Troublesome Topic: Solomon Was Like His Father in Several Ways

Solomon shared many of the same strengths that David’s possessed. They were both good at writing songs, (I Kings 4:32 indicates that Solomon wrote 1005 psalms!). They both helped improve the ministry of the temple choirs. (Go to my study lesson about parallelism in the Psalms if you want to know more about how the choirs functioned.)

Solomon watched his father closely and he learned a number of things he would later include in his own kingdom. These included: the organization of the Levites, the importance of music and the role a choir could play in worship at the temple, the importance of a godly leader for the people to follow, how to hear and judge cases and problems that were presented to the king, and most of all, the importance of a strong military.

However, he also observed several weaknesses and he knew from early on he would not want to do everything just like his father. David could have done better at administering a kingdom; he relied on the use of force and force alone to expand the kingdom; he did not do a very good job of training his sons because he was gone away from home so much; and he did not understand economics very well. 

Solomon saw danger in the hero worship model because he knew that, at any moment, an arrow could find one of the king’s vulnerable spots, or there could be a defeat of Israel’s entire army, and what would that mean for the hero? Solomon saw economics as the way to win people’s adoration and allegiance. If things were good economically, and they were not risking their necks in battles on a regular basis, then everyone would be happy and there would be no reason for any of the tribes to talk about becoming independent of the rest. The tribes of Israel had been at odds with each other ever since they came out of Egypt, but people would do almost anything to keep a good economic time going, even if it meant pretending to like a neighbor from one of those other tribes.

Solomon was like his father in another way, he had a similar weakness—women. I will cover this topic more later. It was not as bad as you may think, but it was a weakness.

Later Solomon was horrified at what Amnon had done and how it led to Absalom killing Amnon. The whole thing blew up into a huge, ugly mess, and of course everyone knew about it. That was the only thing that was talked about in all Israel for weeks. Solomon was also horrified at how similar he was to his brothers, in one important way. On the inside he had the same inclinations, the same roots of evil.

The next lesson is: Solomon Was Promised the Kingship