1 KINGS | The Hearing Heart |1 Kings 3 | Williams, C. (Guest)

Good morning, I invite you to turn with me and your Bibles to First Kings chapter three for our sermon text.

It was a great privilege to be with you again, and I apologize for my voice I caught the flu about a month ago and it's just taking forever for my voice to recover. But the Lord is kind and merciful. First Kings chapter three. Before we begin, please join me as we pray that the Lord would bless His Word, our gracious God and Heavenly Father, how grateful we are that you have given us the rule of faith which is alone infallible, that you have spoken to us by your son, through the ministry of your prophets and apostles, that we might hear those words of truth which are unchanging, from generation to generation.

This morning, we confess our own folly, and recognize that apart from your wisdom, we would be destitute of all knowledge, and how we are to walk and live lives of truth and godliness.

And so we pray that we would hear Your word this morning, that you would give us ears that are open to the things you have to say that we will not only be hearers of your word, but that you would give us hearts that heed your word, as he calls us, and call us to trust in you, and walk in your ways. Bless the reading of the word, but especially the preaching of it.

We ask these things in Christ's name, Amen. First Kings chapter three, Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh the king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her into the city of David, until he had finished building his own house, and the house of the Lord, the wall around Jerusalem. The people were sacrificing at the high places, however, because no house had yet been built for the name of the Lord. Solomon Love the Lord walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places. And the king went to Gibby into sacrifice there for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer 1000 Burn offerings on that altar. Now, Gibby in the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, Ask what I shall give you. And Solomon said, You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David, my father, because he walked before you and faithfulness, and righteousness, and an uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love. And I've given him a son, to sit on this throne this day.

And now a Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child, 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, to many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your Greek people. It pleases the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, because you have asked of this and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, the life of your enemies. But if asked for your self understanding, to discern what is right, Behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you. And unlike you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you all your days. And if you walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments is your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days. And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants. Then two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. The one woman said, Oh my Lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. Then on the third day, after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth, and we were alone. There was no one else with us in the house. Only we two were in the house. And this woman son died and the night because she lay on him, and she wrote a rose at midnight and took my son from beside me while your servants slept and laid him at her. her breast and laid her dead son at my breast. When I arose in the morning to nurse my child, Behold, he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the morning, Behold, he was not the child I had born. But the other woman said, No, the living child is mine. The dead child is yours. The first set, no, the dead child is yours, and the living child is mine. And thus they spoke before the king. The king said, the one says, The One says, This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead. And the other says, No, but your son is dead, and my son is the living one. And the king said, Bring me a sword. So a sword was brought before the king. And the king said, divide the living child and two, and give half to the one and half to the other.

The woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearn for her son, oh, my lord, give her the living child and by no means put him to death. But the other said, he shall be neither mine nor yours, divide him. Then the king answered and said, Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death. She is his mother. All Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice. This is God's Holy Word. Wow, how many of you have ever been in a particular situation we have found yourself unable to determine a way out, be it through troubles or circumstances, you don't know what to do. And so you bring your problem to your friends, your close, Dearly beloved, and you begin to lay out what in your mind is a very complex situation requires much listening on their part. And yet to your discouragement and dismay, you're only a few sensitives is in as you bring your problem before your friends and they begin without hearing the whole story to spout off what they think you should do.

You're rattled, you're offended.

You think Thanks, pal. Even Job's friends were quiet for seven days. Couldn't you at least spare seven minutes? You need wisdom. Your friends think they have wisdom, but they have not heard the problem that is required, much less know the solution that is to be offered and raises a particular question Where is wisdom to be found is the very question that Jove himself had asked. Where is it to be found? How is wisdom to be acquired, or passage this morning addresses this very concern, the source of wisdom and the means whereby such wisdom is procured. Particularly wisdom as it relates to life, in the kingdom of Christ, and with it, the mercy that comes from the true and living God who is alone, most wise, or particular passage this morning is divided rather neatly into two parts.

You tell that even in the reading of the passage, those first 15 verses constitute its own section, part one what we might call wisdom requested. And then in verses 16, to 28, our second part wisdom bestowed. So wisdom requested and wisdom bestowed. As we begin here with chapter three, we recognize that a red flag begins to wave right in front of our eyes right away, even as it's given little more than a passing statement.

