Latest / Scripture Central / 2 Samuel 11-12; 1 Kings 3-11 I Bathsheba & Plural Wives I Handmaiden, Harem & Heroine I Lynne Wilson

Transcript

2 Samuel 11-12; 1 Kings 3-11 I Bathsheba & Plural Wives I Handmaiden, Harem & Heroine I Lynne Wilson · Scripture Central

• 0:00
  Now, in the social structure of this time, a woman was not to
• 0:04
  refuse a King David spies her from his palace and he sends an
• 0:10
  emissary out to bring her to his bed.
• 0:13
  That Sheba comes back on the scene.
• 0:15
  She is no longer an innocent bystander.
• 0:17
  She is a very influential member of the court, daughters of David
• 0:22
  who were still virgins, dressed in a certain way and they have
• 0:26
  these multi colored robes that distinguish them as the King's
• 0:29
  virgin daughters. And this beautiful young Tamar
• 0:33
  sees that she's caught in this trap with Absalon and she says
• 0:36
  don't force me, don't force me, just ask the king.
• 0:40
  Even though we're half siblings, if you ask the king, that's
• 0:42
  better than forcing me. But there is a courageous, wise
• 0:45
  woman who calls out from the wall down to Joab.
• 0:50
  I I am one of them that are peaceable and faithful in
• 0:55
  Israel. You know this why woman saved
• 0:57
  her entire city. The next reference to a female
• 1:01
  is Solomon's wedding to the daughter of the Pharaoh.
• 1:04
  Prostitution was illegal according to the law of Moses.
• 1:07
  Her courage and faith or her negotiation.
• 1:10
  I just, I really love this woman, but this queen of Sheba,
• 1:14
  this remarkable queen has a lot of curiosity, and she came from
• 1:19
  the utmost parts of the world. In fact, the Lord even honored
• 1:23
  her in Matthew by saying hello. Welcome back to our study of the
• 1:31
  Old Testament. I'm Lynn Hilton Wilson, part of
• 1:34
  the Scripture Central team that wants to build enduring faith in
• 1:38
  our Savior Jesus Christ by illuminating and defending these
• 1:42
  great scriptures. And right now I'm in second
• 1:44
  Samuel Chapter 11 to 1st Kings Chapter 11.
• 1:49
  We've got a long ways to go and we have a lot of handmaidens,
• 1:52
  harems and heroines. We're starting with Bathsheba
• 1:56
  and then other wives of David and the wives and concubines and
• 2:00
  the a wise woman of Tacoa. In fact, we have two wise women
• 2:03
  mentioned in this text and we have David's daughters.
• 2:07
  We've got 10 specific concubines that have a horrific situation.
• 2:13
  We've we've got a girl from Enrol.
• 2:14
  We've got the woman of Bahoom, We've got the singing women and
• 2:18
  the mother of Brasilia. We've got the wise woman of
• 2:21
  Abel. We've got Solomon's wives, the
• 2:24
  daughter of Pharaoh, the Queen of Sheba, 2 prostitutes and
• 2:28
  their mothers. So welcome aboard.
• 2:31
  Let's dive into the text just as review from last week.
• 2:36
  David had six wives with him as he reigned in Hebron for seven
• 2:41
  years and that second Samuel chapter 19.
• 2:45
  They're all listed by name. But remember before that he had
• 2:49
  Michael. He had Saul's younger daughter
• 2:51
  as well and she comes back but I don't she's she never has
• 2:55
  children and he she's never counted his first wife again
• 2:58
  since then. So if you count up the six wives
• 3:00
  from Hebron, Michael from before, and then in all of the
• 3:05
  wives that join him in Jerusalem, we end up with 9
• 3:09
  named wives. But we never know exactly how
• 3:11
  many he has. We also know he has at least 10
• 3:14
  concubines, but we don't know. And a concubine, by the way, is
• 3:17
  is is a secondary wife. But let's dive into Second
• 3:21
  Samuel Chapter 11 and 12 as we read about Bathsheba.
• 3:24
  Now, she's also mentioned in First Kings and First Chronicles
• 3:27
  as well as the Doctrine Covenant section 132.
