what can we learn from Solomon?
Solomon is one of the most impressive figures in the Bible, with power, wealth and wisdom outstripping all other Old Testament characters. Solomon had the honour of meeting the god God, chatting with him and being offered anything he wanted:
the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
“… give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings.” (1 Kings 3)
So Christians believe:
1. There was and never will be anyone as wise as Solomon.
2. The god God loved and blessed Solomon.
3. Solomon had personal conversations with the god God.
According to the Bible, this wisest of men who had a personal relationship with the god God still went on to disobey the god God by having 700 wives and 300 concubines, and disturbingly (for a wise man) worshipping other, even more clearly false gods.
So I think there is a key lesson that Christians can take from the story of Solomon:
If the wisest and most blessed character depicted in your religious tradition, who has chatted personally with your deity, doesn’t think that the god you worship is worth believing in or staying faithful to, it means the god either isn’t worth worshipping or the god doesn’t actually exist.
As an atheist, I think there is also a key lesson for me from the story of Solomon:
There are no depths to the absurdity of the stories that Christians will believe and also, rather curiously, manage to interpret in ways that give reinforcing messages about their religion and their god.
Of course, if anyone else has a lesson they would like to share about the story of Solomon, I would be more than delighted to hear it.
(Inspired by Becky.)
As long as you don’t kill people(through war or other means) you’re good people?
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Eh? Don’t get it. Did Solomon not have his brother killed?
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He did, but I don’t think that was considered murder by the god God. Adonijah was attempting to usurp the throne that had been given to Solomon.
Isn’t the reason King David wasn’t allowed to build the temple because he had blood on his hands. And the god God picks Solomon to do it because he’s a man of peace, even though he isn’t the first born:
“You are not to build a house for my Name,” God told David, “because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. But you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon, and I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign. He is the one who will build a house for my Name” (1 Ch 22.8-10).
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“I don’t think that was considered murder by the god God. Adonijah was attempting to usurp the throne that had been given to Solomon.” Ooops, yes, a totally justified killing that the god God just didn’t get round to doing himself.
I’ll make the obvious joke now – it’s not surprising Solomon was a man of peace, I’m sure he couldn’t get much else done with 1000 women to service.
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Hi Violet!
“So I think there is a key lesson that Christians can take from the story of Solomon:
“it means the god either isn’t worth worshipping or the god doesn’t actually exist.”
Solomon did continue to “worship” God and he also allowed his many foreign wives to worship their Gods. That would seem to negate both of your declarations.
Clearly, being wise does not guarantee that one will always act wisely. Having 700 wives is proof that Solomon didn’t always act in the wisest manner! It wasn’t his wisdom he was accessing when he made those decisions.
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He definitely didn’t stay faithful to the god God. He’s depicted as having disobeyed him in the most humiliating manner – not only with all the sexual sin but also by honouring other gods. Do you really think that if your god God is what Christians say he is, someone who met him could do such a thing? The wisest man ever created? Admit it, it’s a silly story. Unbelievable.
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“He definitely didn’t stay faithful to the god God.”
Not staying faithful to your values and beliefs is not the same thing as abandoning them all together. It doesn’t mean that you think your beliefs are not worth holding nor that they are based on something that doesn’t exist.
“Do you really think that if your god God is what Christians say he is, someone who met him could do such a thing? ”
Yes. Easily. I don’t know about you Violet, but I have a difficult time living up to my own standards. Most people do. So I don’t think it is a silly story, I think it accurately depicts the human condition.
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“I don’t know about you Violet, but I have a difficult time living up to my own standards.”
To be honest, I don’t really, but I’m convinced that’s because I don’t think an invisible demon is trying to trick me into being ‘bad’ (based on the number of Christians that seem to have problems in this area). Well, I suppose could say I’m unable to control my temper in the way I’d wish when I’ve had 5 hours sleep, the baby’s crying and my 3 year old having a random tantrum. But that’s not in way comparable to brazenly building places of worship for false gods when I personally know the one true god AND I’m the wisest person that ever existed. Sorry, it doesn’t equate with anything we do in our lives.
I’ll accept that as a traditional story attempting to illustrate human weakness in the face of even the ‘perfect’ life, to make people feel better about their own lives, it might do the trick. But generally it’s a silly story that is impossible to take seriously, and those who do think it’s fact must surely question how it depicts their god – weak and unconvincing.
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It seems we are in agreement, Jim, about one of the main points of the story. I also like your take away about failing to live up to one’s own standard and ideals.
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Silly thing. 700 wives and 300 concubines is what US evangelicals consider traditional marriage
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I’m sorry, John, but I must correct you. US evangelicals consider one man and one woman ’til the cold, clammy hand of death comes traditional marriage. They do however excuse the multiple marriages of OT figures as not being sin due to the fact that The Law allowed for it. Then Jesus comes along and supposedly says this wasn’t so in the Garden of Eden. So wham, bam, thank you mam, that practice becomes sin.
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Ahhh!
