Solomon loved Yahweh, walking in the statutes of David his father; except that he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. In Gibeon, Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask for what I should give you.”
Solomon said, “You have shown to your servant David my father great loving kindness, because he walked before you in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with you. You have kept for him this great loving kindness, that you have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is today. Now, Yahweh my God, you have made your servant king instead of David my father. I am just a little child. I don’t know how to go out or come in. Your servant is among your people which you have chosen, a great people, that can’t be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this great people of yours?”
This request pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have you asked for riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice; behold, I have done according to your word. Behold, I have given you a wise and understanding heart; so that there has been no one like you before you, and after you none will arise like you. I have also given you that which you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you for all your days. If you will walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”
Solomon awoke; and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, and offered up burnt offerings, offered peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15 For his father had commanded him to obey the…
For his father had commanded him to obey the Lord and walk in his ways, 1 Kings 2:3.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv3–15 1Ki 3:3 And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in…
1Ki 3:3 And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.
Ver. 3. And Solomon loved, the Lord.] Being first loved by him, his Jedidiah, his darling: for our love to God is but the reflex of his to us first. {1Jn 4:19}
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Only he sacrificed, &c.] He climbed those misallowed hills; yet loveth he the Lord, and is loved of him. Such is the mercy of our God, that he rather pitieth than plagneth us for our well meant weaknesses, for the infirmities of upright hearts.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv3–15 And, or, yet, although he mistook and miscarried himself…
And, or, yet, although he mistook and miscarried himself in the matter of high places, yet in the general his heart was right with God, and he both loved him with inward affection, and walked with him in outward conversation and worship.
In the statutes of David, i.e. according to the statutes or commands of God, which are here called the statutes of David, not only because they were so freely chosen, and heartily loved, and diligently practised by David, but also because the observation of them was so earnestly pressed upon Solomon, and fortified with David’s authority and command: see 1Ki 2:2-4; 1Ch 28:8,9.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v5 We have here an account of a gracious visit…
We have here an account of a gracious visit which God paid to Solomon, and the communion he had with God in it, which put a greater honour upon Solomon than all the wealth and power of his kingdom did.
I. The circumstances of this visit, Kg1 3:5. 1. The place. It was in Gibeon; that was the great high place, and should have been the only one, because there the tabernacle and the brazen altar were, Ch2 1:3. There Solomon offered his great sacrifices, and there God owned him more than in any other of the high places. The nearer we come to the rule in our worship the more reason we have to expect the tokens of God's presence. Where God records his name, there he will meet us and bless us. 2. The time. It was by night, the night after he had offered that generous sacrifice, Kg1 3:4. The more we abound in God's work the more comfort we may expect in him; if the day has been busy for him, the night will be easy in him. Silence and retirement befriend our communion with God. His kindest visits are often in the night, Psa 17:3. 3. The manner. It was in a dream, when he was asleep, his senses locked up, that God's access to his mind might be the more free and immediate. In this way God used to speak to the prophets (Num 12:6) and to private persons, for their own benefit, Job 33:15, Job 33:16. These divine dreams, no doubt, were plainly distinguishable from those in which there are divers vanities, Ecc 5:7.
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II. The gracious offer God made him of the favour he should choose, whatever it might be, Kg1 3:5. He saw the glory of God shine about him, and heard a voice saying, Ask what I shall give thee. Not that God was indebted to him for his sacrifices, but thus he would testify his acceptance of them, and signify to him what great mercy he had in store for him, if he were not wanting to himself. Thus he would try his inclinations and put an honour upon the prayer of faith. God, in like manner, condescends to us, and puts us in the ready way to be happy by assuring us that we shall have what we will for the asking, Joh 16:23; Jo1 5:14. What would we more? Ask, and it shall be given you.
III. The pious request Solomon hereupon made to God. He readily laid hold of this offer. Why do we neglect the like offer made to us, like Ahaz, who said, I will not ask? Isa 7:12. Solomon prayed in his sleep, God's grace assisting him; yet it was a lively prayer. What we are most in care about, and which makes the greatest impression upon us when we are awake, commonly affects us when we are asleep; and by our dreams, sometimes, we may know what our hearts are upon and how our pulse beats. Plutarch makes virtuous dreams one evidence of increase in virtue. Yet this must be attributed to a higher source. Solomon's making such an intelligent choice as this when he was asleep, and the powers of reason were least active, showed that it came purely from the grace of God, which wrought in him these gracious desires. If his reins thus instruct him in the night season, he must bless the Lord who gave him counsel, Psa 16:7. Now, in this prayer,
1. He acknowledges God's great goodness to his father David, Kg1 3:6. He speaks honourably of his father's piety, that he had walked before God in uprightness of heart, drawing a veil over his faults. It is to be hoped that those who praise their godly parents will imitate them. But he speaks more honourably of God's goodness to his father, the mercy he had shown to him while he lived, in giving him to be sincerely religious and then recompensing his sincerity and the great kindness he had kept for him, to be bestowed on the family when he was gone, in giving him a son to sit on his throne. Children should give God thanks for his mercies to their parents, for the sure mercies of David. God's favours are doubly sweet when we observe them transmitted to us through the hands of those that have gone before us. The way to get the entail perpetuated is to bless God that it has hitherto been preserved.
