Jo’s Place

Solomon Judges Wisely Some time later ( after Solomon had prayed to the Lord for wisdom ), two prostitutes came to the king, to have an argument settled.  “Please, my lord,” one of them began, “this woman and I …live in the same house.  I gave birth to a baby, while she was with me, in the house.  Three days later, this woman also had a baby.  We were alone; there were only two of us, in the house.  “But her baby died, during the night, when she rolled over on it.  Then, she got up, in the night, and took my son, from beside me, while I was asleep.  She laid her dead child, in my arms, and took mine, to sleep beside her.  And, in the morning, when I tried to nurse my son, he was dead!  But, when I looked more closely, in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t my son at all.”  Then, the other woman interrupted,  “It certainly was your son, and the living child is mine.”  “No,” the first woman said, “the living child is mine, an...

Solomon Asks for Wisdom Solomon made an alliance, with Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and married one of his daughters.  He brought her, to live in the City of David, until he could finish building his palace… and the Temple of the Lord …and the wall, around the city.  At that time, the people of Israel …sacrificed their offerings, at local places of worship, …for a temple, honoring the name of the Lord, had not yet been built.  However, the tabernacle with the ark of the Lord was always there. So, no building should have been necessary… I’ve never understood this need for a building that David instilled in Solomon… Solomon loved the Lord …and followed all the decrees of his father, David, …except that Solomon, too, offered sacrifices and burned incense, at the local places of worship.  The most important, of these places, of worship, was at Gibeon, …so the king went there, and sacrificed 1,000 burnt offerings.  That night, the Lord appeared to Solomon, in a dream,...

Solomon was shrewd, and was able to grant all of David’s deathbed requests  His father, David, before his death, had told Solomon to kill Shimei… David had told Solomon: “…you will know how to arrange a bloody death for him.” So, Solomon… …sent for Shimei and told him,  “Build a house here, in Jerusalem, and live there.  But don’t step outside the city, to go anywhere else.  On the day you so much as cross the Kidron Valley, you will surely die; and your blood will be on your own head.”  Shimei replied, “Your sentence is fair; I will do whatever my lord the king commands.”  So, Shimei lived in Jerusalem, for a long time.  But, three years later, two of Shimei’s slaves ran away, to King Achish, son of Maacah, of Gath.  When Shimei learned where they were, he saddled his donkey …and went to Gath, to search for them.  When he found them, he brought them back to Jerusalem.  Solomon heard that Shimei had left Jerusalem, and had gone to Gath, ...

Solomon Defiles the Lord’s Sanctuary  The king said to Abiathar the priest,  “Go back to your home, in Anathoth.  You deserve to die, but I will not kill you now, because you carried the Ark, of the Sovereign Lord, for David, my father, and you shared all his hardships.”  So, Solomon deposed Abiathar, from his position, as priest, of the Lord, thereby fulfilling the prophecy, that the Lord had given, at Shiloh, concerning the descendants of Eli.  Eli’s sons continued in their sinful behavior, and "a man of God" prophesied to Eli that Eli and his family would be punished for this, with all male descendants dying before reaching old age and being placed in positions subservient to prophets from other lineages. The curse alludes to a previous promise from God of Aaron’s lineage continuing eternally (Eli was a descendant of Aaron, to whom the promise was initially given [see Exodus Chapter 28]. So, while this continuation of Aaron’s lineage was not revoked, a curse ...