Solomon

[Read 1 Kings 3:3-14]

And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.

In a dream, the Lord appeared to Solomon and asks the young king what he would like to receive from God. Solomon responds, “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?” Beyond the material things of this world, Solomon’s selfless request for wisdom pleases God because it points to something greater than himself – compassion, care, and concern for God’s people. Justice, peace, and right relationships all matter to God. They matter to Solomon, too, as an emerging leader of God’s people.

Each year, at some point during Advent or at Christmastime, we hear the wisdom of King Solomon transposed into our context of waiting in joyful anticipation of the coming of Christ the King as we sing the fourth stanza of Isaac Watt’s hymn, “Joy to the World”:

“He rules the world, with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love, and wonders of his love, and wonders, wonders of his love.” (Evangelical Lutheran Worship Hymn #267)

In the royal family lineage that links Jesus to Solomon, we bear witness to the intersection of the kingdoms of the world with the Kingdom of God through the incarnation. Joy to the world! The Lord has come… and is coming again. Let earth receive her king! 

Pastor Trent Zeitler
Hainesville Lutheran



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