2. He owns his own insufficiency for the discharge of that great trust to which he is called, Kg1 3:7, Kg1 3:8. And here is a double plea to enforce his petition for wisdom: - (1.) That his place required it, as he was successor to David ("Thou hast made me king instead of David, who was a very wise and good man: Lord, give me wisdom, that I may keep up what he wrought, and carry on what he began") and as he was ruler over Israel: "Lord, give me wisdom to rule well; for they are a numerous people, that will not be managed without much care, and they are thy people, whom thou hast chosen, and therefore to be ruled for thee, and the more wisely they are ruled the more glory thou wilt have from them." (2.) That he wanted it. As one that had a humble sense of his own deficiency, he pleads, "Lord, I am but a little child (so he calls himself, a child in understanding, though his father called him a wise man, Kg1 2:9); I know not how to go out or come in as I should, nor to do so much as the common daily business of the government, much less what to do in a critical juncture." Note, 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 receiving divine instruction. Paul's question (Who is sufficient for these things?) is much like Solomon's here, Who is able to judge this thy so great a people? Kg1 3:9. Absalom, who was a wise man, trembles at the undertaking and suspects his own fitness for it. The more knowing and considerate men are the better acquainted they are with their own weakness and the more jealous of themselves.
3. He begs of God to give him wisdom (Kg1 3:9); Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart. He calls himself God's servant, pleased with that relation to God (Psa 116:16) and pleading it with him: "I am devoted to thee, and employed for thee; give me that which is requisite to the services in which I am employed." Thus his good father prayed, and thus he pleaded. Psa 119:125, I am thy servant, give me understanding. An understanding heart is God's gift, Pro 2:6. We must pray for it (Jam 1:5), and pray for it with application to our particular calling and the various occasions we have for it; as Solomon, Give me an understanding, not to please my own curiosity with, or puzzle my neighbours, but to judge thy people. That is the best knowledge which will be serviceable to us in doing our duty; and such that knowledge is which enables us to discern between good and bad, right and wrong, sin and duty, truth and falsehood, so as not to be imposed upon by false colours in judging either of others' actions or of our own.
4. The favourable answer God gave to his request. It was a pleasing prayer (Kg1 3:10): The speech pleased the Lord. God is well pleased with his own work in his people, the desires of his own kindling, the prayers of his Spirit's inditing. By this choice Solomon made it appear that he desired to be good more than great, and to serve God's honour more than to advance his own. Those are accepted of God who prefer spiritual blessings to temporal, and are more solicitous to be found in the way of their duty than in the way to preferment. But that was not all; it was a prevailing prayer, and prevailed for more than he asked. (1.) God gave him wisdom, Kg1 3:12. He fitted him for all that great work to which he had called him, gave him such a right understanding of the law which he was to judge by, and the cases he was to judge of, that he was unequalled for a clear head, a solid judgment, and a piercing eye. Such an insight, and such a foresight, never was prince so blessed with. (2.) He gave him riches and honour over and above into the bargain (Kg1 3:13), and it was promised that in these he should as much exceed his predecessors, his successors, and all his neighbours, as in wisdom. These also are God's gift, and, as far as is good for them, are promised to all that seek first the kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof, Mat 6:33. Let young people learn to prefer grace to gold in all that they choose, because godliness has the promise of the life that now is, but the life that now is has not the promise of godliness. How completely blessed was Solomon, that had both wisdom and wealth! He that has wealth and power without wisdom and grace is in danger of doing hurt with them; he that has wisdom and grace without wealth and power is not capable of doing so much good with them as he that has both. Wisdom is good, is so much the better, with an inheritance, Ecc 7:11. But, if we make sure of wisdom and grace, these will either bring outward prosperity with them or sweeten the want of it. God promised Solomon riches and honour absolutely, but long life upon condition (Kg1 3:14). If thou wilt walk in my ways, as David did, then I will lengthen thy days. He failed in the condition; and therefore, though he had riches and honour, he did not live so long to enjoy them as in the course of nature he might have done. Length of days is wisdom's right-hand blessing, typical of eternal life; but it is in her left hand that riches and honour are, Pro 3:16. Let us see here, [1.] That the way to obtain spiritual blessings is to be importunate for them, to wrestle with God in prayer for them, as Solomon did for wisdom, asking that only, as the one thing needful. [2.] That the way to obtain temporal blessings is to be indifferent to them and to refer ourselves to God concerning them. Solomon had wisdom given him because he did ask it and wealth because he did not ask it.
