Both the Old Testament reading and the New Testament
reading hold up wisdom for us as an ideal.
Solomon modestly prays for wisdom rather than power
and wealth, but the Lord is so impressed that he gives Solomon not only the
wisdom that he requested but wealth and power, too.
In Ephesians Paul exhorts the Christians in Ephesus
to “live,
not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days
are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do
not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit,
as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and
making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at
all times and for everything.”
Paul singles out two characteristics of wisdom.
First, he tells us that it is wise to “make the most of time because the days
are evil.” This is one of the most characteristic features of Paul’s letters.
Paul believed that we are in the last days, that the return of Jesus was just
around the corner.
But it seems that Paul was wrong. Two thousand years
have gone by and yet Jesus has not returned. So what are we to make of this
idea? I believe that Paul may not have been as wrong as we think. Consider two
things:
On the face of it this
seems to be contrary to wisdom. To be filled with the Spirit is to be ecstatic.
It is to be irrational. It is to behave like a Pentecostal! It is to speak in
tongues, to sing at the top of our lungs, to dance before the Lord like David
danced before the ark.
Life in the Spirit and
wisdom are not opposed. Indeed, I believe that they are two characteristics of
human nature. We are not whole human beings unless we have both, unless we know
when to restrain ourselves and when to let go.
The great theologian Oscar Wilde once said that a
fundamentalist is a person who is afraid that somebody, somewhere is having a
good time. But that is not Christianity. The Christian faith tells us that a
whole human being knows both joy and wisdom, freedom and restraint.
One of the most interesting similarities between
David and Solomon is that in both cases there is a significant disconnect
between the way they are portrayed and the way they actually behave.
We are told that David was “a man after God’s own
heart,” and yet David commits a dreadful crime: he has an affair with Bathsheba
and arranges for the death of her husband.
We are told that Solomon is wise, that he asked God
for wisdom and that God is so impressed that Solomon did not ask for wealth or
power that he not only gives Solomon wisdom but throws in wealth and power,
too.
And yet if we read the rest of Solomon’s story, we
discover that Solomon behaves like anything but a wise ruler.
Here, though, we come up against a problem. Solomon,
we are told, was a paragon of wisdom. And yet one of the first things we are
told about Solomon is that he “made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh”, the
ruler of Egypt, and brought Pharaoh’s daughter to his palace as his wife. As
was common in the ancient (and even not so ancient world) marriage was an
instrument of diplomacy and foreign policy. To cement ties with another ruler,
a king would marry one of his daughters. Eventually we are told that Solomon
had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
Even allowing for some exaggeration, this makes us
question Solomon’s wisdom!!
But Solomon’s biggest mistake as a king was the fact
that he levied huge taxes on his people and used forced labor both to build his
own palace and the temple in Jerusalem.
These policies eventually caused the civil war that took place under
Solomon’s son Rehoboam and the division of Israel into northern and southern
kingdoms.
In this presidential election year it might be a
good idea to ponder what a wise ruler would look like.
We are told that Solmon’s wisdom was astounding, and
yet his internal policy of heavy taxation and forced labor and his external
policy of making alliances with foreign rulers through marriage were unwise.
Where are we to look for a wise ruler?
Consider Psalm 72. Psalm 72 is said to be a Psalm of
Solomon.
Give the king thy justice, O God, and thy
righteousness to the royal son! May he judge thy people with
righteousness, and thy poor with justice! Let the mountains bear
prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness! May he defend
the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the
oppressor! In his days may righteousness flourish, and peace abound, till
the moon be no more! May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the
River to the ends of the earth. May all kings fall down before him, all
nations serve him! For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and
him who has no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves
the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence he redeems their
life; and precious is their blood in his sight. May there be abundance of
grain in the land; on the tops of the mountains may it wave; may its fruit be
like Lebanon; and may men blossom forth from the cities like the grass of the
field!
Psalm 72 tells us that a wise ruler will defend the
cause of the poor and deliver the needy, that righteousness will flourish and
peace will abound, that he will have pity on the weak and save the life of the
needy. But it also says that his kingdom will be economically successful, that
there will be abundant grain in the land.
When I was teaching OT at Samford, I once read this
psalm to my students, and said, “What does this psalm make you think of?” And
one of my students said, “Well, it sounds a lot like the Democrats!”
America is not a monarchy. We had our chance back in
1776 and chose another path and I suppose there is no going back so we will
just have to carry on.
In 1870, Alabama's second bishop, Richard Hooker Wilmer, visited England. His hostess, knowing that Wilmer was very proud of the fact that he was a Virginian, asked him what he thought of his fellow Virginian, George Washington. "Well, I suppose that Washington did as well as could be expected under the circumstances." His hostess was shocked and asked him why he had such a low opinion of Washington. "Madame, were it not for Washington, today we would be the subjects of a gracious Christian queen instead of a drunken Tennessee tailor!"
America is a democracy, not a monarchy. This year we
are charged with choosing a wise ruler, and I pray that we will not only choose
a wise president but that we will be a wise people. IN a democracy, it is not
only the responsibility of the ruler to rule wisely; it is also a
responsibility of the people to choose wisely and to be wise citizens.
So not only in election years but in every year, may
we heed the words of Psalm 72:
