1 Kings 1

Discussion Questions

1. What are the benefits of studying redemption history? How can the ancient books of 1 & 2 Kings still be applicable to us today?
2. When Adonijah made his grab for the throne, prophets and priests were conspicuously absent in the group he gathered around himself. Who makes up your inner circle? Do you include people who keep you accountable to God and to each other (which can be uncomfortable at times), or have we only chosen to allow people in who always tell us what we want to hear?
3. David acted immediately to appoint his son Solomon to the throne. Do we have this same sense of urgency when it comes to listening to and acting on God’s directives in our lives? Why or why not? If not, what are ways that we can become more attentive, urgent and clued-in on what God wants from us today?
4. In 1 Kings 1, the prophet Nathan and Solomon’s mother, Bathsheba, showed prophetic persistence and alertness to the plans and purposes of God. How can we follow their example in our unique place in space/time history, in the days of the already/not yet kingdom?

Transcript

We study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel. It is God’s word – unique in its source, timeless in its truth, broad in its reach, and transforming in its power. So, will you turn with me for the very first time? We’re going to jump to 1 Kings today. As Tommy said last week, this thing starts off like a rocket ship. It’s kooky, it’s crazy, it’s a little confusing.

So, you see the alliteration I did there? At least phonetically, it sounds like an alliteration. I want you to sit up straight; look forward to this. King David was aged and bedridden as we open up the text. Solomon was supposed to become his successor, but real history doesn’t always work out like fairytales. So, the transition doesn’t go quite as smoothly as we thought it might and certainly not as smoothly as he thought it might, or his mother thought.

Who were the ancient kings of Israel? We’ll look at 39 of those as we go through 1 and 2 Kings together. The monarchy began about 3,000 years ago with Saul, and then David, and then Solomon ultimately will take over; but it is a saga of royal succession, lots of political tension, and familial conflict. So, I’m really looking forward to this.

For something this old, this ancient, to have the kind of impact that it’s going to have on us, I’m very curious to see what the Lord does as we begin to study. The QR code up there will get you to the notes and the quotes if you would like those. The slides will be available online as well. We’re going to look, as I say, at chapter one today, which is 53 verses. So, I’m going to need you to listen fast and that’s going to be really important.

First though, what are some of the benefits of studying redemption history? Because we’re going to call this “The King of Redemption History,” all this pointing forward to and finding its fulfillment in Jesus Himself as we study even an ancient document like 1 and 2 Kings. Some of the benefits are that they deal with subjects like origin. Where did we come from? What are our roots? So, redemption history does indeed do that kind of thing.

Identity formation. Who and what are we? We see ourselves. The Old Testament itself and the New Testament together, they’re both like a mirror, and we hold that up in front of us. As we read these stories, we begin to see some of the same traits that they had. We have those same kind of characteristics and traits, and we learn so much about ourselves as we read this ancient text.

“Where are we?” is the next thing that I think we benefit from learning as we study redemption history. Is this life all there is? Where are we in the grand scheme of all of history? Is this life all there is or is there something beyond this world? Do we have an eternal destiny, or is this world just careening through the universe and with no real purpose, no theosophy?

The biblical account of redemption history reminds us that we live in a world that was made by God, but a world that resists and/or does not acknowledge its creator God all the time. If believers experience a bit of unrest living in this world, it’s because we are surrounded and tempted by the worship of false idols that are, at best, parodies of the truth, distortions of the good reality that God intends for this world to be and, indeed, will remake it in the future.

So, that’s really important. We’ll learn that lessons from the past bring wisdom for the present and guidance for the future. One verse that exemplifies that kind of thing is that as we study the Word of God, it becomes a lamp into our feet and a light into our path. It helps me assess where I’m standing right now, a lamp into my feet, where they are standing right now. How’d I get here?

Now, we had a dog one time that jumped out the front window of our house. And we heard the crash, we ran to the window, we looked out, and we saw Rose, little Rose, little mini-Schnauzer, standing out there, and she was just puzzled. “How did I get here?” Well, you jumped through the window. That’s how you got there. But she didn’t quite figure that out and was still stunned by the whole thing. And sometimes, I think we don’t know how we got to where we are in this life. And it’s good for us occasionally to look to the Word.

