Oliver Benjamin
every corner of the stories. The golden rule seemed to be that the
characters could lie to each other so long as they didn’t lie to God.
Jacob tricked his brother out of his birthright with a bowl of bean
soup, a deceit hugely rewarded by the creator—Solomon’s entire
nation in fact was built upon Jacob’s theft. Solomon’s father, David,
won his wife by sending her first husband to his death on the
battlefield. Even God himself was guilty of this kind of behavior: He
lied to Abraham about having to kill his only son. A mere moment
after dictating to Moses a commandment against killing, God
instructed him to murder three thousand of his own people. He
tricked Job into becoming a scapegoat for the sake of a bet and had
made an example of Lot and his wife to what end? Most egregiously,
he snared Adam and Eve in his wily net. Why put a forbidden tree in
the garden, along with a manipulative snake, if he didn’t want to trick
them into eating the fruit in the first place?
Sheba began to grasp his underlying theme: Great civilizations
must be based not upon truth, but upon ambiguity, deceit, and willful
manipulation. She had learned a great lesson. This king was truly as
wise as his reputation averred.
“Unlike you,” he explained, “we live under great threat from the
armies of nearby empires. What gives us our power to resist them is
not riches or numbers, for they have more of both, but the teachings
of our God. They are contained within the temple, in the Holy of
Holies, in our Ark of the Covenant.”
“May I see this Ark?” she said.
And although none were allowed to see the container of Moses’
tablets besides the king himself and the highest priests, Solomon
took her this night to see the ancient artifact around which his temple
and nation had been erected.
She stood before it, unimpressed. “It is only a wooden box,” she
said.
“The box is made by man. It is what is inside that is divine,” he
answered.
“And may I see what is inside?”
“Not even I may do that,” he replied.
Later, when they retired to the bedroom, the king asked to visit
Sheba’s own holy of holies. She was very beautiful, and he had never
known one with such comely features as well as sultry skin. She
rejected his advances, telling him, “I have no wish to be a mere drop
in your ocean.”
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