Foolish King Solomon (1st Kings)

 

What would be the most foolish thing you could ever do in the eyes of God?

 

Maybe ponder on that one for a little bit. But in the meantime read ahead.

 

The tale of Solomon tells us that one day (1 Kings 3), after Solomon had foolishly slaughtered a thousand animals in honor of God (Hosea 6:6, Psalm 51:16, Hebrews 10:8), God said to him, whatever you ask for, I will give you. Solomon asked for wisdom. God was pleased that Solomon didn’t ask for wealth or for enemies to be vanquished, so said he would give him wisdom, wealth AND honour (many massacred enemies).

 

Then Solomon awoke and realised it was all a dream.

 

Now, any rational person at this point, would pull back and say, “Oh, it was just a dream! God didn’t speak to Solomon at all!” But no, when it comes to bible tales, for some ludicrous reason dreams are considered real, not just fantasies, fears, or whatever it is your mind has been focussing a lot on recently. So everyone now has to believe that God really did speak to Solomon and gave him those things.

 

We have to shrug off any notion that Solomon might have already been a pretty shrewd customer to begin with. After all, the fact that he didn’t automatically ask for wealth or the destruction of his enemies and asked for wisdom instead, already shows us great wisdom, doesn’t it? He already had what he was asking for anyway! He didn’t need God to manipulate his mind and force that wisdom upon him.

 

But wait! Just how wise was King Solomon? How much wisdom did he already have and how much did God add?

 

He had a great reputation, but in the stories we hear about him, there certainly isn’t much wisdom displayed. There is that famous story about how he threatened to slice a baby in two, to find out who the true mother was. And of course his prayer for wisdom rather than wealth. But what else did he do that was so wise that gave him a reputation around the world and throughout history?

 

He had 700 wives! (1K 11:3)  What sort of foolish person would choose to have 700 wives?  Even 1 is too much! (Okay I’m being tongue-in-cheek there, but many men would agree with me). Although I guess in Solomon’s days they all did as they were told, were his personal property and were there mainly for sex and child-rearing. If he wanted to give one the flick, he could. Or just ignore her and focus on the other 699.

 

But he didn’t just have wives.  He also had 300 sex slaves! (1K 11:3) In the bible that might not be considered foolish, but it would be certainly deemed despicable and immoral. Simply having 300 sex slaves and 700 wives should be enough for any rational person to brand him despicably immoral already. It makes him a bigamist, an adulterer, a fornicator, a slaver and a rapist. Plus I’m guessing many of his wives/sex slaves would have been underage too, going by the culture at the time. So he was most likely a paedophile too.

 

So we have Solomon foolishly breaking some of God’s laws just there. I’ll let you figure out which ones were allowable and which ones weren’t.

 

We could talk about the thousands of slaves he used to build the temple too (2^nd Chronicles 8:8, 1K 5:13, 1K 9:21). And the acts of Genocide he committed. (1K 9: 20-21), but some may argue that isn’t foolishness and that those things were allowable if God told you to do them.

 

He overtaxed his people, taking in masses of gold, more than what he should have.  (1 Kings 10:14)

 

He was foolish when it came to dishing out justice. He executed people for ridiculous reasons, including his own brother simply for making an inappropriate request.  (1K 2:23-25)

 

One of the most disturbing things was how he tricked the Queen of Sheba into sleeping with him. (see the Kebra Negast – Historical Ethiopian text)

 

In the end, God was so angry with Solomon’s foolishness that he cursed him.

 

No, wait.

 

Not him. He cursed Solomon’s son instead. (1 Kings 11:9-12)

 

God punishes Solomon’s son because of Solomon’s acts. But wait… again… exactly what was the punishment for? It certainly wasn’t for all the immoral and despicable things Solomon did above. No! The reason why God decided to curse Solomon’s offspring was that he followed other gods!  (1 Kings 11:10)

 

Surely, in the eyes of God, this is the most foolish thing a man could ever do?  This is why it is the first of the 10  Commandments and why things like slavery, rape and paedophilia don’t even get a mention.  Worshipping false and imaginary gods is way worse than any other foolishness you can imagine. 

 

So with all these foolish acts we see from Solomon (including the most foolish act of all), why is he considered so wise? Perhaps that dream Solomon had really was just a dream and nothing more? After all, his foolishness clearly eclipsed his wisdom.  

 

So next time you ask God for wisdom, you might want to recall the story of Solomon and consider that maybe God's wisdom isn't all it's cracked up to be.