5. The grateful return Solomon made for the visit God was pleased to pay him, Kg1 3:15. He awoke, we may suppose in a transport of joy, awoke, and his sleep was sweet to him, as the prophet speaks (Jer 31:26); being satisfied of God's favour, he was satisfied with it, and he began to think what he should render to the Lord. He had made his prayer at the high place at Gibeon, and there God had graciously met him; but he comes to Jerusalem to give thanks before the ark of the covenant, blaming himself, as it were, that he had not prayed there, the ark being the token of God's presence, and wondering that God had met him any where else. God's passing by our mistakes should persuade us to amend them. There he, (1.) Offered a great sacrifice to God. We must give God praise for his gifts in the promise, though not yet fully performed. David used to praise God's word, as well as his works (Psa 56:10, and particularly, Sa2 7:18), and Solomon trod in his steps. (2.) He made a great feast upon the sacrifice, that those about him might rejoice with him in the grace of God.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv3–15 And Solomon loved the Lord,.... The worship of the…
And Solomon loved the Lord,.... The worship of the Lord, as the Targum: and which he showed by
walking in the statutes of David his father; in which his father walked, which were the statutes of the Lord, or which he exhorted him to walk in, and were the same, Kg1 2:3;
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only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places; besides that at Gibeon, which it seems David did not.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15 Yet - Although he miscarried in the matter of…
Yet - Although he miscarried in the matter of high places, yet in the general, his heart was right with God. Statutes - According to the statutes or commands of God, which are here called the statutes of David; not only because they were diligently practiced by David, but also because the observation of them was so earnestly pressed upon Solomon, and fortified with David's authority and command.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv5, 7, 9, 12 Verse 5. The Lord appeared to Solomon in a…
Verse 5. The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream] This was the night after he had offered the sacrifices, (see 2Ch 1:7), and probably after he had earnestly prayed for wisdom; see Wisdom 7:7: Wherefore I prayed, and understanding was given me: I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came to me. If this were the case, the dream might have been the consequence of his earnest prayer for wisdom: the images of those things which occupy the mind during the day are most likely to recur during the night; and this, indeed, is the origin of the greater part of our dreams. But this appears to have been supernatural.
Gregory Nyssen, speaking of different kinds of dreams, observes that our organs and brain are not unlike a musical instrument; while the strings of such instruments have their proper degree of tension, they give, when touched, a harmonious sound, but as soon as they are relaxed or screwed down, they give no sound at all. During our waking hours, our senses, touched by our reason, produce the most harmonious concert; but as soon as we are asleep, the instrument is no longer capable of emitting any sound, unless it happen that the remembrance of what passed during the day returns and presents itself to the mind while we are asleep, and so forms a dream; just as the strings of an instrument continue to emit feeble sounds for some time after the musician has ceased to strike them. - See GREG. NYSS. De opificio hominis, cap. xii., p. 77. Oper. vol. i., edit. Morell., Par. 1638.
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This may account, in some measure, for common dreams: but even suppose we should not allow that Solomon had been the day before earnestly requesting the gift of wisdom from God, yet we might grant that such a dream as this might be produced by the immediate influence of God upon the soul. And if Solomon received his wisdom by immediate inspiration from heaven, this was the kind of dream that he had; a dream by which that wisdom was actually communicated. But probably we need not carry this matter so much into miracle: God might be the author of his extraordinary wisdom, as he was the author of his extraordinary riches. Some say, "He lay down as ignorant as other men, and yet arose in the morning wiser than all the children of men." I think this is as credible as that he lay down with a scanty revenue, and in the morning, when he arose, found his treasury full. In short, God's especial blessing brought him riches through the medium of his own care and industry; as the inspiration of the Almighty gave him understanding, while he gave his heart to seek and search out by his wisdom, concerning all things under the sun, Ec 1:13. God gave him the seeds of an extraordinary understanding, and, by much study and research, they grew up under the Divine blessing, and produced a plentiful harvest; but, alas! they did not continue to grow.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15 1Ki 3:3. And Solomon loved — Or, Yet he…
1Ki 3:3. And Solomon loved — Or, Yet he loved, the Lord — Although he miscarried in the matter of high places, yet, in the general, his heart was right with God. Walking in the statutes — According to the statutes or commands of God, which are here called the statutes of David; not only because they were diligently practised by David, but also because the observation of them was so earnestly pressed upon Solomon, and fortified with David’s authority and command.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv4–15 Gibeon - The transfer to Gibeon of the “tabernacle…
Gibeon - The transfer to Gibeon of the “tabernacle of the congregation,” and the brass “altar of burnt offerings” made by Moses, which were removed there from Nob (compare 1Sa 21:6, with marginal references “i,” “k”), had made it “the great high-place,” more sacred, i. e., than any other in the holy land, unless it were Mount Zion where the ark had been conveyed by David. For the position of Gibeon, see Jos 9:3 note.
