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Episode 553: In this episode, Jeff and Chris dive into the story of Solomon, who, after becoming king, makes an alliance with Pharaoh and marries his daughter. Despite his royal connections, Solomon humbly acknowledges his inexperience and asks God for an understanding heart to govern the people well. The hosts discuss the significance of this request, emphasizing that Solomon's desire for wisdom over wealth or fame reflects his character and the influence of his father, David.
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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Good morning, good morning. We talked on that through good moaning. Good moaning to you. Thank you for being here. And in fact, if you're listening in the morning. Hopefully that cheered you up as you're pouring your cup of coffee or perhaps on your drive to work. There you go. Yes, that's wonderful. Thank you. You're welcome. We thank you. Anybody is welcome. We can't think you know, I don't think you did that last week. I don't think I did either. Orough took a little break in a while. So welcome to the Bible guys. I'm Chris, this is Jeff, and we are about to dive into uh one of the coolest stories, yes, about one of the most miraculous gifts ever given to any person on the face of the planet. Really, that's right. But before we do, we have a segment that I really love. Would you rather? Oh? Good? Yeah? And did you ever play this when you were a youth pastor with your students? Yeah? I have. I'd have a would you rather? Booklet? And and what I would do is I would have the person stand up right, like you know, eighty kids in the room. One person stands up, and then I would have the whole group group practice yay or nay, and they'd either shout yay thumbs up and they go no, thumbs down. And so I'd ask this one person, would you rather, and then everybody had to either agree or not agree, so. Involve the whole audience. Yeah, that's pretty cool. So all right, so here we go, number I'll do the first one, number one, okay, and we have to answer, obviously, would you rather be stuck in a room with someone who never stops talking or someone who never stops singing off key? Oh that's rough, never stops talking. Yeah, me too, I can't handle the off key thing. Yeah, the off key thing would be just you know what if if if. It never stops for the rest of your life, you would probably start to hear songs in off key, right, I mean, you're you're, you're here would be so used to off key it would probably mess up your musicality. I was in a series of church ers this one time where every single song was off key. Yeah, and I just wanted to jump out the window. Yeah, it was. It was horrible. I wanted to die. Yeah. So we had a girl named. In her first Scott Well, I would never say her name is dishonoring, but it was Laura. And I'm not going to tear her last name. But now she knows who you're talking about. If she listened to nineteen ninety two. Yeah, and you've got fans from that lives in Georgia. Okay, so you know who you are, Peachtree, you know who you are. Laura, she had she had one song that she always sang and and uh, and we put the cassette track in and it was on this upon this. Rock, I'll do my kingdom right. And and she go on this rock forever endev stand and up on. This rock of revelation. I've been my strong Okay, we're good, good, We're good. It was absolutely painful. Yes, it was really bad. And then, Laura, if you listen to the Bible, guys, as literally thousands upon thousands of people do, We're sorry for him exposing you in this situation because we believe that you love Jesus and you were doing the best you can. There's no way in hades that Laura listens to the Bible. Guys, trust me, it's all of her friends. They're all on Facebook right now, Laura, You're never gonna believe what pastor Chris just did. Okay, all right. Second, would you rather only be able to communicate and dad jokes for a month or only be able to respond in puns? Both are pretty great? Yeah, dad jokes, dead jokes because it's only a month. Okay, Well, then it's only a month of puns. Who doesn't say, only a month of punts? Only able to respond in puns? Oh? I bet you she wrote it wrong. I bet you that's what she meant. But dead jokes. But you're right, is not what you wrote. It is not what she wrote. Right, Well, then it has to be dead jokes, right. Dead jokes are fun? But what if? What if it was only puns for a minute or a day? What doesn't say that it is only able? There's no ending to it, there's no there's no written in there. She gave us an ending for dead jokes. You are so funny? No, that's the law. The words matter, man structure. Okay, all right, number three, would you so funny? Remember yesterday we argued, Okay, number three, would you rather only be a What would you rather only be able? Okay, to be able? Would you rather to only be able. To eat food that's been microwaved or only eat food that's been burnt? Oh? Microwaved. It is definitely microwaved. Yeah, I mean because