judgment; and Lange observes “a right sentence depends upon the hearing, i.e., the trial of the parties; and for this, understanding and judgment are most requisite for the judge” (comp. 2 Samuel 14:17).
1 Kings 3:13. Not asked; both riches and honour: כָּבוֹדֹ honour is here promised as answering to “the life of thine enemies” (1 Kings 3:11), and may therefore be regarded as a promise of military honour, victory over enemies, or the glory to be won by the bloodless triumphs of his far-famed wisdom.
1 Kings 3:15. Behold, it was a dream—yet not a mere creation of the fancy, but a real incident, “a divine vision in a dream (Theodoreti). The sequel proved it to have been more than a dream.
HOMILETICS OF 1 Kings 3:5-15
A DREAM OF WISDOM AND ITS REALITY
A PERIOD of special devotion is often succeeded by the brightest visions of God, and by rich endowments of supernatural grace. In ancient times a common mode of Divine revelation to man was by a dream (see Numbers 12:6; Matthew 1:20; Matthew 2:13; Matthew 2:19, &c.) In such cases the soul was raised to a state of Divine ecstacy and illumination, and held conscious intercourse with God and heavenly intelligences; but when the soul woke to its natural condition of consciousness, the person knew it was a dream, though the reality of the Divine communication remained. So God appeared to Solomon in a dream; and the youthful king saw more with his eyes shut than ever they could see open—even Him who is Invisible! “Solomon worships God by day: God appears to him by night. Well may we look to enjoy God when we have served Him; the night cannot but be happy, whose day hath been holy.” The experience of Solomon during the night spent within the sacred city of Gibeon had a mighty influence upon his future conduct and destiny.
I. That wisdom is a Divine gift (1 Kings 3:5; 1 Kings 3:12).
1. The ordinary endowments of wisdom are from God (James 1:17). The gifts of genius may exist apart from the personal enjoyment of Divine grace. Tremendous is the responsibility of men who are endowed with superior talents, and great will be the punishment for their abuse. Bezaleel was “filled with the Spirit of God in wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship”; but this does not imply that he possessed the highest gifts of grace. It is said of Othniel that “the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel” (Judges 3:10); the power conferred being not necessarily connected with his piety, but referred to his superior tact in governing the people. Many of the sons of genius have not been children of the Spirit. Scotland’s most honoured bard was the slave of one of the lowest appetites, and fell a victim to its sinful indulgence. The highest poetic genius in England in modern times was obliged to banish himself, because of his vices, from the society of the honourable and virtuous. Gifts are often found where the graces are not. We must not undervalue gifts, for they come from God; but we must beware of being satisfied with them.
2. The unique wisdom of Solomon was from God. “Lo, I have given thee” (1 Kings 3:12). It is the good pleasure of God to give wisdom to them that seek for it. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him” (James 1:5). Solomon’s wisdom was, to a certain extent, a supernatural gift, a signal dispensation of Divine favour, which must not be classed with natural acquirements, which are ordinarily obtained by dint of mental application alone. But while this much appears upon the face of the history, we must not suppose that all his knowledge was so special and supernatural an endowment as that he received it without any effort on his part. He doubtless studied and toiled like other men for his acquirements; but he was divinely and supernaturally assisted in a manner and to an extent which no other man ever enjoyed. We shall see further in chap. 1 Kings 4:29-34 that Solomon’s wisdom comprehended natural science, political sagacity, and a deep insight into spiritual truth.—Whedon. As an acute philosopher, and a wise, judicious king, Solomon stood alone—“There was not like unto thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.” Trapp observes, “He was not only wiser than Trismegist, Orpheus, Homer, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Lycurgus, Ptolemy; but also Abraham, Moses, David, yea, even Adam himself after the fall. He was the wisest mere man, take him for everything, as ever was; insomuch as he had all manner of knowledge, natural and supernatural, infused into him.” Solomon saw around him the materials out of which a great and prosperous kingdom could be made, if he only had discretion to use them; and his prayer indicated that this and all other special endowments were in the gift of God.
