As such, he sent the men back to Pharaoh with coffins and burial shrouds in tow, along with a letter saying if Egypt had such a shortage of coffins and shrouds, there was no need to send all these men to get them, the Pharaoh could just ask Solomon directly. This hardly made him the most likely son to succeed his father as king. He was the son of David and Bathsheba, the former wife of Uriah the Hittite whom David had killed to hide his adultery with Bathsheba while her husband was on the battle front. "Ouch!" It was an age of prosperity and national unity, But in the end his reign ended disastrously he began to oppress the people, multiplied wives and introduced pagan worship. Was it greed? An attempt at telling this traditional story that I feel is particularly relevant at this time. Solomon ended up breaking all three of these commands. But he gave up his ‘personal authority’ and binding with God for ‘power’ it seems, and material advantage, perhaps despite himself. Abba Moses, one of the desert father of scetis, of African decent, a christian monk and solitaire (hermit) after the order of St Antony, Poemen, and so many other monks and solitaries of ancient times some becoming bishops of the early church, c.a. Solomon disregarded the instructions he … One of the babies had died, and each claimed the remaining boy as her own. Was it the foreign entanglements ignited by that greed and desire for power? Perhaps because I feel he is ‘kinda’ indicative of our times. It is the road that Solomon trod. In these tales the Queen of Sheba is a seeker of truth and wisdom and she has heard that King Solomon of Israel is a very wise man. Solomon, the King of Wisdom. In the Hebrew scriptures, 2 Samuel 3 states that King David, anointed by the Prophet Samuel before King Saul’s demise to be his replacement, officially became King of Judea (1010 BCE). When the cock returned and couldn't get through the glass, he got the shamir to cut through it. I give you a heart so wise and understanding that there has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one to equal you. When he sat down, another robot eagle placed the crown on his head and robot lions and eagles provided shade. And Solomon systematically failed to heed God. Solomon's great wisdom, wealth, and magical power was all contingent on his continued faithfulness to God. The story of King Solomon begins with his father, King David, and his mother, Bathsheba. “Hell and Destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.” -Proverbs. Other building projects in Jerusalem included a palace complex that featured the House of the Forest of Lebanon, the Hall of Pillars, and the Hall of Justice, as well as a residence for himself and one for Pharaoh's daughter (where did the other wives live? Once Solomon realizes his new power, he summons the demons one by one, learns their powers and dominions and to which constellations they are bound, as well as which angel has power over them. 3 He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. It is funny how we can look to others sins to justify our own, and even increase the frequency of our sin exponentially as a result (David had 15 wives, Solomon many, many more). Beyond that, because I survived my risky behavior doesn’t mean you will.” It’s important to set a good example, but it might be even more important to talk about our failings, for keeping quiet may suggest acceptability. 3) Solomon was the son of David by Bathsheba. And in the time I drifted away from the Church (sometimes for a few months, or longer) my life went as downhill as it could go. I say this, just because I would contest a statement made and suggest instead that wisdom is not necessarily at odds with obedience in a personal sense. But they were were very ‘different times’. After all, books of Wisdom are attributed to him, and I would like to say that for the times, the case could be made that he did extraordinary things. 2 They were from nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. cried King Solomon, touching his red, swollen nose. But Solomon’s story could be the story of any of us if we are not careful to persevere in the ways of God. The Solomon And The Two Mothers Bible scriptures located in 1 Kings 3:16-28 explains directly from God's Word the Solomon And The Two Mothers topic. And the Lord did indeed grant Solomon great wisdom. King Solomon, who became the 3rd king of Israel after David. A well-known example of Solomon’s wisdom is his judgment in a dispute over the identity of the actual mother of an infant child (1 Kings 3:16-28). This carpet features heavily in a famous Jewish legend that is also retold in the Quran, in which Solomon gets dunked on in the Valley of the Ants. Solomon had more than one wife, as did David. we never ripen on the “Vine,” for we love the world to much, and we will not “go