I love potatoes; my family loves potatoes; my extended family love potatoes. At the biannual DeVries Thanksgiving gathering we tend to align ourselves at the long tables in places that put us close to a big ol’ bowl of mashed potatoes. It’s nice when you can also get some gravy, but the potatoes are where it’s at, and without them there’s no need for gravy. In fact, you can live off of potatoes alone for quite some time due to the life-sustaining nutrients they have. I’m not a doctor, but I’m pretty sure if you tried to live off of gravy alone you’d end up with high blood pressure and diarrhea. Nutrition teaches us a spiritual lesson: when choosing what you need in life, don’t mix up potatoes and gravy. Young Solomon in 1 Kings 3 knows that God is what he needs. When the Lord says to Solomon, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you,” Solomon asks for “a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.” Solomon asks for potatoes, not gravy. God credits it to him and is pleased to give Solomon what he asked for and more so that there will never be anyone like him! Solomon asks for a “discerning heart,” and God gives him “a wise and discerning heart” and wealth and honor. God loads up Solomon’s plate of potatoes with gravy abundant! The word “discerning” is one that means listening or hearing. It is the same word from the Shema in Deuteronomy 6. Solomon wants a heart that listens to God’s Word, to know right from wrong, truth from fiction, even when it’s hard to see. It might seem like an underwhelming ask at first, but it’s a “hosanna” type of prayer. “God, save us! Save me! Save your people!” And how will God do this saving? When the king has a heart that listens to God. A king who wants the life-giving, nutritious potatoes of God’s Law written on his heart and lived out in his life as he listens closely for the Lord’s leading. So where did Solomon go wrong? By 1 Kings 10 & 11 we find that Solomon’s heart has been led astray by his 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines. He’s building high places of worship for Ashtoreth, Molek, Chemosh, and whoever else. He’s no longer listening to the Lord, but to all these others. God is no longer the potatoes with the wealth and fame as gravy on the side; God has become the gravy on the side to all of Solomon’s other pleasures and gods he has been led astray to. Deuteronomy 17:16-17 declares about future kings of Israel: “The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, “You are not to go back that way again.” He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.” It seems that Solomon’s listening heart of 1 Kings 3 stopped listening to these warnings of what not to do and turned it into a personal checklist! (See also 1 Kings 10.) As we celebrated Palm Sunday with shouts of “Hosanna! God, save us!” we do well to remember that wisdom and salvation come from Jesus and lead us back to him. When we know that God is the potatoes and everything else is gravy, we have hearts ready to listen. God can give or withhold the gravy: that working out of sovereignty is above our paygrade as mere mortals. We may be tempted to judge Solomon for going astray or the crowds who yelled “crucify him!” about Jesus. We do well to remember that going astray can happen to us just as easily when our hearts stop listening to God, when we mix up mashed potatoes for gravy. If it happened to Solomon, it can happen to us, so listen well and grow in your listening that you may have a discerning heart that continues to grow in God’s wisdom and salvation. - Pastor Steven