And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” 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. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude.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?” It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 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. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.” And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.”

Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

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How shall we begin this new year? What about discovering some forgotten divine treasures? What do you say? What treasures that you receive from our Triune God do you appreciate the most? And those will probably vary for each one of us.

Perhaps, you treasure God’s grace, or the power of His grace that continues to transform you so that you too are capable to extend the same grace to those around you. Perhaps, you treasure God’s love and affection for you, which He pours on us through the community of His saints. So heartwarming!

Perhaps, you treasure the sense of belonging, home, family, the sense that you are, indeed someone very special in the eyes of your Creator. That you are loved, liked, appreciated, that He sees greatness in you. Isn’t that wonderful!

Perhaps, you treasure this sacred communion with God, His presence with you, His peace, the sense of security, our trust that we are in the Father’s hands, when we face today’s challenges or think about the future. How good it is to have Him!

Perhaps, for you the greatest treasure is good conscience, guilt washed away, shame covered with God’s glory, God’s unmerited forgiveness which enables us to freely ask for forgiveness and to grant your forgiveness to others without hesitation. And surely there is much more. But today we are reminded of one more divine treasure which is readily available for His chosen people, which the Holy Spirit advertises so passionately, but which has been to great extent neglected, Christians today don’t seem to be much interested in this one.

Can anyone guess it from our readings? It is wisdom. Yes, wisdom. Divine wisdom. How important is this divine treasure for you? Is God’s wisdom something that you have been asking from the Lord? Is this divine wisdom something that you are seeking for your life? Or, perhaps, we haven’t thought about it much at all.

That would be understandable. We have had this problem since the Fall. Do you remember that first temptation? How did the serpent deceive Eve? The serpent promised that we will become wise if we disobey our Creator, if we do not listen to Him, to His words, to His instructions. That we will be wiser on our own.

This temptation still is very much alive in us. According to our old nature, without the help of the Holy Spirit we, indeed, believe that we will be better off by not listening to God, that if we do listen to Him, we will somehow lose out, be handicapped, restrained, that we will be robbed of good and fun things in this life. This we believe.

Besides, for the last couple of centuries we have been told this false narrative, that your Christian faith is just your private thing, that your faith is about you and your God, it is about your spiritual needs, that it is something that you do on Sunday mornings in your church. And that’s all. Period.

But when it comes to our daily lives, 95% of our time awake, then we need to be guided by reason, hard facts and scientific discoveries, for there is no room for some ancient myths and miracle stories. They are of no use for our daily lives.

Many have bought into this false narrative. Many even among Christians have believed that our faith is about me and God, and then the rest of our lives should be guided by different principles, whatever the worldly wisdom and the flavour of the day dictate us.

This deception is so unfortunate, and we see its bitter fruit everywhere around us. Empty and meaningless lives, broken or perverted relationships, wounded hearts and souls, disengagement from our work, misery and pain without hope, deterioration of the very fabric of society.

The lowest levels of happiness and the higher levels of depressions, anxieties, and a long list of different mental disorders. Why so? Because everyone is encouraged to do whatever is wise in their own eyes.

What about us, what do we believe? Do we seek God’s wisdom for our lives? Divine wisdom… How desperately we all need it! King Solomon was still very young. As he himself said: “Your servant is but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in.” And he was entrusted such great responsibilities – to govern God’s people, too many to be numbered, to be their king.

And when God Yahweh appeared to Solomon and said: “Ask what I shall give you,” Solomon asked for God’s wisdom, for discerning heart and mind, to know what is right so that he would be able to carry on his responsibilities well. And “it pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this.” It pleased the Lord that He hadn’t asked for long life or riches for himself, but for wisdom in service of the Lord. Wisdom.

Fine, fine, we could say. That was different for Solomon. He was a king, he had those high responsibilities, to care for God’s chosen people, to judge and to rule as God’s servant. Our circumstances and responsibilities are so different. Not so lofty. Simple. Ordinary. We can do it. Are you sure? Let’s consider this carefully.

