First Kings
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
The Principal Thing
(I Kings 3:4-15)
Most people hold education in high esteem. Parents plan for their children’s educations from birth—saving money and considering choices. The government spends tens of thousands of dollars on each student it matriculates, unfortunately with dubious results. Some colleges have more applicants than they can possibly enroll. Online schools burgeon with students eager to earn degrees from the privacy of their computer screens. In the “information age,” education is the undisputed key to a good career, lavish salary, and bright future. Or is it?
Solomon understood the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge addresses the proper comprehension of facts. Knowledge concerns itself with dates, grammar, formulas, and tables. Wisdom, on the other hand, addresses the beneficial use of knowledge. Wisdom goes beyond knowing to applying. But it doesn’t stop there. Wisdom seeks to apply knowledge properly—discerning between right and wrong ways to use knowledge. Knowledge comes from books; but genuine wisdom comes only from God.
The Lord’s offer to Solomon was pretty open-ended: “Ask what I shall give thee” (5). In a sense, God offered Solomon a blank check. The proverbial sky was the limit! The wealth of God was at Solomon’s command! What would he ask?
In a move that surprises most of us, Solomon asked the Lord for one thing: wisdom. He acknowledged his inability to effectively lead such a great people (8, 9). More than anything else, he wanted to do the right thing. God, impressed by his request, gave Solomon wisdom—and everything else, too!
The book of Proverbs calls wisdom the “principal thing” (Prov. 4:7). James encourages us, like Solomon, to ask for wisdom (James 1:5). Education is important; wisdom is priceless! Ask for some today!
