Year 7, Day 343: 1 Kings 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

In 1 Kings 2 we get the transition to Solomon. I’ll handle this in two parts.  First, we hear David’s charge to Solomon.  He reminds Solomon to pursue the Lord.  He makes sure that he understands that the most important thing to remember is to pursue the Lord.  As I’ve said frequently the last few weeks, this shouldn’t be read as an expectation of perfection.  David’s charge to Solomon is to make sure that God’s ways are forefront.  The times that Solomon manages to follow God, then God deserves the credit for allowing us to do so.  Those times that Solomon falls away and sins, repentance is what is expected.  This is the charge that governed David’s life.  It is a charge that David desires for Solomon to live by as well. 

It is a charge that all of us should hear.  It is a righteous standard.  When we do live up to God’s ways He deserves the praise.  When we don’t live up to God’s ways, He deserves our repentance.

In the second half of this passage we hear about the death of David’s final enemies.  Before we get to Solomon’s role in this, I have to speak a bit about David.  David has tasked Solomon with something that he would not do himself.  David is giving Solomon his own unfinished business to handle.  This is unfortunate.  We should be a people who handles our own business and doesn’t task other people with what they should so themselves.

Now let’s look at Solomon goes about the task.  Having been given his father’s unfinished business, I think Solomon handles himself with incredible grace.  Solomon makes deals to find ways to let people live instead of being killed.  Only Joab is killed outright, and having killed people in cold blood in times of peace, he is in a different context than the first.  Adonijah is allowed to live in peace; but Adonijah once more shows aspirations of taking the throne by taking a royal wife.  His transgression shows that Adonijah does not receive the grace that is extended and he dies for his sin.  Shimei is allowed to live so long as he stays within the confines of Jerusalem.  So long as he abides by the rule, Solomon keeps him alive.  Only when he casts Solomon’s grace aside does Solomon hold him accountable.

That’s the funny thing about grace.  Grace allows us to live when our circumstances should hold us guilty.  Grace covers us so long as we live under its umbrella.  But when we cast grace aside and chose to leave from under the umbrella of grace, we fall into judgment.

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