Father and Son

XIV
Father and Son



1. TWO PLACES AT ONCE?

BEFORE LEAVING Gaza for Jerusalem, Ibna Hakim took some of the fine apparel and gave it to Benaiah and his company of 50 men, who went ahead of the Ethiopians to the Royal Equestrian Center, where Solomon had built luxurious stables.
The army commander told the king he was impressed by Ibna Hakim's noble appearance, but Solomon cut him off short and said, "Where is he? Didn't I send you to bring him as quickly as possible?"
"He is here. I'll bring him quickly.
Mounting his horse, Benaiah galloped outside the city walls to where the Ethiopians were camped.
"Get up, sir, and come."
They entered Jerusalem by the King's Gate and when the city's soldiers saw him, they bowed down and said, "Look, King Solomon has left his lodgings."
Some re-entered the Royal Stables and saw Solomon grooming his favorite stallion.
"What's going on? How can the king be in two places at once?" said one of the troopers.
When Benaiah and his men brought Ibna Hakim into the city core, the word spread like wildfire and thousands swelled the streets, hundreds peering out of the windows, trying to get a glimpse of the horse caravan.
"Who is he?"
"That's Solomon."
"No, it's not."
"It's his son."
"No, it's his brother."

2. 'THE RING' RETURNED

BENAIAH went inside the stables with Ibna Hakim and when Solomon saw him, he embraced him with his hands resting on the young man's chest, and then kissed him on the mouth and forehead and eyes.
"Behold, my father, David, has renewed his youth and risen from the dead."
Then Solomon turned around to Benaiah and said, "You told me, 'He resembles you,' but this isn't my stature, but the stature of David my father in the days of his early manhood and he's handsomer than I am."
The king took Ibna Hakim into the nearby Palace and went into his bedroom and brought out an outfit embroidered with gold and a belt of gold. He then set a crown on his head, put a ring on his finger and led him into the Throne Room where he sat to Solomon's right.
"Those who look on me and contempiously say among yourselves that I have no son except Rehoboam, well, look. this is my son, whom the God, the Lord of Israel, has given me when I didn't expect it."
One of Israel's nobles answered him, saying, "Blessed be the mother, who has delivered this young man and blessed be the day when you had union with the mother of this young man. For there has risen from the root of Jesse a shining man who will be king of the posterity of our seed. Concerning his father none shall ask questions and none will say, "Where did he come from?" Surely, he's an Israelite of the seed of David, fashioned perfectly in the likeliness of his father's form and appearance. We are his servants and he'll be our king."
After the nobleman's speech, Ibna Hakim took the Ring of Solomon, the one which could even subdue demons, from his finger and gave it to his father.
"Take this ring and remember the word you spoke to the queen and give us a portion of the fringe of the covering of the Tabernacle of the Law of God so we can worship it all our days and all those who are subject to us and those who are in the Kingdom of Makeda."
"Why do you give me this ring as a sign?" Solomon asked. "Without you giving me a sign I discovered that you're indeed my son."
Tamrin, who had been standing beside Makeda's son, asked:
"Don't you recognize me, Solomon?"
"Is that you, Mr. Ambassador?"
"Yes, my lord."

3. LETTER FROM THE QUEEN

THE YEARS hadn't been kind to the former Chief Merchant of Ethiopia, now bent over from arthritis and his face was even more wrinkled and his once-taut body had become fleshy from a sedentary lifetsyle as Makeda's regent.
Slowly, he began to read a letter from his queen to Solomon:

THE LETTER: Take this young man, anoint him, consecrate him and bless him and make him king over our country and give him the command that a woman will never again reign in this country and send him back in peace. And peace be with the might of your kingdom and your brilliant wisdom. As for me, I didn't want to go to you, but he begged me that he should see you. And besides, I was afraid for him, should he fall sick on the journey, either from thirst for water or heat of the sun and I should bring grey hairs down to the grave with sorrow. Then I put my trust in the holy, heavenly Zion, the Tabernacle of the Law of God, that you won't hold it in your wisdom. For your nobles can't return to their houses and look on their children, by reason of the abundance of widom and food which you gave them, according to their desire and they say, the table of Solomon is better for us than enjoying and gratifying ourselves in our own houses. And because of this, through my fear, but would send him back to me in peace, without sickness and suffering, in love and in peace that my heart might rejoice at having encountered him.