out from amongst those” that are of the world, including myself … yes! Wisdom of King Solomon: Everyone has heard of Solomon. King Solomon is primarily known for two attributes: his great wisdom and his great wealth. After making a sacrifice to God, Solomon fell asleep and the Lord appeared to him in a dream, offering him anything his heart desired (presumably wishing for more wishes was off the table). When he reached the top, robot eagles lifted him into his seat. When my son when he came home from college for a break a few years back, he went out with friends and came back pretty drunk. It created military rivals on the northern edge of Israel that were something of a nuisance and may explain why Solomon raised a large army as we will see later. Have you heard of the American Indian boy who asked his Grandfather “what is inside of a man Grandfather?” Grandfather replied, “inside every man and woman are two wolves, a good wolf and a bad wolf and they fight eachother constantly.” The boy asks “which one wins Grandfather?” Grandfather said, “the one you feed son.” Solomon’s authorship is disputed however and even those who attest to his authorship are less clear that the epilogue was written by him. Was it lust? God was pleased he hadn't asked for a long life or riches or death to his enemies, so He made Solomon as wise as possible, and rich to boot. What a lesson. (too much television perhaps, fancy this that and the other thing, etc. Nathan, Bathsheba, and Zadok the priest then staged a coup where they installed Solomon as the new king, which the nation riotously approves of. And I can usually see and get the opinions of people much more experienced at life than me! Solomon shows us how to appreciate the blessings that are physical and others that are not visible. Solomon, when presented the opportunity to ask anything whatsoever from God chose not gold or glory but Wisdom. I did not say Solomon was in Hell. Depending on how you look at it, in modern terms Solomon would definitely either be classified as a sex addict or a wife guy. 11:4). His real problem, however, is he didn't just settle down with a nice Jewish girl like his mom presumably wanted. Pope, While Solomon is believed in popular lore to have built the Temple with the aid of angels and demons, with most of the stones floating and settling in place through magic, the heavenly host and infernal hordes were not the only supernatural aid the king employed. When people came to petition the king, all the animals would make their appropriate noises, which would scare off people who came to deliver false testimony. Yes. or in the house of idol. It is a portrait of a man deeply rooted in God. The problem with Solomon introducing all these foreign princesses into his home is they brought their foreign gods with them, which is going to cause trouble for Solomon down the line. Instead, his wives were princesses plucked variously from the Gentile nations of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, and Hittites, among others. Solomon gets mad when the ant queen says she is a greater monarch than he is, but she points out he was born of a common man, and an adulterer, no less. \"Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? The king then pointed to that garland. Perhaps there is a confusion between the sacred and the secular? His mother was Bathsheba, a woman David had watched taking a bath, had to have, and then murdered her husband to cover up the adultery. As with any human being there are ambiguities about Solomon and aspects taht one will praise and another condemn. 43 Then he rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father. Clearly. Thanks Msgr. 42 Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. Now, David had grown old and feeble and he knew his time in this world was about to end. She is the real mother.’. It’s harder for me to stay with the church because of those bad experiences. Solomon's wisdom wasn't fully innate, however. A sobering story, and in this day and age I think it is difficult for many of us not to be at least a mini-Solomon. Even with the greatest wisdom that any man has had or will have, one can still wander astray with disastrous consquences. I DID say that he was the likely heir to the throne but Bathsheba and Nathan worked together to see that Solomon became King. Then the bees came in and sat on the garland of real flowers. He is credited with building the first Temple of Jerusalem and is revered in Judaism and Christianity for his wisdom and in Islam as a prophet. