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“Ask What I Shall Give You”

Allen Dvorak
08/04/24 - Sun PM

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Temple of Solomon's God given wisdom on full display in front of the nation of Israel.

And I'm reading from the Christian standard Bible.

Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.

One woman said, please my Lord, this woman and I live in the same house and I had a baby while she was in the house.

On the third day after I gave birth, she also had a baby and we were alone.

No one else was with us in the house.

Just the two of us were there during the night.

This woman's son died because she lay on him.

She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side.

While your servant was asleep, she laid him in her arms and she put her dead son in my arms.

When I got up in the morning to nurse my son, I discovered he was dead that morning.

When I looked closely at him, I realized that he was not the son I gave birth to.

No. The other woman said my son is the living one.

Your son is the dead one.

The first woman said, no, your son is the dead one.

My son is the living one.

So they argued before the king, the king replied, this woman says, this is my son who is alive and your son is dead.

But that woman says, no, your son is dead and my son is alive.

The king continued bring me a sword.

So they brought the sword to the king and the king said, cut the living boy in two and give half to 213 to the other.

The woman whose son was alive spoke to the king because she felt great compassion for her son.

My Lord give her the living baby.

She said, but please don't have him killed.

But the other one said he will not be mine or yours.

Cut him in two.

The king responded, give the living baby to the first woman and don't kill him.

She is his mother.

All Israel heard about the judgment the king had given and they stood in all of the king because they saw that God's wisdom was in him to carry out justice.

After my comments this morning about my outline being on the computer.

I half expected that someone would sneak up here this evening and erase my file and my outline because I said if that happened, that would we just stand insane.

The first person I would have suspected was Mike is two comments.

The first one is I'm having some problems with my voice today a little bit raspy.

And so, uh it's unfortunate that David Renfro re led songs that I love.

And so I sang out and if for some reason I can't continue the sermon and it has to be shortened.

You can thank David David.

You were going to be the most popular person in this congregation.

But Travis got up and gave my introduction to the passage that we're going to talk about this evening.

So that means I can skip all of that and get right to the meat of the matter.

Have you ever played the game?

If you could have anything in the world, what would you, what would you ask for?

Probably all of us at some point or another have played that game or asked that question to somebody else?

I've done that with Debbie Debbie.

If you could go anywhere, if I could take you anywhere that you wanted, where would you go?

And she says things like I'd like to go to Hawaii or I'd like to go to Scotland.

And my response is usually I was thinking more of like a camping trip to Ardmore.

But what if, what if you could ask for anything you wanted and know that whoever you ask could provide it.

That's what happened to Solomon.

It sounds like a genie in a bottle story, doesn't it?

You've got three wishes.

What do you want?

But God appeared to Solomon in a dream in First Kings chapter three and verse five and said, ask what I shall give you.

Solomon loved the Lord we're told.

And so Solomon humbly ask for wisdom to govern God's people.

Israel, I'm not gonna be using charts this evening.

So if you wish to open your Bibles back to First Kings three, we'll be reading some things uh from those that chapter and we'll look at the scripture reading in more detail as we continue in our study.

But here's what Solomon said in response to the Lord's request.

He said in verse six, you've shown great and steadfast love to your servant, David, my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness and in uprightness of heart toward you.

And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day.

And now o 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.

Too 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 great people.

That's not only a conversation that shows the humility of Solomon but it was an unselfish request.

Give me wisdom so that I can lead in a good way, your great people, Israel.

And the text indicates that God was pleased with Solomon's request and granted the request in verse 221, God said to Him because you have asked this and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your me, but have asked for yourself 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 none like you shall arise after you.

Now, that kind of wisdom would be very helpful for a king.

Part of the reason being that the king of Israel often acted, I say often, I don't know how often, but he would sometimes act as kind of the supreme court of the land.

If there was a dispute between individuals that couldn't be settled perhaps by family members or the elders of a village gate, it might go then to the elders of a tribe, it would eventually end up being in front of the king himself.

And he would then be essentially as I said, the Supreme court.

You may recall that in second Samuel 216, David's son, Absalom when he was allowed to return to the kingdom after he had had Amnon murdered Absalom, gathered some men around him and horses to give the impression of power rank and he went by the way of the gate so that he could intercept individuals who were coming to the king to get justice, to do this very thing to, to have the king solve or give their the judgment in their case.

And absalom would say to them, what city are you from?

All your claims are, are right and unique.

All that somebody was here to listen to you and he stole the hearts of the people of Israel.

We're told what he wanted to do was usurp the role of his father David, who would have been the one to whom these claims or these disputes would have been uh judged.