• 3:31
  But the author of Second Samuel describes Bathsheba as an
• 3:34
  innocent victim in this first scene that she's in.
• 3:36
  So she's in three different scenes.
• 3:38
  And the text begins by condemning David for being at
• 3:42
  the wrong place at the wrong time, Chapter 11, verse one,
• 3:45
  when kings go forth to battle. And then skipping ahead a little
• 3:49
  bit, David tarried still at Jerusalem.
• 3:53
  So he is not in the right place at the right time.
• 3:58
  And God, through the prophet Nathan condemned David with full
• 4:02
  charge of the adultery and the premeditated murder of this
• 4:07
  relationship with Bathsheba. And Bathsheba is left unscathed.
• 4:12
  So let's look at the text and and see if you can see what I'm
• 4:16
  talking about here. Now in the social structure of
• 4:19
  this time, a woman was not to refuse a king and we are left to
• 4:24
  speculate as to her thoughts and her emotions.
• 4:28
  Now we know some women are able to say no.
• 4:31
  You know, later on today, we're going to talk about Tamar, and
• 4:33
  she says, no, this is wrong. But she was forced.
• 4:37
  And I just have to ask myself, what more could Bathsheba have
• 4:40
  done? I don't know.
• 4:42
  I certainly don't want to step on the stones of the author.
• 4:46
  And because he describes her as a heroine, in fact, that Sheba
• 4:49
  becomes one of the most famous women in Israelite history.
• 4:52
  You know, she's a major character in these three
• 4:55
  stories. And they're all with in her
• 4:57
  relationship with her husband, David, and her son Solomon.
• 5:00
  But we also know a little bit about her upbringing.
• 5:03
  We're told that her father's name is Eli, and he is actually
• 5:07
  from Judah. So even though she marries A
• 5:09
  Hittite, she is an Israelite, and her first marriage is to one
• 5:14
  of David's mighty men. Now, sometimes they're called 30
• 5:18
  mighty men, sometimes 33. At the end, we have 37 mighty
• 5:22
  men, and Uriah the Hittite is one of those who went with David
• 5:27
  on all these raids around in First Samuel.
• 5:30
  And Second Samuel, you know, David was very close to Uriah.
• 5:34
  And Uriah was so loyal to David, but we never hear about his
• 5:38
  wife, Bathsheba, until Second Samuel Chapter 11.
• 5:41
  And there she comes, center stage as a victim of David's
• 5:45
  lust. It's an evening.
• 5:48
  She's bathing on a rooftop. David spies her from his palace
• 5:53
  and he sends an emissary out to bring her to his bed, and
• 5:57
  Bathsheba conceives and communicates this to David.
• 6:02
  Now, tragically, the plot thickens as the king brings her
• 6:07
  husband Uriah home from the battle.
• 6:09
  But Uriah has so much integrity and he is so devoted as a leader
• 6:16
  that he will not sleep with his wife when his men are out at
• 6:23
  battle. They aren't with their wives and
• 6:25
  he doesn't. So David plots this and he tries
• 6:29
  to get him drunk. He won't go sleep with his wife
• 6:31
  then. So David actually has
• 6:34
  premeditated murder and asks his his nephew to the military
• 6:41
  leader, the general, to get out there and put Uriah out in the
• 6:44
  heat of the battle and and pull the men away.
• 6:47
  Now it appears to me in the text of Second Samuel 11 that she
• 6:51
  does not know David's hand was in Uriah's demise.
• 6:56
  I don't know, but she mourns her husband's death.
• 6:59
  Now if you remember back in Genesis chapter 50 as well as in
• 7:02
  Deuteronomy 34, there's a ritual prescribed a period of time.
• 7:08
  One time it's seven days, the next time it's 30 days that your
• 7:11
  need to go through for mourning and she does that.
• 7:14
  But after that prescribed period of time, David marries
• 7:18
  Bathsheba. Now, I don't know exactly when
• 7:22
  the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to prophecy of this son's death.
• 7:27
  It may have been when that little boy was born.
