A Hearing Heart (1 Kings 2:10-12,3:3-14)

If God offered to give you anything, what would you ask for?

An offer like this can present us with almost endless possibilities. We could ask for our mortgage to be paid off, to travel around Australia or the world, or a holiday home where we can spend winters in a warmer climate. Or we could think about others more and ask for health or happiness for a friend or family member, that a problem someone might be experiencing would be resolved, or peace in the church. We could even ask for something more global like world peace, or an end to hunger, poverty, or disease.

Whatever we might ask for, how does it compare with Solomon’s request? When we hear the Old Testament reading in 1 Kings 3:3-14, Solomon had just been crowned King of Israel after his father David had died. Most historians think he was about 20 years old when he ascended to the throne. Faced with the challenging task of ruling God’s people after King David’s prosperous reign, Solomon seems to be feeling a bit out of his depth. In an amazing act of generous grace, God offered to give him anything he wanted. Solomon could have asked for absolutely anything such as ‘a long life or wealth or the death of his enemies’ (v11 NLT). Instead, Solomon realised that he was going to need all the help he could get if he was going to be a good king. So he asked for a listening or hearing heart (v9).

Different English versions of the Bible translate Solomon’s request in various ways, such as ‘an understanding heart’ (NLT), ‘a discerning heart’ (NIV), or simply ‘wisdom’ (GNT, ICB). A more literal translation of the Hebrew text is ‘a listening’ or ‘hearing heart’. Solomon asked God to give him a heart that was open to his word, listened to his word, and heard what God was saying to him. Solomon understood that to lead his people well, he would need to be able to discern the difference between right and wrong, as most English translations put it, or between good and evil. Solomon asked God for a listening heart so he could lead his people well by being able to tell the difference between ways that were good or evil.

There were obviously challenges in discerning the difference between right and wrong, or good and evil, in Solomon’s day, just as there are now. Solomon recognised that this was vital for him to lead God’s people in ways that would benefit and prosper them, and not in ways that would bring about their destruction and death. This distinction is vital for us as well. In a culture where the difference between good or evil can get very blurry, we need to be able to discern between the good which leads to life, and the evil which leads to death. Plenty of things in our culture are presented as being good which can in fact be harmful to us and our physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.

It is important to realise that sometimes it can be hard to discern between good and evil in the church as well. There are plenty of examples in the history of Christianity when people thought they were doing good when they were actually doing evil. This can still happen in our time and place, with issues that we are grappling with in the church. Just like Solomon, we need to discern whether our attitudes, choices or actions are good or evil, whether they are leading us and the people around us into the life God wants to give us through faith in Jesus or away from it. We need to be able to tell the difference between those things that can cause unnecessary conflict, division and harm, and those which produce the good fruit which God is looking for in our lives, our relationships and our faith communities. Solomon knew that discerning what is good and evil, what brings us life or takes life from us, can be really difficult. That is why he asked for a listening and hearing heart to tell the difference.

It is good for us to be asking God to give us listening and hearing hearts as well. We can easily and quickly set our hearts and minds on what we think is right or wrong. Sometimes we can decide what we think is good or evil based on our own perceptions, priorities or assumptions instead of God’s Word. Once they are set, they can be pretty hard to change. Like Solomon, we all need the humility to recognise that sometimes it’s not easy to discern between right or wrong. In a world where the difference between good and evil can be very hard to distinguish, we need to ask God to give us listening hearts, so we can hear the truth he speaks to us through the gospel, discern what is good and leads to life, be able to do the good he calls us to, and help others find God’s goodness through faith in Jesus.

We need hearts which are open to and listening for the goodness of God as he makes it known to us in the message of the cross of Jesus. Rather than just giving us a moral code to discern right and wrong, God speaks his goodness to us through the good news of his Son and his sacrifice of love for us. Asking for listening and hearing hearts just like Solomon did means having hearts that are open to God’s word of grace in the cross of Christ, listening for his life-giving words of forgiveness, reconciliation, redemption and renewal through the gospel, and hearing how the good news of Jesus makes a difference in our lives and in our relationships. This doesn’t mean that everything is permitted, and anything goes. Instead, having listening hearts recognises that God speaks his goodness to us in Jesus, in his perfect, loving, sacrificial love for us, and that life is only found through faith in him. When we have hearts that are listening for and hearing God’s message of peace, hope and joy in the gospel, the Holy Spirit creates life in us and rescues us from sin and death. When we hear the goodness of God in the gospel and find the full and abundant life which Jesus promises through faith in him (John 10:10), we discover that life doesn’t come through the good we try to do or the evil we avoid. Instead, Jesus pours his goodness into our hearts through the message of the gospel. This goodness shows itself in the ways we do good for each other by living in the way of the sacrificial, self-giving, Christ-centred love we talked about last week.

Plenty of things can come to mind if God was to offer to give us anything we wanted. What we need now, though, in our time and place, is exactly what Solomon asked for: hearts that are listening for and hearing God, so we can tell the difference between what is good and evil. In the message of the cross of Jesus, God speaks to us a new and better way to discern what is good and life-giving than a written moral code. In a world where the difference between right and wrong, good and evil can be really hard to distinguish, God give us listening hearts to hear his good and grace-filled message of the cross of Jesus, so we can live in ways that are good and bring his goodness to others.

More to think about or discuss:

• What would you ask for if God offered to give you anything? Why would you ask that?
• What do you think it means to have a listening or a hearing heart? Why do you think Solomon asked for that? How might having a listening heart be good for us?
• What is one aspect of your life where you are finding it hard to discern between what is good and evil, right or wrong? How might the good news of Jesus help you discern what is good and right?