By Reverend Laurie DeMott

Of course, every school child knows that no matter what your first two wishes might be, your third wish should be to be granted more wishes. Apparently we learn at an early age to have cravings so great that we cannot be satisfied by a paltry three wishes but must have an inexhaustible number ready to fulfill our every desire. This mentality makes the story of Solomon in I Kings 3 almost incomprehensible to us. Not only is the poor man offered only one wish by God but of all of the possible things he could wish for, he chooses wisdom. Just think -- he could have asked for hundreds of chests of gold; he could have asked for a luxurious palace; he could have asked for power and glory or to be really popular with the ladies; but instead Solomon asks for wisdom. You know, I really like to think that most of us here have not become completely captive to our consumeristic culture and yet I still imagine that if we could have only one wish fulfilled, wisdom would not be top of the list. Wisdom isn't going to pay the mortgage or earn us a trip to the Bahamas.

Jewish tradition tells the story of a young scholar who had just finished writing his first book and he approaches a well known Rabbi asking for a testimonial. The Rabbi regards the young man with gentle compassion and says, "My son, you must face the stern reality. If you wish to be the writer of learned books you must be resigned to peddle your work like a lowly vendor, and suffer from hunger and poverty until you are 40."

"And what will happen after I'm forty?" the young writer asks hopefully.

The Rabbi smiles, "By the time you're forty, you'll be quite used to it!"

Solomon is given carte blanche to choose anything he would like from God and he turns aside from all of the normal human desires and asks instead to receive wisdom. His, to us, disappointing choice nevertheless impresses God who says, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, ... behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind... but I also give you what you have not asked ... so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days."

In other words, by choosing wisdom, Solomon ends up with receiving not just his wish but the three other most typical wishes -- long life, riches, and power! As I read of God's reaction to Solomon's choice and the resulting generosity, I am reminded less of the humble rabbinic scholar than I am of the American school child fooling the genie by using their wish to ask for more wishes. In fact, it doesn't look to me like Solomon was really in need of much wisdom at all because he clearly possessed enough on his own to figure out a way around the rules of wishing. In one wish, he manages to get it all.

Like many ancient cultures, the Jewish people loved to tell tales of clever men and women who were able to best the more powerful. One of my favorite stories out of Jewish folklore tells the tale of a poor man who goes to a rich man's house and asks to borrow a spoon. A few days later he returns with both the spoon and a smaller spoon.

The rich man says, "I only lent you one spoon; what is this smaller one?"

The poor man replies, "Your spoon gave birth to this little spoon so I am returning both the mother and the child since they are rightfully yours." The rich man can't believe what he is hearing but, being a greedy sort, he doesn't question it and accepts the two spoons.

A little while later the poor man asks to borrow a goblet and again returns with the goblet and a smaller cup. "While at my house, your goblet gave birth to this little goblet," he says to the rich man, "so I'm returning both." And again, the rich man doesn't argue but accepts the two cups.

Finally, the poor man asks to borrow the rich man's gold watch, and quite willingly the rich man hands it over imagining the "baby" watch that will appear a few days later. After several weeks, however, the poor man fails to return so the rich man goes to his house and demands his watch back. The poor man says to him, "Alas, I hate to tell you but your watch became ill and died."

"What?!," the rich man protests, "Watches don't get sick!"

The poor man smiles and says, "If a spoon can give birth to little spoons and if a goblet can give birth to little goblets, why should it surprise you that a watch can become sick and die?"