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. In the morning, we discussed the incident. Give him to the first woman. It seems that you are witnessing this battle but aren’t aware that everybody else is also fighting inside. Pharaoh thought to cheat Solomon by sending only men his astrologers had determined would die within a year. Both these women had a quarrel over a single baby. This didn't fool Solomon, though, whose discernment allowed him to see the men's fates just by looking at them. For some reason, Solomon agrees to this and Asmodeus swallows the ring (in some versions he throws it into the sea) and then hurls Solomon over a thousand miles away. After he became a king, he offered a thousand burnt offerings on Gibeon altar. I still wonder whether or not he was ‘personally’ disobedient. The text does not say that Bathsheba realized she was being brought to the palace for sex with the king. Until his downfall, Solomon was considered the true monarch of the whole world, including the animal kingdom and the realms of angels and demons. The demon told him the worm had been entrusted by the prince of the sea to a bird called "the mountain cock," who had sworn to defend it with his life. 3. Trade expanded widely during his reign. The Queen of Sheba heard much about the grandeur of Solomon’s court and the worldwide reputation of his learning and wisdom. Solomon was a ruler of the United Kingdom of Israel who lived some time in the 10th century BCE, and in the 3,000 years since then, his name has become synonymous with wealth, power, and—above all—wisdom. Solomon had a throne of light that he would place on the eagle's back, and the eagle would fly him to the cliffs of dark mountains where God had chained up the fallen angels Uzza and Azzael. A man whose heart turned from God. If there's one thing Solomon is famous for having a lot of besides wisdom and wealth, it's wives. May God lead me back to Himself! Was it corruption by the world that greed, foreign entanglements and admiration of foreign ways caused? But we too can thus be led astray in the quest for ‘material’ gain. As the story goes, as Solomon was preparing to build his great temple, he sent to Pharaoh asking for him to supply him with builders and architects. I found this part of the reading intersting in light of the recent discussion on King David and his being told not to count the people: “I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted.”, So the moral of the story is that wisdom is over rated. Katherine, Was it the foreign entanglements ignited by that greed and desire for power? Is there mention made that he indeed slept with all, or even any, of the l000 wives. Solomon's great wisdom and great wealth were both on display in the king's wondrous throne, which according to Jewish rabbinical literature was a mechanical masterpiece, in which golden robot animals performed a wonderland of functions as Solomon ascended to his seat of power. Could I put in a word in praise of Solomon. A peculiar thing about the Bible is you can have literally one thousand women in a room and only one of them—at best—will get a name. Some of us feed one wolf more than the other. It goes to show that not just in our present day, but in the past the world was dominated by lust, greed, and power. Yes, I think we can all agree that we are all an admixture of what is good and bad. The First Book of Kings records David's heir apparent, Adonijah, had basically usurped the throne from his elderly father and had the support of military leaders, but not the priests and prophets. When the people hear how Solomon solved the problem, they are glad to have such a wise king. But the blog helps, and it really does help me stay true to the church. Remember, the only person who refuses to follow David’s directives in this story, Uriah, is killed (2 Sam. And yet, the Book of Deuteronomy warns kings and commands them not to do three things: 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. God was pleased and ask him what he want. 9 The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. the most uncomfortably sexy book of the Bible, According to Expositions of Holy Scripture. I got the details from Scripture about Nathan and Bathsheba. is in scripture (eg 1 Kings 11). As such, demons would bring him jewels just because, and animals would walk willingly into his kitchens and offer to be eaten by him. As Solomon reached the first step, a robot ox stretched out its leg for him to lean on, and each successive step's animals did the same. Yes. Yes. (It is interesting that even the likes of Jepthe are praised in Heb 11, so I will leave the final judgment to God). Postscript: Today we have freedom of religion within the ‘secular state’. Once you recognize both wolves, you will learn that scitzophrenia (sp) has value. They say you can’t please two masters, and yet how many of us have not followed the example of Solomon?). Solomon knows this because the real mother loves the baby so much that she is willing to give him to the other woman so he won’t be killed. Epilogue – As God told him, the legacy of his turning was a divided kingdom. Solomon