some microwave food as although not horrible, not great, is better than burn food. Yeah. You can do microwave food, well, if you're diligent at it, right, starting and stopping and all that kind of stuff turning and stirring, and it's just that we throw stuff. In five minutes and walk away and. Then it's just gross, right, right, But there's ways to make microwave food better. Yeah, I certainly want wouldn't want all burned food because there's no to burn food. There often a carcinogenetic. Yeah, there's no inding it says, it doesn't say anything, which must mean forever forever. That's right, only be able, that's right. Here you go. Number four, Would you rather have to introduce yourself with a silly nickname or have to use a silly accent every time you talk to someone new? Oh? Silly nickname for sure? Did you can explain it away? Yeah? You know, I'm agreeing. With you. Yeah, did you ever see what was it called She's out of She's out of his league? What was it called? Yeah, she's out of my league? I don't know. Anyway, it's with Alice Eve. Anyway, There's a guy whose nickname he got for wedding the bed when he was a kid. Oh no. And and so his nickname was Stainer. Oh no. And so he'd say, he goes, he walks up to like this really fabulous. He walked up to a really pretty girl and he goes, I'm Stainer, and she goes and she called him out it and she goes, what, Yeah, he goes Stayer and then she's like busted all of it right, And then. It was just it was just but he had braced it right. We had a kid in kindergarten, so you know, all of us I grew up out in the country. We walked to school. I lived about a mile from school. We would all gather together at different corners and then we walked together, the boys or whatever. So one of the kids, his name was Benny. In kindergarten, Benny pooped his pants like three times, oh no, in kindergarten in class oh no. So for the rest of the time we knew him, he was Benny poopy. Pants, sure, and I mean as he will should be. So then it was BPP for a while. Oh no, right, because he didn't want to inroduce itsel as Benny pood fans uh, And so it was. It was probably until we were like in fifth grade. We call the MVPP. That's terrible. And he got hit my car on his bicycle. He didn't die, he was fine, but it really it really freaked us out, and so we retired the name. All Right, you survived getting hit by this pickup truck on his bicycle and so he stopped. So he's spend in BPP. How merciful Benevo. Yeah, yeah, we're good people. Yeah, that's terrible. It ran its course, that is terrible. He's fine. A man, Hey, Benny, if you're listening, would you rather wear a sign around your neck that says I'm awkward or one that says I'm a terrible cook? Oh wow, I'm awkward. Well yeah, I'm not. Even I'm not even ashamed of that. I am awkward, right. But you in the opposite. It is true, you would hate to introduce yourself as a terrible cook. Well, I see that I'm awkward as a perfect innerduction right right, you set the bar low and then people are delighted by you. Right, maybe right right? If you're wearing one that said I'm awesome, well then you better I'm funny. Right then you have to really up your game. Set the bar low? Right people, Oh jeff, you're not so awkward. You get so much more compassion. However, they might not even get there because what kind of person? Where's a sign? How awkward do you have to be to wear a sign that says I'm awkward? So they may not even You get less opportunities. How about this? My name is how about this? You'll get less opportunities to win people over if you wear a sign that says I'm awkward. I don't know. I'm kind of tempted to try it. Oh wow, wouldn't it be fun? Wow? You think this is a good idea? I do? Okay, under promise over delivered. I would definitely choose I'm awkward as well, although I don't cook that much at all, and I don't really care about that. But I would hate to have to explain that away. But I'm awkward. It's funny. It's sort of funny. It's a great conversation starter. Okay, well there we go. Yep, thank you, Chris. And you have self assurance too, that's right, which means you don't really care. That's right. I'm not going to worry about it too much. Right, so solemnon. See. I do know some things about you, that's right. I did not know that you had. Ten siblings, which actually I sort of did know, but I didn't know, right, And I knew you liked pork. I'm so angry about that. Last week. It's a week ago, man, dude. I really truly was upset. I was legitimately upset. I was I was angry at myself. I was like, I was like, how could I be over four? Well, last week, if you're new to the podcast, last week we did a game where I had to say five things or something like that. You said four. I had to ask, yeah, four questions and see if he knew the answers and about me and about my life, to just see if he's a decent human being that cares about his co host and he didn't know a single thing about me. No, that's not true. I got in the county. I just didn't get the name of the city I got. I got in the village. I knew it was