Have you ever dreamed what you would do if you had perfect freedom? Have you ever wondered what you would do if you won the lottery, or if a rich uncle’s lawyer just appeared and said, “Congratulations, your uncle left you a hundred million dollars.”
1 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14; Psalm 111; Ephesians 5:15-20; John 6:51-58
It is a nice exercise. Most of us would pay off our debts, set up trust funds for our children and grandchildren, maybe buy a new car or a new home or both.
When we pray, we can ask for these things, but generally speaking, God is not going to give them to us because, in general, they are not what we need. So we need to think more carefully about what we ask for from God. We need some wisdom.
In our 1 Kings 2 reading, Solomon, King David’s son, was his designated successor, likely because Solomon cared more about God’s will than the other sons did.
Solomon gave a great sacrifice to God, and God came to Solomon in a dream and asked him what he’d like to have.
Solomon had just won the lottery. Solomon had just had the rich father die, and now God was going to grant him his deepest wish.
Does this remind you of the other stories you’ve heard? Aladdin and the lamp with the genie with three wishes? King Midas who asked for the golden touch, that everything he touched be turned to gold?
There is something about our human nature that we want the opportunity to have it all. And there is something about us which keeps us from asking for the truly good things, and compels us to ask for the less important things of life.
There is the story of the wealthy man who died, who had always loved his money. Sometime before he died, he was visited in a dream by Peter. Peter said, “If you will give a third of your wealth to the church, you can bring to heaven anything you put in the casket when you die, but you will die within a month, so you need to make your preparations quickly. Knowing that death was coming to him soon, he put a third of his money in a trust account for his family, gave a third to his church, went to the undertaker and took along two thick sheets of gold, each worth several million dollars which he had bought with the final third of his money. He said to the undertaker, “you can have one, but put the other underneath me in the casket so I can lie on it and it will got to heaven with me.”
Well, the man died, and the undertaker did as he was asked. (It was the last funeral the undertaker conducted – he was last seen headed for Key West to buy a vacation home...)
Meanwhile, at the gates of Heaven, the wealthy man appears in his casket. He climbs out, only to meet Peter at the gate. “Pete, can you get me a couple of guys to help get my stuff out of the casket and inside to my mansion?”
Peter walked over to the casket, looked in, and said, “Pavement? Why did you choose to bring pavement?”
When we deal with God, we should always leave the ideas of the world behind. Perhaps this is the definition of wisdom – learning what life is truly like in a Universe where our loving Father is active in our life – rather than pretending that God does not care about our daily – even hourly decisions.
So what do we begin with when asked to make important decisions?
First, God created this Universe and us – and cares deeply about each of us. God made the ballpark, set up the rule book, hired all the players, is the umpire, and owns all the equipment. God built the stadium, sells the tickets, owns our contract, can fire us, can put us at bat, and controls the opposing team as well. Furthermore, God can change the weather, God can change the rules, God can kick you out of the game – or God can choose to walk you at will. But thankfully, God wants each of us to be the best player we can be.
So remembering that God runs and owns things in this game we call life is a good, wise place to start.
So many people don’t. They look at the game and they become convinced the game is completely under their control – or they take the other view and say the game of life is rigged. Our culture in this world is constantly telling us three lies: 1) The ball park that we call life is all there is. 2) We are in completely control when we come to bat. And if we don’t like the outcomes, it’s because someone was cheating against us.
But we Christians know the reality. Life is not all there is. This world is just a little piece of reality. We aren’t really in control of much, and God – who is in control – is rooting for us, trying to make us all MVP’s.
Sometimes, we have just enough wisdom and insight to get started right. As the Psalmist wrote: 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His instructions have good insight.
Solomon knew he was a young man without any experience. And Solomon’s earthly father had taught him to respect his Heavenly Father. So when God asked Solomon what he wanted, Solomon asked God to ”give Your servant an obedient heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil.”