Solomon has married at Pharaoh's daughter. We think to ourselves, Solomon really, after all, that the Lord had done for his people, 400 years of slavery, redemption by blood, salvation through judgment, deliverance, through baptism, into Moses through the Red Sea. All that pharaohs, bonds and cords that he had connected and tethered himself to Israel would be severed. A lifetime of training Israel in the wilderness of what it means no longer to be vassals of Egypt. And just like that Israel is once again reunited with their former master through the bonds of matrimony. Solomon of his own volition has crawled into bed with the enemy of the people of God.

Remember the law of the king of Deuteronomy 17 There were three things that the king was not to do. He was not to marry many wives. And here we find that Solomon begins to marry the first of many wives. Do something that will ultimately lead to his downfall. He marries a pagan. One who does not love the Lord, and is this woman and others who will lead them astray. Not only that they're not to require much gold and above all, they are not to go back to Egypt. You're not to return to Egypt for horses for military supplies. And yet Salam goes back and does all of these things. As we will read in the coming chapters. need to remember that in the ancient world, the marriages of kings were political alliances to establish peace between nations covenants, are made on the things that Israel is commanded not to do. Solomon does something that according to earthly wisdom, sounds wise.

He's entered into an alliance with the greatest enemy of the nation. And hopefully, he thinks it seems by this marriage alliance, some form of earthly peace might be secured it sounds wise. According to the political theorists of the day, he would get an A plus. According to the law of the king, according to the law of Moses, according to Deuteronomy, Solomon has done the very thing that he has been commanded not to do. He has joined a foreign nation, which in that day entails being yoked to the gods of that nation.

Solomon has compromised the integrity and purity the people of God by his marriage to a pagan woman. And we'll see how this fares for the nation in the coming chapters, ultimately, will lead to Solomon's downfall.

But here even as early as chapter three, we begin to see cracks in the foundation. But lest we be too hasty, in our assessment of Solomon, there are other features we must not overlook. One of things we must recognize, and the language here is that Pharaoh has given his daughter to Solomon. And Second Chronicles, we read that this is not the only thing Pharaoh had given to Solomon. Pharaoh had also given fortified cities along strategic trade routes to Solomon as well. Is he as if these political marriages were designed to generate peace? In many cases, there were also designed for the two parties to elevate their own status. Of course, we have to ask is, why is it that the greatest king on the face of the earth would enter into an alliance with this relatively new kingdom? Solomon is only the third king in the history of the nation of Israel, their Saul's reign, which ended into disaster. And David's reign, which ended only a few years prior. Why would Pharaoh, a man of such power and prestige, give his daughter and marriage to a two bit King, unless he saw Solomon as a threat? Why would he give freely fortified cities along strategic trade routes, unless he was in some way afraid of Israel's status as a nation, and was seeking to do what he could preemptively to appease the king of the nations? The point here is this Israel, it seems, is becoming quite powerful. In fact, as we'll see, Israel is never more powerful politically speaking, than they will be under the reign of Solomon.

They've become so powerful, powerful enough to frightened Pharaoh himself. So much so that he gives his own daughter to try to appease Israel. And here we find Pharaoh scrambling for ways to broker peace. Egypt's not the only one, as we'll see in the coming chapters. As I said, Israel will reach the heights of its glory under King Solomon.

And then we were alerted to the significant problems which will spell itself out more fully in the coming chapters. Here scripture places a greater emphasis on this, despite Solomon's many faults, despite his shortcomings, despite what is very clearly his folly. We know this in verse three. That's Solomon loved the Lord. Truly, even if not fully, even if his genuine love for the Lord is mixed with folly and error. When we read Second Chronicles, we recognize it's not a feigned love for His Redeemer. Second Chronicles we're told that once Solomon builds the temple, he will actually no longer allow Pharaoh's daughter to dwell in the city of Jerusalem. Let's she profane the city. What I think we have before us is a very realistic portrait, a portrait that perhaps we recognize in ourselves when we look in the mirror, that there is in fact a genuine love for the Lord.