the village. I knew it was pork and steak. I just picked the wrong one. Although I knew it was pork, I knew multiple siblings, I just didn't know the number. I know, right, and and and by the way, I did not know your first car. And he's that's legitimate. He is grieving over. This is what I'm saying. So if you missed that episode, it was funny, you should go back and watch it. It was last week, So okay, okay, speaking of not knowing anything, Solomon had the wisdom to ask of God, which, by the way, I think yesterday you said you were going to get as you do it, what would be your terrible intro. I would say, speaking of would you rather God? Was God is about to give Solomon? Would you rather question? Oh? Yeah, yeah, no, that's actually a good one. And you can even fail at these things, that's right. Yeah, yeah, okay, So first King Chapter three, This is a pretty straightforward one. We horsed around for a little longer than we normally do, but this is really straightforward episode. Because Solomon asks for wisdom. It says in First King, Chapter three, Verse one, Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, and married one of his daughters. He brought her to live in the city of David until he could finish building his palace and the temple of the Lord and the wall around the city. At that time, the people of Israel sacrificed their offerings that local places of worship for a temple honoring the name of the Lord had not yet been built. Salomon loved the Lord and followed all the decrees of his father David, except that Solomon too offered sacrifices and burned incense at the local places of worship. The most important of these places of worship was at Gibeon, so the king went there and sacrificed a thousand burnt offerings. That night, the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, what do you want, Ask and I will give it to you. Salomon replied, you showed faithful love to your servant, my father David, because he was honest and true and faithful to you, and you've continued your faithful love to him today by giving him a son to sit on his throne. Now O, Lord, my God, you've made me king instead of my father David. But I am like a little child who doesn't know his way around. And here I am in the midst of your own chosen people, a nation so great in numerous they cannot be counted. Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong, For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours. The Lord was pleased with Solomon that he had asked for wisdom, and so God replied, because you've asked for wisdom in governing my people with justice, and have not asked for a long life, or for wealth or the death of your enemies, I will give you what you ask for. I will give you a wise and understanding heart, such as no one else has had or ever will have. And I will also give you what you did not ask for, riches and fame. No other king in all the world will be compared to you for the rest of your life. And if you follow me and obey my decrees and my commands, as your father David did, I will give you a long life. Then Solomon woke up and realized it had been a dream, and he returned to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the Lord's Covenant, where he sacrificed burn offerings and peace offerings, and then he invited all his officials to a great banquet. So one of the coolest stories, honestly, it's one of the greatest gifts ever given. Uh. And we're about to you know, see probably tomorrow, I'm assuming, uh, this wisdom demonstrated. Right, it plays out with the baby, right, and it's a great story. Although it's it's it's it's its own, it's get its own uh surprise and twist there. But but what a great thing. And so he had wisdom to ask for wisdom. Isn't that funny? So he already had a base of wisdom because uh what what an absolutely just a great thing. And by the way, it's a character thing, isn't it. It's a character thing. So it's it's all about the fact that you know, King Solomon already had, uh, you know, all the women that he could possibly want. I'm sure all the riches that he probably you know, his dad had billions and billions of dollars. Right, So Solomon inherited the entire kingdom. He probably had billions of dollars himself, and so he had all of that, but he. Had not yet experienced any of that. So, but the thing he wants to do more than anything else is be a good king. Because his dad really did pour into him, really, did you know, give him instructions and say, follow God. This is this is paramount. This is more than anything else in your life. Son, treat this as the number one thing is your relationship with your heavenly father. So Solomon knew. So his response had wisdom, but it was really a character thing. Yeah, it's interesting. You see in this one chapter the good and the bad of Solomon, just like many times in one chapter we would see the good and the bad of David too, right, And in this one it says the very beginning says Salomon made an alliance with Pharaoh, that the king of Egypt, and he married one of his daughters. But