Solomon Asks for Wisdom

Book Three.

“And King David was old and advanced in years” (1 Kings 1:1). He had come through unbearable struggles, yet he had triumphed over his enemies and proved unconquerable to those who plotted against him. For he prevailed not only over foreigners, nor did he only put to flight the ranks of bloodthirsty barbarians; he prevailed also over those who rose up against him from time to time, and over those who joined shields with them.

“And you will give your servant a heart to hear and to judge your people in righteousness” (1 Kings 3:9). For those who wish to serve God, and who wish to escape the rough sea of this present life, must be wise and know what is profitable, with minds kept alert toward those they deal with. For just as ships, when they have rudders, are carried straight to their goal and escape the battering of the waves, even if the sea sometimes rages against them, but when they have no rudders are easily tossed this way and that, reel as if drunk in their drifting, and strike on stones and rocks and are shattered; so too a human soul, when it is governed by good sense, will easily escape Satan, who stirs up the storm, and in this way it also makes useless the evil schemes of those who plot against it. But a heart that has no wisdom suffers a grievous shipwreck.

“And it pleased the Lord,” and so on (1 Kings 3:10). “And it pleased the Lord,” it says, “that Solomon asked for this thing.” He was praised in no small measure, and he was counted worthy of the gift. For the Master of all, rich in his giving, granted his request; for God gladly grants the requests of those who ask rightly. For wisdom and understanding are truly a choice gift from God. With such splendid gifts the very nature of the angels is made radiant, and the blessed multitude of the spirits above, in the heavens. For what other possession of the soul could compare with this? Gold and silver, perhaps? But that is nothing to us, because such things are passing, they waste away and are altogether easily lost, and they have no power at all to benefit the human soul. Wisdom and knowledge, then, are a truly precious and lovely possession for the human soul: the knowledge, that is, of God.

“And I have given you what you did not ask, both riches,” and so on (1 Kings 3:13). In this he teaches us what we ought to ask for, and what we ought to receive as something added. For to the one who rightly asked for wisdom he first gave it, and then added all the rest besides, since he is the very one who said in the Gospels: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

“That your eyes may be open toward this house” (1 Kings 8:29). “And let your eyes,” he says, “and your ears be open” (1 Kings 8:52). If the divine Scripture, speaking to us about God, mentions parts, that is, limbs, we must understand that it converses with us in terms of what we know and of what we are by nature; for otherwise we could not have understood the things concerning God. The true cause and reason, then, why the God-inspired Scripture speaks to us about God in bodily terms is the poverty of both mind and tongue in us; for the things concerning him are wholly beyond words. Nor could those who live in tangible and coarse bodies understand anything of what they needed, except by way of…