Solomon’s Secret
Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.” Solomon held fast to these in love. 1 Kings 11:1-2 NASB
Held fast – Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived. If that’s true, then why did he make such terrible mistakes in his personal life, mistakes that led to the decline of the Kingdom and the eventual dispersion of the Jews? What good was all that wisdom if it did not lead to long-term peace and prosperity? What happened to Solomon?
The text says that Solomon “held fast” to the love of these women. The verb is dabaq, a verb familiar to us from its use in Genesis 2:24. Solomon stuck to these women in spite of God’s specific prohibition and in spite of the growing disaster for the kingdom. Why would the wisest man on earth do such a thing? Couldn’t he see what was happening to him and to his people?
We have a colloquialism that offers some (naïve) explanation. “Love blinds us.” But that isn’t enough. In this case, we aren’t speaking about a man who didn’t have every reason to see clearly. Even God was on his side. No, it seems rather apparent that Solomon’s problem was not love-blindness. It was addiction. And for the addict, one is never enough. Let’s reconsider Solomon from the perspective of common sexual addictive behavior. We think that Solomon has it all: wisdom, power, prestige, wealth and divine approval. But perhaps there’s something else in this mix. Review, if you will, the earliest days of Solomon’s reign. The story involves the execution of several men, including Adonijah, his half-brother. It involves the political marriage to the daughter of Pharaoh and a brief statement that “he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places” (1 Kings 3:3). In other words, before the vision/dream that granted him wisdom, Solomon acted pretty much like any other monarch securing his power. And in the dream, God grants Solomon his wish based on the character of Solomon’s father, David. We have a tendency to ignore Solomon’s murderous acts and his practice of pagan worship because of God’s wish fulfillment, but are we to imagine that the seeds of his character were not already in place before that dream? Do you suppose Solomon ever battled with the “I’m not good enough as I am” addictive trauma? Does he really behave as a man who is confident in God’s unwavering love for him? Or does he need added affirmation that he is, in fact, worthy; moreover, the most worthy of all?
Why would a man who has power, fame, wealth, wisdom and God’s blessing need 1000 women? Did you ever ask yourself about his relationship with his mother, Bathsheba, and her self-identity, her emotion trauma, her evaluation of Solomon’s father? What was Solomon’s family of origin really like? A brother who raped a sister. A brother who attempted to kill his father. A brother who staged a coup. A brother who tried to kill Solomon and his mother. A mother who acted with betrayal. An emotional devastation. A psychological war zone. Did Solomon try to fill those empty places in his inner self with the anesthetic substitute for love—sex? For that, there is never enough.
She’ol has a mouth so wide that it cannot be filled. I wonder if Solomon didn’t live a good deal of his life staring into that opening.
Topical Index: Solomon, held fast, dabaq, addict, love, I Kings 11:1-2
The study of Solomon’s life, and all the factors we don’t think about, is probably going to end up in a book. Stay tuned.
The Second Wisest Man
~ The queen of the south will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and now One greater than Solomon is here ~ (Matthew 12.42)
“Whatever He says to you, do it.” (the mother of the Christ) John 2.5
Wow, Skip. Powerful.
With all his wisdom, king Solomon disobeyed the LORD in His command NOT to associate with women of the nations with their pagan cultures to be corrupted by them.
A little LEAVEN…. gets to us little by little, just as truth, to lead us into compromise losing our vision and grasp of truth dimming our understanding /light, then corruption into deception and blindness /darkness.
His zealous prayers in Chapter 8 is inspiring.
the nihilism and (existential) despair which pervades Solomon’s works, or those attributed to him (Ecclesiastes) should not only be seen as notorious, but more importantly as an alarming warning to us all: if the wisest ends up producing these works, then we can all lose so much if we are not careful, if we allow wayward influences to overrule our life
sometimes it is painful to see the deliberate ironies in these works, they are chiding and I guess we are left to wonder if Solomon knew of these
Solomon became transfixed, probably not just with women, but with the additional powers and mysteries offered through these proxies, but it came at no small cost, even as the apparent simpleness of the wisdom given, that was to be nurtured, lived and experienced was overlooked and considered feeble in comparison to the offers that were granted
I think we have to understand that we all have to be responsible, we are tasked with being humble, and being good; life is full of bewildering complexities, and we can easily lose focus and become confounded by confusions that want to displace our opportunity to grow and develop spiritually. So endure by being humble and good, and in these ways let us hope to continue:
My son, if thou come to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation.
(Sirach 2:1)
Thank you for this. Good points.
Your points are on target. Perhaps the only real difference between us and Solomon is the depth of his insight into the despair of living.