The story of the two prostitutes who are come before the king in first kings three, I think according to what Travis said, I think Travis is com is correct.

I believe that story following quickly upon Solomon's request and the granting of wisdom to him.

I think this story is designed primarily to manifest the wisdom of Solomon.

In fact, if you look at the end of that reading, verse 224 of chapter three, it says Israel, they perceive that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.

So Solomon asks for wisdom, God says, I'm going to give you wisdom.

And then here comes this court case, this dispute between these two women and Solomon resolves it and in a way that impresses the people of Israel with the wisdom that was obviously given to him by God.

Well, it's a hard judgment, isn't it interesting story and a hard judgment.

Two women, they're both prostitutes.

Both of them are pregnant.

They give birth within three days of each other.

So they both have very young infants, babies, nobody else in the house.

And as the story continues, and particularly as it is told to Solomon, one would maybe believe in the beginning that both women love the surviving infant because they're both in front of Solomon saying that's my son.

The dead child is the child of the other woman.

Both apparently wanted the surviving child.

But the end of verse 26 reveals much in this particular story.

The second prostitute.

And I'm going to refer to the woman who was the actual mother of the surviving child.

I'm gonna call her the first prostitute and the scriptures do that.

The second woman, they call the other woman, the second prostitute who had the dead child.

She obviously didn't love the surviving child.

Divide the living child, give half to each and she says that's fine.

She's ok with that.

She didn't love the other prostitute either.

She may have been envious of the mother of the surviving child.

One wonders why did she persist in claiming the living child, the surviving child as her own?

Because it seems to me that if we can judge from the way things uh went in these kinds of cases that this case had probably already been heard by others.

So she has persisted in this, this attempt to have the child given to her, even though it wasn't her child, actually, even to the point of appearing in front of the king, the highest court in the land.

Why did she persist in doing that?

I'm gonna suggest to you this evening that we have been given some critical information in this short story that allows us to understand what had happened prior to these women appearing before the king.

It was in the night.

Both of the women are asleep.

They've got their Children with them, these newborn Children and the woman, the second woman wakes up and realizes that her child is dead.

She had laid over on the child as is described before the king and a feeling of fear and maybe reproach.

She's a mother who killed her own child by accident, apparently, but still she's been responsible for her child dying.

And so maybe there's also this, this feeling of shame, what kind of mother would do?

That kind of thing?

She may have even been afraid of being accused of purposefully killing her child.

She doesn't seem to have a husband.

There's nobody else in the house.

She and the other woman are prostitutes and now they've become pregnant and they've delivered these Children.

What is, what if somebody decides maybe she murdered her child?

Can you imagine the thoughts that ran through her mind when she is lying on her bed and there's the child and the child is dead.

What to do the solution to her unenviable circumstances comes to her in the dark of the night switch.

The babies take the other woman's baby.

I'll claim that it's my baby and put my dead child with that other woman and who will know the difference.

And if the other woman decides or understands that there's been a switch, how can she prove this is before the DNA testing?

How can she prove that the dead child is not her child?

How can she prove that the living child is not my child?

Ah, did she really love the surviving baby?

It wasn't her son and do not forget that later on, she is quite willing for that child to be killed when Solomon says, bring me a sword, divide the living child in half and give half to her and half to the other.

And she consents to that, let the child be neither mine nor hers.

Then in the morning, the real mother of this child, surviving child awakens.

She looks at her child and realizes this is not my baby.

And then she finds out that the other child is dead.

Her child is now claimed by the second woman.

She has a dead child.

Now the woman who switched the baby, she's caught.

Now she cannot return the baby, the living baby back to its real mother once the switch has been discovered by the real mother because if she does, she brands herself as not only clumsy, it come out how the child died but also a child stealer.

She hasn't just switched babies.

She's stolen a child.

No, she has to brazen it out now in, for a pound in, for a penny or in for a penny in for a pound.

I should say she's got to continue to make the claim.

The surviving baby is my baby.

Your baby.

She says to the other woman is the dead child.

She has to lie to cover her first mistake.

The switching of the babies because to return the baby now was to indict herself as a liar and a child stealer.

She claimed that the baby was wrong.

So she has to brazen it out.

As I said, not really wanting the baby.

Someone says, well, what do you mean?

She doesn't want the baby?

She was willing to have the baby killed, which says to me she didn't really want the child but she stuck, she's stuck by her own sins.

There's no easy way out.

Now for her, she's afraid to admit that the baby was not hers because of the shame and the possible punishment that she would have to bear for her iniquity.

Let me tell you this is a, this is a court case.

This is a, this is a mystery.