II. That wisdom is to be diligently sought in prayer.
1. Prayer for wisdom gratefully recognizes the Divine mercy in the blessings already enjoyed. “Thou hast showed unto thy servant David great mercy” (1 Kings 3:6-7). A good child will remember his father’s excellencies, to imitate them, and draw a veil over his sins. Solomon refers to the goodness of God, not only to his father David, but also to himself as successor to the throne. Gratitude for past mercies is an excellent preparation for the reception of new benefactions. The search after the highest good should ever be pursued with a grateful remembrance of the good already possessed. God’s favours are doubly sweet when transmitted to us through the hands of those who have gone before us. The way to get the entail perpetuated is to bless God that it has hitherto been preserved.
2. Prayer for wisdom humbly recognizes personal incompetency. “I am but a little child” (1 Kings 3:7). Solomon, with graceful modesty and humility, feels and acknowledges his youth and inexperience. His exact age at this time is not known; he was probably not more than twenty years of age. Youth, which, as a rule, places freedom in lawlessness, needs before all things to ask God daily for an obedient heart. Those who are employed in public stations ought to be very sensible of the weight and importance of their work and their own insufficiency for it; and then they are qualified for divine conduct and instruction. Absalom, who was a fool, wished himself a judge; Solomon, who was a wise man, trembles at the undertaking, and suspects his own fitness for it. “I know not how to go out or come in”—to sway this massy sceptre, to rule this great people. An allusion to captains or shepherds, or, as some think, to a little child, who learneth of his mother to go out and come into the house.—Trapp. It is an idiomatic expression denoting the whole official conduct of a ruler before his people (compare Numbers 27:17). The wisest men are most sensible of their own ignorance.
3. Prayer for wisdom has special reference to the object for which it is to be practically exercised. “Give thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad” (1 Kings 3:9). A monarch’s sagacity in the administration of justice was calculated to make the most marked impression upon the popular mind, and likely to be most generally talked about throughout the land. This quality also came more home to the personal concerns of his subjects than any other, and was for that reason alone the more carefully regarded. The administration of justice was, in all ancient monarchies, as it is now in the East, a most important part of the royal duties and functions; and there is no quality more highly prized than that keen discernment in the royal judge which detects the clue of real evidence amidst conflicting testimony, or that ready tact which devises a test of truth where the evidence affords no clue to any grounds of decision.—Kitto. The true wisdom for which we have to ask God does not consist in manifold and great knowledge, but in that which enables us to discern between good and bad, right and wrong, sin and duty, truth and falsehood, so as not to be misled in judging either of other’s actions or of our own (Job 28:28; James 3:17; Ephesians 5:17). This discernment is a fruit of our spiritual renewal (Romans 12:2).
III. That wisdom often includes inferior blessings (1 Kings 3:13). The way to temporal blessings is to be indifferent to them. Solomon has wisdom because he asks for it, and wealth because he does not. God superadds riches and honour, and promises long life to enjoy them. A similar principle in the Divine government is enunciated by Christ—“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). The greater blessing includes all lesser ones. “So doth God love a good choice, that He recompenses it with over giving. Had Solomon made wealth his boon, he had failed both of riches and wisdom; now he asks the best, and speeds of all. They are in a fair way of happiness who can pray well.”—Bishop Hall. Riches and honour are then truly blessings when God bestows the wisdom and grace to improve them aright (Ecclesiastes 7:11).
IV. That the gift of wisdom is conditioned on personal obedience (1 Kings 3:14). All the Divine promises are largely conditional. This wise king, whose reign began so auspiciously, failed to meet the conditions of long-continued prosperity. “No character in the sacred writings disappoints us more than the character of Solomon.” As the condition was not observed (1 Kings 11:1-8), the right to the promise of lengthened days was forfeited, and it was not fulfilled. Solomon can scarcely have been more than fifty-nine or sixty at his death. Length of days is the blessing in the right hand of Wisdom—typical of eternal life; but in her left hand are riches and honour (Proverbs 3:16).