asks the ant queen what she means, and she demands to be treated as an equal with him. Following his father's example of righteousness and faithfulness, Solomon shrewdly asked only for the wisdom to govern justly and to discern good and evil. He marries the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh to shore up a political alliance, but 1 Kings 11 says all the other marriages were for love. The individual’s ‘morality’ is not affected by or related to this general policy. Or does power really corrupt, and absolute power corrupt absolutely? Some days where I want to stray, and when something else happens in my life, I have been known to stray for months at a time. The first child of this union had (quite unfairly, really) died for his parent's dirty sins. 11 So the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. 1. I still sometimes feel like I lead a double life in a way, mainly because I have the bad habit of looking at others in church and thinking they are “perfect” and that I can never be a perfect Catholic. But obviously it didn’t connect. Solomon was the son of King David of Israel, the one who killed Goliath and played a secret chord that pleased the Lord and all that. Solomon’s wisdom had been given by God when Solomon requested it (verse 5). 4 As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. Simple: with a magical worm called the shamir, who has the power to cut through stone, iron, or even diamond. In spite of his sins, Solomon has traditionally been considered a saint. God also gave Solomon peace on all fronts during most of his reign (1 Kings 4:20-25). I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted. 2. I just ‘felt’, (the more I thought about it ‘on my own’) that he was ‘well intentioned’ in attempting to organize the tribes. (i.e. Surely. Shamed, Solomon flies his magic carpet back to his giant palace. Solomon's Temple was thought to be one of peace (that's what his name means, remember), and so it was believed it would not have been built with saws or picks or any implements that could also have been used to shed human blood. "I […] And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. The Bible records the building of this architectural marvel took seven years, at the end of which Solomon sacrificed 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. In the following chapters, many more examples are given of the wisdom of King Solomon. What were his true-real commitments? A mystery). He could solve any problem wisely. Obviously he was ahead of his ‘times’. In a story from the Talmud known as "King Solomon and Ashmedai" (another version of the name Asmodeus), after Solomon captures Asmodeus so he will tell him the location of the shamir (in this version described as a magic rock rather than a worm), he puts him on house arrest and asks him a number of questions related to the demon's weird behavior. When Rehoboam followed his father’s misguided policies the ten tribes in the north had enough and they divided from Judah. O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, King to succeed my father David; but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act. Later, 2 Samuel 5 states that (in 1002 BCE) all the elders of Israel approached him to be their ruler, and “The king made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lor… Pardon my speculation. On a bad day, I feel like everybody is judging me, and like I am alone. i mean the place? After Solomon's death, the throne is said to have been taken by foreign kings who looted Solomon's great treasures. Despite all this, Solomon experienced a vision form God early in his reign. Everyone will make mistakes because learning is … However, through the court intrigues of his mother and the support of Nathan the prophet who both took advantage of David in his old age, Solomon was named king in 961 BC against Adonijah the presumed successor. Solomon, the new teen king, allows Adonijah his life on the condition that he swears to avoid wickedness. In that text, Solomon receives the ring from the archangel Michael after he discovers a demon sucking the life energy out of a boy he favored through his thumb, as well as stealing half his food and salary for some reason. And ever so slowly and perhaps imperceptibly at first, he began to turn from God. The great and wise Solomon, once close to God’s heart and preferring nothing of the world to God’s wisdom. This is King Solomon Story for kids.Once upon a time, when David was the king of Israel, Israel grew ten times larger than it was under King Saul’s reign. You are really Solomon the Wise”. The Jewish Encyclopedia describes it as set at the top of a series of stairs which bore dozens of golden animals, including lions, eagles, wolves, tigers, camels, and peacocks. She was surprised and she went admiring the king’s