Year 1, Day 342: 1 Kings 1

Dealing With the Elderly

David’s life is coming to an end as we open up 1 Kings.  We’ll make the transition to Solomon tomorrow and the next day.  But before we do that, we have to deal with Adonijah.  Let’s also not forget an important element to this story: David is roughly 70 years old here – not to bad for a person of his activity, role in society, and time period in which he lived.  {See 2 Samuel 5:4-5}

Isn’t it interesting how people think that they can take advantage of the elderly and get away with it?  Notice how much of Adonijah’s coup reminded you of Absalom’s coup from several years prior?  Many dynamics are the same.  I wonder how long Adonijah planned this event – watching how it almost worked for Absalom had David only been feebler and less aware.

When I first read this account, I thought that Adonijah may have just been jumping the gun.  After all, with Amnon and Absalom dead he was legitimately next in line from a birth-order perspective.  Perhaps he was just a little bit on the presumptuous side.  Maybe he wasn’t really intentionally trying to subvert Solomon’s reign.  After all, he does flee to the altar of the Lord once he realized that he had sinned in his presumptuousness.

But after I thought about it this doesn’t really make sense.  If he is next in line from a genealogical perspective there would be no reason to subvert the current regime.  If he really believed that it was his turn to rule next, then all he had to do was just wait for David to die.  If he genuinely thought that he was going to be the next ruler of the Hebrew people, the coup makes no sense whatsoever.  Why risk losing an empire that you will naturally gain loyally by just waiting?

So after purring thought behind it, I think Adonijah knows what he is doing and is more than being presumptuous.  I think he is well aware that Solomon has been promised the throne by David and by God.  I think Adonijah knows that if he is going to make a move on the throne that he needs to do it while David is alive, while David is feeble enough to perhaps not notice, and before Solomon is anointed.  I think Adonijah knows exactly what he is doing in this passage.

So Adonijah tries to take advantage of the older David.  Were it not for a few loyal followers of God – Nathan in particular – Adonijah might have succeeded, too!  This shows us the importance for standing up for God’s ways in the midst of conflict.  It shows us the importance for standing up and making sure that the elderly in our community are not taken advantage of.  There are many great lessons here that come out of the faithfulness of Nathan and the few loyal followers of God around him.

Joab’s Role

Let’s take a little look at Joab here.  We’ve seen Joab be very loyal to David, but not so loyal to David’s wishes.  Joab has never intended David harm, but Joab doesn’t have the best track record of following David’s orders, either.  See 2 Samuel 3:22-39 where Joab murders Abner and 2 Samuel 18:1-18 where Joab murders Absalom.  Joab doesn’t wish harm to David, but Joab does think for himself and often push his own decisions ahead of David’s.  So it is here.  Joab joins Adonijah’s coup, but not to the harm of David.

This makes me think about friendships – and even more importantly spiritual leadership.  There are friends that are friends so long as each person’s path of life are mutually parallel.  But when those paths of life diverge the friendships dissolve.  There are other friends who are friends because they genuinely put each other first.  Regardless of the path of life, the distance between them, or the individual agendas of each person the friendships do not dissolve. 

The same is true about spirituality in the church.  There are some people who will follow the spiritual leader so long as the path of the leader matches up with their own path.  But when the leader turns a direction that they did not foresee then there is a break in spiritual leadership.  There are other people who follow the spiritual leadership because the leader is God’s voice among them and they are willing to consider new directions so long as they genuinely are still obedient to God’s Word.

Forgiveness

Let’s end by talking about forgiveness.  We see two great examples of forgiveness in this passage – one hidden and one blatant.  I’m going to talk about the hidden one first: David and Bathsheba.  Clearly God forgives their act of lust and does bless their union.  Had God not forgiven them, Solomon would not have carried God’s favor and become the next king!  The fact that Solomon does carry God’s favor among David’s offspring shows us that in spite of the horrible sins that led up to David’s and Bathsheba’s union producing offspring – God forgave them.  God saw their repentance and knew that it was genuine.

Furthermore, we also see forgiveness in Solomon when he forgives Adonijah in his plea for mercy.  Solomon could have had Adonijah killed for the rebellion and treachery, but he does not do so here.  Sometimes great leadership is found in modeling forgiveness when judgment is warranted.  This is an act that reflects much of the characteristics of God that we are quick to grasp onto.

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