When you have a choice to make

²⁰ The Lord will give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but your Teacher will no longer hide Himself—with your own eyes you will see Him.

²¹ And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.”

I will lead the blind by a way they did not know; I will guide them on unfamiliar paths. I will turn darkness into light before them and rough places into level ground. These things I will do for them, and I will not forsake them.

Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who directs you in the way you should go.

²³ I know, O LORD, that a man’s way is not his own; no one who walks directs his own steps.

²⁴ Correct me, O LORD, but only with justice— not in Your anger, or You will bring me to nothing.

⁷ And now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king in my father David’s place. But I am only a little child, not knowing how to go out or come in.

⁸ Your servant is here among the people You have chosen, a people too numerous to count or number.

⁹ Therefore give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?”

¹⁰ Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had made this request.

¹¹ So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this instead of requesting long life or wealth for yourself or death for your enemies—but you have asked for discernment to administer justice—

¹² behold, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has never been nor will ever be another like you.

¹⁰ Now grant me wisdom and knowledge, so that I may lead this people. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?”

¹¹ God said to Solomon, “Since this was in your heart instead of requesting riches or wealth or glory for yourself or death for your enemies—and since you have not even requested long life but have asked for wisdom and knowledge to govern My people over whom I have made you king—

¹² therefore wisdom and knowledge have been granted to you. And I will also give you riches and wealth and honor unlike anything given to the kings before you or after you.”

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good conduct, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.

¹⁴ But if you harbor bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast in it or deny the truth.

¹⁵ Such wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

¹⁶ For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every evil practice.

¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peace-loving, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere.

²⁴ For He looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.

²⁵ When God fixed the weight of the wind and measured out the waters,

²⁶ when He set a limit for the rain and a path for the thunderbolt,

²⁷ then He looked at wisdom and appraised it; He established it and searched it out.

²⁸ And He said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

⁵ And now, do not be distressed or angry with yourselves that you sold me into this place, because it was to save lives that God sent me before you.

⁶ For the famine has covered the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting.

⁷ God sent me before you to preserve you as a remnant on the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

⁸ Therefore it was not you who sent me here, but God, who has made me a father to Pharaoh—lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

²⁵ Then the king said to Zadok, “Return the ark of God to the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the LORD, He will bring me back and let me see both it and His dwelling place again.

²⁶ But if He should say, ‘I do not delight in you,’ then here I am; let Him do to me whatever seems good to Him.”

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows if perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”