12. The Lord’s Promise — The Rule Of His Giving
XII. The Lord's Promise—The Rule of His Giving "And the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him."—1 Kings 5:12.
HOW the Lord wrought wisdom in Solomon 1 do not know; but he promised that he. would give him wisdom, and he kept his word. The more you think of this the more remarkable will the fact appear. Solomon was not born under the most hopeful circumstances for wisdom. As the darling child of a somewhat aged father, he was highly likely to be spoiled. As a young man who came to a throne before he was at all fitted for it in the course of nature, he was very likely to have made great blunders and mistakes. As a man of strong animal passions, which in the end overpowered him, he seemed more likely to prove a profligate than a philosopher. As a person possessing great wealth, unlimited power, and unvarying prosperity, he had little of that trying experience by which men acquire wisdom. Who were his teachers? Who taught him to be wise? His penitent mother may have set before him much of sound morality and religion, but she could never have imparted to him the eminent degree of wisdom which raised him above all other men and set him upon the pinnacle of renown. He knew more than others, and therefore could not have borrowed his wisdom from them. Sages sat at his feet, and his fame brought pilgrims from the ends of the earth: none could have been his tutors, since he surpassed them all. How did this man rise to absolute preeminence in wisdom, so as to make his name throughout all time the synonym for a wise man?
It is a very mysterious process this creation of a master mind. Who shall give a young man wisdom? You can impart knowledge to him, but not wisdom. No tutor, no master, no divine, can give another man wisdom: he has much ado to get a little of it for himself. Yet God gave Solomon largeness of heart as the sands of the sea, and wisdom unrivalled; for God can do all things. By operations known only to himself, the Lord produced in the young king a capacity for observation, reasoning, and prudent action, seldom if ever equalled. We have often admired the wisdom of Solomon; I invite you still more to admire the wisdom of Jehovah, by whom Solomon's marvellous genius was produced. The reason why the Lord wrought this wonder upon Solomon was because he had promised to do it, and he is sure to keep his word. Many another text would serve my turn as well as this one, for all I desire to bring out of it is this—that whatever God has promised to anyone, he will surely give it to him. Whether it be wisdom to Solomon, or grace to my reader, if the Lord has made the promise, he will not allow it to be a dead letter. The God who performed his word in this very remarkable instance, where the matter was so entirely beyond human power, and was surrounded with such disadvantageous circumstances, will accomplish his promise in other cases, however difficult and mysterious the process of performance may be. God will always keep his word to the letter; yea, and he will usually go beyond what the letter seems to mean. In this instance, while he gave Solomon wisdom, he also added to him riches, and a thousand other things which did not appear in the compact. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." He who makes promises about infinite blessings, will throw in every-day things as if they were of small account, and were given in as a matter of course, like the grocer's paper and string with which he packs up our purchases. From the case of Solomon, and thousands of a similar kind, we learn first that the rule of God's giving is—as he has promised. The page of history sparkles with instances. The Lord promised to our fallen parents that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head: behold, that wondrous Seed of the woman has appeared, and has gotten for himself, and for us, the glorious victory of our redemption! In the fulfilment of that one promise we have security for the keeping of all the rest. When God promised to Noah that entering into the ark he would be safe, he found it so. Not one of those innumerable waves which destroyed the antediluvian world, could break into his place of safety. When God said to Abraham that he would give him a seed, and a land which should be the possession of that seed, it seemed impossible; but Abraham believed God, and in due time rejoiced to behold Isaac, and to see in him the promised heir. When the Lord promised to Jacob that he would be with him and do him good, he kept his word, and gave him the deliverance for which he wrestled at the brook Jabbok. That long-slumbering promise, that the seed of Israel should possess the land which flowed with milk and honey; it did seem as if it would never be accomplished, when the tribes were reduced to slavery in Egypt, and Pharaoh held them with iron grip, and would not let them go. But God, who undertook for his people, brought them out with a high hand, and with an outstretched arm, on the very day in which he promised to rescue them. He divided the Red Sea also, and he led his people through the wilderness, for he assured them that he would do so. He clave the Jordan in twain, and he drove out the Canaanites before his people, and gave to Israel the land for their inheritance, even as he had promised. The histories of the Lord's faithfulness are so many, that time would fail us to repeat them all. God's words have always in due time been justified by God's acts. God has dealt with men according to his promise. Whenever they have taken hold upon the promise, and said, "Do as thou hast said," God has responded to the plea, and proved that it is no vain thing to trust him. Throughout all time it has been God's unvarying rule to keep his word to the letter, and to the moment.