• 7:31
  But that first child that was conceived out of wedlock is
• 7:36
  prophesied that he will die. And when he's born, he's very
• 7:40
  sickly. David begins fasting for that
• 7:43
  whole first week of his life and he dies on the 7th day.
• 7:48
  And Bathsheba I'm sure is mourning, but the Lord blesses
• 7:53
  her and she is able to conceive again and she bears Solomon.
• 7:58
  And it says in chapter 12 the Lord loved him.
• 8:03
  So the irony of how things work out in God's order, you know, he
• 8:09
  chooses young illiterate people. He chooses a little a little
• 8:13
  shepherd to become the king. He chooses different situations
• 8:18
  at different times. But I have to say I completely
• 8:21
  trust his judgment, and the idea that he is going to allow
• 8:25
  Bathsheba to bear the heir of David and to send a son who had
• 8:33
  the potential to be as great as his father is very interesting
• 8:38
  to me. I just have to trust the Lord.
• 8:41
  But I want to go back just a few verses.
• 8:43
  I'm still in chapter 12, but in verse 7, the Lord sends the
• 8:48
  prophet Nathan to David and he comes up with this parable about
• 8:52
  a lamb. And somebody only has one little
• 8:54
  lamb, and they love the lamb and they treat it so well.
• 8:57
  And a rich man comes and has all these lambs and steals the
• 9:01
  little lamb, you know, And David says all the guys should be
• 9:04
  punished for this. And that's when Nathan turns to
• 9:09
  David the prophet, and says, David, thou art the man.
• 9:14
  Thus saith the Lord God of Israel.
• 9:17
  I anointed the king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the
• 9:21
  hand of Saul, and I gave thee thy master's house, and thy
• 9:27
  master's wives into thy bosom. And I gave thee the House of
• 9:31
  Israel and of Judah. And if it that had not been too
• 9:35
  little, I would moreover have given thee unto such as this
• 9:39
  thing. Wherefore thou has despised the
• 9:43
  commandments of the Lord to do evil in his sight.
• 9:46
  Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and thou
• 9:52
  has taken his wife to be thy wife, and has slain him with the
• 9:56
  sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore, the sword shall
• 10:02
  never depart from thine house, because thou has despised me and
• 10:08
  has taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
• 10:11
  This is devastating to David, but it also is the higher law.
• 10:18
  If our intent is to kill, then we are responsible for the blood
• 10:24
  of that human or animal. It it's it's absolutely
• 10:30
  horrific. We're told in Section 132 that
• 10:33
  David will not receive these wives in an exalted state and
• 10:38
  probably Bathsheba will be given back to Uriah.
• 10:41
  But in this second scene where Bathsheba comes back on the
• 10:45
  scene, she is no longer an innocent bystander.
• 10:48
  She is a very influential member of the court and she gains her
• 10:52
  strength as David weakens. In fact, David weakens into a
• 10:55
  pathetic figure and she grows. In fact, the prophet Nathan
• 10:59
  works with her to convince the king that Solomon needs to be
• 11:04
  the heir. And this jumps ahead a little
• 11:06
  bit to 1st Kings one. But because we're talking about
• 11:09
  Bathsheba, I just wanted to finish up her three scenes where
• 11:12
  she's here. You know she gives this petition
• 11:15
  David promised her. She prosperates herself on the
• 11:19
  ground before David. She says I'm your servant.
• 11:22
  Please listen to me. And she said you told me as
• 11:25
  surely as the Lord lived he would deliver me out of had any
• 11:28
  trouble that my son would be. Oh yes, you're right.
• 11:31
  I did say your son could be the on the throne.
• 11:34
  This is first Kings chapter 1, you know, and that all happens.
• 11:38
  And then in the third scene, Bathsheba mediates with her son
• 11:43
  King Solomon. Now interestingly, this is an
• 11:46
  example where her influence and her voice as the king is there
• 11:51
  being used to forgive. Now Solomon's half brother
• 11:55
  Adonaya was trying to usurp the throne, but when Adonaya asked
• 11:59
  Bathsheba for help, Bathsheba is willing to do it.
