Riding on a Donkey

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This is Day 24 of my 40 day Lenten Blog.

King David promised Bathsheba that their son Solomon would succeed him on the throne and not one of Solomon's older brothers whom David had had with other wives. As David got older, Bathsheba reminded him of his promise and so David took Solomon, placed him on a donkey and had him ridden through town by the priest and Nathan the prophet. And then Nathan anointed Solomon king. Riding on a donkey instead of a horse was to demonstrate that Solomon would be a king of peace.

When David was close to death he told Solomon to always be strong, show himself a man, and to walk in the ways of the Lord, always keeping His commandments. And King David died.

Solomon was allowed to build the Temple of the Lord because, unlike David, he was to be a man of peace. And God offered to give Solomon anything he asked for. But Solomon did not ask for wealth or a long life, or to destroy his enemies as most would, but instead he asked for wisdom to govern his people well. God was delighted that Solomon had asked for this instead of riches and health so he told Solomon that He would indeed grant him wisdom, but He would also give Solomon wealth, and a long life and the destruction of his enemies.

Solomon was indeed wise. So wise that many people such as the Queen of Sheba, sometimes known as the Queen of the South, came from all over the world to listen to Solomon's wisdom. One famous example was when he judged between two women who both claimed a baby as their own.

Both of the women were mothers, but one of the mother's baby had died while they slept, so she took the other woman's baby. They went before King Solomon to sort it out. He ordered that the baby be cut in half and each woman could get a half. The woman who was not the real mother agreed with that plan, but the true mother offered to let the other woman keep the baby to let the baby live. Solomon knew then that the true mother would not want the child to be killed and ordered that she get the baby.

As the Lord had promised, he not only gave Solomon wisdom, but riches and good health as well. Solomon was the richest king in the history of Israel, possibly in the history of the world. Unfortunately, he did take foreign wives and those foreign wives turned his heart toward their foreign gods. And he built high altars for these other gods--these demons pretending to be gods.

This angered the Lord and He promised to tear the kingdom from Solomon. But for the sake of David, who was a man after God's own heart, God would not take the kingdom in Solomon's lifetime, but in his son's. And God raised up enemies to challenge Solomon and his house. Solomon's worship of other gods ended up not only tearing the kingdom from his house, but tearing the kingdom in half!

Next: The Kingdom Splits

R.C. VanLandingham is a Catholic homeschool dad just trying to make it through this life and into the next! He has written a Christian children's fantasy series about a boy named Peter Puckett!