1 Kings chapter three and reading
from verse one. And Solomon made affinity with
Pharaoh king of Egypt and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought
her into the city of David until he had made an end of building
his own house and the house of the Lord and the wall of Jerusalem
round about. Only the people sacrificed in
high places, because there was no house built unto the name
of the Lord until those days. And Solomon loved the Lord, walking
in the statutes of David his father. Only he sacrificed and
burnt incense in high places. The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice
there, for that was the great high place. A thousand burnt
offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar. In Gibeon, the Lord
appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask what
I shall give thee. And Solomon said, Thou hast showed
unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he
walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in
uprightness of heart with thee. And thou hast kept for him this
great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his
throne, as it is this day. And now, O Lord my God, thou
hast made thy servant king instead of David my father, and I am
but a little child, I know not how to go out or come in. And
thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen,
a great people that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an
understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern
between good and bad, for who is able to judge this thy so
great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord
that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because
thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long
life, neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the
life of thine enemies, but hast asked for thyself understanding
to discern judgment, behold, I have done according to thy
words. Lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart,
so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee
shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that
which thou hast not asked, both riches and honour, so that there
shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days. And if thou wilt walk in my ways,
to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk,
then I will lengthen thy days. And Solomon awoke, and behold,
it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and
stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt
offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to
all his servants. Then came there two women that
were harlots unto the king and stood before him. And the one
woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house,
and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. And it
came to pass the third day, after that I was delivered, that this
woman was delivered also, and we were together. There was no
stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. And
this woman's child died in the night, because she overlaid it. And she arose at midnight, and
took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid
it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when
I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was
dead. And when I had considered it
in the morning, behold, it was not my son which I did bear. And the other woman said, Nay,
but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this
said, No, but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son.
Thus they speak before the king. Then said the king, The one saith,
This is my son that liveth, and thy son is dead. And the other
saith, Nay, but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living. And the king said, Bring me a
sword. And they brought a sword before
the king. And the king said, Divide the
living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the
other. Then spake the woman whose the
living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her
son. And she said, O my lord, give
her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other
said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it. Then the king answered and said,
Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. She is the
mother thereof. And all Israel heard of the judgment
which the king had judged, and they feared the king, for they
saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do judgment. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. We've read the whole chapter
together. We haven't been doing that recently
because the chapters have been so long, but we read this whole
chapter together, and I thought that the account is quite straightforward. Solomon, David's son, is now
on the throne of Israel. The principal troublemakers in
his kingdom have been removed. And Solomon is beginning a project
of building. Over these years, he will build
the temple of God. He will build a palace for himself
and he will fortify and build the walls of the city for the
protection of the people. And in addition, we find that
he is making alliances with some of the larger nations around
about. He makes an alliance with the
king of Egypt and he marries an Egyptian princess. Now, this
does not appear to be Solomon's first wife. But we shall discover
in the coming weeks that Solomon had many, many wives and concubines
who were like lesser wives. And in fact, when we get to it,
I think you will be quite staggered by the number of wives that Solomon
has. And we're going to discover something
else. that all of these wives will cause Solomon a great deal
of trouble. But that's a story for another
day. What we can say about this Egyptian
princess is that the Lord does not appear to frown upon this
contact and this union with Egypt. that country had caused Israel
