Today’s Reading: 1 Kings 3:1–4:34, Mark 3:1–35, Prov 1:13–19

Today’s Theme: Ask for wisdom

Today’s main themes puts the wisdom of man against the wisdom and power of God. We should, like Solomon, ask God to give us wisdom and learn to live in wisdom like Jesus.

We must have faith in God in order to walk in true wisdom, otherwise we are left with the ways of men and demons. So, let us do God’s will as the family of Christ.

1 Kings 3:1–4:34

Man’s wisdom

Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh 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 and the wall around Jerusalem.(1 Kings 3:1, ESV)

This was Solomon’s first bad move, it shows he was operating in the wisdom and political wit of men and not the wisdom of God.

Darling sins

Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father, only he sacrificed and made offerings at the high places.(1 Kings 3:3, ESV)

We should not have darling sins, that we are not willing to give up for true worship. Solomon’s heart was not 100% for the Lord.

Ask for wisdom

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?”(1 Kings 3:9, ESV)

Solomon asked for the right thing; wisdom to rule. We are encouraged in James to do the same.

A wise and discerning mind

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.(1 Kings 3:12, ESV)

Our minds and understanding belong to the Lord, not the devil.

True wisdom

And 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.(1 Kings 3:28, ESV)

True wisdom comes only from God.

The king’s friends

Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers; Zabud the son of Nathan was priest and king’s friend;(1 Kings 4:5, ESV)

This was a special position, we have been called to be the king’s friends too.

Breadth of understanding

And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand on the seashore,(1 Kings 4:29, ESV)

We should ask God to give us a breadth of understanding, the bible sense lexicon calls this a broad capacity to understand.

Greater wisdom

so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.(1 Kings 4:30, ESV)

Solomon’s wisdom was greater than the wisdom of the world.

Solomon the scientist

He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of reptiles, and of fish.(1 Kings 4:33, ESV)

It seems that some of what Solomon spoke about was scientific, like biology.

A picture of Jesus as King

And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.(1 Kings 4:34, ESV)

This prefigures Christ, when all nations will flow to Him.

Mark 3:1–35

Hardness of heart

And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.(Mark 3:5, ESV)

Jesus was grieved at the hardness of heart of those trying to catch Him out, this kind of thing must grieve us too. The hardness of heart was toward God, Jesus and to fellow man.

Demons acknowledge Jesus

And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”(Mark 3:11, ESV)

The demons know who Jesus is.

Calling those he desires

And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him.(Mark 3:13, ESV)

God is still calling those He desires to call, this is the motive of His election.

The purpose of the twelve

And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons.(Mark 3:14–15, ESV)

Notice the order; firstly, that they may be with Jesus, secondly, Preach the word and thirdly, cast out demons.

Dealing with unbelief

And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”(Mark 3:21, ESV)

Jesus had to deal with unbelief in His own family.

The strongman bound

But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.(Mark 3:27, ESV)

The strongman Satan, is bound by Jesus so that those oppressed by Satan can be set free.

The eternal sin

for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”(Mark 3:30, ESV)

This is the eternal sin and could only be committed when Jesus walked the earth. The context is full revelation with full rejection, as mentioned in Hebrews 6.

Jesus’ family

For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”(Mark 3:35, ESV)

Doing God’s will makes us kin, this also deals with the lies of Roman Catholicism regarding the status of Mary.

Proverbs 1:13–19

Hold back

my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths,(Proverbs 1:15, ESV)

Young people need to make an effort to hold their feet back from doing evil.

The trap

but these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives.(Proverbs 1:18, ESV)

When we scheme to get unjust gains, we are setting a trap for our own lives.

Most of the above post is a copy of the original notes from the same date in 2014.

Additional resources

The Gospel Coalition on Mark 3