A thousand burnt offerings did Solomon offer - Solomon presented the victims. The priests were the actual sacrificers 1Ki 8:5. A sacrifice of a thousand victims was an act of royal magnificence suited to the greatness of Solomon. So Xerxes offered 1,000 oxen at Troy. If the offerings in this case were “whole burnt offerings,” and were all offered upon the altar of Moses, the sacrifice must have lasted several days.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15 Only, &c. Which David had not done, though it…
Only, &c. Which David had not done, though it was lawful. (Pineda) --- Yet we read that he offered victims on Sion, &c., 2 Kings vi. 18. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 15 HIGH PLACES BEING IN USE, HE SACRIFICES AT GIBEON.…
HIGH PLACES BEING IN USE, HE SACRIFICES AT GIBEON. (Kg1 3:2-5)
And Solomon loved the Lord--This declaration, illustrated by what follows, affords undoubted evidence of the young king's piety; nor is the word "only," which prefaces the statement, to be understood as introducing a qualifying circumstance that reflected any degree of censure upon him. The intention of the sacred historian is to describe the generally prevailing mode of worship before the temple was built. The
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high places were altars erected on natural or artificial eminences, probably from the idea that men were brought nearer to the Deity. They had been used by the patriarchs, and had become so universal among the heathen that they were almost identified with idolatry. They were prohibited in the law (Lev 17:3-4; Deu 12:13-14; Jer 7:31; Eze 6:3-4; Hos 10:8). But, so long as the tabernacle was migratory and the means for the national worship were merely provisional, the worship on those high places was tolerated. Hence, as accounting for their continuance, it is expressly stated (Kg1 3:2) that God had not yet chosen a permanent and exclusive place for his worship.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 3. Solomon loved the Lord — This further shows…
3. Solomon loved the Lord — This further shows that the sacrificing in high places was not the result of alienation from Jehovah.
Statutes of David — Customs, usages, and laws of religious conduct practiced by David. But it does not appear that David ever sacrificed or burnt incense in high places. The contrary is implied in this verse; and it is more than intimated that though this worship was tolerated because not offered to false gods, and because there was no house yet built to Jehovah, still both Solomon and his people were censurable for allowing it such great extent and prominence, and thereby paving the way for future idolatry in Israel. It would have been safer and better to have sacrificed only before the ark of the covenant, as Solomon did after his return from Gibeon, (1Ki_3:15;) or else only at Gibeon, where the tabernacle was. 1Ch_16:39.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 3. walking in the statutes of David his father]…
3. walking in the statutes of David his father] These are the observances which David had enjoined in 1Ki_2:3. There they are called ‘the charge of the Lord,’ and are here named ‘of David,’ because David had been diligent in their observance. So in 2Ki_17:8, ‘the statutes of the heathen’ means that idolatrous worship which the heathen nations practised.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 11, 14, 15 (4) Gibeon.—The name itself, signifying “belonging to a hill,”…
(4) Gibeon.—The name itself, signifying “belonging to a hill,” indicates its position on the central plateau of Israel, in the land of Benjamin, whence rise several round hills, on one of which the town stood. There was now reared the Tabernacle, with the brazen altar of sacrifice, to which the descendants of the old Gibeonites were attached as “hewers of wood and drawers of water” (Jos_9:23). It was therefore naturally “the great high place.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv3–15 And Solomon loved the Lord thus keeping the first…
And Solomon loved the Lord thus keeping the first and great commandment, the "Shema Israel", (Deu_6:5; cf. Deu_30:16 Mat_22:37 Luk_10:27) walking in the statutes of David his father i.e. , those which David had kept (verses 6, 14) and commanded him to keep: (1Ki_2:4) only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places. These words clearly show that the worship of the high places, although condoned, and indeed accepted, by God (ver. 5) was not strictly lawful and right. It was an ignorance that God winked at. The historian, remembering what the worship of the high places became, notices this as an imperfection of Solomon"s early reign, though he does not say that such worship was sinful.
The Grace and Place of Love.
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"And Solomon loved the Lord, walking in all the statutes of David his father, only... sacrificed," etc.