God was impressed. “Because you have requested this and did not ask for long life or riches for yourself, or the death of your enemies, but you asked discernment for yourself to understand justice, I will therefore do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has never been anyone like you before and never will be again.
In addition, I will give you what you did not ask for: both riches and honor, so that no man in any kingdom will be your equal during your entire life. If you walk in My ways and keep My statutes and commands just as your father David did, I will give you a long life.”
Solomon chose to seek a kingdom that was just – the kingdom of God. Solomon wanted to be a good judge, a righteous judge who had God’s righteousness. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
And all these things will be added onto you. Solomon received riches, honor, wisdom, and a long life because he had sought to obey God, to discern between good and evil – he had chosen to make the attempt to follow God, and asked God’s help in doing this.
Solomon began wise – and God gave him much more wisdom.
There is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. It has been said that “knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.” (Miles Kington)
Knowledge is the collection of facts that we learn over the years. We know, for example, that Solomon was King David’s son. We learn, for example, that David had Bathsheba’s husband killed after David got her pregnant. We learn that Solomon was immensely rich. We learn that a glowing stove eye has a temperature near 500 degrees.
But wisdom is when we recognize the terrible time in David’s life after his sin, and how that might apply to our life. Wisdom, you see, is knowing how to live, anticipating consequences, being able to choose the good path and avoiding the wrong paths, especially when there are only subtle differences between the near-term rewards and punishments of those paths. Wisdom is knowing not to touch the glowing stove eye.
Knowledge is learned through books, through videos, through lectures, through discussions, through classes and sermons. Our entire educational system is designed to teach knowledge to students, so each person growing up will have a common base of knowledge, concepts we can share. “All men are created equal”, “Mountaineers are always free”. 2 plus 2 equals 4. Atoms are made of protons, neutrons and electrons. Romeo and Juliet both died.
But we aren’t so good at teaching wisdom.
Wisdom is learned in three very different ways.
Most people learn wisdom by living life. You touch the glowing stove eye and pull away a burnt finger and you get a little bit wiser. One day, you touch a dark stove eye and pull away a burnt finger. You are learning the wisdom of always checking the temperature of a stove eye before touching it. Most people learn most of their wisdom this way. It is a painful way to learn, but that’s how most people choose to learn wisdom. They learn not to drive fast on snow-covered roads, to wait for the second deer to show itself, to stay back from the gravel-loaded dump truck.
People learn how to pick a trustworthy boyfriend or girlfriend, not to antagonize big, powerful drunks, that Aldi usually has the best prices, and that traffic will be backed up if you try to go to Bridgeport at 5 o’clock in the evening during a heavy rainstorm.
A second way to learn wisdom is by watching our elders and listening to their stories. Mom says not to play with the mousetrap because it will snap on your fingers. Big brother doesn’t listen. SNAP! You learn by watching him cry because of the mousetrap. We learn other lessons as we drive by the car wreck, as we listen to the tales of divorce from our friends, as people tell us about the man who climbed over a barbed wire fence carrying his loaded gun. Many people learn wisdom this way – that is, people who watch and listen learn wisdom this way. That’s an advantage of sitting in Bible studies with white-haired people – they’ve probably already faced the problems we are facing, and they’ll tell you what they learned, if you ask and listen.
Still another way to learn wisdom is from God. We read and listen to Scripture, and we can find out about wisdom. We listen to sermons and there is wisdom there. And if we are truly listening to God, to the gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit, we will learn to react properly when that gentle whisper says, “don’t do it!”
How many times have you heard someone talk about a premonition, a voice, a whisper in their ear or mind that says, “Don’t do that. Do this!” and they did this instead of that, and they survived? It is the Holy Spirit speaking to you.