V. That the gift of wisdom should be devoutly and joyously acknowledged (1 Kings 3:15).
1. In diligent attention to religious duties. “He came to Jerusalem, and stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings.” Solomon determined to inaugurate his reign by a grand religious ceremonial at each of the two holy places which at this time divided between them the reverence of the Jews. Having completed the religious services at Gibeon, where was the Tabernacle of the congregation, and where he had received the Divine blessing, he proceeds now to Jerusalem. and sacrifices before the Ark of the Covenant, which was in Mount Zion (2 Samuel 6:12). This proceeding symbolized that coming hour when, under the greater than Solomon, all separation of tabernacle and ark would be for ever past, and the true worshippers would advance from a cultus that made locality a test, to find their great altar in the inner temple of the Spirit, and to worship the Father in spirit and in truth (John 4:21-24). We should give God praise for all his gilts, and for the promise of gifts not yet realized.
2. In promoting the happiness of others. “And made a feast to all his servants.” A great feast naturally followed on a large sacrifice of peace-offerings. In these the sacrificer always partook of the flesh of the victim, and he was commanded to call in to the feast the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow (Deuteronomy 14:29). We best employ the gifts of God by using them to increase the joy of those around us.
LESSONS:—
1. The highest blessings are secured only by importunate prayer.
2. To possess true wisdom is to possess all the essentials of happiness.
THE DREAM OF SOLOMON
Solomon was a great man—great in everything he did. When he sinned, great in sin; when he worshipped, great in worship. Good and evil strangely met and battled in this man’s life. He had a majestic intellect, an intellect whose every thought contained the wealth of a proverb; but he had great animal propensities too. The sea of passion within him was deep and warm, heaved in resistless waves, and its surges often swamped his reason and his conscience.
The passage before us is the record of a dream which this great man had one night at Gibeon, a place celebrated in the Old Testament, but not mentioned in the New, and whose geographical position cannot be determined with any certainty now. There are two things very noteworthy in this dream.
1. The blending of the human and divine. There is much that you can trace to Solomon’s own mind in the nocturnal vision recorded here. It seemed to be according to the measure of his capacity. He was a large-minded man, and the dream is on a large scale. There is nothing mean or small about it. Pharaoh’s dream was very inferior to this. He was a narrow, material-minded man, and he dreamed of oxen and of corn. The dream of the Midianitish soldier was a still more contemptible thing. A poor, uncultivated, small-minded soldier dreamed that which was in accordance with his capacity, about a barley cake. Solomon’s great soul took within the ample range of its imagination the whole Jewish nation, the Eternal Ruler of the universe, the righteous providence of Heaven, and the everlasting principles of moral obligation. A small mind can never have large conceptions, either awake or asleep. The dimensions of a man’s ideas will always be measured by his capacity. Flower-pots cannot grow the cedars of Labanon—they require depth of soil and sweep of area. It seemed to be also according to the moral state of his mind. The previous day he had been engaged in religious services. His whole nature seemed on fire with devotion. In the fourth verse we are told that at Gibeon he sacrificed no less than a thousand burnt offerings. A thousand cattle he offered in sacrifice to God in one act of devotion. If the amount of his sacrifice measured the extent of his religious ardour, his religious feelings on this occasion must have reached the highest point of elevation. It was natural, therefore, on the night of that day the religious element should be predominant. The dream is thoroughly religious. As the religious sentiment had flooded his nature in the day, it worked his imagination in the night. It is generally thus. Our dreams grow out of the waking thoughts that have most impressed us. Imagination in the stillness of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon us, brings these thoughts together, constructs them into a fabric often grotesque, strange, and thrilling. It seemed to be, moreover, according to the strongest desire of his heart. He had just been appointed king of Israel; he was inexperienced—not more, perhaps, than twenty years of age. The responsibility of governing a great country pressed heavily on his young heart, and filled him with solicitude. He felt that to take the place of his father David, and direct the destinies of Israel, he required that wisdom which God alone could bestow. This he earnestly desires. Our mental faculties are the servants of our desires; desires are the spirit in the wheels of the mental machine.