• 12:02
  And I'm rather strange. One of the wives of David's
• 12:06
  harem was a very young girl, Abhishag, who never consummated
• 12:11
  their marriage. She's still a virgin.
• 12:13
  So Solomon's half brother says, hey, can I have this virgin as
• 12:17
  as my as my wife? And for some reason, Bathsheba
• 12:21
  takes his side and goes before her son and asks if this can
• 12:26
  happen. You know, I just have to let
• 12:28
  step back and say, did Bathsheba know that this was going to
• 12:33
  highly offend her son to take one of the kings because the the
• 12:38
  new king takes over the of the old king?
• 12:40
  You know, he's got some of Solomon's thousand wives were
• 12:44
  his father's wives, You know, Anyway, we're just left to
• 12:47
  speculate. If Bathsheba clearly wanted
• 12:51
  Abhishek gone, is that why she agreed to do this?
• 12:53
  Or did she think that maybe she could talk her son into it?
• 12:57
  It's rather odd. I don't know.
• 12:59
  But again, she appears to be an innocent impetus to have another
• 13:04
  person killed by both King Solomon and King David.
• 13:07
  So it's it's rather peculiar. But I do appreciate that even
• 13:12
  though this is hard to understand.
• 13:15
  Section 132 says that David's wives and concubines were given
• 13:19
  to him of the Lord. Bathsheba is not included in
• 13:23
  that list of being adulterous or accomplishment to murder.
• 13:28
  And on my slides and in my handout, I have the text here
• 13:31
  from the Joseph Smith papers that is written out by a quill
• 13:37
  with this instruction from Section 132.
• 13:41
  As we go back in the order of the text and we're back in
• 13:44
  Second Samuel, we learned that the daughters of David who were
• 13:50
  still virgins dressed in a certain way.
• 13:52
  This is in chapter 13, verse 18, and they have these multi
• 13:56
  colored robes that distinguish them as the King's virgin
• 14:00
  daughters. They're to symbolize their
• 14:01
  purity and their protected status within the palace.
• 14:05
  We also have the tragic story here of Absalon's sister Tamar.
• 14:12
  Now remember, Absalon is the first son of the third wife,
• 14:16
  actually the fourth wife. But Maha and Absalon's beautiful
• 14:20
  little sister Tamar is also the daughter, this Princess of the
• 14:24
  king of Jeshur and one of Absalon's half brothers is
• 14:27
  absolutely smitten by this beautiful little Tamar.
• 14:31
  And the story goes on and they develop a plot and they want to
• 14:36
  catch her. And it's tragic.
• 14:39
  It's absolutely tragic. It's awful.
• 14:41
  And this beautiful young Tamar sees that she's caught in this
• 14:45
  trap with Absalon. And she says, don't force me,
• 14:48
  don't force me. Just ask the king.
• 14:50
  Even though we're half siblings, if you ask the king, that's
• 14:53
  better than forcing me. Well, he forces her.
• 14:55
  He rapes her. And this poor young girl is just
• 14:59
  devastated. And afterward, this half brother
• 15:02
  Abuja, it says in the text, the same amount of of passion that
• 15:06
  he had for her to rape her is now turned into hatred.
• 15:10
  And it's made known unto Absalon.
• 15:15
  And he is furious. He takes his sister and he says
• 15:18
  you are staying in my house. But instead of acting on it
• 15:21
  immediately, instead of David and Absalon saying this is
• 15:24
  wrong, I, it's just tragic, the same thing, the sexual
• 15:29
  immorality that happened to David is now trickling down to
• 15:32
  the next generations. And they don't, they don't
• 15:36
  address it immediately and it turns into a very contrived plot
• 15:41
  and it's thickens and it's awful.
• 15:43
  It's awful. And Absalon actually commits
• 15:45
  murder 2 years later and kills his brother and we don't hear of
• 15:50
  Tamar anymore. The next woman on the scene is
• 15:53
  in Second Samuel chapter 14 and she's one of these two wise
• 15:58
  women that are mentioned in the text.
