1 Kings 3:5-12 – The Third Bull-Rider
I recently read a blog post from Brother James of the Anglican Dominicans. As a young boy, he’d gone to a rodeo with his father and said, “Dad, you know who I’d like to meet? I’d like to meet the first man who decided it would be a good idea to crawl on top of an angry bull and ride it.” His father replied, “I want to meet the second man who thought that would be a good idea.”
Hold on to that story; it’ll pop up again later.
Our reading today is Solomon asking God to give him his fabled wisdom. The request is the first half of verse 9, “give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong,” and that’s all fine and dandy. But there are a couple of interesting nuggets, twinkling in our peripheral vision, that are worth looking at.
The first is the nice note, just off the end our today’s passage (Why does it end at v12, part way through God’s reply? Answers on a postcard.) that God will fulfil Solomon’s unspoken desires, as well as his spoken request. Verse 13: “Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honour—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings.”
There’s all kinds of lovely, comforting stuff in there: God knows the desires of our hearts, he loves to give good gifts to his children, he knows what we need before we ask , he gives abundantly more than we ask or think, and so on. Brillo.
The second nugget is the latter half of verse nine, which we often skip over because we are thinking Solomon is such a great guy, asking for wisdom instead of cash. Solomon continues with, “For who can govern this your great people?”
Now, this could be the standard polite way of replying to God’s question. It’s the conventional way of talking to superiors in the Ancient Near East and you’ll find it throughout the Bible and other documents of the period. “Who am I to do this?”, “I can’t talk,” “I’m only a child,” etc. We retain a vestige of this in uber-formal letter sign-offs: ‘I have the honour to remain your lordship’s obedient servant.’ We don’t really mean it. It is polite convention.
It was common in Bible times to minimise one’s abilities in the presence of superiors in the hope that they would say, “Oh, come now, don’t be so modest,” and then give you half their kingdom and their second-best wife. Or at least not lop off your head.
So Solomon, addressing God, first recounts what God had done for his father, David, then notes that he, Solomon, has big boots to fill, then says he (Solomon again) is ‘only a little child’. This was not factually true. Solomon had just ‘got together’ with the daughter of Pharoah, for goodness’ sake, and I don’t think we’re talking play date for five-year-olds.
So when Solomon says ‘For who can govern this your great people?’ is this more conventional modesty (but he really knows he can do it just fine, thank you)? Or does he really think it’s a daunting task and he’s not up to it, even with the gifts and training he already has?
I think the latter. I think he really is scared of the job. ‘Cos get this. Solomon is not the second bull-rider, the guy who has watched the first being carted away on a stretcher, Solomon is the third.
Saul was Israel’s first king, and it didn’t end well. His life ended tragically, plagued by madness and paranoia, in a battle against his protégé. It was as if Yoda had gone mad and tried to murder Luke, then there was a Jedi-v-Jedi civil war and Luke ended up killing his father … no, sorry, I’m getting confused. Back to the Bible.
Saul was the first, David was the second. Neither had lived up to the hype. Solomon had seen his father drift off the rails (remember whose son he was*) and he’d have heard the tales of Saul. Zero out of two. Not a good hit rate. Was Solomon headed for a crash-and-burn, too? Probably, tbh.
[* Bathsheba’s, if you’ve forgotten]
So I think Solomon really did mean it when he said ‘For who can govern this your great people?’ No one since Moses had managed it, and even Moses had his moments. ‘Herding cats’ comes to mind. The power of a king’s position had caused both his predecessors to stumble in their walk with God. I’m not surprised Solomon was wary.
And what of us? When God calls us (and he calls every one of us, whether to obvious Christian ministry in church settings, or to being Jesus to the people in our family, school or workplace) do we blithely step out in our own strength, or follow Solomon’s example, conscious of our fallibility? (We know what the right answer should be, but …)
Living for God always involves getting it wrong. And that’s the glorious good news of Easter. Death is not the end. Failure is not the end. There is always resurrection and forgiveness, and God offers each of us the gifts to we need day by day. Where is God calling you today? What gift would you ask of God?
Solomon’s greatest wisdom was knowing that he needed God. Sure, he was well-educated and capable. I expected he’d got an A-star in ‘kinging’ at the palace school, but he knew he couldn’t do this on his own. He understood the risks. He’d seen others go off the rails and didn’t want to follow. Yep, in his position I’d have asked for wisdom. And, thinking about David and Solomon’s weakness for a pretty face, maybe a padlock for my Y-fronts?
Liturgy for Proper 12
Psalm 119:129-136, Romans 8:26-39
Confession and Absolution
Your decrees are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them.
But Lord, I confess that I have not kept your decrees.
Have mercy upon me, save me and help me.
Keep my steps steady according to your promise.
Have mercy upon me, save me and help me.
Never let iniquity have dominion over me.
Have mercy upon me, save me and help me.
Make your face shine upon your servant,
Turn to me and be gracious to me,
as is your custom toward those who love your name.
[Pause]
If God is for us, who is against us?
It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?
Thank you, gracious God, that when you justify, there is none to condemn.
Thank you that you forgive us in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.
Blessing and Dismissal
Neither death, nor life,
nor things present, nor things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation
can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Therefore go,
and know yourself beloved
and the grace of God be with you.
Amen.
The Reflectionary 