So far, we see the human in this dream; but the divine is manifestly here, too. The coherency, truthfulness, and sublimity of the religious thoughts, and the propriety of the spirit and language of the prayer that was offered, and the fulfilment of the Divine answer given in the actual history of Solomon, all show that there was a presiding Divinity in the dream. The other thing noteworthy in this dream is—
2. The suggested conditions of successful prayer. The prayer of his dream was, as we have said, answered in his actual history. He did receive a wisdom for ruling, and abundance of riches, and a splendour of dominion that have never been rivalled by any monarch on the earth. Now, what are the conditions of successful prayer which the dream suggests?
I. That effective prayer must be divinely authorized. At the beginning of the dream Solomon received an authority to pray: “And God said, Ask what I shall give thee.” Such an authority is evidently a necessary condition. Unless the Eternal gave us a warrant to address Him, our appeals would be impious and fruitless. Hell prays, prays earnestly and continuously, but it prays without Divine authority, and the supplications rebound with the force of a crushing despair. An all-important question arises here: Have we, the men of this age, a Divine authority for praying? If not, our appeals to Heaven are worse than idle breath. What saith the oracle? Hear its declarations on the point (Deuteronomy 4:29-40; 2 Chronicles 7:13-14; Jeremiah 33:3; Isaiah 65:24; Matthew 7:7-11). Here, then is sufficient authority. God says as truly to us now as he said to Solomon in his dream, “Ask what I shall give you.”
1. This authority to call upon God in prayer agrees with our religious instincts. Prayer in some form or other is the natural cry of the soul. The child in distress does not more naturally look to his fond parent for help, than the human soul in sore trouble and danger looks to the heavens for aid. The heathen mariners in that little vessel that was bearing Jonah to Tarshish, when the tempest lashed the sea into fury, and threatened their destruction, “cried every man unto his God.” Even men who in theory deny the existence of a God, urged by this instinct, will cry to Him in danger. There are many striking instances of this on record. Take one or two. Volney, the celebrated infidel, was once in a storm at sea. Whilst the vessel was reeling and plunging with the fury of the elements, there was no man on board more frantic with terror, and more earnest in prayer to that God whose existence he impiously denied, than this Volney. “Oh, my God, my God!” said he, “what shall I do?” One of his companions on board, struck with the inconsistency of this man’s appeal to heaven, said, “What! have you a God now?” To which he replied, “Oh, yes! oh, yes!” Voltaire, the brilliant Frenchman and the celebrated infidel, cried out, when the king of terrors confronted him, “Oh, Christ! oh, Jesus Christ!” Tom Paine, that bold, clever sceptic, who wrote the “Age of Reason,” cried out in his last hours, “O Lord, help mo! God, help me! Jesus Christ, help me! O Lord, help me!” &c. Yes, the instinct in the soul to call upon God when excited by imminent danger triumphs over the strongest logic and grandest theories of infidelity. It is to me no feeble collateral argument for the divinity of the Bible, that God does that which the soul in her most solemn mood craves for—authorizes prayer.
2. This authority to call upon God in prayer is encouraging to our hope as sinners. Oh! what should we, who are here involved in guilt, depravity, affliction, death, do were those heavens sealed above us, and there was no God to hear our prayer? Our condition would indeed be hopeless. But when we hear Him say to us, “Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee;” and again, “Ask what I shall give thee,” we feel that we may obtain His help to raise us to virtue, dignity, and immortal bliss. It is this truth that makes the thought of Him even tolerable to us. The thought that He created the universe, that He sustains all existence, that He is the righteous Governor of all worlds, would overwhelm us with terror unless we believed that He answered prayers. That He hears prayer is a truth that gives to every aspect of His character an attraction to us as sinners.