• 15:59
  She is from a town of Toca and this wise woman is hired by
• 16:05
  Joab. Remember, this is Davidde
• 16:08
  nephew, who's one of his generals.
• 16:10
  And Joab is furious that David is not reconciling with with his
• 16:16
  son Absalon. And it's been years since
• 16:19
  they've been polarized. And so he comes up with this
• 16:23
  plot and it's it's all this conniving.
• 16:25
  And he he says, I want to I want to hire you to become an actress
• 16:29
  for me. Can you pretend that you're
• 16:30
  mourning? You know, And she, she, she
• 16:33
  lives 10 miles South, so nobody knows who she is at this time,
• 16:36
  but she's very skilled at at being an actress.
• 16:39
  And she dresses up as if she's been mourning for years.
• 16:41
  And she comes up to the king and she says, I need your help.
• 16:45
  You know, one of my sons were fighting with the other son and
• 16:47
  one killed the other. And, and now they want to kill
• 16:51
  my 1:00 remaining son. Can you please help me?
• 16:54
  And David steps in to help. And David believes the story.
• 16:57
  You know, she ingratiated herself with the king.
• 17:00
  But after she convinces David that her son should not be
• 17:04
  killed, she then turns to the second part of her plot and asks
• 17:09
  David to look within himself to see the parallels of the
• 17:13
  fratricide in his own family. You know, and that's at this
• 17:16
  point that David says, you're talking to Joab.
• 17:21
  And she admits, yes, I am. I am here being paid by Joab.
• 17:25
  You know, I'm a servant of your of you, and I'm a servant of
• 17:28
  Joab. David is humble enough to say,
• 17:31
  OK, I see my mistakes. I'm going to ask for the
• 17:34
  changes. And David Joab's plan actually
• 17:37
  works initially, but then it backfires when Absalon, you
• 17:41
  know, tries to become the king and he tries to usurp his father
• 17:44
  and overthrow the phone throne in in Second Samuel 15.
• 17:48
  It's just tragic and Absalon act is actually killed in that in
• 17:52
  that battle was he? He goes through trying to kill
• 17:55
  him. But as Absalon comes in and to
• 17:58
  Jerusalem and tries to take over, it says that David flees
• 18:03
  the city, but he leaves 10 concubines there to keep the
• 18:06
  house. And as part of Absalon public
• 18:10
  claim of taking over his political he wants to claim that
• 18:14
  his father's harem. And so this tragic prophecy that
• 18:19
  had been given by the prophet Nathan earlier in chapter 12
• 18:23
  when all the things came out with with Bathsheba, now comes
• 18:27
  to pass. The Absalon publicly rapes these
• 18:31
  10 concubines of David and he puts up a tent on the House and
• 18:36
  it's all in public shame. The battle ends up that Absalon
• 18:40
  is killed. And when David returns, these
• 18:44
  poor 10 women who have now been been shamed publicly and are in
• 18:52
  a very difficult situation, David takes all of them and puts
• 18:56
  them in a safeguard house. And they live as widows the rest
• 19:01
  of their life in in this secluded environment.
• 19:04
  They're not allowed to remarry. They're not in invited back to
• 19:07
  David's house. You know, it's, it's this
• 19:10
  repeated violation. It's absolutely pathetic after
• 19:14
  being raped that they are not treated any better.
• 19:17
  But they have to bear the consequences of these men's
• 19:21
  political ambitions and their moral failures.
• 19:25
  It has happened over and over in history.
• 19:28
  There are two spies of David who've gone in to get
• 19:32
  information in Jerusalem. And when Absalom servants
• 19:35
  recognize that they're David spies, they start chasing them.
• 19:38
  And and second Samuel chapter 17, verse 19, we hear of this
• 19:42
  woman who the spies come and say help, help.
• 19:45
  And she takes them and she hides them in her well.
• 19:48
  She has a well in her courtyard or something or else something
• 19:52
  over a brook where she can access her water and she hides
• 19:55
  them in there. And then when Absalon's men
• 19:59
  come, she lies to them and she says, oh, quickly, yes, they
• 20:02
  were here. They they went this way.