"This is big talk" says one; then we will descend to smaller talk. It is God's way to keep his promise to each individual. We ourselves are living witnesses that God forgets not his word. Tens of thousands of us can testify that we have trusted in him and have never been confounded. I was once a broken-hearted sinner, cowering down beneath the black cloud of almighty wrath, guilty and self-condemned, and I felt that if I were banished for ever from Jehovah's presence, I could not say a word against the justice of the sentence. When I read in his word, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins," I went to him. Tremblingly I resolved to test his promise. I acknowledged my transgressions unto the Lord, and he forgave the iniquity of my sin. I am telling no idle tale, for the deep, restful peace which came to my heart in the moment of forgiveness was such that it seemed as if I had begun a new life; as, indeed, I had. This is how it came about: I heard, one Sabbath day, a poor man speak upon that promise, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth." I could not understand how a mere look to Christ could save me. It seemed too simple an act to effect so great a result; but, as I was ready to try anything, I looked—I looked to Jesus.
It was all I did. It was all I could do. I looked unto him who is set forth as a propitiation for sin; and in a moment I saw that I was reconciled to God. I saw that if Jesus suffered in my stead, I could not suffer too; and that if he bore all my sin, I had no more sin to bear. My iniquity must be blotted out if Jesus bore it in my stead, and suffered all its penalty. With that" thought there came into my spirit a sweet sense of peace with God through Jesus Christ my Lord. The promise was true, and I found it to be so. It happened some six-and-thirty years ago, but I have never lost the sense of that complete salvation which I then found, nor have I lost that peace which so sweetly dawned upon my spirit. Since then I have never relied in vain upon a promise of God. I have been placed in positions of great peril, have known great need, have felt sharp pain, and have been weighted with incessant anxieties; but the Lord has been true to every line of his word, and when I have trusted him he has carried me through everything without a failure. I am bound to speak well of him, and I do so. To this I set my hand and seal, without hesitation or reserve. The experience of all believers is to much the same effect: we began our new lives of joy and peace by believing the promise-making God, and we continue to live in the same manner. A long list of fulfilled promises is present to our happy memories, awakening our gratitude and confirming our confidence. We have tested the faithfulness of our God year after year, in a great many ways, but always with the same result. We have gone to him with promises of the common things of life, relating to daily bread, and raiment, and children, and home; and the Lord has dealt graciously with us. We have resorted to him concerning sickness, and slander, and doubt, and temptation; and never has he failed us. In little things he has been mindful of us: even the hairs of our head have been numbered. When it appeared very unlikely that the promise could be kept, it has been fulfilled with remarkable exactness. We have been broken down by the falseness of man, but we have exulted and do exult in the truthfulness of God. It brings the tears into our eyes to think of the startling ways in which Jehovah, our God, has wrought to carry out his gracious promises.
"Thus far we prove that promise good, Which Jesus ratified with blood:
Still he is faithful, wise, and just, And still in him believers trust."
Let me freely speak to all who trust in the Lord. Children of God, has not your heavenly Father been true to you? Is not this your constant experience, that you are always failing, but he never fails? Well said our apostle, "Though we believe not, he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself." We may interpret divine language in its broadest sense, and we shall find that the Lord's promise is kept to the utmost of its meaning. The rule of his giving is large and liberal: the promise is a great vessel, and the Lord fills it to overflowing. As the Lord in Solomon's case gave him "as he promised him" so will he in every instance so long as the world standeth. O reader! believe the promise, and thus prove yourself to be an inheritor of it. May the Holy Spirit lead you thus to do, for Jesus' sake!