II. That effective prayer must be earnestly spiritual. By this we mean that spiritual interest must reign supreme, that spiritual motives must be predominant. It was so now with Solomon in his prayer. What a sense he had of the Invisible God! The grandeur of kingdoms and the splendour of material worlds seem to have had no place in his spirit now. The Great God is the one grand object, in all the reality of His being, before him. He recognized Him as the Author of all the distinguishing virtues which his father David possessed. “Thou hast showed,” &c. He speaks to God as a present, personal, conscious existence, seeing him, knowing and feeling what he said in prayer. What a sense he had of the importance of spiritual goodness in reference to his royal father in prayer! The idea of his temporal glory was lost in the thought of his spiritual excellence. “He walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee.” What a sense he had of the Divine goodness! He ascribed all that his father had to God. “Thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne.” Much as he loved his father, he traced all his father’s greatness to the goodness of God. What a sense he had of his own insignificance! “I am but a little child; I know not how to go out or come in.” Humility is essential to true prayer. No one can feel himself in the presence of the Infinite without being overwhelmed with a sense of his own insignificance. Egotistic thoughts can no more live in the breath of prayer, than flakes of snow in a summer sun. What a sense he had of his own responsibility! “Thy servant is in the midst of thy people, which thou hast chosen; a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.” All this shows how earnestly spiritual his prayer was; and this earnest spirituality is an essential condition of effective prayer. When we pray, materialism must vanish from our minds as a cloud, and spiritual realities must rise in all their commanding importance. He that prays must feel that he has to do with one who is the original fountain of all kinds of good. He that prays must have the deepest humility, must feel as Abraham felt when wrestling for Sodom, that he is but dust and ashes. He that prays must deeply realize his responsibility, both to man and his Maker. All this spiritual earnestness is an essential condition of effective prayer.
III. That effective prayer must be thoroughly unselfish. “What he prayed for was, “an understanding heart;” and he prayed for that, not that it might serve his own interest, but in order, as he says, “to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad.” And this speech, we are told, “pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing,” &c. Mark, God answered his prayer; in fact, gave to him more than he sought, because he sought not the good for his own ends, but in order to enable him to serve others. What! it may be said, are we to forget self in prayer? Are we not to pray for spiritual and temporal good for ourselves? By all means. But seek the good for yourself, not mainly for the sake of yourself, but in order that thereby you may be qualified to serve your generation and your God. With this spirit Moses prayed, “Oh! this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt, forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book.” In this spirit Paul prayed, “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” In this spirit Jesus prayed, “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say, Father save me from this hour? but for this cause came I unto this hour.” Such are the conditions of effective prayer suggested in this dream. There are, of course, other conditions that are not here suggested, such as faith in the mediation of Jesus Christ, for all true prayer must be offered up in his name.
In conclusion, do you ask why prayer is not answered now as in olden times? We read of wondrous things it did in ancient times, in the generations of old. Abraham prays, and the storm of fire and brimstone is borne up for a time on the breath of his intercession. Moses prays, and now we see the earth opening her mouth, and swallowing up religious impostors, and now the sea dividing and making a highway for the chosen race. The disciples pray in the upper room at Jerusalem, and the day of Pentecost comes showering blessings on the ages. In fact, the Old and New Testaments are full of the triumphs of prayer—prayer creating the rain and the drought; prayer clearing the mountains, and dividing the seas; prayer scattering armies, and awakening the dead to life; prayer destroying the power of the burning fiery furnace, and sealing up the mouths of lions; prayer opening prison doors, and healing all manner of diseases. Nor have we been left in later times without striking examples of its power.—Homilist.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1 Kings 3:5. Sleep is like a state of death to the soul, wherein the senses are locked up, and the understanding and will deprived of the free exercise of their functions. And yet this is no impediment to God in communicating His will to mankind; for He has power not only to awaken our intellectual faculties, but to advance them above their ordinary measure of perception, even while the body is asleep (Job 33:14). God can approach the soul in many different ways when the body is in a state of rest and inactivity, can move and actuate it as He pleases; and when He is inclined to make a discovery of anything, can set such a lively representation of it before the understanding as shall prevent a man’s doubting the reality of the vision (see Calmet). In the particular phase of sleep known in Scripture as “dream” or “vision,” it may be that the mind was sometimes in possession of all its powers, and that only the body slumbered. That which engages us most when we are awake will even in sleep still be our employment.
