If you could ask the Lord for only one gift what would you choose? Would it be wealth or success? Fame or position? Happiness? Or would you take a page from King Solomon's book and ask for wisdom? From earliest childhood Solomon sought to please the Lord.
The Scripture: 1 Kings 3:3
"Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the statutes of his father David."
1. How did Solomon show his love for the Lord?
The Lord was pleased with Solomon and in time appeared to him in a dream.
The Scripture: 1 Kings 3:5
"God said, 'Ask for whatever you want Me to give you.'"
2. How did the Lord respond to Solomon's love?
What an amazing offer! However, it is no more amazing than Solomon's request.
The Scripture: 1 Kings 3:7, 9
"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?"
3. What did Solomon ask for?
God showed His pleasure with Solomon's request by granting it.
The Scripture: 1 Kings 3:12
"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, not will there ever be."
4. What did the Lord say He would give Solomon?
But that is not all the Lord promised Solomon.
The Scripture: 1 Kings 3:13
"I will give you what you have not asked for - both riches and honor."
5. What did God give to Solomon?
God kept His promise. Later scripture tells us:
The Scripture: 1 Kings 4:29-31
"God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the men of the East and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than any other man...Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon's wisdom."
6. What did God give Solomon?
A well-known anecdote from Solomon's life illustrates his wisdom.
The Scripture: Have your instructor read 1 Kings 3:16-28 to you.
7. Summarize the story.
8. What was the people's reaction to Solomon's wisdom?
However, when God spoke of wisdom, He did not mean worldly wisdom. The Apostle Paul also makes it clear that there is more than one kind of wisdom.
The Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:19-25
"The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.'
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the...world. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for [worldly] wisdom...Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength."
9. What is foolishness to those perishing?
10. What does God say He will do to the wisdom of the wise (the world)?
11. How does God describe the foolishness and weakness of God?
The Scripture: Proverbs 8:11
"Wisdom is more precious that rubies and nothing you desire can compare with her."
12. How does the author of Proverbs describe wisdom?
The Apostle James also has much to tell us about wisdom.
The Scripture: James 3:17
"The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere."
13. How does James describe God's wisdom?
Paul calls Jesus "God's wisdom." From an early age, Jesus displayed that wisdom.
The Scripture: Luke 2:46-47
"They (Mary and Joseph) found [Jesus] sitting among the teachers listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard Him was amazed at His understanding and His answers."
14. What amazed the teachers?
The Scripture: Luke 2:52
"Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.”
15. How did Jesus mature?
God thinks so highly of His wisdom that He has accompanied its acquisition with many benefits. Read the following scriptures and list the benefits that go with them.
The Scripture: Proverbs 2:1-2, 5, 8
"If you accept My words and store up My commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding....then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God....for He guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.”
16. The benefits?
The Scripture: Proverbs 2:1-2, 11-12
"If you accept My words and store up My commands within you,...discretion will protect you and understanding will guard you. Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men."
17. The benefits?
The Scripture: Proverbs 3:13, 16-18
"Blessed is the man who finds wisdom...long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor...All her paths are peace...Those who lay hold of her will be blessed!"
18. Benefits?
The Scripture: Proverbs 4:10
"Accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many."
19. The benefit?
The Scripture: Proverbs 19:11
"A man’s wisdom gives him patience."
20. Benefits?
The Scripture: Proverbs 24:5
"A wise man has great power."
21. Benefits?
The Scripture: Proverbs 24:14
“If you find [wisdom] there is future hope for you and your hope will not be cut off.”
22. Benefits?
The Scripture: Proverbs 28:26
"He who walks in wisdom is kept safe."
23. Benefits?
If you are familiar with Solomon's history, you may wonder why his reign ended so poorly. Although Solomon was wise, he was not always obedient. He disobeyed the Lord by marrying many foreign wives and allowing them to practice their heathen religions in the land of Israel. To acquire God's wisdom we must be obedient to Him.
The book of Proverbs also shows us the way to wisdom.
The Scripture: Proverbs 9:10
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
24. What is the beginning of wisdom?
Fear of the Lord does not mean "fear" in the usual sense of the word, like being scared of. Rather, it is reverence or awe and the highest respect for Him.
The Scripture: Reread Proverbs 2:1-2, 5, 8
"If you accept My words and store up My commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding...then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God...for He guards the course of the just and protects the way of His faithful ones."
25. How can we understand fear of the Lord?
The Scripture: James 1:5
"If anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him."
26. How do we obtain wisdom?
27. How does God give it to us?
The Scripture: James 1:6, 7
"But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does."
28. What is the one requirement?
29. How does James describe such a doubter?
The Scripture: Proverbs 4:7
"Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom, though it cost all you have."
30. What is the author's advice?
The Scripture: Ephesians 1:7-8
"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding."
31. What has God lavished on us?
Paul was firm in his belief that wisdom is available to all believers. Here is a portion of one of Paul's best known prayers;
The Scripture: Ephesians 1:17
"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better."
32. What does Paul pray?
33. Why?
Throughout the Bible, much of man's wisdom and God's wisdom are diametrically opposed. What wonderful benefits accompany God's wisdom, wisdom that is ours for the asking, believing and our obedience: understanding the fear of the Lord and finding the knowledge of God, protection, understanding, being saved from the ways of wicked men, long life, riches, honor, peace, patience, great power, future hope which will not be cut off, and safety. The person who would be truly wise seeks God's wisdom with all his heart.
The Answers
- By walking in the statutes of his father David
- He told Solomon to ask for whatever he wanted the Lord to give him.
- For a discerning heart to govern the people and to distinguish between right and wrong
- What he had asked for - a wise and discerning heart
- Riches and honor
- Wisdom and very great insight. His wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the men of the East and of Egypt. He was wiser than any other man.
- Your summary
- They held the king in awe because they saw that he had wisdom from God.
- The message of the cross
- Destroy it
- As wiser than man's wisdom and stronger than man's strength
- More precious than rubies. Nothing we can desire compares with it.
- As pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere
- Jesus' understanding and His answers
- In wisdom, stature and in favor with God and men
- Understanding the fear of the Lord and finding the knowledge of God; protection
- We will be saved from the ways of wicked men.
- Long life, riches, honor, peace and blessings
- Long life
- Patience
- Great power
- Future hope which will not be cut off
- Safety
- The fear of the Lord
- By accepting God's words and storing them in our hearts
- By asking God for it
- Generously and without finding fault
- We must believe and not doubt
- As double-minded, unstable in all he does
- To get wisdom no matter what it costs
- All wisdom and understanding
- That we be given the Spirit of wisdom and revelation
- That we may know Him better.
All scripture quotations in this publication are from the Holy Bible, New International Version
(unless otherwise indicated)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, New International Bible Society
Copyright © 2004 by JoAnne Sekowsky