Though it is, in fact weak and frail and flawed in so many ways. It could be easy to be quick to judge Solomon. Yet we're reminded what Scripture says Take heed when you stand lest you to fall. Solomon's folly will not go unnoticed, but we ought to notice something more pointed here were scripture places the the emphasis here at least in chapter three, that Solomon recognizes how bereft of wisdom he truly is, how foolish he is, and he pleads for wisdom above all else. This is not a faint humility. This is not creaturely hyperbole. He recognizes that he is a knucklehead. And yet more concerning, at least now than Solomon's marriage, foolish as it is, it's the manner in which the Lord is being worship on the high places. We need to recall as Israel enters the land, that the Lord Himself had told Moses and through Moses had spoken to the people, Deuteronomy, they stood on the plains of the Moab.

The Lord has said, When you enter the land of promise, when you subdue the nation's before you, I will designate one place where I am to be worshipped, one place alone, where sacrifices are to be offered, and that one place, of course, would be the city of Jerusalem, over and over again, the Lord iterates through his prophet Moses, that Israel is not to be like the Canaanites, worshipping on every hill sacrificing to the Lord as the other nations do. Their God's worshiping the Lord, however, they see fit. Rather there to worship as God has commanded. Not only are they to worship Him alone, they are to worship in the manner in which he is prescribed. It's not simply a matter of the first commandment, those 10 commandments, the second commandment, those two features being the most iterated violation of the nation throughout the book of First and Second Kings. Not only that the nation worships other gods, but when they do worship the one true God, they worship Him in false way. So it would be the sin and folly of the northern kingdom after the nation divides, they continue to worship on the high places, and these temples that are not found in Jerusalem. They continue to worship on the high places and hear the opening of the Book of Kings, we find that the nation is worshiping God according to their own passions, and desires, rather than how God has revealed himself to be worshipped.

Remember, in the wilderness, there to worship at the place where the tent, the tabernacle, and the altar, relocated, of course, all located in one place in the center of the camp. But here we see in First Kings three, that in fact, the tent and the altar are divided into different locations, both located along the high places.

Here at the beginning of Solomon's reign, we find the Ark located in Jerusalem. But the tent and the altar, located about four miles to the northwest in the town of Gideon.

Remember under Moses, as he would meet with the Lord at the tent in the altar becomes a site of prophetic activity, where the Lord will descend in the cloud, and he will speak with Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend. Yet the Lord tells the nation in Numbers, chapter 15, that Moses is unique, He will not speak with others face to face, but He will speak to the rest of the people, at least the leadership of the people and the prophets through dreams, visions.

Numbers 15 · chapter mention

Well, here's Solomon goes to Gibson, and not Jerusalem to inquire of the Lord, we see that the Lord appears to him in a dream that very manner that we would expect the Lord to appear in this period in salvation history. What we need to recognize is that Gibson though it might not be as big and glorious as Jerusalem, this is no backwater town or village.

Solomon burns 1000 sacrifices here at the high places. It's a pretty big site of cultic activity. But we need to notice this solemn and has a true love for the Lord. But he is flawed and how and where he worships the Lord, because he worships on the high places. This imperfection ought not to be taken lightly. Again, we are given a very realistic portrayal, portrait. Solomon's love for the Lord is genuine, but it is flawed, it is deeply flawed. Here's a man who makes several missteps. In Nevertheless, it is said that he has a true love for his God and Redeemer. And yet the Lord who is merciful and kind, slow in anger and abounding and steadfast love and faithfulness, here's Solomon even in the midst of his own folly. The Lord appears to Solomon by night, in a dream. And he says to Solomon, ask, ask what you want. And I'll give it to you. I think it's a good reminder for all of us.

Your parents don't love their kids because they're perfect.

But because they're theirs. And so here our father delights even in our fragile obedience and obedience that is flawed and frail, but one that arises from a heart of faith. It doesn't mean that he won't discipline us. But it does mean that He hears us, not on the basis of our own works, but on the basis of his great mercy. With the Lord responds, or Solomon responds to the Lord's requests, he says, You have shown steadfast love to my father.

Now, please show that same tender faithfulness to me. I'm just a kid. I don't know what I'm doing. Again, this is not feigned humility. We see her in this chapter, the gross missteps Solomon has already made. Nor is this hyperbole. In Second Chronicles, we're told when Solomon comes to the throne, he is in fact, just a boy. Perhaps recast the first few chapters of First Kings in a new light as he has to deal with very significant issues as the threat to the kingdom lies underway.

