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THE REAL KING SOLOMON
submitted by Bro Percy Aga

SOLOMON, was the son of David's old age, the child of Bathsheba, to possess whom David committed a cruel crime. The longings of the "man of war" who had shed so much blood were now for peace, and in the name of his last born this is expressed - Shelomoh -" the peaceful one."

Of Solomon's childhood we know nothing. He was not then the expected heir to the throne; Absalom lived and was the favorite son. However, when Solomon was about ten or eleven years of age Absalom's career ended, and it was then that David swore secretly to Bathsheba that her son should inherit the kingdom-secretly, because in those days life was not held sacred, and had his elder brothers known of this vow, he would certainly have been sacrificed to their natural ambitions.

Solomon grew up under the influences of his mother and the prophet Nathan. We cannot know much of Bathsheba, but we can hardly expect that she was superior, except in beauty, to the majority of women in oriental lands. Nathan, too, does not appear to have been one of those stern old prophets who lived only to denounce iniquity in high places. The boy was exposed to the blandishments and seductions of the Court which David had created about him, and he did not find there that robust life, those manly exercises, which had made his father a mighty man-king of Israel. But he did find an intellectual activity and a culture which had not existed in Israel before. These produced a marked influence upon his character and life. We find him afterwards a writer, a wise man, one of superior intellectual gifts.

But the religious life of the nation had already begun its downward career. The liturgical, sensuous element had been exalted and perfected by David, and had possessed the souls of the people. The finer, loftier spirit of the old seers and preachers was overlaid and forgotten. There is every reason to suppose that Solomon was at this time almost wholly engrossed by the former.

In personal appearance we may believe that he partook of the beauty of his father, perhaps excelled it; for in the "Song of Songs" expressions 'are used which many think applied to him - "fairer than the children of men," golden locks, eyes soft as the eyes of a dove, "the chiefest among ten thousand, altogether lovely."

Solomon succeeded to the throne of a nation made strong by David's arm, to an overflowing treasury, to a superb but sensuous worship, to a people among whom music, poetry and knowledge were welcomed. Never before, and never after, did the kingdom of Israel hold such a place among the monarchies of the East.

The first act of Solomon's reign was startling. The deserted Adonijah, eldest son of David and heir-expectant to the throne, had begged of Bathsheba that one of David's women might be given to him for a wife. Bathsheba appeared before Solomon to prefer the request. He rose from his throne and bowed to her, commanding that a seat be placed for the king's mother.

She said: "I desire one small petition of thee, I pray thee say me not nay."

And the king responded: "Ask on, my mother, for I will not say thee nay."

Then Bathsheba asked that Abishag, the Shunamite, might be given to Adonijah.

At this, regardless of his promise to her, regardless of the promise of pardon once made to Adonijah, regardless of all respect due to his mother, Solomon broke out into a rage, and "swore by the Lord God, saying, God do so to me and more also if Adonijah have not spoken this word against his own life." Adonijah was slain that day and his friends with him. It was certainly a strong, perhaps a kingly, act, which effectually checked all desire for sedition or conspiracy. We hear no more of Bathsheba.

Solomon now proceeded to inaugurate a "foreign policy." This was a novelty to the Israelites, who had been an exclusive people, God's elect, despising and hating other nations. He made a treaty with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and received his daughter in marriage and the city of Gezer as a dowry.' This was in the face of the old law and practice which forbad foreign alliances and marriages.

Next, an alliance was entered into with Hiram, king of Tyre, who had been a good friend to king David. Now for the first time the Israelites became a commercial people. Joppa (or Jaffa) was their port, at which Hiram exchanged for the wine and oil of their land the various articles of use and luxury which his ships brought from all the shores of the Mediterranean. Solomon further opened ports on the Red Sea, and thence ships built for him by Hiram traded towards the East as far as the coasts of India.

Wisdom and an understanding heart - these Solomon had prayed for when he was a young man, and we have some striking instances of his gifts at that time, before he became corrupted by power and indulgence. But his taste for luxury, for splendor, for power, grew with what it fed on, and day by day his expenditures became more lavish, the cruelties to his slaves greater, the taxes of his people more grievous. The "strangers" were made slaves, and their life "bitter with all hard bondage." He built palaces and harems for himself and his wives, forty thousand stalls for his horses, "Millo and the wall about Jerusalem. and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer." More than all. he built The Temple, whose fame went abroad in all lands and is remembered to this day.

At the end of seven years, as we read in Mr. Stark's article, the work was completed, and the day came to which all Israelites look back as the culminating glory of their nation. Their worship was now established. The ark from Zion, the tabernacle from Gibeon, were both removed and brought to the new Temple. The choirs of the priests and Levites met, arrayed in white linen. Then was heard the noble hymn: "Lift up your heads, a ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in."

Throughout the whole scene the person of the king was the one central object, compared with whom even priests and prophets were for the time subordinate . From him came the lofty prayer (1 Kings ch. VIII), the noblest utterance of the creed of Israel, setting forth the distance and the nearness of the Eternal God, One, Incomprehensible, dwelling not in temples made with hands, yet ruling men, hearing their prayers, giving them all good things, wisdom, peace, righteousness.

But in spite of the wealth, the splendor, the power and the wisdom of Solomon, dark and evil days came upon him, and in that confession of his Ecclesiastes - we find him satiated, hopeless, wretched -" Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." This world and its pleasures had palled.

Solomon had tried every indulgence under the sun. "He loved many strange women - Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, Hittites." He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. and "his wives turned away his heart."

He built temples and altars to strange gods - Ashtaroth, Milcom, Chemosh, Moloch - and he burnt incense before them and offered sacrifices. We do not believe that he worshipped these gods in his heart. It was a matter of policy. The kingdom now contained whole tribes who worshipped these gods, and to please them and bind them to him was no doubt the motive which influenced him. But these diverse elements had no principle of cohesion and after Solomon's death they rush ed into insurrection and confusion. The ten tribes revolted, and only Judah and Benjamin remained with Rehoboam.

Solomon's reign lasted forty years, and, in the eyes of the world, was great and glorious; but the confessions of "The Preacher" remain for kings to read.

Solomon never drew a sword nor led an army, but no conqueror - not Alexander, nor Caesar, nor Tamerlane - enjoyed a wider fame in his own day; none enjoys a wider one in ours. He sought glory in the ways of peace instead of those of war; he grasped the riches of mind rather than those of matter, and he cultivated the arts of poetry and literature. Thus he made his wisdom and his fame perpetual.

-The Square, Vancouver, April 19222