Rivers Baptist Church - Christ alone - and Him crucified

2 Chronicles 1:7-12
That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, ‘Ask for whatever you want me to give you.’

Solomon answered God, ‘You have shown great kindness to David my father and have made me king in his place. Now, LORD God, let your promise to my father David be confirmed, for you have made me king over a people who are as numerous as the dust of the earth. Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?’

God said to Solomon, ‘Since this is your heart’s desire and you have not asked for wealth, riches or honour, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king, therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you. And I will also give you wealth, riches and honour, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have.’

I’ve always wondered about the link between wisdom and wealth in this passage.

Why did Solomon ask for wisdom?
I think Solomon recognised that God had made him king, and that if he was going to be the sort of king that God wanted, he was going to need God’s wisdom instead of his own. So Solomon in humility (by not asking for mercy in regards to the curse of sin i.e. a long life) was displaying obedience, which is the opposite of original sin, and so God was pleased and granted him his request. The learning is to always seek God’s wisdom when doing God’s work.

Why then did God grant Solomon great wealth as an additional blessing?
Well I think it was in response to Solomon’s obedience. Now I am absolutely not suggesting that if we are obedient to God He will reward us with material wealth, though He may choose to; God is sovereign, but I am restricting my comments to this biblical event. God knew that now that Solomon had God’s wisdom, Solomon could use the great wealth to glorify Him as he remained obedient. The learning for me is that God’s blessings follow our obedience.

What is wisdom?
So then I started to wonder about what wisdom was, especially in terms of how we manage our finances. The Spirit suggested to me that true wisdom is to exchange our earthly riches for heavenly treasures by faith in God’s plan and purpose. This could include providing for family and friends (including non Christians) as well as supporting missionaries, the tithe, supporting charities and so on. However, tell your non-Christian friends you give away money to the church or missionaries and you’ll soon see how foolish the world sees this behaviour! To work so hard for something and then give it away is very foolish indeed. This is why it was hard for the rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven — he had exercised worldly wisdom to acquire his great wealth but the way of the cross is to exercise foolishness for the sake of Christ and indeed to become a fool for His sake. You see at that point he lacked Godly wisdom else he would have clearly seen that it is no good to gain the world yet forfeit one’s soul and made a better choice.

So if we are rich in earthly terms (and in Australia we all are) then we have the opportunity to exercise much wisdom – I don’t mean we will be wiser than someone who is less financially blessed – but rather we will be able to use that same measure of wisdom more often.

Every day of our lives we actually live inside a foreign exchange booth. We have the opportunity to hand over Australian dollars and receive in return crowns and treasures in heaven — our foreign exchange earnings. If we are to be the sort of people God wants us to be and fulfil His purposes in our lives, then we are going to need God’s wisdom. Let’s all be challenged to seek and exercise God’s wisdom in the ways we exchange our temporary earthly wealth for eternal heavenly treasures.

God Bless,
Gary