Not even monk could, could figure out who, who was the real mother here in this situation?

Because there's no witnesses.

It's just she said, and she said, and they are contradicting each other.

Well, then they come to Solomon stand before Solomon and the case is revealed, the woman of the, the real mother tells the story and then there's the disputing of each other's side telling of the different sides.

And Solomon says, bring me a sword, bring me a sword, divide the living child in half and give half to her and half to him to her.

I've got him, the baby being divided into two pieces.

What a so some must have thought, what kind of craziness is this?

You're gonna kill the child.

Let me tell you what I think that child stealing mother was thinking relief.

This is my way out of this.

She didn't really want the child, she was claiming the child to protect herself.

And now it appears that not only will she not be discovered, but she's not gonna have to care for a child that's not her own.

She's gonna be free in the command of the king.

She sees the way out of this situation.

Relief from guilt, relief from the care of an infant that she didn't even love.

And in her comment, in response to the king's judgment, you see envy and spite.

Let the child be neither mine nor hers.

Unlike the surviving child's real mother who said, please don't kill the child, she loved that child, it was her child.

But the second woman, if I can't have the child, I don't want you to have him either.

And so you see the envy and the spite there, as I said, I think this story is primarily designed to illustrate the wisdom of Solomon.

But I think there's a good deal more we can learn from this story about sin.

Just some general lessons about sin.

And I'm gonna suggest three to you very quickly.

And then we will conclude our thoughts.

The first lesson that's illustrated so well in the story is that sin tends to breed sin.

And by that, I simply mean that sometimes one sin is then covered up by another sin, which is covered up by another sin.

In this particular story, the woman who has overlaid or laid on her child and and suffocated the child killed the child.

She begins by stealing the other woman's child.

Then she covers that by lying.

This is my child, your child is the dead child.

And that lie apparently was told multiple times until she gets to the king and tells it to the king himself.

But she's not done yet because when Solomon says, divide the living child, she becomes a would be murderer.

She's good with that.

Divide the child, let the child be neither mine nor hers.

She begins with child stealing.

She multiplies that sin with lying apparently on several levels of justice.

Courts and it leads finally to the point that she's willing to see that child killed, murdered sin that starts in the heart often gives birth to an overt act of sin.

Jesus would make the observation in Mark the seventh chapter that what defiles a man is, what comes out of his heart. Essentially.

What he was saying is that sin begins in the heart.

James wrote in James chapter one and verse 13, let no one say when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God.

For God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one.

But then James says, but each person is tempted when he's lured and enticed by his own desire, then desire when it has conceived, gives birth to sin and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.

And so James talks about the process beginning with lusts desires and leading eventually to death.

In the sermon on the Mount Jesus also made the connection between the attitude of the heart and an overt act of sin.

He said in Matthew chapter five and verse 27 you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery.

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

It may very well be that the only thing that particular person lacks is opportunity, but the illicit sinful desire is already in his heart.

And in his heart.

Jesus says he's already committed adultery with this woman that he's lusted after in first John three.

And verse 15, John also makes the connection between the heart and an overt act of sin.

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.

And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him chapter three and verse 15, my point is that sin begins first in the heart with illicit desires and sinful thoughts.

And then it will manifest itself in overt acts and often those overt acts that people can see then have to be covered by other sins.

Sin tends to breed sin if it's not confessed, repetitive, turned from, you know, there's another story that we know pretty well that illustrates this point very well also.

And that's the story of David Bathsheba.

That story is told in second Samuel chapters 11 and 163 just very briefly.

It's not the focus of our study, just an illustration.

But you remember that David is walking on the roof of the palace and he looks down and he sees a woman who's bathing that she, but she's very beautiful.

And apparently he continues to look because then he inquires about her and he is told that she is the wife of another man, Uriah, the Hittite, in fact, one of his trusted and most capable soldiers.

But David is already past the point of no return, apparently, at least with respect to lust.

And so he sends for her adultery is committed and a child is conceived.

What to do.

Well, that sin has to be covered has to be covered up because Uriah is off with the army Raymo Gilt as I recall.

And he so he's out of the picture.

If this child is born, it will become obvious that Uriah is not the father.

So David begins an elaborate cover up.

He summons Uriah back from the battle as though Uriah is simply coming back to Jerusalem to give a report of how things are going.

But Uriah is an honorable man.

It was robble where they were.

But Uriah is an honorable man.

And so he refuses to go in and lay with his wife, have sexual relations with her while the rest of the army is out in the field.

And so David is stymied at first, but he gets Uriah drunk then hoping that in his drunkenness, Uriah will go to his home that doesn't work.

And so adultery and deceit are then capped with murder.