It is indeed a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, showing the way that God would have us to go. The benefits of studying redemption history also include answering questions like who is God and how can sinful human beings be reconciled with God? These are questions, I think, that are incumbent upon every religious belief system, including the Christian faith.

And so, if you’re considering other religious belief systems on this particular day, if you find yourself doing that, ask those questions. Who is the god they’re inviting you to believe in? What is his nature? What is the nature and character of this god? And what is the plan of that god to reconcile you to himself? Great questions. I think, as you ask them and begin to read through the scriptures, you start to see what an amazing God this is, this God of the Bible, how persistent He is.

Even the Book of Judges, which is the first book we ever studied as a church together, we went verse by verse through it, it’s just replete with example after example of the patience, the long-suffering and the grace of God toward rebellious people like me, like us. And so, for us, it becomes really great news as we consider those kinds of questions. It’s the story of God’s plan of redemption, His enduring faithfulness down through history.

All right. So, we have a very nice little graphic that was put together here for us. I’ve got a little laser pointer for you guys who are online. I think you’ll see this graphic. But just in the overview of the broader history as we come to 1 and 2 Kings over here. The Exodus goes back to about 1440 BC, Moses born about 1520. You can see that Israel enters the Promised Land after the Exodus, after the Lord delivers them out of bondage and slavery in Egypt.

They wander through the wilderness for 40 years. Period of the Judges about 1370 to 1050 BC. The record that we have of 1 and 2 Samuel, which, by the way, we have studied those books and you’re welcome to all of those studies online. It’s a great, wonderful collection of stories that are real live history and real people. It’s great to study 1 and 2 Samuel. Kings of Israel begin with Saul, around 1050, David around 1010, and Solomon picks up at about 970, all this BC. Okay?

So, then you have the divided kingdom after King Solomon, and we’ll get into that because for us in 1 Kings, chapters one through 11, will be all about Solomon, his rise and his decline, his rise and his demise, if you want to say it that way. That’s what happens. Really a smart guy, really set up for a great win, and ends sadly in a pretty reckless kind of a story. Here’s the guy that wrote Song of Solomon. Ecclesiastes, he’s often credited with that as well, and so many of what we call the proverbs that we just studied for about six weeks together.

Yet you can have all of those advantages, all of the material wealth that he had, all the societal privilege that he had, and still end up in ruin. The fall of the Northern Kingdom is about 722 BC. The Assyrians come and haul off the Northern 10 tribes. And then around 586 BC, the same thing happens to Judah, the Southern kingdom, when the Babylonians, under the authority of Nebuchadnezzar, come. And literally, Israel is dismantled by the time we get to 586. Now, narrowing our slide a little bit more, we can start to see what’s going to happen here. We’re going to begin with Solomon, King of Israel here. It’ll take us two chapters for him to be firmly installed. Okay? So, as we study this, I’m really hoping that you’ll have a copy of the text in front of you. I’m not that interesting to look at or I’m not that interesting of a speaker.

You need to read the text yourself. And if you have a different translation than mine, fear not, it’s going to be close enough for you to get the gist of the story. But it really helps to look. I love to hear the sound of paper pages being turned. But if you must use a device, do it. I love to hear the swipe of glass as well. The divided kingdom will come after Solomon. We’ll have Rehoboam, king of Judah, and Jeroboam I. There will be a Jeroboam II. And it’s confusing like our time, too.

There’s some of these names that get repeated over and over. You’ll be going, “Wait a minute. Is that Jeroboam I, Jeroboam II? Who’s that?” Now, it’s like the name John or something. It’s a very, very common name. The stories of Elijah and Elisha, you’ve heard these stories before, and that we’ll find in these two beautiful ancient documents on fall of the Northern Kingdom, as I said, and then the fall of Jerusalem.

So, let’s get a little closer to actually starting. And I have to do this warmup because I do want you to know you’ll get more out of it if you understand a little bit more about some of the background. Some of the traditions suggest that Jeremiah, maybe Ezra, would’ve been the author of 1 and 2 Kings, but really, I think there are probably several, to be honest. It covers about a little bit over 400 years of time. So, I doubt that it’s just one particular author.