great hardship in the past. And this actually seems to be
the first recorded contact between Israel and Egypt since the days
of Moses and the Exodus. It seems probable, I think, that
this Egyptian princess converted to the faith of the Lord when
she married Solomon. I say that given Solomon's own
dedication at this time to the Lord and I cannot imagine that
he would have been bringing a heathen worshipper into his own home
at the same time when we read that he was walking in the footsteps
of his father David and that he was trusting and believing
and indeed that he loved the Lord. But I want to make a little
point about this fact to you young people who are listening,
especially. You who perhaps, and I only say
perhaps because who knows what the future holds, but you who
perhaps may be thinking of marriage yourself in the days or years
to come. If you are a Christian, Take
care not to marry an unbeliever. If you are a Christian, take
care not to marry an unbeliever. Rather, ask the Lord to provide
you with a suitable life partner who trusts in the Lord as you
do. Nevertheless, regarding this
Egyptian princess, it does seem as if Solomon loved her very
much. And perhaps we would not be too
far wrong in saying that he wrote the Song of Solomon for her and
also Psalm 45. The Song of Solomon, or it's
called at other times the Canticles, is a beautiful love story that
can be applied certainly to Solomon the king and his bride, who may
have been this Egyptian princess. but also it is a lovely picture
of Christ and his love for his church, and indeed the church's
love for Christ. Solomon, as we've already mentioned,
is a type of the Lord Jesus. And it may be appropriate to
see in Solomon's marriage to this Egyptian, this Egyptian
girl, a picture of Christ's marriage. and his union with his church,
especially those from amongst the Gentiles. So that as the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Jewish church, those who
were believers, those who were men and women and boys and girls
of faith amongst the Jews, and then the apostles went out and
preached to the Gentiles, although there were always Gentiles in
the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament and
the New Testament, as this Egyptian princess shows, it is a picture
of the way in which the Lord, at the time of the Great Commission
and the time of the apostles, sent them out preaching the gospel
in order to gather non-Jewish people, Gentile people, into
the body of Christ. And we are told that Solomon
loved the Lord. That's another thing that comes
out of these verses here. That Solomon loved the Lord. That's a fine testimony for a
person to have. May it be that we both know it
in our own hearts and it could be said of us by others looking
on that we have a love for the Lord and the things of the Lord
and the people of the Lord. True love for the Lord Jesus
Christ is a spiritual gift and it is given to those whom the
Lord loves. Solomon, we're told, walked in
the pattern of his father David and though David's life was not
perfect, as no man's is, but Christ alone, Solomon was nevertheless
a true believer, and he worshipped the Lord in spirit and in truth. And I just mention at this stage,
because we're going to come to some troubling times in Solomon's
life, but we will remember that Solomon was a true believer,
even for the troubles that he encountered in his later years. He pleased the Lord, we're told,
by his actions, his obedience, and by his desires, the things
that motivated him and the things that he longed for. Solomon was
eager to sacrifice and worship the Lord properly, which he did
by travelling to Gibeon and sacrificing there at the altar. Now, let
me make this point. High places are sometimes places
of idol worship in the Old Testament. But this was not so in this instance. And while at Gibeon, the Lord
came to Solomon in a dream. And he said to Solomon, ask what
I shall give thee. He was going to give Solomon
a gift. And though still a young man,
Solomon knew the demands and the weight of leadership. And
so he asked the Lord for wisdom to rule the people of Israel
well. He did not ask for riches. He
did not ask for honor. He did not ask for long life.
He asked for wisdom and judgment. And this pleased the Lord. and
the Lord granted him his wish. The Lord told Solomon, I have
given thee a wise and an understanding heart, so that there was none
like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like
unto thee, and I have also given thee that which thou hast not
asked. both riches and honour, so that
there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all
thy days." So this wisdom that Solomon obtained from the Lord
as a gift was for the governance and for the judgment of Israel. And God also promised Solomon
long life. but only on condition that he
remained faithful and walked uprightly before the Lord, which
we will discover Solomon failed to do. Sometimes you and I might
think, wouldn't it be great if God still spoke to us in dreams
today? Then we would really know what
he was saying to us. We would really understand what
God wanted from us. Well, it might seem like that,
but actually, we today who have the Scriptures, we today who
have the Bible, we are a lot more blessed today because the
Lord has spoken to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. And there
has been a fullness of revelation given to us by the Lord Jesus
Christ, which is recorded in the Scriptures, in the Word of
God. If you want to know the will
of the Lord, read your Bible. You don't have to go to Gibeon
and sacrifice a thousand cattle in a thousand sacrifices in order
to hear the Lord speak. You can go to the scriptures
and you can ask the Lord to speak to you through the scripture.
