Scripture Daily

Context No. 1914 of 4322 · 1 Kings

Context · Reflection

1 Kings 3:1-5: in context

1Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into David’s city until he had finished building his own house, the LORD’s house, and the wall around Jerusalem. 2However, the people sacrificed in the high places, because there was not yet a house built for the LORD’s name. 3Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father, except that he sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. 4The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5In Gibeon, the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask for what I should give you.”

Solomon, newly established as king, loves the LORD and walks in the ways of his father David, though he still sacrifices at the high places, for the temple is not yet built. He goes to Gibeon, the great high place, and offers a thousand burnt offerings. And that night the LORD appears to him in a dream and says something remarkable: ask for what I should give you. God opens to Solomon an almost limitless invitation, to ask for whatever he will.

The astonishing thing here is God's invitation: ask for what I should give you. God opens himself to Solomon's request, inviting him to ask for whatever he desires, an almost unlimited offer. And what Solomon asks, in the verses that follow, will reveal his heart; for what a person asks for, when offered anything, shows what he truly values. Solomon, as it turns out, will ask not for wealth or long life or the death of his enemies, but for wisdom to govern God's people well; and God, pleased with the request, will give him that and more. But before we reach Solomon's answer, the invitation itself is worth dwelling on, because in a real sense God extends it to us as well. God invites us to ask; ask, Jesus says, and it will be given to you; you have not because you ask not. God is not reluctant to hear our requests but invites them, opening himself to what we will ask. And the searching question is what we would ask for, if God said to us, ask what I should give you. What we would request reveals what we most deeply value, what we are really seeking, where our hearts are set. Would we ask, like Solomon, for wisdom to live rightly, for a heart to know and serve God, for the good of others? Or would our request expose that our hearts are set chiefly on wealth, comfort, status, the passing things? God's invitation to ask is also, in a way, a revealing of ourselves; what rises to our lips when we are offered anything shows what we truly want. This is worth honest reflection: not only that God invites us to ask, which is a wonder, but what our asking reveals about our hearts. Solomon asked for wisdom, and it pleased God; and the question his story puts to us is what we would ask for, and what that would show about what we most deeply value and seek.

If God said to me, as he said to Solomon, ask for what I should give you, what would I ask for, and what would that reveal about what I most deeply value, and can I let this question search my heart, asking whether I would seek, like Solomon, wisdom and a heart to serve God, or expose that my heart is set chiefly on the passing things?

Sources