God had told the people of Israel, don't marry corners. They're going to lead you away, They're going to try to take you to their idols. Well over time, Solomon, with all of his wisdom. Solomon had at the same time, was it seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines or. Whatever it is. Crazy thousand wives, all of them just about are the princesses of kingdoms and rulers, and you know, chieftains and all this kind of stuff. And he achieved peace through diplomacy this way. But in his old age he also turned to idols. There's a note here that says in the life Happecac study Bible. Marriage between royal families was a common practice in the ancient Near East because it secured peace. Although Solomon's marital alliances built friendships with surrounding nations, they were also the beginning of his downfall. These relationships became inroads for pagan ideas and practices. Solomon's foreign wives brought their gods to Jerusalem and eventually lured him into idolatry. It is easy to minimize religious differences in order to encourage the development of a friendship. When you're young and in love, you may be idealistic, minimizing religious differences as something you can quote workout. What can seem small in a friendship will have an enormous impact upon a marriage. What a powerful phrase, right, And so here he has the wisdom to ask for wisdom and at the same time, he's choosing one of the things that God said, don't do, and it winds up becoming his downfall late in his life. So there's this dichotomy in his life, this paradox in Solomon's life. But what took Solomon's reign to the peaks I mean this is he becomes the pinnacle of the leaders of Israel was his extraordinary wisdom. And so if we can learn to lean in and relying on he humbles himself. He goes, I'm just a dumb kid. He humbles himself. In further instance, I don't even deserve this throne. He says. You showed your faithful love to your servant David because he was honest and faithful, and so you've continued your love for him by putting me on the throne. Right, So he goes, I didn't even earn this. I have no reason to claim the throne. He wasn't even the next in line ad and Igel was right right, I have no reason other than the fact that you you love David, and David did a great job, and so here I am, and I don't have what it takes to lead these people. And I'm just a dumb kid. What does he say? He says, I'm like a little child who doesn't know his way around, right right, He's like, God, I have no right to be here. Do we know how old Solomon was at this point? Oh? I don't know. I'm sure we do, but I don't know how old he was. Yeah, so I'm assuming that he's a younger man. What he feels like he's young. Yeah, and based on the you know, the previous chapters and the way that he's talking, it feels like he must be, you know, maybe in his young twenties, maybe even before then. Yeah, perhaps, Yeah, but back around and find out, Yeah, that'd be great. But you know, I'm sure that we could probably do math, you know, because it always it always says he reigned for this many years and he died this, you know, that kind of thing. But yeah, so here he is just just a man who really truly wants to do what's good. And so, you know what, we perhaps aren't able to get a gift like this bestowed on us from God, you know, which is, you know, to become the wisest person who ever has lived or will live. However, the Bible does say for us, if a man lacks wisdom, let him ask God for it, right, and he'll be given to him. So, you know, the Bible does say that you know wisdom. In fact, Solomon talks about wisdom later on, doesn't he And he writes in Proverbs, and he actually talks about wisdom in such a way that he refers to wisdom as her. You know that he actually gives it a pronoun of her and says, gain her, seek after her, follow her, woo her right, you know, just obtain her at any cost, because wisdom is the best. And then he actually makes a statement. Remember later on he says, the beginning of wisdom is to get wisdom. Remember that he says, the beginning of wisdom is get wisdom. And so what he's trying to say is he's trying to say the very the wisest thing you could do is want wisdom. And so it is just an incredible thing. How when we pray for this, then everything else will come right. So I did a search and it says that he probably was between twenty and twenty five years old, because historians kind of put him at about somewhere in his early sixties when he died, which is astounding to me, that's amazing because I hadn't thought about how old he was when he died. He reigned forty years, so he was in his early sixties when he died. And it says the Lord was pleased with Solomon's asking for wisdom, and he said, because you ask for wisdom, I'm going to give it to you. Nobody's going to be wiser. And then he says, I'm also going to give you the things you didn't ask for, right, riches in fame. Yeah. And then he says, and I'll make you live a long life if you do what you were supposed to do. There it is right. So God unconditionally