I once was looking for a job. I had taken 24 hours of graduate education courses, and I now had my teaching certificate. In January, I applied to the community colleges to be a part-time professor. Then, in March, all the school systems around announced lay-offs for the upcoming year. In April I applied to Wood County Schools for a job at Williamstown High teaching Physics and Chemistry. No answer. In June, I applied to Simonton Windows as a financial analyst. No answer. Later, I applied and got an interview with an automation company. As I drove there, I thought, “this is an ideal job! I’ve got ten years experience in the industry doing this work. The only thing better would be full-time ministry.” At the interview, they told me they’d be making their decision in a week or so.
After the interview, when I got home, I got word that Parkersburg Catholic was looking for a math teacher. I called and got an interview the next morning, which was Thursday. The principal asked me if I’d be comfortable praying with students, and talking about my faith with them. “Full-time ministry” rang out in the back of my mind as the Spirit spoke to me.
Friday, Simonton called for a telephone interview. The pay was almost twice as much as the school was offering.
Monday morning, Catholic called and said I had the job if I wanted it. I said yes. An hour later, Williamstown called and asked me to come for an interview at more money. It seems they’d had a new principal who took some time getting up to speed. I declined the interview. An hour later, Simonton called and asked me to come in for an interview. I declined. An hour later, WVU-Parkersburg called and asked me if I could teach two evening courses beginning around 4 pm. I accepted. God had filled in the money with those evening courses, but had already tested me to see if I’d follow the leading of the Spirit.
There’s more. The automation company never called back, and laid people off in October. Simonton laid people off in December. And in May, several teachers left Williamstown because of their experience with the new principal. Listening to the Spirit and seeking first the Kingdom leads to everything else good.
There are two books of the Old Testament and three books of the New Testament that are completely devoted to passing on Wisdom. In the Old Testament, there is the Book of Proverbs, which gives bite-sized hunks of wisdom, just the right size to read to your children at breakfast and discuss. Warning: Some deal with adult issues, so read them ahead of time!
There is also the Book of Ecclesiastes, which is commonly thought to have been written by Solomon late in his life. Read that book, take time to think about what Solomon says, and look to apply it to your life.
In the New Testament, the three books of I and II Timothy and Titus are called the pastoral epistles. They are letters written by Paul giving Timothy and Titus advice on how to behave as young church leaders, how to interact with older, wiser folks, how to live life.
About this time, you may be thinking, “Pastor, I have trouble understanding the Bible when I read it.”
Now there are a couple of reasons for this. But the most common reason that people have trouble reading the Bible is that they have chosen the King James Version, or KJV. Sometimes, it’s called the “Authorized” version. We select it for many reasons, but no one ever selects it because it is the easiest to understand. After all, it was translated from the original Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic of the Bible at the same time in the early 1600's that Shakespeare was writing his plays just down the street. If you love Shakespeare, the King James Version is for you.
Today, there are many versions of the Bible to choose from. There is, for example, the New King James Version – the NKJV. It was translated in the 1980’s. It drops the thee’s and thou’s, and uses modern punctuation. Words which have changed their meaning over the centuries have been updated. For example, did you know that when “meat” is used in the old King James, as in “they sat down to meat.” The word meant “a heavy meal”? There might not be any animal flesh at all. In the same way, when “corn” is used in the old King James, it means “wheat” or “barley”, never maize or Indian corn, because that plant did not make it to the Old World until after Columbus. Similarly, the word “meek”, did not mean “timid”, but meant “strength under control”, as in a fine stallion that was well-broke in as a farm horse.
So look for these versions. The New King James Version from the 1980’s or the Holman Christian Standard Bible, translated about ten years ago. Both are good and conservative translations.
The New International Version is pretty good and easy to read. There are actually two versions of this – one copyright 1986, the other copyright 2011. I prefer the older version, but it is getting harder to find. Of a similar nature is the Revised Standard Version and the New Revised Standard Version. The newer versions of both these Bibles hold to a more liberal slant in their footnotes, and have let politics creep into those footnotes and in their choice of words, for example, translating the word usually translated as “brethern” as “friends”, “men” as “people”, “mankind” as “humankind”. You may prefer this - or you might not prefer this. It's your choice.
