What You Don't Ask For

I don't want to put down Solomon, he was a great king and a really humble man. In 2 Chronicles 1 God appears to Solomon and says "Ask what I shall give you" (vs 7). Solomon asks for wisdom to lead the people of Israel. But Solomon should also have thought about what he didn't ask for.

God is pleased because Solomon didn't ask for long life or riches or the lives of his enemies. And so God gives him the wisdom, and the riches and long life.

What intrigues me is the very next verse. The first thing Solomon does is to go out and buy 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen. There are two problems with this. The first is that God told Israel that when they had a king that they should not multiply horses and chariots (Deut 17:16). So Solomon is disobeying God. The second is that Solomon didn't need them. He should have relied on God as Joshua and Israel did during the taking of the land.

I noticed that in the list of things that God gave he left out "the life of those who hate you." Perhaps God was testing Solomon a little bit. I'm not saying this is so, but maybe Solomon was trying to fill in the gaps in God's promise to him.

So the lesson for us is: when you do right, when your attitude is like Jesus and you think "yes - I did okay that time!" don't then let your guard down. The temptation will be to fall into doing something wrong in another area of your life.

Remember all of God tells you in His Word and trust in Him to accomplish all of it through you. He doesn't need our assistance, really!

Pastor Tom