gives him wealth, fame, and wisdom, and conditionally gives him a long life. There's an if, but he does his sixties. He dies in his sixties. His father died, and the Bible says his father lived a long life, a good long life, right, and his father died at seventy. Wow, isn't that interesting? So the mistake Solomon makes is he follows God almost his entire life, and towards the end you'll find out he turns towards the idols. Yeah, and his life it's cut short. He kind of becomes polytheistic right at that point. So it's really really interesting here that I hadn't realized it until this. Now there's this one. And if you follow me and obey my decrees and my commands as your father David did, I'll give you a long life. Yeah, and Solomon's life was substantially shorter than his father's. Yeah. Well, it's interesting. It's also very similar to yesterday's podcast when we talked about uh or no two times ago, where we talked about, you know, sort of the conditional and unconditional. David was sort of saying, hey, if you do these things, you know it'll go well. And then and then the and then the The unconditional was that, you know, the promise was that you know, it'll be the house of David, the line of David will be forever. Right. That was the unconditional part, right, But that is extremely cool. I think that in the in the end, uh Solomon writes about wisdom and he is the person who has the authority two to coach us. So in the Book of Ecclesiastes, remember he writes about just about everything under the sun, and what is what does he come to the conclusion, and I'm probably skipping ahead, right, But what does he say? He says, all these ambitions in life, you know, at the end of our lives. And he's really referring to people who sort of get it at the end of our lives, you know, like I'm at the end of my life. I'm on my deathbed. And uh, I pursued money, pursued women, I pursued fame, I pursued politics, I pursued you know, influence, I pursued you. Know, all these kinds of things. And he says, it's all vanity, all of it is meaningless, it is all worthless because you're going to die, You're going to go into eternity, and. This life is just a mist. It is inconsequential. And he says, the only thing that matters is God. Period. And so Solomon arrives at a point to where he writes Proverbs one of the wisest. Have you ever even seen a better source of wisdom than Proverbs? Phenomenal? It's fat right, right, And. So again it's just I can't emphasize enough that you know, this one request is one of the best things that you and I could seek and pray for our lives. Let me read this note. This is so great. So wisdom is not knowledge. Solomon is really good at differentiating between wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge is knowing, is being book smart. It's knowing the facts, it's knowing the details, it's knowing all those things. Wisdom is knowing how first of all starts with a fear of God and then knowing what to do, how to do it, when to do it the right way. So it's a very different thing. It's it's always action oriented. So it's very interesting how he asks for wisdom and not knowledge. And so the note here in Life Applications Study Bible says, when given a chance to have anything in the world, Solomon asks for wisdom and understanding heart in order to lead well and to make right decisions. We can ask God for this same wisdom this James Chapter one. Notice that Solomon asked for understanding to carry out his job. He did not ask God to do the job for him. Most of the time, we don't want to face the tough stuff in front of us. We want God just to solve it. And that's not what Solomon asked for. He says it said. It says we should not ask God to do for us what He wants to do through us. Instead, we should ask God to give us the wisdom to know what to do, courage to follow through on it. Right, It's an action oriented thing, and so if wisdom is the principal thing, then just understand action with that. Wisdom is what God wants you to do. He wants you to do something with that. That's to just have it. That's a really important distinction because wisdom plays out with Okay, what do we do? Right? What do we do? Okay, Well, I'm going to exercise a decision and that decision is going to be based solely on you know, you can do many things, but hopefully you're going to choose the wisest course of action. So instead of asking God, God, solve this thing with my marriage, instead, God give me the wisdom solve this thing with my marriage. Right. God wants to work through you. He's not just looking to do miracles all the time. The miracle is how He transforms you to do the right thing the right way, and it's just it's a different thing. Sometimes I think Christians believe in magic more than they believe in God doing the miracle through giving us wisdom to do the work we're supposed to do on these tough things. Yeah, that's a good word. Yeah. Okay, well that is our time, so hopefully we'll see you tomorrow on the Bible guys. 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