(a Steve Orr scripture reflection)
For nine years, starting in 1962, over 50 million people in the U.S. arranged their lives each week to ensure they would be sitting in front of a television on a certain day at a certain time. Why? To watch the next episode of “The Beverly Hillbillies.”
The catchy, toe-tapping opening sequence* showed us “poor mountaineer” Jed Clampett out hunting. While “shootin’ at some food,” his shot opens up a huge oil strike (“black gold…Texas Tea”). First thing you know, ol’ Jed’s a millionaire. He moves his family to Beverly Hills, California. Rags-to-riches comedy ensues.
At the time, I thought the whole thing quite unrealistic, especially the way he struck oil. I was certain you did not find oil that way. But it went with the show being a comedy, right? Wrong.
In the early 1980s, I moved my family to Midland, Texas—the heart of “oil country.” One of the first things my employer taught me was: Oil is where you find it. Translation: No one really knows where the stuff is. There’s a reason they call it oil exploration.
Oil. Gold. Silver. The problem with drawing treasures from the earth: No one knows where to find them. Yes, there are people—smart, capable people—who have some ideas about where to find them. There are technologies that help in the search. But no one knows exactly where to look.
So, when I read this week’s 1 Kings passage, I wasn’t shocked that Solomon might have asked God for riches. Considering that every time someone drills a hole in the earth looking for oil, there is a great chance they will find absolutely nothing—well, it just doesn’t sound so crazy that people might think they should ask God to give them riches.
But scripture tells us there is something worth more than the treasures of the earth, and that is what Solomon asked of God: wisdom. It pleased God that Solomon chose wisdom rather than many other kingly kinds of things he could have requested: riches, long life, the death of his enemies.
We, too, can please God by wanting wisdom. And, unlike silver and gold—or oil—or any other treasure we might wish to come our way, finding wisdom is not a game of chance.
We know right where it is.
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