For easy of reading, The Message, the Living Bible or the Common English Bible (CEB) are very easy to read, but give up a bit in the precision of the translation, preferring to paraphrase in modern English rather than use word-for-word translation.
There are also three major styles of Bibles. There are the traditional Bibles with verse and chapter numbers, with the occasional footnote. There are study Bibles, which have extensive articles and many, longer footnotes which explain words, places, and events in greater detail. And there are “reader's Bibles”, which drop the notes, drop the verses, and maybe even the chapters to allow you to smoothly read through the Bible without getting distracted.
Which should you get?
It depends upon what you’re looking for. To check out the different versions, go to Biblegateway.com and try reading different passages with different translations. There are over twenty different translations of the English Bible on this website, as well as over a hundred translations into other languages.
For different styles, a reader's Bible is best to just get an overview of the Bible. For personal study, a study Bible is clearly best. And a regular Bible is good for daily quick reading. Of course, you can always download a copy for your phone or Kindle for free or a few dollars.
Now, sometimes, people ask me, “Which is the most authentic version?” And I’d have to say, the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Old Testament. But I suspect you don’t read Greek or Hebrew. So today, I’d buy a Holman Christian Study Bible if you want a good solid translation in today’s language, which paid attention to the precision of the words.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And we understand that fear, that respect that is due the Lord when we move into the habit of reading our Bibles a bit every day, for that is how we learn God’s character. Would you like the wisdom of Solomon? You must first seek Wisdom. You must study God. It takes time, time which will come back to us as we grow wiser and more holy because the Word of God will abide in us.
If you need to seek wisdom for some event in your life, or if you have a friend, a neighbor, a family member that needs wisdom, take a moment to pray.
Popular Bible Versions
KJV – King James Version, sometimes known as the “Authorized Version. Translated in 1604 to 1611, uses Shakespearean English. The KJV is majestic, but difficult to read and understand. Excellent for very formal occasions, like white tie and tuxedo or a ball gown, but not very practical anymore for everyday use. 12th grade or college reading level.
NKJV – New King James Version, published 1982. Follows the style of the KJV, but updates with modern punctuation, drops “thee & thou” and updates the vocabulary.
HCSB – Holman Christian Standard Bible, published 2009. Largely an update of the NKJV, it uses “Yahweh” as the proper name of God in many places to better reflect the original languages instead of LORD. Very literal in the translation.
RSV – Revised Standard Version, 1952. Developed as one of the first “standard” bibles by the National Council of Churches, to be a bible that could be used by many denominations.
NRSV – New Revised Standard Version, 1989. Generally has a liberal slant to the translation, tries for “functional equivalence”, is preferred by academic scholars. Has removed gender-specific language in most places.
NIV – New International Version, 1986 and 2011. The older version was very popular. Dis-satisfaction with 2011 version – degendered and liberal slant – led the Southern Baptists to move for the HCSB translation. 8th grade reading level.
CEB – Common English Bible, 2011. Very easy to read, functional translation, seventh grade reading level, sometimes graphically explicit language.
ESV – English Standard Version, 2001. Very literal, 8th grade reading level.
The Message – Paraphrase, 2002. Paraphrase in modern language. Useful for getting a new look at old passages, but not for serious study. Gets the attention of young/new Christians/seekers.
NASB – New American Standard Bible, 1971/1995. Literal version, includes apocryphal books.
Bible Styles:
Reader’s Version – no verses, no footnotes, maybe no chapters.
Traditional Bible Style – footnotes, verses, chapters, some cross-references.
Study Bible – Extensive footnotes, articles, maps, cross-references.
Reader’s Version – no verses, no footnotes, maybe no chapters.
Traditional Bible Style – footnotes, verses, chapters, some cross-references.
Study Bible – Extensive footnotes, articles, maps, cross-references.
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