So once again, let me put it bluntly. If you want to know
the will of the Lord, read your Bible. If you want to know God's
will, then listen to what the Lord Jesus Christ has said and
follow his instructions. When we are young, when we're
older as well, I'll tell you, there seems to be Many questions
about how we should live our lives. What we should do, how
we should behave, who we should be with, where we should go.
So many things that we don't know the answers to. And perhaps
you feel you need more wisdom, like Solomon did. Well, that's
a very fine ambition. But let me explain something
about true wisdom. True wisdom is spiritual wisdom
and spiritual understanding. True wisdom is trusting the Lord
Jesus for our needs in this world and in the next. True wisdom
is believing in the Bible testimony, the gospel message of what the
Lord has accomplished for his people in coming into this world
and dying on the cross. It is trusting that in the rising
from the dead, of the Lord Jesus Christ, he obtained new life,
spiritual life for all for whom he died. True wisdom is seeking
forgiveness for your sin and asking Jesus Christ for peace
with God and the righteousness, the holiness without which no
man shall see the Lord. Knowing Christ is knowing true
wisdom. Having Christ is possessing true
wisdom. The Lord Jesus tells us in his
word, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened
unto you. That's all that God said to Solomon. Ask what it is that I should
give to you. The Lord says, Solomon didn't
pray for riches or honour or a long life, he prayed for wisdom. And the Lord says, seek true
wisdom in the Lord Jesus Christ. Seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness. And all these things that you
might want and desire in life will be added unto you. Giving
first place to the Lord in our lives, as Solomon did, will be
honoured by the Lord. He will care for us and provide
for us and protect us as his own precious children when we
need help and ask for his grace and goodness for our soul. He
says, if any man serve me, him will my father honour. And the
Lord delights to give his people good gifts. He gives us a desire
to ask for the things that he plans to give us. Solomon was
not proud and self-sufficient. He knew he needed help to rule
wisely over Israel. And the Lord honoured that request
and bestowed even more than he asked for. Let us ask the Lord
for the things of greatest importance, forgiveness and salvation. And
he will give them. And then he will give even more
than we can ask or think. The end of the chapter is an
example of Solomon's wisdom being tested and proved. These two
women that are spoken of each gave birth close together in
one house, but in the night one of them rolls, it seems, on her
infant son and he is suffocated. and she got up in the darkness
and she swapped her dead child for the other woman's living
child and claimed the living child as her own. The real mother
knew something was wrong but the first woman insisted that
the living child was hers. Ultimately the case was brought
to court for a ruling and Solomon listened to the accounts of the
women. There were no other witnesses,
no independent person to identify the body of the child. It was
simply one person's word against the other. Solomon called for
a sword and commanded the child be divided in two, into two halves. One half to be given to each
woman. At once, the true mother objected. She would rather her child live
as another woman's child and she be thought of as a liar than
that the child be killed and divided. The other woman, however,
was content with the ruling. She had no real love for the
child, just jealousy that her own child was dead while the
other lived. And this reaction showed Solomon
who the true mother was and the living child was returned to
her. There's a wee lesson here for
us too, just in closing. We cannot divide our hearts between
God and the devil. We cannot follow the Lord's way
and the way of flesh. We cannot follow the way of life
and the way of death. The Lord will have all of us
or nothing. You know, Satan, the devil, is
content to have a portion of your heart and mine. He's happy
to be up with just a part. He'll take a part, just a fraction.
Like the woman, a portion of the child. and the Lord can have
the rest. But truth cannot live with just
a part. We cannot serve God and mammon. We cannot serve God and man. We cannot serve God and the devil. We cannot serve God's ways and
our own ways. Joshua said to Israel, choose
you this day whom you will serve. And it's a valid question for
all of us. God will not have a part of you. It's all of you or nothing. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.