WOFOYO SHORT: Solomon’s Prayer For Wisdom And The Pattern Of Glory

God asks Solomon a question that exposes all of us: “Ask what you wish me to give to you.” Solomon could have gone for long life, wealth, or the defeat of his enemies, but he chooses something harder and better: an understanding heart, a “hearing heart,” the kind of discernment that can tell good from evil when the stakes are high. We walk through 1 Kings 3 and why that prayer pleased the Lord, then we connect it to the real-world way wisdom actually shows up: it gets tested. 

We also zoom in on a detail most people skim past. Solomon worships at Gibeon where the tabernacle is located, yet the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God’s glory, is somewhere else. It is like a church without the glory, and still God hears him. That should encourage anyone who has ever felt stuck in imperfect systems or distracted by religious routine. At the same time, Solomon doesn’t settle there. He goes to where the Ark is, offers worship again, and then steps into the moment that proves the gift he prayed for. 

From there, we get personal about the difference between doing reasonable service in a congregation and getting alone with God in a way that strips you down and makes you honest. We tie the same pattern to Jesus: public moment, then wilderness, then walking in power. If you’re hungry for spiritual growth, Christian discernment, and a deeper prayer life, this will help you name the season you’re in and lean into what God is doing. 

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Transcript

Welcome To A Woe Fo Yo Short

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Everybody, welcome to another Woe Fo Yo short. This is CDU. If we go to the book of 1 Kings, chapter 3, let's go to verse 2. People were still sacrificing on the high places because there was no house built for the name of the Lord until those days. Now Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he was sacrificing and burning incense on the high places. And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there because there was a great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. And Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night, and God said, Ask what you wish me to give to you. Verse 6. Then Solomon said, You have shown great faithfulness to your servant, David, my father, according as he has walked before you in truth, righteousness, and uprightness of heart toward you, and you have reserved for him this great faithfulness, that you have given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this day. And now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, yet I am like a little boy, I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted. So give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people. King James says a hearing heart, to discern between good and evil, for who is capable of judging this great people of yours? Verse 10. Now it was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said to him, Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself a long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked for the lives of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice. Behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days. And if you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will prolong your days. Then Solomon awoke, and behold it was a dream, and he came to Jerusalem and stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and made peace offerings, and held a feast for his servants. Now, one other thing, I'm not going to read it, because this is a short. Right after here, you have the incident of the two prostitutes and Solomon executing judgment. One's claiming that the baby is theirs, the other one's claiming that it's theirs. And Solomon famously says, divide the baby in half. He grabs a sword, he figures out that the prostitute that wants the baby alive and is willing to give it up to the other lady is the real mother. And so this spreads his fame far and wide. Notice the little pattern here. When it says that there were high places that he goes to worship at the high place in Gibeon, what is at the high place in Gibeon? Do a little research, you're going to find out that the tabernacle was there because Nob, the city of priests, was destroyed. So the tabernacle moves to Gibeon, which is territory in Benjamin. He goes to the high place, but it's interesting that you have the tabernacle, which would have been the church of that day until the temple is built. You have the tabernacle without the ark. And even though that's the case, Solomon is offering sacrifices, and the Lord appears to him in a dream. So you might wonder, what are you getting at? Well, I think it's interesting that we have a tabernacle without an ark, and yet there's still a measure of glory that God's hearing from that. But we know that the glory of God that's resting on the ark is someplace different. It's been there ever since the ark was lost during the days of Eli the priest, when Samuel was just a boy, never really made an effort to return it to the tabernacle, although Saul wants to go get it one time in battle. But you have what is the equivalent here of a church without the glory. And yet people are still worshiping. Even Solomon goes up to worship at this high place and burn incense. This is your duty. And guess what? The Lord's big enough, the Lord is gracious enough to where he hears and he even answers in this place. What happens next, though? Solomon goes to where the glory is. He said, If I just did this at a tabernacle where the ark isn't, he goes back to Jerusalem and then offers even more offerings in front of the Ark of the Covenant, which would have been at the tabernacle of David his father. And then right after that, this wisdom that he prayed for, this understanding heart that he prays for is put to the test. And he passes the test, and then he starts to really walk in what he's prayed for. So I just want to bring out this pattern here. He does something publicly, it would be the equivalent of going to church, and you have this experience, and you're offering your worship up, and then the you have this experience with the Lord. And with Solomon, it was in a dream. But then he says, Now I gotta go to where the glory is. He worships in front of the ark and holds a feast for his servants in celebration, and then he has to go through the test. I can see a little bit of the experience that Bones and I went through because really what drew us was the Lord Himself. And then we went and did a reasonable amount of service in our local congregations only to realize that after we had this encounter, it wasn't because of what we were doing in the institutional church. The Lord actually drew us out so he could get us alone. That was that Ark of the Covenant moment. That was when a lot of you get stripped away. That's where you find out that everything that you thought you were bringing in that church environment, the Lord really doesn't have that much use for it. He's got something different in mind, he's got something more streamlined, something more effective. And you just see that Solomon is wise enough in his wisdom after he received this word, even in church, even at the tabernacle, even at the high place, I have to get where the glory is. So he goes back to the ark. David had the idea that this might not be the right way to do it, but if it kills me, it kills me. But I'm going to get close to God. And so would just like to encourage you in the forward to the book that we wrote about five years ago, six years ago now, the Christian self-defense manual. One of the things I I've I've just relayed, uh, when I got born again, although I was raised in the Catholic church, even though I love the Lord, when I had that salvation experience, it was in my bedroom, 16 years old. Got baptized, did do that in a church, 16 years old. Fast forward when I got baptized in the Holy Spirit. I was 22 years old, the Bible came alive for me. Same thing. The first time I ever prayed that, you know, Lord, if this tongue's thing is real and it's a view, I want it. That happened out in the desert during something called Operation Bright Star. It's just me out in the desert of Egypt alone. All I'm saying is something we've been saying all along. Don't limit your experience with Jesus Christ to the church environment. Sure, do your reasonable service. Go up there, participate, especially if God's called you into a place, you better help out, you better go, you better be obedient. But that is not the same as getting alone with God in a very intimate way, and then also as he let the desires of his heart be known, he had to get alone with God, and then there's the testing. You see the same pattern here with Jesus. He he's in the multitudes, he gets baptized by John, and then he has to go into the wilderness. He he experienced the temptation, the test right there. After that, he is walking in the glory of God, he's walking in that power. So realize there is a separation. I'm telling you this, not as a matter of doctrine, but as a matter of experience, that you're gonna have a moment where you have an encounter with God in the congregation, and then it's gonna cause you to get alone with God. You're gonna have the answer to the prayer. But because the prayer is answered, God's gonna get you alone, and you're gonna get an encounter with his glory, and then it's gonna be tested, and then after the test, you're gonna find that you will start walking in exactly what you prayed for and exactly what he said. Wofoyo. Everybody, thanks for listening. We hope this helped you to recognize some patterns in your walk with God. You can always check us out at woefo.org or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Audible, or even check us out on YouTube. For both of myself, this is C Dub, reminding you that if you're gonna grow, you got a Woefo Yo. Get in the word for yourself.