1 Kings 3:5 - Meaning and Application

Here we have the story of a gracious visit God made to Solomon, and the fellowship he had with God in it. That meeting gave Solomon more honor than all the wealth and power of his kingdom. The Lord met him at Gibeon, the great high place, where the tabernacle and bronze altar were located, and where sacrifices should have been offered (2 Chronicles 1:3). Solomon offered his great sacrifices there, and God showed special favor to him there.

The visit came at night, the night after Solomon had offered that generous sacrifice (1 Kings 3:4). The more we are busy in God’s work during the day, the more comfort we may expect from him at night. Quiet and solitude help our fellowship with God. His kindest visits often come in the night (Psalm 17:3). It also came in a dream, while Solomon slept and his senses were at rest. That gave God freer and more direct access to his mind. God often spoke this way to the prophets (Numbers 12:6), and also to private people for their own good (Job 33:15-16). These were surely different from dreams full of empty confusion (Ecclesiastes 5:7).

God then made Solomon a generous offer. He said, “Ask what I shall give you” (1 Kings 3:5). This did not mean God owed him anything for his sacrifices. Rather, God was showing that he accepted them, and he was inviting Solomon to ask for the great mercy he had prepared for him. In the same way, God still brings us to the place of blessing by assuring us that what we ask in faith will be given (John 16:23; 1 John 5:14). What more could we want? Ask, and it will be given to you.

Solomon quickly took hold of the offer. Why do we so often neglect the same kind of invitation, like Ahaz, who refused to ask (Isaiah 7:12)? Solomon prayed even while asleep, with God’s grace helping him, and yet his prayer was full of life. What weighs most on our minds while we are awake often follows us into sleep. Our dreams can sometimes show what our hearts are set on. Even so, Solomon’s wise choice while asleep showed that this came from God’s grace at work in him. If his mind was taught in the night, he had reason to bless the Lord who gave him counsel (Psalm 16:7).

In his prayer, Solomon first thanked God for his kindness to his father David. He spoke well of David’s godliness, saying that he had walked before God with an upright heart, and he passed over David’s faults. Those who praise their godly parents should also try to follow their example. But Solomon spoke even more highly of God’s mercy to David. God had given David true religion while he lived, then rewarded that sincerity, and he had also kept kindness for David’s family after him by giving Solomon the throne. Children should thank God for his mercy to their parents, for his sure promises to David. God’s gifts are doubly sweet when we see them handed down to us through those who came before us.

Solomon also admitted his own weakness for the great task before him (1 Kings 3:7-8). He had become king after David, a very wise and good man. So he asked, in effect, “Lord, help me keep up what David began and carry it forward.” He was ruler over Israel, a large people who could not be governed without care. They were also God’s people, chosen by him, and they should be ruled in a way that brought glory to God. Solomon also felt his own lack. He called himself “a little child,” meaning a child in understanding, though his father had called him wise (1 Kings 2:9). He did not know how to go out or come in, that is, how to handle even the ordinary business of rule, much less a hard crisis.

Those who hold public office should deeply feel the weight of their work and their own lack of ability for it. That humility prepares them to receive God’s help. Paul asks a very similar question, “Who is sufficient for these things?” Solomon’s question is the same in spirit, “Who is able to judge this great people of yours?” (1 Kings 3:9). Absalom, who was a shrewd man, trembled at the task and doubted whether he was fit for it. The more thoughtful people are, the more clearly they see their own weakness and the more careful they become about trusting themselves.

So Solomon asked God for wisdom, saying, “Give your servant an understanding heart” (1 Kings 3:9). He called himself God’s servant, glad to belong to God and to argue from that relationship. “I am set apart for you and working for you,” he was saying. “Give me what I need for the work I have to do.” His godly father had prayed in a similar way, “I am your servant; give me understanding” (Psalm 119:125). An understanding heart is God’s gift (Proverbs 2:6). We must ask for it (James 1:5), and we should ask for it in relation to our own calling and the duties we face. Solomon did not ask for wisdom to satisfy curiosity or impress others. He asked for it to judge God’s people. The best kind of knowledge is the kind that helps us do our duty. That is the knowledge that helps us tell the difference between good and bad, right and wrong, sin and duty, truth and falsehood, so we are not fooled when judging others or ourselves.

God was pleased with Solomon’s request (1 Kings 3:10). “The speech pleased the Lord.” God is pleased with his own work in his people, with the desires he himself has stirred up, and with the prayers formed by his Spirit. Solomon’s choice showed that he wanted to be good more than great, and to honor God more than promote himself.

God accepts those who value spiritual gifts above earthly gains and who care more about doing their duty than getting ahead in the world. But Solomon’s prayer was more than acceptable, it was powerful, and God gave him far more than he asked for.

God gave Solomon wisdom (1 Kings 3:12). He equipped him for the great work to which he had called him. Solomon received a clear understanding of God’s law, which he would use as the standard for judging, and he gained sound judgment in the cases he had to decide. No king was ever more richly blessed with sharp insight and wise foresight.

God also gave him riches and honor besides, as an extra gift (1 Kings 3:13). He promised that Solomon would surpass his predecessors, his successors, and all his neighbors in these things just as much as he surpassed them in wisdom. These are also gifts from God, and, as far as is good for us, they are promised to all who seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33). Young people should learn to value grace above gold in every choice they make, because godliness has a promise for this life, but this life does not promise godliness.

How fully blessed Solomon was, with both wisdom and wealth. A person who has wealth and power without wisdom and grace is in danger of doing harm with them. A person who has wisdom and grace without wealth and power cannot do as much good with them as one who has both. Wisdom is good, and it is better still with an inheritance (Ecclesiastes 7:11). Yet if we make sure of wisdom and grace, they will either bring outward success with them or make up for its absence.

God promised Solomon riches and honor without conditions, but long life only if he walked in God’s ways, as David did (1 Kings 3:14). Solomon failed to meet that condition, so although he had riches and honor, he did not live as long to enjoy them as he might have in the natural course of life. Long life is wisdom’s right-hand blessing, a picture of eternal life, while riches and honor are in her left hand (Proverbs 3:16). From this we learn two things: first, the way to get spiritual blessings is to ask for them earnestly and wrestle with God in prayer, as Solomon did for wisdom, asking for that above all else. Second, the way to receive temporal blessings is to hold them loosely and leave them in God’s hands. Solomon received wisdom because he asked for it, and wealth because he did not ask for it.

Solomon’s thankful response to God’s visit is shown in 1 Kings 3:15. We may picture him waking up full of joy, and his sleep was sweet to him, as the prophet says (Jeremiah 31:26). He was satisfied with God’s favor, and that favor satisfied him. Then he began to think about how he should repay the Lord. He had made his prayer at the high place at Gibeon, and there God had graciously met him. But Solomon came to Jerusalem to give thanks before the ark of the covenant, as if he were rebuking himself for not having prayed there in the first place, since the ark was the sign of God’s presence. He seemed amazed that God had met him anywhere else. God’s patience with our mistakes should lead us to correct them.

There Solomon offered a large sacrifice to God. We should praise God for his gifts even before the promise is fully carried out. David used to praise God’s word as well as his works (Psalm 56:10, and especially 2 Samuel 7:18), and Solomon followed in his steps. Then he made a great feast from the sacrifice, so that those around him could share in the joy of God’s grace.