And Solomon said, “You have 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.
God appears to Solomon and offers him anything he asks for. The first thing the young king says is not a plea for himself, but a memory of how God treated his father.
The hour God chose to speak
The offer came at night, while the young king slept. One writer sees meaning in the timing itself:
W. T. TurpinHis sleeping is the very time when the blessed God acts. Sleep is the picture of nature's inactivity and open helplessness. I say open, because although nature is always a weak, helpless thing, sleep expresses this most fully. When nature is silenced and subdued like this, and the man's own power is put aside, God speaks and acts.
A heart with no defences up
Solomon answered while he slept, with no time to arrange his words:
H. L. RossierIn a dream a person cannot disguise the true state of his heart. Neither his reason nor his will holds back what is really inside him. In a dream the soul is laid bare before the Lord. What, then, were the thoughts held in this young king's heart when God said to him, "Ask what I shall give thee"? What the divine word finds first in this heart is gratitude for the great mercy of the Lord towards David: "Thou hast showed unto thy servant David my father great mercy," and at the same time the high esteem in which he held him because of his walk of truth, of righteousness, and of uprightness, which had proved that David feared the Lord. Next there is thankfulness for the mercy of God towards himself, David's son: "Thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day."
The father he praised knew God better
Solomon praises his father's walk. One writer compares the two men, and the way God spoke to each:
W. W. FeredayA dream is not God's most intimate way of speaking to people. He Himself said so to Aaron and Miriam in Numbers 12:6-8. Yet it seems certain that Solomon never knew God as his father knew Him. He lacked David's deep spiritual experience, never having suffered as he suffered. David's years of affliction gave him a knowledge of God from which we all benefit today as readers of his Psalms.
"A son to sit on his throne"
Solomon takes his own crown as proof that God keeps His word. The promise did not stop with him:
The Bible TreasuryGod said to David, "You shall never lack a man to sit on my throne." There was always a man whose birthright it was to sit on David's throne. Each of them was unworthy, but the line of descent continues till Christ came. He is the Man on Whom the Holy Spirit looks. In Him there was, and is, the divine right as well as the human title. He is the Son of God as well as Son of David. Whatever may come between the promise and its fulfilment, He will certainly sit there.
Thanks first, then the asking
The order of Solomon's reply matters. He names what God has done before he says what he needs:
W. W. FeredayThe young king's answer delighted the heart of God. First, he acknowledged His loving-kindness in giving David a son to sit upon his throne. Then he admitted that he was not equal to the heavy duties now laid on him... "I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in." The spirit of the little child — humble, trusting, and teachable — is fitting in us all.
Rossier sums up what a heart like this looks like:
H. L. RossierSuch a state of soul promises abundant blessing. It comes down to this: fear the Lord, have the consciousness of His grace, esteem others better than yourself, and count yourself as nothing.
Summary
- Night. God spoke while sleep laid Solomon's own strength aside — the moment, as one writer puts it, when nature falls silent and God speaks and acts.
- Mirror. A dream strips away disguise. What Solomon said shows what he really held: gratitude, esteem for his father's walk, and a sense of his own smallness.
- Mercy. Solomon's first thought is not what he lacks. It is what God has already given — great mercy to David, and that same mercy kept for David's son.
- Promise. The son on David's throne is a kept promise. That line runs past Solomon to Christ, who holds both the divine right and the human title.
- Smallness. Thanks came first, then the confession of being a little child, and only then the asking. That order delighted God.