King Solomon – What kind of a father was he? Part Two

 King Solomon – What kind of a father was he? Part Two

The influence of King David on King Solomon

Father’s probably provide their son’s the best examples of what it is like to be a father and how one should act towards his children. Solomon and David are no exception to this general rule. So what kind of influences would David have had on his youngest son Solomon? Let’s look at some examples here.

When we think of King Solomon the conventional wisdom among most Christians today is that Solomon was a strict disciplinarian. This is how he is generally portrayed today through his supposed advocacy of corporal punishment of children.[1] Solomon is spoken of as having “loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father:”[2]

However, when we look at the influences that Solomon had on his life for strict legalism, we find some important examples that may have affected Solomon later in his life and they may have influenced how he thought about life and how he related to people. The first thing that David demonstrated to his son Solomon was the general characteristic of spiritual principles over physical rules. What I mean here is a type of rejection of legalism and rigid rules in favor of the higher principles of faith, hope and love. Note the following passage which points to this idea:

“1 Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David trembling and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” 2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” 4 And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away. (I Samuel 21:1-6 ESV)

Not a very interesting story? Hardly! This story points to a very important principle which David modeled: one of rejecting legalism and rigid interpretations of religious rules. In fact, legally speaking David and his colleagues broke a rule found in the Law of Moses concerning this issue of eating this bread. It is found in Leviticus 24:5-9. It says:

“5 You shall take fine flour and bake twelve loaves from it; two tenths of an ephah shall be in each loaf. 6 And you shall set them in two piles, six in a pile, on the table of pure gold before the Lord. 7 And you shall put pure frankincense on each pile, that it may go with the bread as a memorial portion as a food offering to the Lord. 8 Every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange it before the Lord regularly; it is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever. 9 And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the Lord's food offerings, a perpetual due.” (Leviticus 24:5-9 ESV)

This passage shows that this bread is reserved only for priests of the line of Aaron. No one else is eligible to eat this bread, yet David, who was not a priest, ate the bread. Note what Jesus had to say about the very example:

“23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: 26 how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” 27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:23-28 ESV)

This passage shows that Jesus, who was ‘God with us’ (Emmanuel in Hebrew), permitted his disciples to break the Sabbath and “work” by picking that grain, which was not allowed to do on that day according to the Law of Moses and according to the prevailing interpretation of what constituted “work” at that time in the Holy Land and Jesus in the process quotes the actions of David in this regard. This is a very convincing proof showing the importance of the spiritual interpretation over the physical one and David seems to have understood that in some deeper way. 

Solomon would have known this story and it must have impacted him, because later we read him saying: “Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself?”[3] Not the words of someone who was a real stickler for keeping rules!

To be continued:

In the spirit of Romans 12:17-21,

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[1] In this regard, we refer to the Bible texts in Proverbs 10:13; 13:24; 19:18; 22:15; 23:13-14 & 29:15

[2] I Kings 3:3

[3] Ecclesiastes 7:16