“Ask what I shall give thee.” (1 Kings 3:5)
In the middle of the nineteenth century, George Müller ran a set of orphan houses on Ashley Down in Bristol, England, and over his lifetime he cared for more than ten thousand children. He made one rule for the work. He would tell no one but God when a need arose. He kept no fundraising appeals and rattled no collection plates in the town. He asked God, and waited.
One morning the cupboards were bare. Hundreds of children sat at long tables in the building, with empty plates and no breakfast. Müller stood, gave thanks to God for the food the children were about to eat, and waited. Within minutes a baker knocked at the door. He had been unable to sleep, felt pressed to bake, and brought bread for the children. Soon after, a milkman’s cart broke down right outside the orphanage, and rather than let the milk spoil, he gave it to the children.
Müller was taking God at a word God once spoke to a young king at the start of his reign: “Ask what I shall give thee.” God is the giver of all good things, and he gives even through long delays, even through other people’s hard bargains, even through suffering, turning the difficult thing to good. He gave a covenant and kept it across a thousand generations. He gave Solomon more than he knew to ask. Above all, he gave his own Son.
Genesis 29:15-28
The Bargain and the Blessing
“So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.” (v. 20)
Jacob loves Rachel and offers Laban seven years of labor for her, and the years pass like a handful of days because of his love. Laban takes the deal, and then on the wedding night he swaps Leah, the older sister, for Rachel. Jacob, who once deceived his own father to steal a blessing, wakes to find himself deceived in turn. “In the morning, behold, it was Leah.” Laban hides behind local custom and charges another seven years for the wife Jacob wanted. The bargain is hard, and the giver is grudging.
Yet look at what God gives through the tangled mess. Leah, the unwanted wife, becomes the mother of Judah, the line of the Messiah, and of Levi, the line of the priests. Out of rivalry, fraud, and two sets of seven years, God builds the twelve tribes of Israel. A household that looks like a wreck becomes the fruitful vine the wisdom psalm pictures, where “your children will be like olive shoots around your table” (Psalm 128:3). God creates a nation through a bad bargain and bends Laban’s deception toward the building of his people. It is always God’s faithfulness that overcomes our own lack of faith.
Psalm 105:1-11, 45b
He Remembers His Covenant
“He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made, for a thousand generations.” (v. 8)
Psalm 105 pulls the camera back from Jacob’s tents to the whole sweep of God’s dealings. It opens with a summons to give thanks, to seek the Lord, and to remember the wonders he has done. God remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made for a thousand generations, the covenant granted to Abraham, sworn to Isaac, and confirmed to Jacob, with the land held out as the inheritance God pledged to give. While Jacob was counting years and Laban was counting profit, God was keeping his promise.
What is the purpose of all this giving? “That they might keep his precepts and observe his laws. Praise the LORD.” God gives the covenant so that a people will walk in his ways. The faithful giver of Psalm 105 is the same God who opens his hand to a young king and tells him to ask.
1 Kings 3:5-12
An Understanding Heart
“Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad.” (v. 9)
At Gibeon, God appears to Solomon and opens with an overwhelming offer: “Ask what I shall give thee.” There is no fine print, no seven years of labor, no swap in the dark. Considering Laban, the contrast could not be sharper. Solomon answers in humility. He calls himself “but a little child,” set over a people too many to count, and he asks for “an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad.” He passes over long life, riches, and the death of his enemies, and asks for the one gift he needs to serve God and his people well. God is pleased, and gives him wisdom beyond any king before or after, along with the wealth and honor he never requested.
Solomon asked rightly, and God gave generously. The psalmist tells us where that kind of discernment comes from: “the entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple” (Psalm 119:130). The wisdom Solomon asked for is the light that God’s word supplies, the same light that orders a believer’s steps so that sin loses its grip. The God who tells Solomon to ask is the God Paul shows us giving the greatest gift of all.
