Solomon
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- Personal Matters
- Name meant "peaceable"
- Second-born son of David and Bathsheba
- His Rise to Kingship
- When Adonijah, his half-brother, set himself up as king, David (with
the prodding and help of Nathan and Bathsheba) engineered Solomon's appointment to king (1
Kings 1:5-53)
- David's last words included instructions to Solomon to secure his
kingship by killing Joab and Shimei (1 Kings 2:5-9)
- Solomon followed his father's instructions and went beyond them
- When Adonijah asked to have Abishag as a wife, Solomon saw this as
treason (cf. 2 Sam. 16:21-22) and had him killed (1 Kings 2:19-25)
- Abiathar, the priest, who had served under David but who had
supported Adonijah in his bid for kingship, was exiled to Anathoth (1 Kings 2:26-27) -
later Jeremiah would come from the priests of Anathoth (Jer.
1:1)
- Joab, who had also supported Adonijah, was killed by Solomon's
general Benaiah (1 Kings 2:28-35)
- Shimei was told that as long as he remained in Jerusalem, he would
live but if he ever left, he would be killed - when Shimei left to bring back 2 runaway
slaves, he was killed (1 Kings 2:36-46)
- Solomon's kingship was secured by bloodshed as others would later
secure their own kingship (cf. 2 Kings 9:14-10:27)
- Solomon's Reign
- Solomon followed in David's faith footsteps (1 Kings 3:3)
- Traditions of his wisdom
- Asked for wisdom at Gibeon (1 Kings 3:4-15)
- Correct judgment when he decided which prostitute was the true mother
of the child (1 Kings 3:16-28)
- His reputation as a writer of proverbs and teacher of wisdom (1 Kings
4:32-34)
- Queen of Sheba found him to be exceedingly wise (1 Kings 10:1-5)
- Building projects
- Built a magnificent Temple which centralized worship thus
strengthening the kingdom and adding a magnificence to the capital city (1 Kings 5:1-6:38)
- Temple required 7 years to build
- His dedication prayer for the Temple was probably his finest moment
(1 Kings 8:12-61)
- Also built a luxurious palace for himself which required 13 years to
build (almost twice as long as the time required to build the Temple - not a good sign)
and a palace for Pharaoh's daughter whom he had married
- Problems with his reign
- According to Deuteronomy (Deut. 17:14-17), Solomon did everything a
king was not supposed to do - he had many horses (1 Kings 10:26-29), many wives (1 Kings
11:3), and great wealth (1 Kings 10:23) - because of this God took the kingdom from him (1
Kings 11:9-13)
- Solomon enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle (1 Kings 4:7-28) which placed
an incredible financial drain upon the kingdom, part of which was met by heavy taxation
(cf. 1 Kings 12:4)
- Crossed tribal boundaries and loyalties
- He set up 12 administrative districts which were not the same as the
12 tribal territories - many may have resented this breaking down of the divisions that
God had established
- Why do this?
- Some tribes could not support his lavish needs for a month so he
needed to create districts that could supply his needs each month
- He consciously sought to strengthen the nation by destroying any
semblance of the old loose confederation of tribes
- Used forced labor (1 Kings 9:15-22) - although Israelites were
apparently not pressed into forced labor, other elements of the population were - Solomon
would have seemed to them as Pharaoh had seemed to the Israelites in Egypt - this would
certainly have produced unrest
- Solomon was influenced by his many wives from many nations (many of
his wives he had probably married to seal peace treaties and trade agreements) to worship
other gods (1 Kings 11:1-8)
- The kingdom began to disintegrate in Solomon's day (1 Kings 11:14-40)
but split in two after his death (1 Kings 12:16-20)
- Still Solomon reigned for forty years (ca. 970-930 B.C.E.)
- His Legacy
- High point of Israel's glory
- Renowned as the "father of wisdom" in Israel
- As David had been the model king, Solomon became the model of how not
to be king
Artwork from the Bible Picture Library of Line Art (c) Christian Computer Art, 1994-97