Zalman says the LORD your people are too numerous, he echoes back to the Lord, the Lord's own promise to Abraham, generations before, as the Lord had promised Abraham, that your see your offspring will be as numerous as the sand of the sea, as numerous as the stars of heaven. Here Solomon echoes the same requests that Moses had made earlier.

Your people are too great, they are too many. Oh Lord, how great you have been how faithful you have been to your promise. But to shepherd so great a multitude requires a wisdom greater than what I possess. Here Solomon uses this Hebrew idiom for leadership, an idiom that even Moses and Joshua had used as well, I don't know how to go out or to come in. I don't know how to lead your people. And of all the things that Solomon could ask for, he asks neither for gold nor wealth. But as the ESV puts it here and understanding mind, quite literally, a hearing heart. Today, when we speak at the heart, we typically only think of that emotional or affectional aspect of our personality. But in Scripture heart is the heart is synonymous with the whole person. It's not just the affections. It's also the mind and the will. In fact that Hebrew word love or love, is translated more often than not, is the mind. But it speaks to the whole person and all of its complexity, and all of its complexity in all of its unity.

Solomon requests here as he realizes things are not the way they should be. He sees and notices his own sinfulness, his own flawed character, his own frailty. He asks that he be given the proper posturing to listen not only to hear, but to heed me to recognize when the Lord speaks of hearing, we're not simply speaking of listening parents, when you speak to your kids. How many of us have said Did you hear what I have to say?

And they go, yes, I've listened we go no, no, no, no. It's not simply Have you listened to what I had to say? Have you heard it?

Have you taken it to heart? Are you heeding what I've told you understand? And will you respond properly? This is the very thing that Solomon is asking for. The Lord give me a hearing heart. A heart that not only understands your word, but he reads it.

Salman asks that he be given the proper disposition, not only to speak, but to hear. If you were to be granted, this one requests what you asked for, I don't think wisdom would be the thing that I would ask for. Yet Solomon here recognizes his own perceptive poverty, he needs wisdom, he's already demonstrated that he's pretty wise for his own age. We've seen this in chapter two, as he's heated the voice of his father, as a heated the voice of Moses and the prophets and executing judgment upon those who sought to overthrow the kingdom. It Solomon says I need greater wisdom than even that. It's good reminder for those of us who are quick to speak, that wisdom comes not by speaking, but by listening. I think it's reminds us why the preach word is so important. You know, Bible studies and fellowship groups are very good, they are important they have their proper place in the life of the communion of the saints. But I think it's fascinating to recognize that the primary means of receiving wisdom, when we gather together is sitting down and being quiet. And listening to the proclaimed word, and meditating on what it has to say, to listen to Christ speak, as he reigns on high end gives his word to the Ministry of His Word, to allow his word to so shape our words and the actions that it bears down not only on our thoughts, but also on our intense and our deepest affections. Solomon gives the reason for his request. We see here in verse nine, he needs to arbitrate, he needs to judge he echoes the language of Genesis here, he needs to discern between good and evil. Solomon begins to look something like another atom, a picture that will become more and more clear, as the chapters progress, even as Adam was to learn to distinguish good from evil by obeying the word of the Lord. So Solomon here recognizes what is required of him, lest he be deceived, lest he lead the nation astray. That's temptations and situations arise where there seems no clear solution. When trials come where there seems no way out. Solomon says, I need wisdom. I need that wisdom that comes from on high from the Father of lights and whom there is no shadow of turning. I need that wisdom that I might render true judgment and True obedience. On account of this, you're great people.

Something I think we need to recognize here, although Solomon had said just a few verses prior that your people are too great, too numerous. Here when he says that he needs to render this true judgment on account of this you're great people the word there does not mean in terms of numerical value. Different Hebrew words were there that means difficult, or heavy.

Because we're going to see in just a few moments in verses 15 and following.

It is a difficult people.