Romans 8:26-39
The God Who Gives All Good Things
“We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (v. 28)
Paul brings the theme to its height. We do not always know what to ask for, and so the Spirit helps us in our weakness, interceding with groanings too deep for words. Over the whole struggle stands the promise that God works all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. God who advanced his promise through Laban’s fraud and kept his covenant across generations is working all things, including suffering and delay, toward good. He has not abandoned the promise, and he loses none of his children along the way.
Paul names the proof of God’s generosity: “He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?” Our Father who gave the Son will hold back no good gift. And the love that gives is a love that keeps until the end. Neither death nor life nor anything in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. God gives in this life; he gives in the life to come, and from the giving nothing can cut us off. This is the open hand of “Ask what I shall give thee,” leading all the way to the cross.
Ask What I Shall Give Thee
When God asked Solomon, “What shall I give you?” it reflects the same sentiment as when Jesus said, “Ask, and it will be given to you,” and “How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him” (Matthew 7:7, 11). This invitation has remained open from the time of Gibeon until now.
The Father provided the greatest gift before anyone even asked for it: He did not spare His own Son. The open hand at Gibeon transforms into the open arms of the cross, where God accomplished the ultimate purpose of this entire journey. He took the worst evil—the death of His Son—and turned it into the greatest gift: the redemption of His people. This illustrates the promise that all things work together for good, brought to its highest expression. The God who built a nation through Laban’s deception and upheld His covenant for a thousand generations is capable of redeeming any difficult situation you present to Him, both in this life and in the life to come.
How do you live in front of a God like this? Come and ask! The Father invites your requests. Jesus knelt in Gethsemane and asked, teaching his followers to keep asking. This week, bring a genuine request to our generous God instead of trying to handle it alone. Ask as Solomon did, seeking the gift of wisdom and the ability to conform to Christ, which will serve others, rather than pursuing mere prizes. When words fail, trust that the Spirit is praying within you. Rely on God to turn difficult situations toward good. Identify one challenging aspect of your life and surrender it to Him, leaving the timing and manner to His discretion. Give as you have received, because the temptation to calculate and withhold, like Laban, can be strong, yet the Father desires His children to be generous. Open your hands to help someone this week. Rest in the love that surrounds you, knowing that nothing can separate you from it.
“Ask what I shall give thee.” The question is still open in front of you. Bring it to the Father who did not spare his own Son. He is able to give, and he is able to redeem, in this life and in the life to come.
Points to Ponder
- Jacob’s fourteen years passed through deception and delay, and the promise still advanced. Where are you waiting, and what would change if you trusted that God is moving his purpose forward through the delay?
- Laban gave grudgingly while God gave freely. Where do you notice the spirit of Laban, calculating and withholding, in the way you give?
- God told Solomon, “Ask what I shall give thee.” If God set that question in front of you today, what would you ask for, and what does your answer show about your heart?
- Solomon asked for a discerning heart instead of wealth, long life, or revenge. What would it look like to ask God for the gift you need rather than the one you want?
- Paul says the Spirit helps us when we do not know what to pray. How does it change your praying to know the Spirit is interceding underneath your words?
- “All things work together for good.” How do you hold that promise honestly in a season where you cannot yet see the good?
- God did not spare his own Son. How does the cross give you confidence that the Father will give you what you truly need?
A Prayer
Father, you are the giver of all good things, and you open your hand before we know what to ask. We thank you that you kept your covenant across a thousand generations, that you carried your promise through Jacob’s long years and Laban’s hard bargains, and that you gave Solomon more than he knew to request. We confess that we have often asked the way a grasping world taught us, calculating and clutching, and that we have doubted your goodness when the gift was slow in coming. Teach us to ask well. Give us an understanding heart, and send your Spirit to pray in us when we have no words. We thank you that you did not spare your own Son but gave him up for us all, and that in him you turn even the worst evil toward our good. Make us givers, as you are. Hold us in the love that nothing can break, in this life and in the life to come. Ask what you will of us, and give what you will to us, for our good and your glory. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
“He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything?” (Romans 8:32)
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