Of how many men, as well as of the wisest of men, may some such words be used. Of some few it may perhaps be averred that they have loved the Lord "with a perfect heart," of fewer still, if any, that they have loved Him with all the heart, and all the mind, and all the soul, and all the strength. But in the case of most, a qualifying clause must be added, an only." Along with sincere piety, with devout love to Him who first loved us, how often are there found imperfections, infirmities, sins. Sometimes, e.g., the loved is tinged with superstition, as in the case of St. Theresa, Lacordaire, and many Romanists; sometimes, as in the case of Calvin and many Protestants, it is marked by harshness and intolerance; sometimes, as in the case of Schleiermacher and Bunsen, it is infected with rationalism. The love, that is to say, is not without alloy; it is not the pure refined gold. In some of the blessed saints we find narrowness and bigotry, in others fanaticism; in others, again, Pharisaism and presumption. Now all these "love the Lord only... But observe. Solomon was loved of God; blessed, enriched, and prospered of God, despite this "only;" notwithstanding, i.e. , that his sacrifice and service were marked by imperfection. Hence learn
I THAT GOD LOVES THOSE WHO LOVE HIM, DESPITE THEIR IMPERFECTIONS. Of course God loves men who do not love Him. "God commendeth His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners," etc. We often say to children, "God doesn"t love you when you are naughty," but this is vicious theology. If this were so, there had been no hope for our world. But He is good to the unthankful and evil. Yes, the love must begin with God. "We love Him because He first loved us." And the love that bore with our sins, in the days of our impenitence, now bears also with our infirmities and ignorances. Neither superstition nor narrowness nor fanaticism "nor any other creature can separate us from the love of God," etc.
II THAT GOD FORGIVES THOSE WHO LOVE HIM, NOTWITHSTANDING THEIR INFIRMITIES. It is not meant here that our love can make any atonement or reparation for our sins. We know of no merits or mediation but His. "Your sins are forgiven you for His name"s sake. But where there is love, there is forgiveness. (Luk_7:47) Why, love involves penitence and faith, and ensures obedience. (Observe the next words, "Walking in all the statutes," etc.) Thus, the three conditions of forgiveness are all comprehended in love.
III THAT GOD WILL RECEIVE THOSE WHO LOVE HIM, DESPITE THEIR IGNORANCES. The gate of heaven is never shut against love, and only love will open it. "O merchant, at heaven"s gate, for heavenly ware Love is the only coin that passes there.
It must be so, for "love is heaven, and heaven is love
IV THAT WE OUGHT TO LOVE THOSE WHO LOVE GOD, DESPITE THEIR IGNORANCES, INFIRMITIES, AND IMPERFECTIONS. If the Eternal Love overlooks our only," surely we ought to overlook the only" of others. We may regret their views, we may think them unsound in the faith, we may lament their superstition, their lack of "sweetness and light," their vulgarity, or fanaticism, but if God loves them, and receives them notwithstanding, what right have we to do otherwise? If they love our Lord, then they are entitled to our love. "Grace be unto all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." We find, consequently, in the religion both of the Old Testament and of the New
V THAT LOVE IS EVERYTHING. It is
The fulfilling of the law. (Rom_13:8:10 Mat_22:37-40) We cannot break the law if we love. Habe caritatem et fac quicquid vis, said St. Augustine.
The stamp and seal royal of the Christian. "He that loveth, is born of God." "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love," etc. It has been said, Pectus est quod theologum facit. It is equally true that the heart makes the Christian.
The glory of the man. It was the greatest glory of Solomon. The highest praise recorded of him is, not that "he was wiser than all men", (1Ki_4:31) nor yet that he "exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and wisdom", (1Ki_10:3) but that he loved the Lord. "The best thing that can be said of a man is that he loves God." Solomon in all his glory is not greater than the poorest of the saints.
The one thing needful. The one thing God demands is the heart. (Adelaide Proeter"s beautiful poem," Give me thy heart, affords a fine illustration here.) It is the mainspring of the man. The life depends on the heart. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when the Roman Catholics were commanded to attend Church under pains and penalties, some of their leaders applied to the Pope for guidance. "Let the Catholics of England," was the astute reply, "give me their hearts, and the Queen may do what she likes with the rest.
HOMILIES BY E. DE PRESSENSE. Vers. Mar_10:51) Before going back to heaven He addressed the same language to His disciples: Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, He will give it you". (Joh_16:23) Let us then ask all that we need with holy boldness, for it is God Himself who bids us do so. Like the father of the prodigal son, He always comes to meet us. Our hopes and desires can never be so large as His promises. We truly honour Him when we make His love the measure of our trust.
II THE CONDITIONS ON WHICH OUR PRAYERS ARE GRANTED ARE:
(a) Full trust in this infinite love, and grateful remembrance of favours received: "Thou hast showed unto David my father great mercy and hast given him a son to sit on his throne" (ver. 6).
(b) The consciousness of our own helplessness and weakness: I am but as a little child, and know not how to go out or come in (ver. 7).
(c) The precedence given to spiritual over temporal gifts: Give thy servant an understanding heart (ver. 9). Prayer is not intended to bring to us at once all material prosperity. Such an answer to prayer might be often injurious, hardening the heart, and depriving us of the salutary discipline of trial. If the thing we sought beyond all else was material prosperity, we should be mere mercenaries. We are always heard, but not always in the way we desire, so far as our earthly life is concerned. But when we ask of God a new and understanding heart, we are asking that which He is pledged to grant, for it is written: "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not.