Indeed. Solomon says I've difficult matters to attend to as the representative of God on earth. I need wisdom. Solomon requests wisdom for the good of the kingdom for the well being of the people. He has not sought riches, he has not sought, long life, he has not prayed that death would come swiftly to his enemies. Something that I think, you know, if he was if I were him, and landed the first two chapters, that's probably the first thing I would have asked for. But he doesn't ask for any of those. seeking first the Kingdom. He wants to discern good from evil, that he might rule in justice, and mercy. And hear we have a God who is more than willing to dispense such wisdom. The Lord says here because you have asked of this, I am throwing everything else in. In fact, the Lord's response here we find an echo of it in Proverbs three, perhaps, as Solomon himself wrote these Proverbs, perhaps he had in mind this particular encounter he had with the Lord had given that wisdom has long life in her right hand. and riches and honor are in her left. So if you embrace wisdom, everything else gets thrown. In it the Bible places the ultimate premium on wisdom, a wisdom that comes not through mere reading of books, but a wisdom that comes and finds its basis in the fear of the Lord and obeying in hearing and heating his commands. It reminds us of our Saviors own words in the Sermon on the Mount, to seek first the kingdom of God. And all of these other things will be thrown in. So Solomon's own request presents to us a paradigm for Christian living. Consider Solomon's own charge to his own son in Proverbs chapter two, something that thus becomes applicable to all of us. Proverbs chapter two, my son, if you receive my words, and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom, and inclining your heart to understanding yes, if you call up for insight and raise your voice for understanding. If you seek for wisdom like silver, if you search for it, as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord.

Then you will find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom, for the upright, he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, he guards the paths of justice, he watches over the ways of His saints, that is, then that you will understand righteous pneus and justice and equity in every good path. Lest you think that's something that's relegated only to the Old Testament. James one says the very thing that if any of you lacks wisdom, there is a God who gives generously to all who ask him for it. To model prayer for us, what is our chief concern is their main concern, what we will eat what we will drink, what we're going to put on every day, or our primary concern what it looks like to walk in godliness as citizens of the kingdom of heaven, making our way through this earth of strangers seeking a heavenly destination. Even when the circumstances are terribly difficult, even when there does not seem to be a discernible way out. What does it look like to walk according to the law of the Lord, and to delight in his ways. Solomon prays for wisdom, and we find that wisdom that he requests is, in fact, bestowed.

And immediately, immediately that wisdom is put to the test, we see that here in verses 16 to 28. So we're given the tale of two prostitutes, an example of that heavy or difficult people.

Solomon is thrust into an impossible test case. I think we're so used to the story, we forget how difficult this scenario is considered the circumstances. We have two women we don't know either of their names. They both come from the same socio economic standing.

Both are women with no moral compass, they are both prostitutes, and therefore are considered to be equally untrustworthy. In a court of law. Their fathers are absent, who should be representing them?

Given their line of work, possibly their fathers are unknown. Nobody has come to their aid. There's no husband to a test or account for them.

There are no other eyewitnesses.

This is long before the age of DNA testing to determine who the real baby is, in fact, three times that is said in this passage, it was just the two of us in this room. This is very clearly a she said, she said scenario with no discernible evidence to determine who is telling the truth. And who is lying. The identity of both the prostitutes or unknown. We don't even know if the one who brought the charges was telling the truth. The way the Hebrew reads, it just simply says and one woman said in the other woman's and the one woman's and the other woman said the wisdom of Solomon this request is not merely not purely theoretical, it's not merely academic. The Life and solidarity of an already broken family is at stake. This is of great pastoral concern, who has the wisdom to adjudicate such a matter? Who would want to be put in this ticular case to determine the life of the child where that child whose arms he or she is to grow up. We consider Chapter Two Solomon's already heated the word of the law and the prophets, the counsel of the king, his own father, he has walked in the ways of wisdom in every other discernible way.

Solomon dealt with Joab according to the law of Moses, Solomon dealt with at a Nyjah and shimmy a according to the counsel of his own father. But here we find no mosaic answer key to deal with this situation.

There is no passage in Deuteronomy that can spell out for us what to do in this particular scenario scenario, what do you do? What we find here is that the problem is not Solomon's ignorance of the matter. If you look at verse 23, Solomon rehearses and summarizes the situation back to the complainants. He basically says, Let me get this straight. Both of y'all have children, you woke up, one was dead, one was alive.

And you're saying that the other one swapped the kids in the middle of the night. Okay, I got it. So clearly the matter is not the fact Solomon has not misunderstood what these prostitutes are saying.

Sometimes the judge rules unjustly because he has failed to understand what's going on.

