The Foolest King

Do you know the story of the Genie in a Bottle? I am sure you do. So let me tell you this story with a small twist: the genie finds you, not the other way around. And he gives you only one wish. Anything from your heart, no asterisks on the bottom, no fine print. Nothing. Ask and it will be given.

What would you ask for? What anyone would ask for? And what if that lucky one that got on this situation said instead “I want nothing. Thanks for the offer”?

That would not be very smart, right? But that’s exact what happened once.

We all know the story of king Solomon, and how he wanted to be made wise, and he was made wiser than anyone that ever lived or would live, and asking for wisdom is a wise decision on its own. Unfortunately, sometimes being wise does not mean acting wise, and he took some regrettable decisions along the way. Some say he wrote Ecclesiastes late on his life, when remembering all the unwise things we did, and for me it looks the right explanation. So he wrote a lot of things, so we fools who lived after him would not fall on the same pit he fell.

But isn’t about him I want to write about. is about another king that got on the same position: God asked him to tell what he wanted, and as unbelievable as it is, he didn’t asked for anything. If Solomon is the wisest person in history, I consider him, Judah king Ahaz, the foolest fool to ever walk on this planet.

He was afraid of an alliance between Israel (the kingdom of the north) and Syria. They were formidable enemies on their own, but both together in an alliance would be unbeatable. Together they would destroy Judah, its capital Jerusalem, and his people. David’s dynasty would be no more, and Jesus, the Son of David, the Lion of Judah, would not be possible. And that’s something God would not allow to happen.

So Isaiah went to talk to the king, and made the most generous offer any monarch ever received: ask for something, as high as Heaven, or as low as the Sheol, and it will be granted. And I can imagine the face of Isaiah when God told him about the offer. Ahaz wasn’t a good king, he was deep in idolatry, worshipping every neighbor deity, and God was giving him basically the entire planet. And imagine the face of Isaiah when the king refused the offer. History is full of people that threw away an once in a lifetime opportunity, but any of them pales in when compared with this.

Imagine Ahaz asking for an army that could not be defeated for 30 years. That was enough time to conquer the entire known world, discover the Americas, and defeat from the Canadian eskimos, to the Aztec, to the Mayans, to the Brazilian Tupis. With such an army, the entire world would be conquered, and history would be about Ahaz the Great, conquering the entire world with an undefeated army. Later, Alexander the Macedonian would be inspired by him, but conquered only a fifth of the world before dying.

Or ask to be wiser than Solomon and friendlier than anyone. With this, he would not need to resort to war, but could conquer the world due to diplomacy. Being wise and friendly, he could basically be friend of every single nation, establish outposts all over the world, and enrich Judah with the riches of commerce. The Philistines are being threatened with extinction by the Assyrians? “Just hand me a some hundreds of talents of gold, and I will talk to my friend Tiglate-Pileser to spare you.” Problem solved. Kingdoms would queue in line to ask him for counsel, to solve disputes, to find enlightenment. All with large loads of gold, silver and precious stones. And we would not have Ahaz the Great, but Ahaz the Peaceful Ruler. Or something like that.

Or he could go evil and ask for a plague to decimate his enemies, to a unquenchable fire to devastate their countries, or anything his evil mind could conceive. Fighting a foe weakened by plague and famine is the quickest path to victory. Fire, flood, plagues, internal fighting, external invaders, there were lots of things that Ahaz could ask for and make his life easier on the incoming wars.

But it baffles me that he didn’t asked for anything. I still cannot believe it every time I read this passage. Even God said that asking for nothing was so utterly stupid that he was testing God’s patience. But when we read the story of the Israelites, we know that a lot is needed to test God’s patience.

But let’s not point at him and laugh when lots of times we do the same. Who didn’t even wanted to ask God for wisdom? Which ones of us ever asked? Because God told us to ask him for wisdom and he will gladly give us wisdom. And how many times we didn’t asked for it?

Every single one of us can look back and shook our heads on some regrettable things we did last year, and the years before, and wish for us to change the past. We cannot, only God can but God won’t change the past. But God can help us change the present so it will lead to a better future. And maybe we have less things to regret when this year ends.

So let’s start every day from now on asking God to make us a little wiser than yesterday.