The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, The Love of God, and The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
1 Kings 3:4 “And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, because that was the great high place; Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5 In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night; and God said, ‘Ask what you wish Me to give you.’ 6 Then Solomon said, ‘You have shown great faithfulness to Your servant David my father, according as he walked before You in truth, righteousness, and uprightness of heart toward You; and You have reserved for him this great faithfulness, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. 7 And now, Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet I am like a little boy; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 And Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted. 9 So give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, to discern between good and evil. For who is capable of judging this great people of Yours?’ 10 Now it was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. 11 And God said to him, ‘Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself a long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the lives of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice, 12 behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. 13 I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days. 14 And if you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will prolong your days.’ 15 Then 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 burnt offerings and made peace offerings, and held a feast for all his servants.” (NASB)
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” Socrates “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” ― Aristotle “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” William Shakespeare. There is a ring of truth to what these three great men and many others have said about wisdom. But the Bible has a bit of a different take on wisdom. Socrates, Aristotle, and Shakespeare begins the journey of wisdom with man himself, the Word of God teaches that “The beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord, and acknowledging the Holy One is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10)
Of the Messiah the prophet Isaiah (11:2-3) was given to write, “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3 And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make decisions by what His ears hear.”
This morning’s sermon has a title and consists three Hebrew words; Khesed, Shelomoh and Hakam. This Old Testament lesson introduces us to Solomon the king. So I will begin this morning with a brief summary of the life and history of King Solomon. Solomon was the son of David by his ill gotten wife Bathsheba.
In 1 Chronicles 28:5-11 David tells the people of Israel that God had chosen his son Solomon to be the next king and was instructing Solomon to build the temple in which God would dwell. “5 Of all my sons (for the Lord has given me many sons), He has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel . . . As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind . . . Consider now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong, and do it.”
Solomon’s reign began around 970 BC. Soon after, the Lord God came to Solomon in a dream and offered Solomon whatever he wanted. Solomon, as you know asked for wisdom. More specifically he asked for an “understanding heart to judge [the Lord’s] people, to discern between good and evil. For who is capable of judging this great people of Yours?”
Solomon’s request pleased God and God granted Solomon’s request. “Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart.” Solomon became Israel’s most glorious king. He built the Temple. He made Israel a world power. Great wealth flowed into the kingdom. He had such great wisdom people came from distant lands to listen to his teachings. Solomon controlled the trade routes coming out of Edom, Arabia, India, Africa, and Judea. He created an elaborate network of alliances, which was held together by the assemblage of 700 wives and 300 concubines. He wrote proverbs, including a few about wisdom and Ecclesiastes. Solomon’s reign over Israel has been called the “Golden Age of Israel.”
But like all his fathers before him, Solomon was a sinner and his sin led to the decline and ultimate destruction of a united kingdom. 1 Kings 11:4-5 tells us exactly what Solomon’s sin was. “When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away to follow other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of his father David had been. For Solomon became a follower of Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and of Milcom the abhorrent idol of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not follow the Lord fully, as his father David had done.” Solomon did not follow the Lord fully, that is he split his loyalty and made the Lord God equal to worthless idols and the people followed.
Yet the Lord God had promised Solomon the throne and had ordained him king. Solomon’s sin did not negate that promise or his office as king. Solomon was permitted to keep the throne, but his sin brought consequences. Solomon’s reign of peace and prosperity came to an end. He soon faced challenges to his throne and the united kingdom began to break into two. Solomon died in 931 BC at the age of 80. His son, Rehoboam inherited the throne, which led to a civil war and the end of the United Kingdom of Israel.
That’s how the story of Solomon ended. Let’s return to how it began. “The Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night; and God said, ‘Ask what you wish Me to give you.’ 6 Then Solomon said, ‘You have shown great faithfulness to Your servant David my father, according as he walked before You in truth, righteousness, and uprightness of heart toward You; and You have reserved for him this great faithfulness, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.”
In the NASB translation khesed is translated “great faithfulness.” In Exodus 34:6 the same word is translated “compassionate and merciful.” Psalm 51:1 “greatness of Your compassion.” Different English translations use different words and different configurations of words. The Hebrew word Khesed (חֶסֶד) is difficult to translate into English, because it really has no precise equivalent in English. English versions try to represent it with words like “loving-kindness,” “mercy,” “steadfast love,” “great faithfulness,” and sometimes “loyalty.”