wisdom. Fortunately, King Solomon also had an enormous flying carpet he could tool around on. Solomon was the second son of David and Bathsheba. The unification of a people under one central control, or government. Solomon was a biblical Israelite king who was the son of David and Bathsheba. When Adonijah's guests and counsel hear the cheers, they flee, leaving Adonijah to beg for his life on the altar. I have a lot to heal from, I think, before I can get over this insecurity. There were and there now are very few, if any, “ripened grapes” on the bunch, and of the whole vineyard and all its harvest(s) the percentage is infinitesimally negligible, if at all even humanly perceivable, and definitely not ever conceivable. The King of the Jews was famous all over the world for his wealth and magnificence and especially for his wisdom. Feed the good wolf. His name and fame spread all over the world for his wisdom. So how do you cut stones into shape, then? Solomon was Israel’s third King. Nearly all evidence for his life and reign comes from the Bible. (Hint: Billy Batson doesn't get super rich when he calls down the lightning.) The United Monarchy had lasted just over 100 years, and the two kingdoms would never be united again. 5 He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech [a] the detestable god of the Ammonites. The great unified kingdom had ended and within less than 200 years Israel (721 BC) and later Judah (587 BC) were invaded and destroyed. His mother was Bathsheba, a woman David had watched taking a bath, had to have, and then murdered her husband to cover up the adultery. 7 On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. Therefore that brethren(s) if he remained in his cell would become a “ripened grape,” seeing how he has avoided seeing, hearing, and the speech of men of the world; the only thing left for him to avoid was fornication (there was women in the egyptian desert). In the Old Testament Bible story, King Solomon resolves the argument of two women who were both claiming to be the mother of a baby. A robot dove would then descend and place a Torah scroll on his lap, and Solomon would rest his feet on a footstool made of sapphires brought to him from Heaven by a demon. The story of Solomon is a sad object lesson, a moral tale. Yes. Funny. 10 Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD’s command. It can be a very slow, and seemingly smooth downward slope, can’t it? The story of Solomon is a sad object lesson, a moral tale. Sometimes it's good to be a wizard king who is also a beastmaster. Solomon asked God for wisdom, but clearly his wisdom was not ‘wisdom-ful’ enough to guard him from lust, ego/pride (amassing great horses /army is one’s display of strength & might) & greed. Surely. On a good day with the Church I can feel peaceful when I’m there, and feel loved and accepted by parishioners. If all you know about Solomon is he once threatened to cut a baby in half and the most uncomfortably sexy book of the Bible is named after him, you've got a lot to learn. 1 Kings 3:16 Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him. She said, “May God grant you long life. His forty year reign is regarded as Israel’s golden age. What turned Solomon from the right path? Other people have been rich, but only Solomon has the renown as the wisest dude who ever lived. Of all of Solomon's magic items that he used during his reign, probably the most famous is his ring that let him control demons. However, while Solomon lost his wisdom and power, God also punished him and his line by removing most of the tribes of Israel from rule under the line of Solomon. There’s hope though “As for the other events of Solomon’s reign all he did and the wisdom he displayed – are they not written in the book of the annals of Solomon?” (Maybe he is indeed IN THE BOOK!) Prayer and Mass attendance slip away. I do not know that. What turned Solomon from the right path? trying to please his wives to keep it together perhaps, rather than pleasing God). As the Jewish Encyclopedia explains, Solomon used his power over demons to ask the chief of demons where the shamir could be found. –we can never know how many God will save of the world population, but even with all our modern day evangelism (televised and/or at our Church Masses and Church Home) few of us are spared of satan wiles and then saved. The most famous example of Solomon's wisdom is the story about cutting the baby in half, known as the Judgment of Solomon, but his reputation extends to the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs, as well as apocryphal books such as Wisdom of Solomon, Odes of Solomon, and Psalms of Solomon being attributed to him. But only one of those is so closely linked to him that it's one of the powers of SHAZAM! You can find the story of Solomon (his name is pronounced Shlomo in Hebrew) in 1 Kings 1-11. Could Solomon have attempted to ‘institute’ such a ‘state’? He reminded me that I had done the same thing when I was in college (I had), and I responded, “Yeah, and I regret it. Let’s review the basics of Solomon’s life and ponder the lessons. 