Tamrin then stepped back from the throne after reading Makeda's letter and waited for Solomon's reply.
"Besides travailing with him and suckling him, what else has a woman to do do with a son? A daughter belongs to the mother and a boy to the father. God cursed Eve, saying "Bring forth children in anguish and with sorrow of heart and after forth you will return to your husband. With an oath he said, 'Bring forth,' and having sworn, you return to your husband will follow. As for this my son, I will not give him to the queen, but I will make him king over Israel. For this is my firstborn, the first of my race who God has given me."
Solomon did everything in his power, trying to convince his new-found son to remain in Israel, supplying him with fine clothing, gold, fine food and taking him to all his cities near Jerusalem as far as up as Megiddo.
"It's better for you to dwell here in our country with us, where the House of God is and where God dwells."

Later, Ibna Hakim wrote a note to the king:

IT READ: Gold and silver and rich apparel aren't wanting in our country, but I came to see you and to hear your wisdom and to see face to face and to salute you and to pay homage to your kingdom and then I intended for you to send me away to my own country and my own mother. For no man hates the place where he's born and everyone loves the things of his native country. Although you give me dainty meats, I don't love them and they aren't suitable for my body, but the meats whereby I grow and become strong are those that are gratifying to me. And although your country pleases me even as does a garden, yet my heart's not gratified. The mountains of the land of of my motherwhere I as born are far better in my sight. And as for the Tabernacle of the God of Israel, if I adore it where I am, it will give me great glory and I will look on the House of God, which you have built and I'll make offering and supplication there. And as for Zion the fringe of the covering and I will worship it with my mother and with all those who are subject to my sovereignty.

Ibna Hakim also told Solomon that his mother had rooted out all idol worshippers, including those who bowed down to strange objects and stones and trees.

4. HIS FATHER'S PLEAS

SOLOMON was persistent in trying to convince his son to stay in Jerusalem.
"Why do want to leave me?"
Ibna Hakim listened intently to his father's pleas.
"What do you lack here that you would go to the country of the heathen? Tell me what drives you to forsake the kingdom of Israel?"
Speaking with conviction in his voice, Ibna Hakim said, "No, I must go to my mother with your blessing, for you have a son who's better than me, namely Rehoboam, who was born of your wife lawfully while my mother, Makeda, isn't your wife according to the law."
Solomon, thoughtfull, replied: "Since you speak in this wise, according to the law, I, myself, am not the son of my father, David, for he took the wife of another man whom he caused to be slain in battle and he begot me by her, but God is compassionate and he has forgiven him.
"Who's as compassionate and wise as God? He has made me of my father and you He has made of me, according to His will. And as for you, O my son, you who fears our Lord God, don't do any violence in the face of your father, so that in time to come you might not meet with violence from him that will go forth from your loins and that your seed might prosper on the earth. My son, Rehoboam, is only six years old and you're my first-born and you've come to reign and lift up the spear of him that begot you. Listen, I've been reigning for 29 years and your mother came to see me in the seventh year of my kingdom and if God pleases, he will make me attain the span of the days of my father.
"And when I'm gathered with my fathers, you will sit on my throne and you'll reign in my stead and the elders of Israel will love you exceedingly and I'll make a marriage for you and I'll give you as many queens and concubines as you desire.
"You'll be blessed in this land of inheritance with the blessing that God gave to out fathers, even as he covenanted with his servant, Noah, and with his friend, Abraham, and the righteous men right down to my father, David.
"You see me, a weak man, on the throne of my father's and you will be like me and you'll judge the nations without number and families that can't be counted. And the Tabernacle of the God of Israel will belong to you and your seed and you'll make offerings and make prayers to ascend. And God will dwell within it forever and hear your prayers therein and your remembrance will be in it from generation to generation."
His father's conversation brought tears to Ibna Hakim's eyes, but in a low voice he said: "O my lord, it's impossible to leave my country and my mother, for my mother made me swear on her breasts that I wouldn't stay here but would return to her quickly and also I wouldn't marry a wife here.
"And the Tabernacle of the God of Israel will bless me wheresoever I go. I desired to see your face and to hear your voice and to receive your blessing and now I desire to depart to my mother in safety."