David has a letter written placed in the hand of Uriah, a letter that calls for that essentially plans the death of Uriah.

David goes from an adulterer to a murder.

And so you see the parade of sin as David instead of confessing his sin.

David now is trying to cover it up and Uriah ends up being killed, but it all comes to light, doesn't it?

Chapter 11 tells that story chapter 12 is the story of Nathan, the prophet coming to David after David has had ample time to confess his sin.

The child has already been born.

David has hidden his sin, covered it up.

But Nathan comes to David and says, you're the one, you're the man.

Chapter 12.

Verse seven, you can't cover it up.

Once the second prostitute began sinning sin was necessary to cover sin.

If you're not going to repent of sin, you know, it is possible to hide our sins from others, at least for a while.

Anyway, some people are lucky enough that they can cover their sins for most of their life.

They may die without people knowing all of the things that they have done those things that are evil, their sins.

But there's no way to hide sin from God.

In Romans.

The second chapter verse 16, the Apostle Paul talks about the judgment day and he says on that day, when according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus, the secrets of men, the things that we think we have covered, we will be out in the open.

God will judge those things as well.

Hebrews, the fourth chapter is a passage that we've studied in the auditorium class just in the last lesson.

Verses 12 and 13 read as follows for the word of God is living and active sharper than any two edged sword piercing to the division of soul.

And of spirit of joints and of marrow and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart and no creature is hidden from his sight.

All are naked and exposed to the eyes of him, to whom we must give account.

That's a sobering passage.

It means that in the dark of the night or in your own cubicle or in your private place, God knows what we're doing.

There can't hide it.

It's all gonna be open.

It's all exposed.

Others may not know.

Our families may not know.

Our spouses may not know our Children, our coworkers, our classmates, whoever they may not know.

But God is aware of all of that our lives if you'll pardon the pun are an open book in Psalm 139 David talks about that.

I want to read you the 1st 12 verses of that Psalm.

The Psalmist says, oh, Lord, you have searched me and known me.

You know, when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue.

Behold, o Lord, you know it all together before it goes from here to here.

God already knows what it is because He knows the thoughts and the intents of our hearts.

You hem me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

It is high.

I cannot attain it.

Where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you're there.

If I make my bed and Shiel, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you.

The night is bright as the day.

For darkness is as light with you.

God knows it all can't hide it.

What do you suppose caused this second prostitute to begin this parade of sin?

I wonder if she was afraid of what people would say because it's going to become known most likely that the child, her child has, has died.

And if the information comes out that she's laid over on her child and she's actually responsible for the death of her child, even though it's accidental, maybe she's afraid of what people would say.

It's a shame what they might think.

I want you to imagine how many sins are committed because people are concerned about what others will think.

How many times have people lied to conceal some embarrassing truth?

We've done something we're not proud of.

We've done something that was wrong, but rather than turn from that sin and make a, a complete departure from it.

We lie to cover it.

How many sins have been committed because people were pressured to engage in behavior that they knew is sinful because of what people might think.

And so there's the invitation come and do this with me, come to this party or come do this or some other invitation to send and people give to the pressure because we don't want to be known as goody two shoes worth.

Make people think we're too good for them.

What will people think?

And so sometimes people do things that they know are wrong, concerned about what others will think, even concealing the sins of others.

Someone does something and you observe it and really it needs to be revealed.

It may be theft at your workplace.

It may be an illicit affair by a colleague with another worker, but there's the fear of being identified as a tattle tale or being ostracized by those that I work with.

And so people lie or fail to tell the truth because of what other people might think.

And of course, what we really ought to be worried about is what does God think?

What does God think about us in those circumstances?

Sin tends to breathe sin if sin is not handled correctly.

Secondly, sin brings, brings grievous consequences.

Here's a woman who accidentally is responsible for the death of her child.

I I'm really not particularly cons uh convicted that she would have been charged with murder or anything, no indication of that.

But she went from bereaved mother to would be murderer.

In three easy steps, stole the child lied about her actions, consented to the death of the child.

Just three easy steps.

Sin destroys the temporal consequences of sin.

Are that sometimes sin can destroy our health.

Sin can destroy our reputation.

Sin can destroy even the potential that we might have the opportunities that we might have in the future.

How many young people have been encouraged by their friends and colleagues to sow their wild oats.

You know, you need to do that while you're young, while you have the opportunity and they do stupid stuff, sinful behavior and because they are caught and punished the consequences, follow them for the rest of their lives.

Sin is a destroyer.

It will destroy us in so many ways.

I've heard the expression several times.

Old sins cast long shadows and I believe that that aphorism just means that your sins can follow you.

