In olden days Jewish culture, just like olden day Chinese culture, having many descendants was the foremost objective in life. God bestowed the ultimate blessing on Abraham Gen 32:12 "I will...make your descendants as the sands of the sea which cannot be numbered for multitude." Wow, imagine how happy Abraham was !!
(By the way, Chinese culture under communist rule no longer cares about the number of descendants. Husband and wife have to 'stop at one child'. And recently 'stop at two'.)
There are many instances in the Bible where blessings were promised to the descendants when someone had achieved good deeds. And conversely, punishments for one's wicked deeds were meted out to one's descendants. (Ps 37:28, 1 Kings 11:12, etc)
Hence in the Jewish culture and customs, one's descendants were an extension of oneself. Blessings bestowed to one's descendants were considered as blessings for oneself. And a curse on one's descendants was a curse on oneself.
And so King Solomon wanted a thousand wives and concubines. He must be hoping to bring forth as many descendants as the number of stars on a starry night (Gen 15:5).
Today, even if the Jewish custom still advocates having large number of descendants, much of the world has changed. Does it matter someone who is dead, if his/her descendants achieve great number, great honour, wealth and fame? It does not matter, some would say.
Well, this change in custom has a profound effect. It has resulted in a change in attitude. Many couples have refused to marry and to have children; and many married couples voluntarily choose not to have children.
Perhaps descendants should be part of oneself, after all.
