Troublesome Topic: The Death of the Shulammite

Here is how I envision the scenario which resulted in an early death for Shully.

Somehow, she got pregnant again. Possibly his calculations regarding what time of the month they could have sex without her getting pregnant were thrown off by some factor he was unaware of. He felt like he had done everything right and she got pregnant anyway. 

He worried during the entire pregnancy and, according to the pattern seen in the first two pregnancies, this one was tougher and trickier than the previous ones. She was on bed-rest starting a couple months before the due date.

She went into labor way early. He brought in the best midwives in Israel who tried to stop the contractions by applying various herbs to her belly, but that proved ineffective so they had to try to deliver this child and hopefully spare both mom and baby. Because it was the king, and king Solomon no less, all the midwives felt plenty of pressure. First of all he had very high expectations for everyone who worked for him. They knew Shuly’s history of problematic pregnancies, and they knew she was the king’s favorite wife, the only wife he really cared about. The number of women who died during childbirth was high anyway, so they fretted over her and did all they could for her and more. Because of the pressure the midwives were more “involved” than usual, putting their hands inside her womb to help the baby come out more quickly and with less pushing on Shuly’s part. They did not know about things called rubber gloves or even about the importance of washing their hands. Allow me to get even more specific here. Let’s imagine that one of the midwives had a sick child at home, or she herself had been struggling with diarrhea. Without washing her hands, she put her hand into Shuly’s birth canal. To us the outcome of such a thing is obvious. This time the degree of contamination inside Shuly’s body was worse than it had ever been.

Her struggle was long and arduous. She fought valiantly and Solomon was by her side or pacing the room the whole time. There came a point when the bid-wives could tell things were not normal with the baby. They feared the worst but did not dare say anything to Solomon. Finally they were able to get the baby out. It was a boy. A lifeless boy.

This ordeal had obviously taken its toll on Shully. She was beyond exhausted, and her grip on life was tenuous. She started showing the symptoms of infection right away. The plant oils were applied as before, but this time it was not enough. After several days the infection won the battle. A person can only lose one battle against infection. When that battle was over, she was gone.

Solomon had seen it coming. He could tell her condition was very poor. He knew her chances of living were not good. So he cried out to God, begging Him to heal her, to save her. She was his life, his purpose, his only source of joy and peace. She was his everything. It did not occur to Solomon that he was telling God, who should be our everything, that someone else was his everything. His request made perfect sense to him, so great was his love for Shuly. But God did not answer.

The next lesson is: Why Did God Take the Shulammite Away from Solomon?