1) This is perhaps the one story that we remember most regarding Solomon. There lived a queen … Was it the inappropriate relationships and marriages that the lust caused? One of these errands was seeking out a magic worm that helped Solomon build the Temple, but obviously the main thing you're going to do if you have a giant eagle and you can speak eagle language is ride around on it. He was unhappy with the one wife God gave him, so he acquired another, and another, and another… His lust was such that he could not be satisfied by what- 1000 women? According to Expositions of Holy Scripture, Solomon's trouble began because of his numerous foreign wives. The story regarding Solomon and the ant is widely known as written in the book of Proverbs 6.King Solomon was the son of King David in the Bible.The scripture in Proverbs 6 reveals to us and teaches us about the ant. Lust, greed, fascination with the world, these are human problems. Wisdom of King Solomon Story for HSC. Yes. It’s difficult to relate our situation in the world today with what ‘obtained within the ‘antiquity’ related to us in biblical sources. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?” The LORD was pleased that Solomon made this request. The Judgement of Solomon is a story from the Hebrew Bible in which King Solomon of Israel ruled between two women both claiming to be the mother of a child. For the most part I do ok,, but there are some days that are very bad for me. The many wives may have been a product, and necessary action to take, in organizing his governance. When he asks him about the nature of demons' power over humans, Asmodeus tells Solomon to give him his magic ring and he'll show him. Tons of examples of Solomon's famous wisdom can be found throughout Jewish legend, just in case bisecting a baby wasn't enough evidence of great prudence. It is a very sad tale. The prophet Nathan and Bathsheba conspired to get David to name Solomon his heir. Two mothers living in the same house, each the mother of an infant son, came to Solomon. In the reign of Rehoboam his son the Kingdom of Israel divided from Judah as a result of Solomon’s increasingly oppressive policies. In 1 King 11 right from the first verse we learn that Solomon had a love for foreign women (Foreign women were his weakness and destruction). According to All the Women of the Bible, King Solomon had 300 wives and 700 concubines, which is basically a slave whose job is to do sex with you. The eagle would perch on the chains, and Solomon would use his magic ring (more on that later) to compel them to reveal to him all the mysteries of the universe, thereby increasing his wisdom. He was the second son of David and Bathsheba, and he expanded Israel’s borders and economy more than any king in Israel’s history. the monks of the desert were distinguished for their ascetic life, and the mortification of bodily passions and concupiscences. But Solomon's presence was so great not even the Bible could contain him, and legends of his great accomplishments pervaded both Jewish and Islamic folklore, telling of his dominion over demons, djinn, animals, and all the powers of the Earth. The Temple was built to mimic the shape of the Tabernacle that had been used to house the Ark while the Israelites wandered the desert, but it was twice the size, made of stone, cedar, and gold, with elaborate carvings and bronze pillars inside. etc.) Truly one heck of a barbecue. On Presidents Day We Should Remember That Washington and Lincoln Often Called us to Prayer, Losing our Leprosy – A Homily for the 6th Sunday of the Year, Two Kinds of Love to Celebrate on St Valentine’s Day, C=JL² This is the Metaphysical Math and Source of All Creation; It is the Grand Unified Theory. 3rd and 4th century a.d.; abba moses once told one of the brethren that if he stayed in his cell (a monks living quarter in the desert, usually a cave) it would teach him everything he needed to learn and know about living an ascetic life as a monk and gaining humility – the crowning acheivement of a monk (the desert monks I speak of were Christians). The story of Solomon is a sad object lesson, a moral tale. King Solomon is one of the more familiar kings of ancient Israel. 6 So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done. But later in life Solomon turned from his first love and his infidelity ultimately led to divided kingdom. Many of these have come down to us in the biblical books authored by Solomon: Proverbs, the Song of Songs, Wisdom, and his possible editing of Ecclesiastes.
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