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There are some fringe polygamy believers…but they’ve either moved to Utah or the Phillipines.
http://christianpolygamy.com/index.html
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Sorry Ruth, but I must correct you. Jesus was quite clear that not one jot of the law changed. You’re just not interpreting anything correctly because you’re an atheist and you believe everything came from nothing. Stop cherry picking the wrong passages!
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Oh, I agree. That’s not my interpretation. It’s the interpretation of Catholics and most protestants alike – except for those fringe ones like the one I linked to.
I like cherries.
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you seem to have learnt from one of your greatest fans
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The lesson I learned from Solomon is that whoever wrote his stories needed to do more pre-writing. Fiction should inspire confidence in the character.
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Exactly! The god God comes out of that story looking nothing less than unconvincing. What’s the point of appearing to the puny creation if they still worship false gods and ignore your commands? No wonder he’s invisible …
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Wouldn’t you hide your face in shame?
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The point of the story is that Solomon, the wisest of all men, stops being wise when he marries all those foreign women and turns away from G-d.
The whole narrative is a contrast between its first half and second half: first half = wise Solomon who delivers perfect justice to all the people, perfect government, perfect religion, glorious building projects, ruler of the greatest stretch of land under a unified Kingdom, and the envy of all the world.
second half = he doesn’t make wise decisions, marries foreign women who turns him away from G-d, rebels spring up, and the kingdom eventually splits.
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So the moral of the story is don’t marry lots of foreign women? Or just another sweet tale about how women ruin everything for the good men?
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Something like that. There is a lot going on in the story. I don’t really think it has one single moral necessarily. For example, in addition to the warning against marrying foreign wives because it turns one away from G-d, other “morals” expressed in the story:
1) The wise only remain wise in so far as they remain loyal to G-d.
1a) You could take a more general: the wise can stop being wise if they don’t remain vigilant (i. e. just because you’re wise at 20 doesn’t mean you’ll remain wise at 60 if you let your guard down).
2) Abandon the ways of G-d and all unity, justice, and order evaporates.
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“The wise only remain wise in so far as they remain loyal to G-d.”
It’s another indication of the sloppy creation. If the most intelligent/wise of your creation can’t follow simple instructions under optimum circumstances, you really messed up the recipe. And if you messed up the creation, you can’t be perfect … or you don’t exist.
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I can tell by your response we’re having somewhat different conversations. I’m not really discussing does the Solomon story prove/disprove G-d. I’m talking about it more as a literary work, a product of the Deuteronomist to be more exact, and their perspective as exemplified by the text. .
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Oh, I know. I just can’t help being flippant about it. 😉
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I think Solomon went round the bend when he discovered he had contracted micoxaphalia.
I wouldn’t trust anything he said , wrote or did. Would you?
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What’s that? Some kind of STD?
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For me it is best to be wise and have many wives and concubines. You will be remembered for ages.
Solon or Lycurgus or Themistocles who were wise and worthy men don’t get as much air play
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But did the god God make them the wisest ever? No! That’s why they’re not remembered. But you have a point. Clearly the Bible is linking wisdom with sex drive, which is odd, because there would surely be a lack of blood to the brain.
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You would think the believers would not have problems with sex, they are so hung up on it though
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Hi Vi, Solomon is greatest of all. He wrote Ecclesiastes, the most human of all Scriptures. In it you have the essence of what religion should be: eat, drink and have fun, as that’s all you have, but keep it within common sense.
Also, without being too emphatic about it, just as a matter of a bit of pride, it might be Old Testament for the Christian hijackers, but not for us;-)
Again, don’t take this too seriously, the world just got too used to it:-)
All the best, excellent post!
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Thanks! I’ll think about a post based on Ecclesiastes …
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Hi Violet-
You may want to take a look at a pretty good example of his wisdom. Remember the ‘cut the baby in half,’ ordeal?
The careless of thought will run with this and accuse Solomon of heartlessness or attempted murder, yet the narrative, as well as the love of a mother, explains both perfectly. This was a wise thing the king did here to find the monster of the two.
And oh, the proverbs are not too shabby either.
‘A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.’ .
‘A wise son maketh a glad father.’
‘These six things does the Lord hate….’
By the way, his wisdom was not merely in adages, but in his skills in so many disciplines. Its worth looking into. Closest thing to a genius you will ever see.
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Indeed. He was so wise he didn’t thinking the god God was worth staying faithful to. That’s the power of extra brain cells.
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Whatever you say V, but the world has yet to see such splendor wrapped up in one man, then again, the least in the kingdom of God is greater than Solomon.
Then there is always the son of God Himself, where all the wisdom of Solomon could fit on a thimble.
Yep, compared to He whose understanding is infinite, we all (you and I also) kinda come up short.
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my blog’s title is inspired by Solomon’s lament in Ecclesiastes, so I talk a bit about his story on my “why oceansneverfill” page if you’re interested. I just discovered you, and I have to say, while our opinions are pretty much in polarity I very much appreciate that you HAVE an opinion. I get pretty tired of apathy. So thanks for thinking 🙂
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