The consequences of your sins can follow you for a long time.

Well, we think that it will all be fun and it's in the moment we just make a decision that later on we have a whole lifetime to regret.

This woman made a choice in the dark of the night.

It seemed like the answer.

I can escape any shame, any reproach by just switching the babies.

But that begins her on this parade of sin.

And I have to tell you, I think the consequences for her were probably severe.

Say more about that in just a few moment, moments, Romans six and verse 23 says for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life.

In Christ, Jesus, our Lord sin separates us from God.

If we persist in sin, it will cause us to be spiritually dead here in this life.

And if we don't seek forgiveness in the blood of Jesus Christ, it'll cause us to be dead eternally separated for eternity from God.

Sin has grievous consequences, not just temporal consequences, eternal consequences because God knows all nothing is hidden from him.

Well, the third and final point that I would make about this story is that the sinner often feels secure in his sin.

Yeah, but it's a false security.

And that's illustrated by this, this story here are these two women.

And if the second woman who stole the living child and claimed it as her own, if she was feeling some apprehension about what she had done as the case went from one court to a more to a higher court to until they stand before the king.

When the king says, bring a sword, divide the living child.

I'm fairly certain she felt relief.

I'm gonna get away with this security rather than punishment.

But our sins will surely find us out.

If not.

Now in the final judgment.

The story does not tell us what happens after Solomon says, give the living child to her, to his mother.

He determines based on maternal love, which one, which woman, which prostitute is the actual mother.

But the story doesn't go on to tell us what happens to the second prostitute.

But I'll tell you what if there was justice done and she probably forfeited her life.

The reason I say that she was a manteer, someone says it was just a baby.

No, I don't mean that she stole a grown man, but the penalty for kidnapping was death.

That's an excellence.

Exodus chapter 21.

And verse 16 is also in Deuteronomy 24 and verse seven, the penalty for kidnapping was death.

And now that she has been identified as one who has stolen a child, I tend to believe that she received punishment.

Maybe she was, wasn't punished.

We don't know that for sure.

It's not stated in the text, but I'll tell you this much.

The final judgment.

God's judgment is sure and it's just God is going to apply his law.

God knows how to separate the wicked from the righteous.

There is an extensive sentence, a very long sentence in the book of Second Peter.

And I'm going to read it to you.

It's not as obvious in the ESV, but I want you to begin reading with me in Second Peter chapter two and verse four.

Second Peter chapter two.

And verse four.

In the new King James version, this sentence goes all the way to verse nine.

And the point of the sentence is that God can separate the righteous from the wicked.

Even when the wicked are around, the righteous are mixed with the righteous.

God can separate them.

Here's verse four for if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment.

If he did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness with seven others.

When he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.

If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.

And if he rescued righteous lot, greatly distressed by the sensuous sensual conduct of the wicked.

For as that righteous man lived among them day after day.

He was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard.

Then the Lord knows how to rescue the Godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.

God can separate the righteous from the wicked.

We may hide here but there will be no hiding in the final judgment.

In the very next chapter chapter three, beginning in verse three, the Apostle makes the point that even if the judgment lingers if it doesn't come immediately, where is the promise of his coming?

Jesus hasn't returned yet.

Well, maybe he's not going to.

Yes, Peter says God is not slack concerning his promises.

There will be a judgment just because the judgment delays doesn't mean that it's not coming.

I think the willingness of the second prostitute to have the surviving child killed tells us a good bit about her.

Hopefully, we can learn from her wickedness.

Some things about sin that is so dangerous to us.

Sin tends to breed sin.

Sin brings grievous consequences.

And the sinner often feels secure in his sin.

But there's no security for God will bring everything into judgment.

Sin is destructive.

It separates man from God.

We made that point earlier.

But fortunately for all of us, God has provided a way for us to escape the guilt of our sin to escape the punishment for sin, eternal separation from God through the avenue of forgiveness, received by the grace of God.

In response to the petition for forgiveness that obeying the Gospel represents if you're not a Christian this evening, you need to be, that's the only way you can escape the judgment, the condemnation of judgment.

And this evening, you have the opportunity maybe for the last time to express your faith in Jesus Christ as the son of God.

He's the one who died for you.

He's the savior of mankind.

For all those who will obey Him, Hebrews five and verse nine says, but you have to respond.

You have to decide to accept the invitation that he offers to allow the blood of Jesus to be applied to you.

This may be the only opportunity you have from now on.

We don't know what the future holds.

Will you have your sins washed away if that's your desire this evening, come to the front.

Let us assist you to become a Christian as we stand and sing to encourage you.