God well knew what Solomon needed, but He bade him ask.
1. To show how negligent men are in praying for what is spiritual.
2. That He would only bestow His gifts in the ordinance of prayer.
3. That great personages might have an example of what they should ask of God above all others.
“Ask what I shall give thee.”
1. A test-word, for as man wishes and prays, so docs he show of whose spirit he is the child (Psalms 139:23).
2. A word of warning, for we not only may, but we should also ask for all which we have most at heart (Psalms 37:4).—Lange.
1 Kings 3:5-15. The prayer of Solomon.
1. Its contents (1 Kings 3:6-9).
2. Its answer (1 Kings 3:10-14). A dream like Solomon’s does not happen when the day just past has been spent in revel and riot, in gross or in refined sin.—Lange.
1 Kings 3:9. Solomon’s choice of wisdom. And now occurred one of those prophetic dreams which had already been the means of Divine communication in the time of Samuel Thrice in Solomon’s life (at the three epochs of his rise, of his climax, of his fall) is such a warning recorded. This was the first. It was the choice offered to the youthful king on the threshold of life—the choice so often imagined in fiction, and actually presented in real life. “Ask what I shall give thee.” The answer is the ideal answer of such a prince, burdened with the responsibility of his position. He remembered the high antecedents of his predecessor; he remembered his own youth and weakness; he remembered the vastness of his charge; he made the demand for the gift which he, of all the heroes of the ancient church, was the first to claim; he showed his wisdom by asking for wisdom; he became wise because he had set his heart upon it. This was to him the special aspect through which the Divine spirit was to be approached and grasped, and made to bear on the wants of men; not the highest, not the choice of David, not the choice of Isaiah, but still the choice of Solomon.—Stanley.
As it appears eventually that Solomon did some foolish and some mistaken things, it becomes a matter of interest to know wherein lay that wisdom with which he was supernaturally endowed. God giveth to him that hath. It was the previous possession of wisdom which qualified him for more. His wisdom is evinced by nothing more than his choice of wisdom beyond all other blessings, when the fruition of his wishes was offered to him in the vision at Gibeon. The terms of his request indicate the nature of the wisdom he required. That Divine wisdom in spiritual things, that heart religion which the Jews sometimes denoted by this name, is not intended. With that he was not preeminently gifted; not more gifted, certainly, than his father David, hardly so much gifted. The wisdom which he craved was that of which he had already enough to be able to appreciate the value of its increase—practical wisdom, sagacity, clearness of judgment and intellect in the administration of justice and in the conduct of public affairs, with an aptitude for the acquisition and use of the higher branches of philosophical knowledge, natural and moral, which constituted the learning of his age. In the latter he excelled the most famous men of his time.—Kitto.
The terms translated “wise” and “understanding,” both denote practical wisdom (see Genesis 41:33-39; Deuteronomy 4:6; Proverbs 1:2, &c.).
1 Kings 3:11-14. The granting of Solomon’s prayer teaches and assures us—
1. That God grants more than they request, over and above praying and understanding, to those who call upon Him with earnestness and for spiritual gifts (Ephesians 3:20; Matthew 6:33).
2. That God gives to him upon whom He confers an office—that is, to one who does not rush into an office or calling, but is called thereto by God—the necessary understanding if he humbly seek it. “Where there is wisdom there comes, indeed, also gold and silver (Proverbs 3:16), but not the reverse.—Lange.