Knowledge and Wisdom

Reading: 1 Kings 3.5-15a


In our time we are obsessed with the pursuit of knowledge, and have often forgotten our need for wisdom. This was highlighted by the famous US General, Omar Bradley, when he said, "We are nuclear giants, but ethical infants". This statement could be broadened to include all our scientific and technological achievements and our serious shortage of ethical insight and integrity.

In saying this, I am not denying that many good outcomes have been achieved that have saved lives and benefited the human race. But we are constantly making the assumption, "If it can be done, let's do it!"

True, we look back and wonder whether there was any other way to bring down the global ambitions of imperialist Japan. We speculate whether rogue states can be brought to heel without strong military action. But are the strategists acting with wisdom - or with calculated knowledge of the relative balance of power?

We are discovering that sex education in schools doesn't necessarily lead to a lowering of teenage pregnancies at all. Knowledge without wisdom may be useless - or even downright harmful.

Biotechnology may genetically modify plants to improve resistance to pests and diseases. But many consumers are suspicious - do the researchers know all the facts anyway, and are they being guided by something other than wisdom?

Or we think of embryonic stem-cell research and the question of human cloning. The issues here are again related to wisdom - and the application of ethical principles - as well as knowledge.

Solomon's Prayer

Solomon had become king. The Temple "had not yet been built for the Name of the Lord" (1 Kings 3.2b). "Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the statutes of his father David…" (v. 3).

One night, after he had offered sacrifices to the Lord on the altar at Gibeon, Solomon had a dream in which the Lord said to him, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you" (v. 5).

What would you have requested? a million dollars? worldwide peace? good health for yourself and your family? a life untroubled by terror or war?…

When Solomon became king, he knew himself to be young and inexperienced. He was probably about twenty years old when he became king - "I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties" (v. 7b).

His father had been a model king - a measure by which other kings were judged. His sin "in the case of Uriah the Hittite" (1 Kings 15.5) was the one major blemish on his record - and Bathsheba was Solomon's mother.

David's armies had fought many battles. In fact, when David expressed his desire to build a Temple, the Lord told him, "You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. But you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest… He is the one who will build a house for my Name" (1 Chron. 22.8-10).

Then Absolom, Solomon's half-brother, had stirred up a rebellion against his father, David. Again, at the time of David's death, there was obvious jealousy as to which son would be king in his place.

The awareness of all this must have weighed heavily on Solomon as he considered the Lord's offer, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you".

At our Guest Service three weeks ago we considered two questions, "What is the passionate goal of our life?" and "What is the deepest need of our life?" In a very real sense, those were the questions facing Solomon at that moment. This was the test of how deeply he was following the Lord.

His simple request was, "So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong" (1 Kings 3.9a). "A discerning heart to govern… and to distinguish between right and wrong".

We remember "Solomon in all his splendour" (Mt. 6.29) - his great wealth and the expanded borders of his realm. He seemed to have an interest in botany and zoology - "He described plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish" (1 Kings 4.33). But what is the use of wealth and knowledge without discernment and wisdom?

The Lord's Response

"The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this" (v. 10).

Solomon had recognised his deepest need and was making it his passionate goal. Having made that choice and commitment, Solomon wouldn't lack anything needful for an effective reign. In fact, "I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for - both riches and honour - so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings" (vv. 12b-13).

There are some notable examples of Christian millionaires - people such as le Tourneau, Woolworth, Colgate… who have given substantially to the Lord's work and their businesses have prospered. Some teachers and groups have made a doctrine out of it - we call it the "prosperity doctrine". The literature on one American evangelist would typically tell of a supporter who gave $1000 to "the ministry" and next day was able to buy a Cadillac! I don't doubt that the evangelist drove round in a Cadillac!

It is false and manipulative teaching. Jesus said, "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap" (Lk. 6.38). Looking at Jesus' life we see no evidence of material wealth. Yet he was rich in the most important sense. When salvation came to Zacchaeus' house, he gave half of his possessions to the poor and paid back fourfold what he had wrongfully taken from people (19.8). According to the prosperity teaching, Zacchaeus should have ended up a very wealthy man as a result of this action. There's no evidence at all that this happened!

This "cargo-cult" mentality shows that we have our priorities all wrong. The common people of Jesus' time needed their most obvious needs fulfilled - food, drink, clothing - yet he told them to "seek first [God's] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Mt. 6.33).

Like Solomon, we need a discerning heart. Like Solomon, we need to walk in the Lord's ways.

Wisdom

And so we come back to today - our insatiable thirst for knowledge and our desperate deficiency in wisdom. So lacking is our wisdom that sometimes, in the pressure to "prove some point", reported "knowledge" is modified or even falsified - we can hardly call that "wise"!

In the book of Proverbs, Solomon wrote, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding" (Prov. 9.10). "Fear" here doesn't mean "terror", but "reverence", "respect". The Good News Bible puts it, "To be wise you must first have reverence for the Lord. If you know the Holy One, you have understanding". Knowing God and honouring him is the key to wisdom and understanding. The folly of today's world is that we ignore God and attempt to live by human cleverness rather than by wisdom.

James wrote, "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him" (Jas 1.5).

This isn't all the story of Solomon. We read, "King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart…" (1 Kings 10.23-24); "King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women… As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been… So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done" (11.1,4,6).

Solomon was right - "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom". And, as he found out, to forget that is to bring trouble.

Let's seek knowledge all right. But above all, seek the Lord. To know, love and trust him is to be wise indeed.


© Peter J. Blackburn, Home Hill and Ayr Uniting Churches, 17 August 2003
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New International Version, © International Bible Society, 1984.

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