III THE RESULT OF THE PRAYER OF SOLOMON was not only the spiritual grace he sought, but also the prosperity and glory of his reign. "I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked" (ver. 13). There is a general application both to individuals and nations of the words of Christ: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you", (Mat_6:33) with the exception of afflictions, which may be necessary as discipline, and on the condition that we walk in the ways of the Lord (ver. 14), for the mercy of God, free as it is, is still bound up with His holiness, and cannot suffer the violation of His laws. E. DE P.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv3, 5, 14 Solomon loved the Lord.
1Ki_3:3
Solomon loved the Lord.
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Love begets love
It is a process of induction. Put a piece of iron in the presence of an electrified body, and that piece of iron for a time becomes electrified. It is changed into a temporary magnet in the mere presence of a permanent magnet, and as long as you leave the two side by side they are both magnets alike. Remain side by side with Christ who loved us, and you, too, will become a permanent, attractive force. This is the inevitable effect of love. (H. Drummond.)
Love must be paid in kind
As water is cast into a pump, when the springs lie low, to bring up more water, so God sheddeth abroad His love into our hearts, that our love may rise up to Him again by way of gratitude and recompense. How idle is it then, to hope to chide ourselves into loving God! The price of love is love; the origin of it is not found in law or in a sense of duty, but in love, or a return of gratitude. When the sun of eternal love melts the glaciers of the soul, then the rivers of affection flow; but if the rocks of ice could all be broken to shivers with hammers, not a drop of affection would stream forth. Only a sense of Divine love will ever create love to God in the heart. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v5 1Ki_3:5. In Gibson the Lord appeared to Solomon—Probably during…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
1Ki_3:5. In Gibson the Lord appeared to Solomon—Probably during this sacrificial festival.
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1Ki_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” (1Ki_2:9) before this incident, and after forty years’ reign he is called זַקִוִ “old” (1Ki_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.
1Ki_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.
1Ki_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. 2Sa_14:17).
1Ki_3:13. Not asked; both riches and honour: כָּבוֹדֹ honour is here promised as answering to “the life of thine enemies” (1Ki_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.
1Ki_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 1Ki_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 Num_12:6; Mat_1:20; Mat_2:13; Mat_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 (1Ki_3:5; 1Ki_3:12).
1. The ordinary endowments of wisdom are from God (Jas_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” (Jdg_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” (1Ki_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” (Jas_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. 1Ki_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” (1Ki_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” (1Ki_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 Num_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” (1Ki_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; Jas_3:17; Eph_5:17). This discernment is a fruit of our spiritual renewal (Rom_12:2).
III. That wisdom often includes inferior blessings (1Ki_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” (Mat_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 (Ecc_7:11).
IV. That the gift of wisdom is conditioned on personal obedience (1Ki_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 (1Ki_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 (Pro_3:16).
V. That the gift of wisdom should be devoutly and joyously acknowledged (1Ki_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 (2Sa_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 (Joh_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 (Deu_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 (Deu_4:29-40; 2Ch_7:13-14; Jer_33:3; Isa_65:24; Mat_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
1Ki_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 (Psa_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 (Psa_37:4).—Lange.
1Ki_3:5-15. The prayer of Solomon.
1. Its contents (1Ki_3:6-9).
2. Its answer (1Ki_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.
1Ki_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 Gen_41:33-39; Deu_4:6; Pro_1:2, &c.).
1Ki_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 (Eph_3:20; Mat_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 (Pro_3:16), but not the reverse.—Lange.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v5 1 Kings
1 Kings
A YOUNG MAN’S WISE CHOICE OF WISDOM
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1Ki 3:5 - 1Ki 3:15.
The new king was apparently some nineteen or twenty years old on his accession. He stepped at once out of seclusion and idleness to bear the whole weight of the kingdom. The glories of David’s reign, his brother Adonijah’s pretensions to the crown, the smouldering hostility of Saul’s old partisans, made his position difficult and his throne unsteady. No doubt, ‘the weight of too much dignity’ pressed on the youth, and this dream found a point of origin in his waking thoughts. God does not thus reveal Himself to men who seek Him not; and the offer in the vision is but the repetition of what Solomon felt in many a waking moment of meditation that God was saying to him, and the choice he makes in it is the choice that he had already made. He who seeks wisdom first is already wise.
