Solomon and his Mother

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I wrote this several months ago and just didn’t share it yet. Enjoy my thoughts on Solomon and Bathsheba…. which would probably be more appropriate for Mother’s Day….

Lately I have been thinking a lot about Solomon and his mother, Bathsheba. I have an old movie by the title of David and Bathsheba, with Gregory Peck as David. I like the movie because it shows the grief that adultery caused. It doesn’t glamorize their affair. The message comes across as “It wasn’t worth it.”

In case you aren’t familiar with this Biblical story, King David was home when normally he would have been out to war, fighting for his country. He was home in the evening, walking on his rooftop (which would have been like we use decks these days) when he saw a beautiful woman taking a bath. What are the chances that her name would be “Bath”sheba! (haha….) That is what we do know.
What we don’t know is whether Bathsheba knew she could be seen, whether she knew the king was home or whether she thought he was out to battle and thought she had privacy. I know lots of people who live in the country and leave their curtains open in their houses and even their bathrooms because they think no one can see in. They leave them open even at night because they think they are miles from anybody who could peek in. [Perhaps those folks may want to rethink that after reading this!]
Maybe that is what happened to Bathsheba—we don’t know. We also do not know whether she had any choice in responding to David’s summons. Most of us assume that the king was allowed to do what he wanted, and that she probably couldn’t refuse him.

I want to skim through some things because this is not the focus of my thoughts. Bathsheba became “with child” and told David. He realized he had a problem, so he brought Bathsheba’s husband home, hoping the child would be thought to be Uriah’s. But Uriah wouldn’t go home, so David sent him back to the battlefield carrying his own death warrant. The sealed orders told the commander to put Uriah in the hottest part of the battle and withdraw from him so he would be killed.
The commander obeyed, and then David married Bathsheba. Their child died because of David’s sin. Then Solomon was born, and after that, 3 more sons.

Now I want to focus on Solomon, and what kind of family history he had. Think about this, now. Solomon’s mother’s first husband was murdered by Solomon’s father, his mother’s current/ second husband. What kind of mindset might you grow up with, knowing your father had your mother’s first husband killed?! Imagine—if your mother loved her first husband—how she might feel. Wouldn’t she be bitter? Maybe she would feel trapped because of the culture—after all, she had basically been kidnapped by the king. She was powerless to resist. And now she was a mother, but a grieving mother. Not only had her first husband died, her firstborn child had died, too. So many tears, but a lot of tenderness would have gone into mothering Solomon.

And this is what I find amazing. In all of Solomon’s writings in the Proverbs—I find no bitterness. You would think if his mother had been bitter because of all that had happened to her, that she would have passed that bitterness on to her son. Surely Solomon knew his parents’ history. Everyone knew it.
Not only was Solomon not bitter—he was humble. When God appeared to him in a dream shortly after he became king, God offered Solomon whatever he wanted. Solomon humbly replied, “ I am but a little child… Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad.”
And it was because of this humble request that God said, I’m going to give you more than you asked. Because you asked for wisdom only, and nothing for yourself, I’m going to give it all to you. I’m going to give you the most wisdom, the most wealth, that anyone has ever had. And if you continue to obey me, I’m also going to give you a long life.
Solomon had grown up as a prince—a child of the king. His half brothers were arrogant and had terrible characteristics. Why didn’t Solomon grow up arrogant and evil like his brothers? I think it was because of Bathsheba.

I think Bathsheba forgave David for what he had done. I think Bathsheba saw David’s repentance firsthand, that we read about in Psalm 51. I think Bathsheba was a true believer in the God of her people, the Israelites. I think Bathsheba trusted that God had a plan throughout all that had happened, and decided to trust God through the hard times in her life. I think it was because of her gentleness and humbleness that Solomon developed a humble spirit.
Throughout the Proverbs, Solomon talks about what a good relationship with a mother looks like. A wise son will honor and respect his mother. From all the evidence, Solomon was a wise son as well as a wise king.
King David called for Bathsheba shortly before his death. He promised her that Solomon would be the next king. Not long after he became king, Solomon had his mother, Bathsheba, sit at his right hand. What a place of honor!
We can overcome whatever bad circumstances are in our past, our present, or our future. We can follow Bathsheba’s example by forgiving others, and living a bitter free life. We can live abundantly!

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[By the way…. One of the things that got me thinking about Solomon’s humbleness was Proverbs 9:8, “Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.” And I thought—hmm. So a wise person actually appreciates being corrected. And not only that—but isn’t it amazing that a wise person would need correcting in the first place? And the fact that a wise person accepts rebuke and loves the person who corrects him—well, doesn’t that show how humble the wise person is? Solomon, in writing about wise people—was writing about himself. He may have needed to be rebuked—certainly as a child he needed to be corrected—and I think his wisdom began way back then—before God gave him the status as the wisest person who ever lived. Even children can be wise—by being honoring and respectful to their parents, and by obeying and trusting God. These choices made as children can and will probably set their life on a trajectory for what type of adult life they will live. Again—another verse from Solomon’s Proverbs 20:11 says: “Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right.”]

Well– have you ever thought about this aspect of Solomon’s life? What do you think now?

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