1 Kings 1-5 - Solomon = good people

The readings - Days 102 and 103 - 1 Kings 1-5

Here we are, playing catch up again. Things were going so well, too. It's funny how the books/passages that are more boring (IE the dry philosophical/statistical/historical bits) often actually end up being better fodder for writing/reflection that the faster-paced narrative stuff...

Not that the book(s) of Kings starts off at a particularly riveting clip, but still - it's story, and stuff's happening, but maybe that's what makes it a bit harder to write about. The stuff happens, you read about it, and that's pretty much that.

On to Solomon.



There exists out there in the Interweb ether a list of things that one ought to do if one really wants to be a successful tyrannical leader. (Actually, I believe the actual list is about evil masterminds, but the line is thinner than you may first think...) (In any event, here it is) It includes such sage advise as don't leave your enemies alive to prove they're no threat, and basically instructs you to make sure you do away with the people who might turn on you, and to do so with all speed.

Solomon does fairly well at this, actually. The first thing we learn in 1 Kings (apart from the fact that David is A) still alive, and B) quite old) is that becoming a king can actually be as easy as just convincing some guys that you already are one and hoping that nobody stronger and gutsier than you notices.

We saw it with Absalom, and here we get it with Adonijah, who has to be dealt with quickly, since he's basically setting himself up as David's successor.

So Solomon, after being anointed king, has him killed. Pretty quickly, too. Ditto for Joab, who ended up being a bit of a dick and turning on David by killing some other guys that David wanted alive. And this other guy, Shimei, who was even given a chance to just live out his days, but couldn't just let a few servants go, so he broke a vow to Solomon and was also summarily killed.

"Thus the kingdom was established in the hands of Solomon." (2:46b)

Yup. Pretty much.

Then we get to the only thing Solomon is really known for in any broader sense these days: his wisdom. He really only gets one Sunday school story, and even that's not relly in high circulation anymore. God asks him what he wants, Solomon says that he wants the wisdom to rule properly, God is sufficiently impressed that he didn't immediately ask for wealth, power or (the most obvious choice) more wishes, and gives him wisdom and the promise of wealth, power and long life.

Cool.

So then his big test comes up (I totally never knew/remembered/was taught that the two ladies in question were both prostitutes...) and Solomon cunningly gets the fake mom to reveal herself (as both a fake mom and generally disagreeable person) by shrugging off the imminent dissection of a young infant.

It's interesting that we like to remember Solomon for making this judgment to prove his wisdom, but then he turns around and makes himself a tidy alliance with some woodcutters so's he can accomplish all his temple-building, which comes next.

He's good stuff so far.