• 20:04
  Go, go get them. And sure enough, they leave and
• 20:07
  the two men are safe. Saved David Spice, you know,
• 20:10
  does this story remind you a little bit about Rahab, who did
• 20:13
  the same thing back in Joshua chapter 2?
• 20:16
  You know, she's risking her own lives to protect God's anointed.
• 20:20
  And we see the same thing there. When Absalon dies, David grows
• 20:25
  into great mourning. He is so sad that Joab, his his
• 20:32
  nephew in general, has to come to him and talk some sense into
• 20:35
  him. And in chapter 19, he says,
• 20:37
  today you have humiliated all your men who have saved your
• 20:41
  life, the lives of your sons and your daughters and your wives
• 20:45
  and your concubines, because they have helped you regain the
• 20:49
  throne. And now you're saying, oh, I'm
• 20:51
  going to be so sad and I'm not going to.
• 20:52
  I'm just going to mourn, you know, don't you realize that you
• 20:55
  have all these people that we have been protecting?
• 20:58
  And again, it's the family life that shakes David out of his
• 21:03
  behavior and comes back in. In Second Samuel, chapter 19,
• 21:07
  verse 37, we have another reference to the mother of
• 21:11
  Barzilia, and he's an elderly man.
• 21:15
  He's been working with David, and David invites him to come
• 21:18
  and live in the palace and requests instead that he go back
• 21:23
  home. He wants to die in his own city.
• 21:26
  He wants to be buried in the grave of his mother and father.
• 21:30
  This is verse 37 of chapter 19 and his desire to rest beside
• 21:35
  his parents speaks of the resurrection.
• 21:39
  He this beautiful Israelite culture that your bones are kept
• 21:43
  together with your family ties because they believe that in the
• 21:48
  resurrection you will rise together where you are laid
• 21:50
  down. And Joseph Smith confirmed that
• 21:53
  this is actually true. And I appreciate the fact that
• 21:57
  this elderly great man is willing to leave the comforts of
• 22:01
  the palace in order to going back to the land of his mother
• 22:05
  and father. It's a beautiful story.
• 22:07
  The next wise woman we get to read about in Second Samuel
• 22:10
  chapter 20 is a woman from Abel. Beth Mach and Joab's troops are
• 22:17
  chasing down a man named Sheba, and they besiege this town
• 22:23
  because Sheba has run into this town.
• 22:25
  But there is a courageous, wise woman who calls out from the
• 22:30
  wall down to Joab. I am one of them that are
• 22:34
  peaceable and faithful in Israel.
• 22:38
  You are trying to destroy this city, but as a mother in Israel,
• 22:44
  why will you swallow up the inheritance of the Lord?
• 22:47
  This is second Samuel chapter 20, verse 19, You know, and her
• 22:51
  description of herself as a mother in Israel just emphasizes
• 22:55
  that there are many women in here who are good women who are
• 22:58
  peaceable. You know, do not blame us for
• 23:01
  this wicked man coming in, trying to hide in our midst.
• 23:06
  And I see her leadership and her articulate message is strong
• 23:12
  enough to stop Joab's assault. And it also tells me that Joab
• 23:15
  is a good man to listen to this woman, you know, he agrees with
• 23:18
  her. He spares the city if they will
• 23:21
  deliver up this rebel. And they do.
• 23:24
  And this courageous woman answers.
• 23:28
  Behold, his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall.
• 23:33
  And she then persuades the citizens to find him and execute
• 23:38
  him. And once Joab's troops receive
• 23:41
  proof of his death, they withdraw.
• 23:44
  You know this why woman saved her entire city, her courage and
• 23:48
  faith, her her negotiation. I just, I really love this
• 23:51
  woman. And she did not use military
• 23:54
  force. You know, she values her divine
• 23:57
  role as a mother and as a voice and a fellow citizen.
• 24:01
  I I hope that all of us male, female, young, old can trust in
• 24:06
  God's promises of peace and try to find heroic efforts without
• 24:14
  the loss of lives. Hundreds of people were saved
• 24:16
  because of her. The next reference to a female
• 24:19
  is Solomon's wedding to the daughter of the Pharaoh.
