Solomon - episode 1

In this post, we tell the story of King Solomon, David’s successor on the throne of Israel; we are in chapter 3 and following of the first Book of Kings. «The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” Solomon said, “[...] Now, LORD my God, you have made your servant king instead of David my father. I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. Your servant is in the midst of your people which you have chosen, a great people, that can’t be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this your great people?” The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself long life, neither have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice; behold, I have done according to your word. Behold, I have given you a wise and an understanding heart; so that there has been none like you before you, neither after you shall any arise like you. I have also given you that which you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like you, all your days. If you will walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”». The text offers us an example of that wisdom a few verses later, when two prostitutes come to Solomon claiming the maternity of the same child. «The king said, “Get me a sword.” They brought a sword before the king. The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.” Then the woman whose the living child was spoke to the king, for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no way kill it!” But the other said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide it.” Then the king answered, “Give her the living child, and in no way kill it. She is its mother.” All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do justice».

Solomon, ordering precious materials from Tyre, begins the construction of the great Jerusalem Temple. He recruits also «a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men». David’s son, besides the Temple, builds a sumptuous palace for his court. When the Temple is finished, they bring in the Lord’s ark and the Lord’s Glory, in the form of a cloud, consecrates the building.

The queen of Sheba hears of the king’s power and wisdom and decides to visit him with rich gifts, and «to prove him with hard questions». «When the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, and the food of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their clothing, and his cup bearers, and his ascent by which he went up to the house of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her. [...] So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. All the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. They brought every man his tribute, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and clothing, and armor, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year».

 

 

Despite the fact that he asked for and received from the Lord «an understanding heart», Solomon is not immune to temptation and sin. «Now king Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites; of the nations concerning which the LORD said to the children of Israel, “You shall not go among them, neither shall they come among you; for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For it happened, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. [...] The LORD was angry with Solomon [and] said to Solomon, “Because this is done by you, and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant. Notwithstanding I will not do it in your days, for David your father’s sake; but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However I will not tear away all the kingdom; but I will give one tribe to your son, for David my servant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake which I have chosen.”». Follow in the next post.