Who are you? Each one of you is created in God’s Image and likeness, which in other words means, that each one of you are created as God’s own representatives so that you would live and act in His stead in a manner as He Himself would live and act.

It is you who have been given the great commission: “Subdue the earth and have dominion over it!” In other words: “Take care of God’s creation wherever He has placed you!” Of course, this great commission is given to us as humanity, but still…

It is you, who are God’s vice regent, a steward of His creation, and your very life, your body, talents, abilities, time, potential, opportunities, all of that is given to you to serve in this role and the more is given the more will be required from you. Have you used them wisely in a God-pleasing way? 

“Be fruitful and multiply!” Just consider for a moment what this implies. We all are created with the potential to be spouses, to be parents. We have the privilege to be instrumental in God’s work of creation. We are granted this supreme gift, to enter the only institution designed by the Creator in the beginning – marriage. 

And as we do it, the Triune God entrusts to your care someone, your wife or husband, whom He Himself formed in their mother’s womb, whom He redeemed on the cross by His own blood and destined for life everlasting with Him in the age to come.

Now this unique person, your spouse, so special to the Triune God, is entrusted to you, to love, to care, to serve, to bless until death do part us. How shall we carry out such a magnificent responsibility if we can barely grasp the grandeur of such privilege?  

But then, the Lord of life allows us to participate as He brings into this world new eternal beings, whom He has chosen from before the foundation of the world. He uses us to create them, to raise them, to teach them to know good from evil, to guide them on the path of righteousness, to form them to be disciples of Jesus and to prepare them for all the many responsibilities in this life. Yes, He uses us!

And then this God brings us in this team to care for all our neighbors, to use our skills and abilities in service to others in our workplaces and communities, where we are to serve as God’s coworkers to bless as many as possible. 

And then this Triune God makes you His witness, His mouthpiece to proclaim the words of eternal life to others, to do your part in building and expanding God’s everlasting Kingdom. This is you! If we only begin to comprehend how great and magnificent tasks and responsibilities God has entrusted to us with such far reaching consequences, how could we think we are qualified to carry them out on our own?!

We need all the wisdom and instruction that we could receive from the Lord, and His help too. And He is indeed abundantly generous in revealing His wisdom to everyone who is willing to listen. There are treasures of God’s wisdom in the Scriptures surpassing our hopes. 

This may sound unusual, as we have to great extent lost this understanding. In Luther’s time, that was considered the task of the Church, the tasks of pastors, to teach and equip every Christian, not only making us wise for salvation, but also wise for every calling in this life.

Would we be even interested and willing to learn God’s wisdom? Or have we been too much influenced by those false narratives and this culture of individualism, where each one is encouraged to do what is wise in their eyes? Which is it?

As the Western world has lost true faith, it has also lost wisdom. What previous generations learned growing up and observing their parents and families, today’s generation are left exposed and vulnerable to human cunning and deceitful schemes. 

But today, by God’s grace, it is those younger generations that have begun searching for this lost wisdom. There are so many who have picked up the Bible looking for guidance, direction, wisdom for their lives and their callings as spouses, parents, members of society. We, the body of Christ, have this wisdom entrusted to us.

We, the Church of Christ, are the guardians and stewards of this treasure. More than that, we know the very sources of this wisdom. We know someone who is called Wisdom of God in both the OT and NT. Jesus. And He knows us and wants to bless us.

As we were reminded during Christmas, through Him was created everything that has been created. As Paul the apostle reveals to us, it is in Jesus where “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.” The more attentive we are to His message, the closer we come to Him, the wiser He makes us. For all our responsibilities.

One more divine treasure given to us – divine wisdom. As the all-wise king Solomon wrote for us: “[This] wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.” “Blessed is the one who finds [this] wisdom, and the one who gets understanding.” (Proverbs 8:11, 3:13) 

May the Lord bless us that we seek this treasure, His wisdom; may He is gracious to us and reveals it to us; may the Lord is pleased with us as we gladly learn His wisdom, live it out in all our calling and share it generously, so that our light may shine is this world and guide many to the One, who is Wisdom Himself, to our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.