Heroes of Faith – Solomon

Today I want to look at a Hero of Faith who gives us an excellent example of God pleasing prayer. Early in his reign, King Solomon had a wonderful example that would be good for us to imitate. I love how Solomon prayed for wisdom. When God came to him and asked Solomon to ask for whatever he wanted, Solomon said, “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 3:9).

God was very pleased with this request and granted Solomon with wisdom and also great wealth. Solomon was able to rule wisely and gave us wisdom literature in the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. If you read the rest of 1 Kings chapter 3, you see the time when two prostitutes come to him claiming to be the mother of the same child. He used his wisdom to discover the real mother. When he said that they should cut the baby in half and give half to each mother, the real mother said that the child should go to the other woman. The real mother wanted to spare the child’s life and Solomon returned the child to her.

Even though Solomon was blessed with great wisdom, he was also tempted in many ways. His many wives led him away from God for a time in his life. If you just read through the book of Kings, you might be left wondering if Solomon died in faith. The book of Ecclesiastes gives us comfort as we think about Solomon. In Ecclesiastes we see a wise man who is near the end of his life. A major theme of Ecclesiastes is this: “Without faith in God, everything in this world is utterly meaningless.”

Solomon figured out his sins and was repentant. He wrote at the end of Ecclesiastes, “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). While that sounds like a very law focused verse, we know that when the scriptures speak about fearing God it is both law and gospel. Fearing God includes respecting and honoring him because of his gracious plan of salvation. When we keep a focus on God’s grace, we are properly motivated to serve him by doing our best to keep the commandments. Our sanctified service flows out of a heart that has been enriched by full and free forgiveness in Christ.
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I thought about Solomon again recently as I took on new responsibilities in my ministry. I thought about Solomon because I want to have the prayer that he had. “Lord, give me a discerning heart. Give me wisdom that I can carry out the tasks I need to do.” I admit that I do not pray for God’s wisdom as often as I should. In fact, at this moment, I am simply excited about the possibilities in front of me. I don’t feel compelled to pray for guidance right now. But this is exactly the time to pray. I shouldn’t wait until I feel overwhelmed by having too many tasks on my plate. I should pray for guidance and wisdom every day. I should pray for a firm grounding in the gospel so that I am renewed and refreshed when it feels like ministry is too difficult.

We can all learn lessons from Solomon’s prayer and wisdom. We should all pray for wisdom as we carry out our tasks. If we have times when we feel like we are failing to accomplish our tasks, I pray that God bring us back to the hope we have through Jesus. If we have times when everything seems to be going well and we are meeting our goals, then I pray that God keep us humble and help us to look for new opportunities. The place to go for the best wisdom is God’s Word. There we see God’s wise plan of salvation. We see that Jesus as saved us from our sin. When we are built up with this message of salvation through Jesus, then we receive courage and wisdom from our God.

The Superhero I thought about with Solomon is another king. I chose the king of Wakanda, the Black Panther. In the recent movie, each king of Wakanda takes on the role of the Black Panther. T’Challa took over the role from his father in Captain America Civil War and in the Black Panther film he is maturing as a leader. T’Challa’s father made a decision years ago to keep Wakandan culture separate from the rest of the world. The decision led to huge problems for T’Challa. After T’Challa defeated the man who tried to take away his throne, he made a very wise decision. He decided to share Wakandan culture with the world. Even though I am comparing Solomon and T’Challa, Solomon had an important advantage. He had faith in the true God. However, I think Solomon may have done a Wakandan salute.