• 24:22
  And now we don't know if there were other marriages before or
• 24:25
  not, but this one is the first one mentioned and it's a
• 24:29
  politically savvy reference here.
• 24:32
  The dowry is going to be this enormous city that's going to be
• 24:37
  given to her. And Solomon builds her a
• 24:40
  sumptuous palace. It's got a porch just as
• 24:43
  beautiful as he built next to the temple.
• 24:46
  It's known for its architectural beauty.
• 24:48
  First Kings Chapter 7. However, later David actually
• 24:52
  moves her out of the city of David because when he brings the
• 24:56
  temple in, he doesn't want her there because she is not an
• 25:00
  Israelite. And he he had first had her
• 25:03
  living there where the ark of the covenant was going to come.
• 25:06
  And and in Second Chronicles chapter 8 verse 11, he says my
• 25:11
  wife shall not dwell in the House of David the king of
• 25:14
  Israel, because that is a holy place.
• 25:17
  So he takes her out. I assume she's one of these
• 25:20
  strange women. They're called strange women
• 25:22
  when they believe in strange gods that first Kings 11 talks
• 25:25
  about. But her prominent position in
• 25:29
  his harem, to have her own separate palace, really does
• 25:33
  suggest that she had some unusual status.
• 25:35
  She may have been his first wife, but he has hundreds of
• 25:39
  them and we talk about them a lot.
• 25:42
  Before we go to the harem, though, I want to talk about
• 25:45
  these two prostitutes. This shows that the Kingdom is
• 25:48
  in bad shape if two women are allowed to be prostitutes and
• 25:52
  come before the king to ask for legal help.
• 25:55
  Prostitution was illegal according to the Law of Moses,
• 25:59
  and yet they come before the king as prostitutes.
• 26:02
  I mean, you just know immediately there is a real
• 26:05
  problem if illegal things like that are going on in full light
• 26:11
  of the day before the king, and he doesn't say your prostitutes,
• 26:14
  both of you were put in prison. He actually shows his wisdom in
• 26:18
  a different way. So things are not all well in
• 26:21
  the Kingdom right now. The story of these two harlots
• 26:24
  you probably know very well. One has a dead child, the other
• 26:28
  has a living child. They're living in the same area,
• 26:31
  the same home, and they both want to claim the living child.
• 26:35
  And the the text is displaying the wisdom of Solomon by giving
• 26:42
  the baby to the right person. And Solomon suggests cutting the
• 26:45
  baby in half. And of course, the the natural
• 26:49
  mother of the child says no, no, no, no, no, no, don't kill my
• 26:52
  son. You may give it to the other
• 26:54
  woman rather than have him. And Solomon acknowledges her
• 26:57
  nurturing and and allows the child to live with its own
• 27:01
  mother. So despite these the profession
• 27:04
  as prostitutes, these outcasts in Israelite society still
• 27:09
  receive justice before the king. And we then move on to Chapter 7
• 27:15
  of First Kings, where we talk about the mother of Hiram.
• 27:19
  Now she's an unnamed widow. She's from the tribe of Naphtali
• 27:23
  or Dan, depending on if you're reading it in Second Chronicles
• 27:27
  or in First Kings Chapter 7. But it sounds like she married a
• 27:30
  Phoenician Craftsman. Remember, the Phoenicians are
• 27:33
  the great skilled metallurgist. And her son Hiram becomes
• 27:39
  extremely skilled in metal work. And she raises him as this
• 27:43
  master artesian, learning from her, her his father.
• 27:48
  And Solomon commissions Hiram to create all the bronze work of
• 27:52
  the Temple. So usually the genealogy is
• 27:55
  traced through the father. But because she is an Israelite,
• 27:58
  Solomon is able to use him to Commission to do all the bronze
• 28:03
  work for the temple, including the mass of pillars and the
• 28:06
  beautiful brazen see and all these other things that her
• 28:11
  marriage to a Phoenician has allowed this young man to learn
• 28:16
  a skill that the Israelites did not have at that time.
• 28:19
  First King chapter 10 talks next about the Queen of Sheba.