I. Note the wide possibilities opened by the divine offer. Our narrative brings that gracious offer into connection with Solomon’s lavish sacrifice before the Tabernacle at Gibeon. ‘God loveth a cheerful giver’ and because these thousand burnt offerings meant devotion and thankfulness, therefore He who lets no man be the poorer for what he gives to Him, and is honoured most, not by our givings to, but by our takings from Him, comes in the quiet night, and puts the key of all His treasures into the young king’s hands. In a very real sense this divine voice is but the putting into words of the fact as to every young life. The all but boundless possibilities before every young man and woman give solemnity to their position, which they too often do not recognise till youth is past. The future lies blank before them, ready to receive what they choose to write on its page. Once written, it is indelible. They are still free from the limitations of habit and associations. They have still the capacity and the opportunity of choice. There are limits, of course, but still it is scarcely exaggeration to say that a man may become almost anything he likes, if he strongly wills it when young, and sticks to his resolve. When the liquid iron flows from the blast furnace, it may be run into any mould; but it soon cools and hardens, and obstinately keeps its shape, in spite of hammers.
If young men and women could but see the possibilities of their youth, and the issues that hang on early choice, as clearly as they will see them some day, there would be fewer wasted mornings of life and fewer gloomy sunsets. But the misery is that so many do not choose at all, but just let things slide, and allow themselves to be moulded by whatever influence happens to be strongest. For one man who goes wrong by deliberate choice, with open eyes, there are twenty who simply drift. Unfortunately, there is more evil than good in the world; and if a lad takes his colour from his surroundings, the chances are terribly against his coming to anything high, noble, or pure. This world is no place for a man who cannot say ‘No.’ If we are like the weeds in a stream, and let it decide which way we shall point, we shall be sure to point downwards. It would do much to secure the choice of the Good, if there were a clear recognition by all young persons of the fact that they have the choice to make, and are really making it unconsciously. If they could be brought, like Solomon, to put their ruling wish into plain words, many who are not ashamed to yield to unworthy desires would be ashamed to speak them out baldly. Let each ask himself, ‘Suppose that I had to say out what I want most, dare I avow before my own conscience, to say nothing of God, what it is?
Looked at from a somewhat different point of view, God’s offer to Solomon presupposes God’s knowledge and approval of his wishes. He does not give blank cheques to those whom He cannot trust to fill them up rightly. When James and John tried to commit Jesus to a blind promise ‘that Thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall ask of Thee,’ their answer was a question as to what they wished. ‘Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.’ God loves us too well to let us have carte blanche unless our wills run parallel with His. He is a foolish and cruel father who promises compliance with all his child’s unknown wishes. Not such is our Father’s loving discipline. It is to those who ‘abide in Christ,’ and have Him abiding in them, moulding their longings and prayers, that the great promise is sealed: ‘Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.’
II. Note next the wise choice of wisdom. ‘Had not Solomon been wise before, he had not known the worth of wisdom. The dunghill cocks of this world cannot know the price of this pearl; those that have it know that all other excellencies are but trash and rubbish unto it.’ Solomon’s prayer shows the temper with which he entered on his reign. There is no exultation; his serious and clear-eyed spirit sees in rule a heavy task. He contrasts his inexperienced rawness with the ‘truth and righteousness’ and veteran maturity of his great predecessor, and trembles to think that he, a mere lad, sits on David’s throne. But he pleads with God that He has made him king, and implies that therefore God is bound to fit him for his office. That is the boldness permitted to faith,-to remind God of His own past acts, which pledge Him to give what He has put us into circumstances to need. With beautiful humility, Solomon dwells on his youth and inexperience, and on the vastness of the charge laid on him. All these considerations are the motives for his choice of a gift, and also pleas with God to grant his request.
He asks for the practical wisdom needed for ruling in these old days, when the king was judge as well as ruler and captain. Was this the highest gift that he could have asked or received? Surely the deep longings of his father for communion with God were yet better. No doubt the ‘wisdom’ of the Book of Proverbs is religion and morality as well as true thinking, but the ‘understanding heart to judge Thy people’ which Solomon asked and received is narrower and more secular in its meaning. There is no sign in his biography that he ever had the deep inward devotion of his father. After the poet-psalmist came the prosaic and keen-sighted shrewd man of affairs. The one breathed his ardent soul into psalms, which feed devotion to-day; the other crystallised his discernment in ‘three thousand proverbs,’ and, though his ‘songs were one thousand and five’ they touched a lower range, both of poetry and religious feeling, than his father’s, as may be expressed by calling them ‘songs,’ not ‘psalms.’
