Ask for Wisdom

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Ask For Wisdom

Sin makes us stupid. Years ago, when I was in college, we walked through Genesis 3. In the opening chapters of Genesis everything was good and complete and perfect. But then you turn the page to chapter 3 and you see how things began to fall apart. Adam and Eve sin in the garden. And when the Lord appears in the garden, what do they do? They hide. That fact right there tells us so much about sin. You cannot hide from God. He knows everything and is everywhere. And yet they tried. And it was at that point that my professor made this huge, massive point: Sin makes us stupid. We know that lying is foolish. But we do it anyway. And not only do we lie, but we we tell more lies to cover the ones we already told. Sin makes us stupid. Now, my dear friends in Christ, put yourself in God’s shoes for a moment. If you knew that every human was stupid because of their own sin, would you give them an open invitation to ask for whatever they wanted? I ask this because that is what the Lord does for Solomon. In 1 Kings 3, we read these words: “At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”” (1 Kings 3:5 NIV11-GKE)

The background in these words is fascinating. King David is off the scene. And now Solomon is king. But there’s a problem. He is a teenager. And he is the king over thousands, even millions of people. He is over his head. He hears the Lord’s invitation. And then he asks. We read: “⁶ Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. ⁷ “Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. ⁸ Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. ⁹ So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”” (1 Kings 3:6–9 NIV11-GKE)

Solomon here sees his great need for help. As a king he holds people lives in his hands. And he sees how much is at stake, and so he asks for wisdom—wisdom to make proper judgments. But my friends in Christ, we too have this standing, open invitation to ask the Lord for things too. The context is different in that we aren’t ever going to be kings or queens over millions of people. But there still is the open invitation given to us to ask. But my dear friends in Christ, this is where we see just how stupid sin makes us. We see this in two ways. First, we don’t ask God for anything at all. How sad it is that we can go through our lives in such stupidity—stupidity about knowing what God’s word says, figuring out right from wrong, or knowing that we are not alone and maybe God could help us. All these pressures and problem we face in our lives. And we see how stupid sin makes us in that there are so many times that we do not have because we do not ask. But there is a second way we see that sin has made us stupid. When we do ask, look what we ask for. Instead, as Jesus says in our gospel, are we willing to be instructed about the kingdom of God or the kingdom of sinful, stupid humans? When we are young we pray to grow up and get a good-paying job. But do we first of all pray to have a good church when we grow up? When we are in school we pray to understand our math and science. But do we pray to know intensively and thoroughly God’s word? We yearn for wealth. But what we need first and foremost is wisdom. So God gives us an invitation to ask, just as he gave Solomon. But, instead of asking for wisdom, we see how stupid sin has made us. We either ask for nothing at all. Or we ask for earthly gifts and not the spiritual ones. But look at where these words go from here: “¹⁰ The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. ¹¹ So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, ¹² I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.” (1 Kings 3:10–12 NIV11-GKE)

God was delighted to give Solomon wisdom. In fact, Solomon was only asking for wisdom in being able to make right judgments for his people. But the Lord was so delighted that he asked for wisdom that he gave him wisdom in many other areas too. My dear friends in Christ, the same Lord gives much the same invitation today: Ask for wisdom. Ask for it. And our good and gracious will not be stingy or slow. He will give you wisdom. But as we close our sermon today we need to ask the question: what does that wisdom look like? It looks like this: First, it’s the wisdom to see that sin is actually stupid. If you saw an icy patch on the road. And you saw many others fall on it and get hurt, wouldn’t it be nice to see it coming and avoid it? That is the sort of wisdom God gives to you: to see stupidity and avoid it. And you could look at any one of the ten commandments. But let’s just look at the 6^th commandment this morning. There is this good, wise path the Lord sets out for us. And it looks like this: You spend time dating someone. You get to know that person. Then you get married. And then when you are married, you work on that marriage. And yet the world has its own wisdom. And it doesn’t work. It’s the sort of wisdom that says it’s ok to pretend to be married, but yet not be. It builds marriages that either don’t last or ones that are built on doubt. There is this amazing wisdom to be able to see this ahead of time and dodge it.

Second, there is the wisdom not just to see sin but to see forgiveness. As Christians we know that it is wrong to not ask for wisdom from God. We know that it is wrong to pursue all the pleasures of this world with no care for what God wants. That’s a path that leads you to emptiness on this side of death and hell on the other. But we have a Savior who was wise in our place. We have a Savior who was punished in our place for all our stupidity. And wisdom—true wisdom is knowing every day that just as that Savior is ours, so is his forgiveness. Wisdom is knowing that, when we lay our weary head to rest at night we know our sins are forgiven. And even if we were to die tonight, we would know were we end up. We would know that heaven is ours because of what Jesus has done for us. That is wisdom.

And Finally, wisdom is being able to say “no” to our sinful nature and mean it. It is true that God gave Solomon wisdom—more wisdom than anyone before or after. But do not think that he was immune to the stupidity of sin. The man had 1000 wives. And they led his heart away from the Lord. They led his soul away from the faith. He wrote such amazing wisdom. But he could not keep it. And that’s why what God promises here is so important. He gives us the ability not just to see the good, but to grasp it—even as we have an old, sinful nature that wants us to hate that which is good.

So, my dear friends in Christ, you have an open invitation. Ask the Lord for wisdom. He is not greedy. He is not stingy. He will give and give generously. Ask him for wisdom to see the wrong and avoid it. And will give it. Ask him for the calm and confidence to find forgiveness in Christ and be at peace. And he will give it. Ask him for the fire and fight to wrestle and struggle against the stupidity of sin within you. And he will give this to you. And when you can look back at the sins you avoided and the forgiveness you have, thank him too for the wisdom he gave you. Amen.