• 28:24
  She's this powerful foreign queen.
• 28:27
  She travels clear up to Jerusalem.
• 28:29
  She has a great green camel, spices, gold, precious stone,
• 28:34
  you know, and Solomon's renowned wisdom has brought her up to
• 28:39
  check it out and she says, oh, you're not even you're you're
• 28:41
  far greater. You're not even half.
• 28:43
  They didn't tell me half as great as you are, you know, and
• 28:46
  she praises the Lord. This is chapter 10, verse 9.
• 28:51
  Blessed be the Lord God, because the Lord loved Israel forever.
• 28:55
  Wherefore he made the king to do judgment and justice.
• 28:59
  You know, so we see in the early days of Solomon that he was wise
• 29:05
  and that he was extraordinarily wealthy beyond what can be
• 29:09
  imagined, you know, and, and she was also wealthy.
• 29:12
  I mean, she gives him 120 talents of gold as well as all
• 29:16
  these other things, you know. But the king then gave her lots
• 29:19
  of gifts as well. Now some people have speculated
• 29:21
  that they actually got married. I have no idea.
• 29:25
  There's lots of legends of the Jews that I read some of these
• 29:29
  stories, but I'm going to stick with the text today.
• 29:31
  And and it's not, it's not told, but this Queen of Sheba, this
• 29:36
  remarkable queen has a lot of curiosity and she came from the
• 29:40
  utmost parts of the world. In fact, the Lord even honored
• 29:44
  her in Matthew by saying some of you will not accept your king,
• 29:50
  but you'll have to speak to the Queen of Sheba because she came
• 29:55
  to hear Solomon and a greater than Solomon is here.
• 29:57
  You know, that's a beautiful story from Matthew 12.
• 30:00
  The wives of Solomon begin to be mentioned in First Kings Chapter
• 30:04
  11, and we're told the tragic news that he loved many strange
• 30:09
  women or women who worshipped strange gods together with the
• 30:13
  daughter of Pharaoh and the women of the Moabites and the
• 30:17
  Ammonites and the Edenites and the Hittites.
• 30:18
  You know, and some of these people had converted before
• 30:21
  Uriah had converted to be a whisperer of Jehovah as a
• 30:24
  Hittite. But some of these women that
• 30:27
  that Solomon is marrying, probably for political reasons,
• 30:31
  were forbidden. And they were that was earlier
• 30:36
  when they said, do not marry women who do not believe and and
• 30:40
  who are not going to convert because you're he's going to
• 30:43
  turn your heart after these strange gods.
• 30:44
  And that's exactly what happens to Solomon.
• 30:47
  You know, it says he has 700 wives and Princess and 300
• 30:50
  concubines and they turned his heart away.
• 30:53
  That's verse three. They, you know, he directly
• 30:56
  violated Deuteronomy 1717. That said, do not multiply
• 31:00
  wives. Now Nehemiah later cites Solomon
• 31:03
  with a cautionary example and said, you know, we lost our
• 31:07
  alignment with God because of Solomon's bad example.
• 31:10
  Let's not follow that again. And the Prophet Joseph Smith
• 31:13
  asked God about Solomon's many wives and he does say in nothing
• 31:17
  did they sin save those that they did not receive of me.
• 31:22
  So it wasn't the polygamy that was the problem.
• 31:25
  It was the challenge that they that they stepped away from God.
• 31:29
  So as we end our tragic story of Solomon losing his testimony,
• 31:35
  may we not allow family or friends or enemies to take us
• 31:41
  away from our testimonies of Jesus Christ.
• 31:44
  May we as disciples of Christ, men and women, hold true to our
• 31:49
  faith and use these bad examples to protect us from falling in
• 31:55
  the same category. And as a disciple of Christ, I
• 31:59
  want to testify that He is our Savior and Redeemer and He is
• 32:03
  coming again. And we need to prepare a Zion
• 32:07
  people so that we can cut short the calamities of the last days
• 32:10
  and welcome in our Savior at His second coming.
• 32:14
  And I pray that this testimony can burn in your heart as well.
• 32:18
  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.