That's not the case here. Here's the King who has the hearing heart He's listening to the pleas for justice. And this king with the hearing heart receives wisdom to discern the hearts of the people. The wisdom he has been given grasps human nature in all of his all of its complexity. And so he puts puts the love of the true mother to the test. It's very practical wisdom, very shocking in many ways. Somebody says this bring me a sword. But to hack the child and to problem solved, 5051 gets one half one gets the other, will cut the Gordian knot right here, as it were. And yet we notice how different the responses of the two mothers, one mother sees what is at stake, she would rather sacrifice the life, her life with her child, to save the life of the one she loves. The other as evil and vindictive, as she is, would rather see the other mother suffer than admit that she is the liar. Solomon's decision exposes the heart of both the mothers and with it shines the spotlight on who the true mother is. The point here this passage is that the Lord has in fact granted Solomon the wisdom to judge the people of God, with the justice, with equity, with righteousness, even among the dregs of society.

Which would lead us to ask one more question what sort of King would ever hear the likes of two prostitutes? David sure didn't.

David in fact, we're not here anyone's cases.

We read Second Samuel chapter 15. One of the ways in which Absalom David's son, one of David's sons, was able to incite a rebellion against his father was that Absalon would go to the city gates when say, hey, the king will not hear your cases to adjudicate right from wrong but I'll hear your cases. All adjudicate that's how Absalon was able to gain a following.

2 Samuel 15 · chapter mention

But here we find David's greater son sits on the throne and he does here. Unlike David his father, Solomon does here he does listen. And in the reign of Solomon Here we are given a portrait of our Savior, the king who hears the cries of sinners, him who is the friend of tax collectors and prostitutes. One who does not simply say why should I bother listening to you, given the life that you have led? how fascinating it is, even as the Lord appeared to give me an A to Solomon and Gideon amid Solomon's own folly.

So here Solomon hears the cries of justice between two sinners in the depth of their own folly Hear the mercy of the king is put on full display. Here is a king who adjudicates between two sinners. Both of them deserve death according to the law of Moses. Yet here's a king who bends his ear to listen to the ways in which sinners though they are have been truly defrauded. And he judges with equity, with righteousness with mercy, because he cares for sinners reminded of it gives us a picture that final day when the Lord will adjudicate every wrong for all who have been wronged. It's a great source of comfort, but also should break our hearts because we know that we too have wronged others. And here the time of amnesty is at hand. As the King of kings, the king of the nations calls to us to turn from our sin and turn to him who was most Merciful. To him who is most wise here, the kindness of the king, is brought into a view here we see the picture of a kindness of a king who rules in righteousness in wisdom. It depicts for us one greater than Solomon, in whom is found no folly, who is himself said to be the very wisdom of God, as we are all sinners deserving death, yet he's stoops to hear us when we too have been wronged. Here is a king who rules in wisdom, and delights to answer. This fuel our prayers, as we approach a king who hears our own cries, from the depths of our own despair, here is a king who is himself, the very wisdom of God, and he listens to us in mercy. Wonderful, it is a reminder that we do not serve an absentee landlord. How difficult it is for us to have a hearing with one's own mayor, or governor, much less the President of the United States.

Yet, when we offer offer up our prayers and petitions to the Lord through the ministry of Christ, we are assured he hears us every single time. And he will answer. And he will adjudicate, according to his wisdom, in all righteousness, and all justice, and all mercy, as he's given Himself to us, through His Son, Christ, who governs his church, and reminds us why church discipline is in fact, so important. And it's God's justice that is mediated through faithful under shepherds, not simply to condemn the impenitent, but to vindicate those who have truly been wronged as a divine justice, and yet it as a merciful justice.

And it should shape how we hear the cries of others, that we not write people off on account of their own imperfections, because God has not written us off on account of ours. That those who come to us for counsel in a way that we should hear those who are also seeking a king, who brings clarity, to a world thrust in darkness. Praise be to God, that we've been given such a picture of the gospel, and the life of Solomon with all of his flaws and cracks. It depicts one who is the sure foundation, and whom there is no flaw and whom there is no perfection. So let us lift up our hearts to Him, who alone is most merciful, most wise, and most just let us pray.

Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. This morning. We pray that you would seal your word on our hearts, that you would cause us to delight in your mercy that you would prick our consciences as you remind us what folly we are entangled in, that you would sever those bonds that we might learn to walk the path of wisdom. As you dispense wisdom freely through Your Word we ask in Christ's name, Amen.