But though the request is not the highest, it may well be taken as a pattern by the young. Note the view of his position from which it rises. To Solomon dignity meant duty; and his crown was not a toy, but a task. The responsibilities, not the enjoyments, of his station were uppermost in his mind. That is the only right view to take. Youth is meant to be enthusiastic, and to feed its aspirations on noble ideals, and if, instead of that, it does as too many do, especially in countries where wealth abounds, namely, regards life as a garden of delights, or sometimes as a sty where young men may wallow in ‘pleasures,’ then farewell to all hopes of high achievements or of an honourable career. Youthful ideals will fade fast enough; but alas for the life which had none to begin with! Note the sense of insufficiency for his task. Youth is prone to be over-confident, and to think that it can do better than its fathers, who were as confident in their time. There is a false humility which flattens the spirit and keeps from plain duty; and there is a true lowliness which feels that the task must be attempted, though the heart may shrink, and which impels to prayer for fitness not its own. He who tells God his consciousness of impotence, and asks Him to supply His strength to its weakness and His wisdom to its inexperience, will never shirk work because it is too great, nor ever fail to find power according to his need.
III. Note God’s answer. Solomon gets his wish, and much which he had not asked besides. The divine answer is in two parts. First, the reasons for the large gift; and second, the details of the gift. His not wishing material good was the very reason why he obtained it. That is not always so; for often enough a man whose whole nature is sharpened to one point, in the intensity of his desire to make money, will succeed. But what then? He will be none the better, but the poorer, for his wealth. But this is always true,-that the people who do not make worldly good their first object are the people who can be most safely trusted with it, and who get most enjoyment out of it. Whether in the precise form of the gift to Solomon or not, outward good does attend a life which sets duty before pleasure, and desires most to be able to do it. All earthly good is exalted by being put second, and degraded as well as corrupted by being put first. The water lapped up in the palm, as the soldier marches, is sweeter than the abundant draughts swilled down by self-indulgence. ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God, . . . and all these things shall be added unto you.’
Note the largeness of the gift. When God is pleased with a man’s prayers, He gives more than was asked, and so teaches us to be ashamed of the smallness of our expectations, and widens our desires by His overlapping bestowments. First, He gives the wisdom asked. Dependence on God, rising from the sense of our own ignorance, has a wonderful power of bringing illumination, even as to small matters of practical duty. Solomon asked it, to guide him in his judicial decisions; and the first case to which it was applied, when received, was a miserable quarrel between two disreputable women. A devout heart, purged from self-conceit, is often gifted with a piercing wisdom before which the crafty shrewdness of the world is abashed. We cannot be ‘wise as serpents’ unless we are ‘harmless as doves.’ The world may think such ‘wisdom’ folly, but she will be ‘justified of her children.’ Is the saying of James’s Epistle a reminiscence of Solomon’s dream, ‘If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, . . . and it shall be given him’?
Then follows the grant of the unasked goods,-riches, honour, and length of days. Surely we hear an echo of these promises in that magnificent description of Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs: ‘Length of days is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honour’ These and similar gifts may or may not follow our choice of divine wisdom as our truest good If we have really chosen it, we shall regard them as make-weights, to be thankfully received and rightly used, but not as indispensable. If we pursue wisdom for the sake of getting these, we shall lose both it and them. If we have set our desires most earnestly on the most worthy things, which are God’s love and a character hallowed by His grace, we shall be rich indeed, whether what the world calls wealth be ours or no; and our days will be long enough if in them we have been prepared for the fuller wisdom and undying life of heaven.
Solomon realised his youthful aspirations. The only way to be sure of getting what we wish, is to wish what God desires to give,-even Himself,-and to ask it of Him. Solomon, like many a young man, outgrew his early ‘dream.’ Was he happier or wiser when he was a worn-out voluptuary, smiling with cynical scorn at his young self, or when, with generous enthusiasm, he felt the solemnity of life and the awfulness of duty, and asked God to help his insufficiency? Was not the dream truer and more real than the waking hours of profligacy and unreal ‘enjoyment’?
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv4, 6, 7, 10, 13, 15 General Information:
General Information:
God asks Solomon what he can do for Solomon.
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the great high place
"the most famous place for makings sacrifices" or "the most important altar"
Ask! What should I give you?
"Ask me for whatever you want and I will give it to you." or "What do you want? Ask and I will give it to you."
translationWords
Gibeon
burnt offering
altar
dream
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv4, 6, 7, 10, 15 3:4-15 God’s gift of wisdom to Solomon is narrated…
3:4-15 God’s gift of wisdom to Solomon is narrated as a chiasm (a symmetrical arrangement in which sections A and B are mirrored by sections B’ and A’), drawing the focus in on Solomon’s transaction with the Lord: A: While he sacrificed at Gibeon . . . the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream (3:4-5). B: Solomon prayed for wisdom to govern his people equitably and efficiently (3:6-9). B’: The Lord favorably answered his request and granted additional blessings (3:10-14). A’: Solomon awoke from the dream and offered additional sacrifices to the Lord (3:15).
3:4 The city of Gibeon lay six miles northwest of Jerusalem. Its altar, the most important of these [local] places of worship (literally the great high place), accommodated sacrifices of royal proportions. Gibeon was also the site of the Tabernacle (1 Chr 16:39-40; 21:29; 2 Chr 1:2-6).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.