Troublesome Topic: Why Did God Take the Shulammite Away from Solomon?

If the Shulammite was such a good fit for Solomon, why did God take her from him?

We can be sure Solomon asked that same question many times.

We are not told in Scripture when the Shulammite died, so we definitely are not told why God took her from him earlier than He “should have” (in Solomon’s eyes). So what I share here is an educated guess, with the “educated” part coming from some things that Solomon says in Ecclesiastes.

One of the big themes of Ecclesiastes is that people need to realize that material things and accomplishments don’t make us happy. Another thing that seems clear to me is that Solomon was very happy with the Shulammite because she was a true partner, a team player, someone who was on his level in everything except authority and role.

Why was it important to him to have a wife that was a team player?

I speculate that it was because he had big dreams; there were so many big things he wanted to accomplish. That means he made life about him. He was focused on what he could do, and he looked for people (even a wife) who could enhance his successfulness.

If I am right about that, God wanted to teach him that success is not what it is cracked up to be. Our focus should be on getting close to God and on being a blessing to other people, not on self and not on our grand dreams and goals. It appears from Ecclesiastes that Solomon did learn that lesson. He got it. The purpose of Ecclesiastes is to teach people about the realities of life, wealth, accomplishments, and death.

While Solomon was successful at learning those important lessons, he failed to learn some other lessons such as how to grieve, how to let go of deep hurts, how to tell God you are angry at Him and then get over it.

My understanding of the situation is that God took the Shulammite away from Solomon for two reasons: 1) he was getting too caught up in his big projects. He was getting proud, and pride always takes someone away from God; 2) he was leaning on his favorite wife for his happiness more than on God. Nothing, not even a wife, should ever take the place of God.

The question God asked Solomon is the same question He asks us: “If all you have left is me, am I enough?”

The next lesson is: Truncated Grief