Stories of tricksters and rogues like this are popular in many cultures, especially those in which there is a large gap between the rich and the poor or the powerful and the powerless. Given the long history of Israel as a tiny country sandwiched between powerful nations and beset constantly by invaders with superior weaponry and numbers, it's no surprise that the Bible abounds in stories of underdogs who fool their enemies with their clever strategies and tricks. Gideon uses noisemakers and torches to make the Mideonites think he is at the head of a great army even though he has only a few hundred soldiers. Ehud sneaks into the enemy camp with a sword hidden cleverly on his person with which he kills the fat king and then convinces the guards that the King is merely sleeping. Jacob tricks his father-in-law into handing over his prize sheep and goats. Jacob tricks Isaac into giving him the family blessing. Jacob tricks Esau into giving up his inheritance. Jacob, the man who becomes known by the name of Israel, is the biggest trickster of all. He embodies the desire of the powerless to overcome the powerful. When I do Hot Rock Bible Stories with the children, it is these stories that are always their favorites because children easily identify with characters who face opponents bigger and stronger than they are.

And of course, you don't have to be a child to enjoy the stories where the little guy bests the bigger guy through the use of his or her wit alone. In a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, a school bully named Moe stumps up to Calvin and growls, "Gimme a quarter, Twinky."

Calvin says, "Your simian countenance suggests a heritage unusually rich in species diversity."

Moe blinks. "What?" he asks blankly.

Calvin flips a quarter to him and smiles. "That was worth 25 cents."

Even though it appears that Moe has won the exchange, we the readers know that Calvin has triumphed over his enemy in the battle of brains and all of us who ever ducked around a corner to avoid the school bully laugh at Calvin's quick wit.

And so too do we relish movies in which the hero's banter is as important to the defeat of the bad guy as the gun with which he finishes him off. And who among us has not gone home from a difficult meeting with an onery colleague to spend the next few hours rehearsing all of the clever putdowns that would have left our adversary speechless, laid low by the keenness of our wit? We love the tales of tricksters because we who are unlikely to ever become millionaires or rule over massive armies could at least imagine a day when we could fell an opponent by the thrust of a well-turned phrase!

I Kings 3, which we have always read as a story of the blessing of Solomon by God, really stands more within the tradition of the trickster, especially when we place it alongside the rest of the biblical record of Solomon's reign. Solomon uses his touted wisdom to outmanuever his enemies and brutally cleanses his court by executing potential detractors. He amasses wealth through burdensome taxes on the people which he uses to fund massive building campaigns. And in a most impressive display of appetite, not to mention endurance, Solomon gathers a harem of 700 wives and 300 concubines. The biblical writers do condemn this harem but not, it must be noted, because of its size but only because many of his wives were from foreign countries and they encouraged Solomon to worship foreign gods. So the moral is men, if you decide to take on a few extra wives and concubines, just make sure they are good Christian women.

The scriptural record of Solomon's reign is ambivalent. One the one hand, he is remembered for his wisdom while the other he is condemned for his excess, brutility, and sin. So too is the Bible ambivalent about its famous tricksters. The men and women who bring down the powerful through their wit are listed among the heroes of Israelite's history -- Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Miriam, Gideon, Jael, David, Elijah -- and yet these people's stories are also filled with suffering and tragedy. Jacob's deceipt of his own father is replayed when his own sons sell Joseph into slavery and convince their father his beloved son is dead. David uses the wit with which he defeated his enemies to orchestrate the death of Bathsheba's husband, a sin which haunts him to his dying day. And in the end, Solomon's oppressive practices result in the division of the kingdom upon his death, and leave the nation splintered and forever weak.

The Bible warns us that wealth and power can only corrupt us, and so the sages conclude, pursue wisdom alone. But in the end, even wisdom corrupts the wise as they become so enamored with their own cleverness that they begin to wield it like a sword, slashing through the hearts of those around them. And so it is no wonder that the apostle Paul writes, "Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their craftiness’" (I Corinthians 3:18-19).

Is there no hope for us, then? Wealth cannot save us; power cannot save us; even wisdom cannot save us in the end. Every weapon at our disposal carries within it the seeds of our own destruction and we are left helpless to save ourselves.

It is this recognition that brought Paul to his knees where he finally received the salvation he so desired. "Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’

The only salvation for us is that which lies outside of us, the love of Christ.