Getting Biblical in Daily Life
Wealth & Poverty
It's sort of fun to read about Solomon's totally bonkers fortune. It's kind of like watching MTV Cribs. But it also reminds us that Solomon is what some today would call a one-percenter: a fat cat who builds his fortune on the backs of the have-nots, leaving them (the 99%) with relatively little. As discussed in the "People" section, Solomon conscripted thousands of non-Israelites (i.e. ethnic minorities) as slaves so he could build his temple, his palace, and his colossal treasury. Is it any wonder that, just like the members of the Occupy Wall Street movement today, the people got fed up with the inequality and staged an uprising (12:16-19)?
Is poverty inevitable? Who causes it? How can we fix it? Generation after generation has failed to adequately answer these questions, but maybe yours can. 1st Kings might not contain the answers, but it will hopefully give you a chance to examine the issue from yet another angle.
Polygamy
Solomon's 1,000 concurrent marriages might seem totally nuts to us today, and it probably seemed nuts to a lot of people back then as well. But less extreme examples of polygamy exist even in the United States, and they may become more visible as time goes on. TV shows like Sister Wives have increased the public's exposure to polygamy. And increasingly, polygamy is mentioned in the same breath as same-sex marriage (such as here, here, and here).
Calls to legalize consensual adult polygamy as a civil right have indeed become more prominent, and some argue that polygamy is beneficial for everyone, including (and maybe especially) women. Though we're not likely to see an American president with 1,000 wives anytime soon (i.e. ever), it is possible that polygamy, with its unique combination of sexual and religious rights, could become a high-profile social crusade someday.