Watch this King Solomon video from Buck Denver Asks What’s in the Bible? Vol. 5: Israel Gets A King [1 & 2 Samuel] . In this video, Sunday School Lady explains that even though Solomon was wise, he still made mistakes.
CLIVE
Is this the place where it turns?
SUNDAY SCHOOL LADY
What do you mean, Clive?
CLIVE
Well, I’ve noticed in most of our stories that things start out great – God gives us a wonderful garden or a land filled with milk and honey or a kingdom and the power to win all our battles – and then we ignore him and mess it all up.
IAN
Now that you mention it, I’ve noticed that too.
CHUCK WAGGIN
So does that happen to King Solomon, too?
SUNDAY SCHOOL LADY
Good observation, fellas! Well, all that wealth and all that fame can have an effect on a guy. King Solomon spent seven years building a house for God, then spent 13 years building an even BIGGER house for himself!
CHUCK WAGGIN
That’s a bad sign.
BROTHER LOUIE
He even built a big palace just for his favorite wife!!
IAN
Wait – “favorite” wife? He had more than one?
SUNDAY SCHOOL LADY
It was common back then for kings to show how rich they were by having lots of wives.
IAN
How many did he have? Two?
SUNDAY SCHOOL LADY
More than that.
IAN
Two and a half?
CLIVE
You can’t have half a wife!
IAN
Two and three quarters?
BROTHER LOUIE
He had 700! 700 wives!!
IAN
Seven hundred?!?
CLIVE
That’s a lot of wives!!
SUNDAY SCHOOL LADY
Yep. Way more than he needed. 1st Kings also says he had 40,000 stalls for his horses! WAY more than he needed! And that was a problem, because God’s law specifically said that kings of Israel weren’t supposed to collect more horses than they needed! Yet that’s exactly what Solomon was doing! But it gets worse…
