Part of my daily spiritual discipline is to read about three chapters of the Bible. Since I am Presbyterian by ordination and fairly structured by God and genetics, I start on Jan. 1 with the beginning of Genesis and work my way through the sacred text until ending at Revelation late in December. One of the many obvious joys of such a discipline is the rereading of tremendous Biblical scenes throughout the year. There are stories of revelation and power, stories of faith and patience and stories which illustrate how God calls us to be in the world.
This week I came upon one of my favorite moments in Scripture. The story comes from 2 Chronicles 1: 7-13, in the Hebrew Scriptures, which Christians call the Old Testament. The kingship of Israel has just passed from David to his son Solomon. God appears to the new king and says to Solomon, ‘‘Ask what I should give you.” Talk about being put on the spot!
Solomon answered in quite a remarkable way, he says, ‘‘Give me wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can rule this great people of yours?” This is simply an astonishing answer for kings and regular people alike. The answer is so surprising, I think it even surprised God, because God mentions how Solomon did not ask for possessions, wealth, honor or even the life of those who hate him.
All of those items would primarily serve Solomon himself. Those gifts from God may have made Solomon more comfortable but they probably would not have helped him be a better leader.
Instead Solomon asks for the gift of wisdom which helped him, but more importantly, the gift of wisdom helped those he was called to serve in God’s world. Solomon looked past his own individual needs and desires. Instead, he sought to serve God’s people with insight and knowledge. What a tremendous example for each one of us! Solomon did not treat God like a personal provider or use prayer as a personal wish list. Instead, he sought a personal ability that would help God’s people.
The story begs the question which appears as the title of this piece, what would you ask for? More directly this day, what have you asked for lately from God? The Almighty is obviously not our personal prosperity provider. Rather, God calls us out of our own selfish needs and desires and calls us into love and communion with the divine and with each other. Our society is quite good at taking care of selfish needs, however, God calls us past such simple desires to the greater wisdom of helping the other and reaching out in love. Solomon was blessed by God because he put others first, I am positive God has not changed since then.
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