The Son of Solomon
I do not truly grieve for him,
my father, the great King,
whom the world revered
for his unsurpassed wisdom
and untold riches;
for his Palace
– the House of the Forest of Lebanon
with its forty-five pillars of cedar
embellished with five hundred gold
shields
that left visitors breathless with wonder
at its opulence;
and for the splendour of the Lord’s
Temple
with its two princely pillars of bronze,
fashioned with delicacy
by legendary craftsmen.
I do not grieve for the father
I never really knew,
I, Prince Rehoboam,
his only acknowledged son,
his seed, his progeny;
he had no time for me,
no time to tutor me
in the subtleties
of statecraft and diplomacy,
in wealth and people management,
in conquest.
Such genius in governance
and in meting out justice
– divinely bestowed,
lost now forever with his passage,
for he never had time for me.
Given wisdom
no man ever had,
did he live wisely?
He lived not wisely
but too well.
Alas, he had such inordinate love
for women
– a thousand foreign-born!
His prurience knew no bounds
and at the last they governed him,
turning his heart and mind
away from Adonai
to their own gods.
He never taught me
to harken to wise counsel
or to walk the narrow path
of righteousness
or to worship no other god
but Adonai.
Cursed be the day
I chose to listen to my friends,
spurning the counsel
of the greybeards,
who had imbibed his wisdom
– godly men who loved the Lord.
The world fell apart
that fateful day
I spoke harshly to all Israel
with whiplash words
my friends had taught me.
The uproar of rage and fury
from the twelve tribes of Israel
tore through my soul
and splintered forever
the glorious kingdom of
my father.
O that he had only found time
to cultivate in me
the proclivity for the path of wisdom!
1 Kings 12
Picture by tantrik71/Bigstock.com
Dr Oliver Seet is a member of Wesley Methodist Church and a Board Director of the Metropolitan YMCA