The closest New Testament word to Khesed is charis (grace). When Luther came across the word Khesed he translated it with the German word, Gnade, “grace.”
The word Khesed is only used where there is some recognized tie or agreement between the parties involved. In this morning’s Old Testament lesson, the Lord God, Yaweh Elohim makes a covenant with King Solomon, thus establishing a unique bound between the two.
What we learn again from the lesson of Solomon and the Lord God is that the faithfulness, steadfastness, and the loyalty of sinful human beings is like grass and flowers, here today and gone tomorrow. But the Word of the Lord is steady, sure, and steadfast. The Lord God keeps His promises even to sinners. The late Professor Marquart once reminded me that a promise is tied to the character of the giver not to the character of the recipient.
The Bible teaches that Yahweh is abounding in khesed (Ex 34:6). Yahweh’s khesed is the source of salvation for all nations. “The Lord has made His salvation known; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His graciousness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” (Ps 98:2–3). His khesed is what moves Him to forgive us our sins. (Psalm 51:1 & Micah 7:18–20).
2 Chronicles 6:42 and Isaiah 55:3 tell us that it was the Lord’s khesed that caused Him to make a covenant with David. Without it, David would not have king or forgiven. The same is true of Solomon.
Yahweh’s promise to David that from his line of descendants would come one who would have an eternal rule is foundational to the Israelite expectation of the coming of a Messiah from David’s line. The New Testament makes much of Christ’s bloodline from David as a way of showing that Jesus was the Promised One.
Khesed, “grace,” “loving-kindness,” “mercy,” “steadfast love,” “great faithfulness, and “loyalty.” On to the second word.
Shelomoh. That’s the Hebrew word “Solomon.” Solomon himself was a sort of “first installment” of the fulfillment of the promise given to David. Solomon’s name [Shelomoh] is a version of the Hebrew word “Shalom”– peace, remember shalom means peace, prosperity, and wholeness. These are the things that marked most of Solomon’s reign and they all began with Solomon’s request for wisdom, which also serves as a pointer to the one who fulfilled that promise to David and who himself as a Child “continued to grow and to become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the favor of God was upon Him.”
“Understanding,” “discernment,” and “wisdon.” The Hebrew word for wise is hakam. These words are used 9 times in verses 11–12. There are several terms words used that are basically synonyms to the Old Testament word wisdom. Like khesed, “wisdom” in Hebrew is a concept rich in meaning. It’s multifaceted; embracing heart and mind, knowledge and understanding, and how all these elements are to be used.
Mostly it is about the wisdom that comes down from above. This kind of wisdom is a very practical aptitude. It’s wisdom that is needed for getting things done in the right way in the real world. Solomon’s request includes both knowledge and understanding of the Word of God, “theology” and of “earthly” matters. Jesus said it another way. Be as wise as a serpent and as gentle as a dove.
God created all things by wisdom Prov 3:19–20, “The Lord founded the earth by wisdom, He established the heavens by understanding.” When Solomon asked for wisdom, he was asking for the kind of wisdom that is given only in the Lord God’s khesed, great faithfulness, mercy, and loving-kindness. This is not the kind of wisdom that Socrates, Aristotle, and Shakespeare were talking about. This is a different kind of wisdom. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)
Sin corrupted the goodness (the wisdom) of God’s creation so that the wisdom of God is now hidden to human wisdom. The Almighty must now reveal wisdom to us. This wisdom is restored through faith, often described as “the fear of the Lord.” “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Prov 9:10). To possess wisdom in this way is to have the gift of salvation. This wisdom is given in Christ the crucified. “You are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.” (1 Cor 1:22–30).
Jesus the Child grew in that knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. That’s what He was discussing with the teachers in the temple at the age of 12. (Luke 2:40-52) “After three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. . . .’ Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?’ . . . 52 And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and people.”
God was acting through all this history to bring about His mightiest act: sending Christ Jesus. This is Christmas. This is the Babe of Bethlehem who grew into the boy of twelve years old who was growing in wisdom and understanding and went to the temple to be about his “Father’s business.” The business of fulfilling His Father’s will and promises even in the face of our sins. Why because of His Khesed, Shalom, and Hakam we have the forgiveness of our sins.
AMEN.
May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.