And as to the date, we don’t really know. But again, I would say it’s probably a collection of writings put together by an editor. And I’m going to suggest that the editor finished his work somewhere around 560 BC because the mention of Jehoiachin, him being released from prison, is included in 2 Kings 25. And so, for that to have been included, it would have to be somebody editing, at least putting it all together from that time period.

The literary genre of 1 and 2 Kings – always good to ask this about a book of the Bible when you read it. We get into a lot of trouble, mischief happens, if we don’t identify the literary genre of the book. We start to make rules out of Psalms, which is poetry. We start to make huge decisions about eschatological prophecy because we’re certain the credit card is the mark of the beast. And then it was a checkbook. And then when I found out my father-in-law’s social security number ended with 666, I’m not kidding you, I went nuclear! I was like, “Dad, you got to change now immediately. Let’s change this.” But it’s good for us to know the literary genre because it helps us interpret and apply whatever book it is we happen to be studying in a good way.

We will read about royal succession here, political tension, construction of the temple, palaces and fortresses, international conflicts. Some that end in victory, some that end sadly in embarrassment and defeat. We will have this ever-present spiritual assessment of these kings. This one will be named, and he conducted himself much like his father, David, or sadly, some of the other ones will conduct themselves more like Jeroboam and others from the Northern Kingdom.

Of the 39 kings that will be named, only eight of them have a positive spin on their story. So, out of 39, 31 are losers in some way. And so, don’t be like this guy. We’ll seek as we study these two books to grasp the spiritual significance of the text as we walk through it, sometimes strolling, sometimes, though, we’re going to need to run.

Always looking though for the ways in which these ancient texts give us a clearer vision of who God is, what God wants to do in our lives, and how each of these stories point forward in time and find their fulfillment in the king of redemption history, Jesus Himself. With all of this in mind, please remember it’s 3000 years ago, and that means we’re going to have to jump some hurdles, cultural hurdles, generational, religious, ethnic, national hurdles, to even begin to understand some of what we read in 1 and 2 Kings.

The themes overall, I’ll put them up on the screen here for you. We’ve broken it down into five. Our preaching team has broken it down into four sections. “Wisdom and Folly of King Solomon.” And so, when we chose that title for that section, everybody knows him for his wisdom, but man, you got to know him for his folly, too. We got to see it all. The kingdoms, they separate beginning in chapter 12, they’ll be in chaos. “Stories of Elijah and Elisha,” which are just so wonderful. We’re just going to have such a great time. And for those of you who’ve been to Israel with us before, we’ve been on Mount Carmel. We stood there. It’s just such an amazing thing to stand there and remember that great conflict between Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal.

But we’ll see the decline of Israel, which is generally, by the way, you need to know this, in this context of these two books, when Israel is mentioned, it’s the Northern Kingdom after the kingdom splits. And in the south, the southern part of Israel, they typically would refer to that as Judah. So, that’s what you do want to know as we read through the story that we have here. All right. So, I’m going to call this, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”

Any Tears For Fears people? So, you got to listen to that track. It’s actually really fat. It’s so good, and I mean that in a really good way. It’s an awesome track. I have no clue what the song’s about. I just know. And how many of you have done the thing from the Titanic movie, “I’m the king of the world.”? Anybody ever done that or seen somebody do that, standing next to a guardrail or something like that?

It’s so true. We all have this lust for power and control. It’s just in us. It goes back to the Garden. We need to know that. We need to be aware of that. Let’s read 1 Kings 1. Along the way, I’ll make just a few comments. If you have trouble paying attention, let me give you a little job, okay? The word “king” is mentioned 70 times in this one chapter. Okay, there’s your Highlights magazine project: You find the squirrels, you find the kings, you circle all the kings, okay?

If that’s a little too rigorous for you, the word “throne” is mentioned nine times, okay? So, those of you who are a little less able to stay dialed in for the 70 kings, you can find the nine thrones. Without any further ado, let me begin. “Now, King David was old, advanced in age. [That’s like saying he was really old, okay?] They covered him with clothes, but he could not keep warm.”

Remember, it’s before the time of electric blankets, before the time of solid HVAC units that you can dial with your app and set that palace temperature just right the way you want it. “So, a servant said to him, ‘Let us seek a young virgin for my Lord, the king, and let her attend the king, and become his nurse, and let her lie in your bosom that my Lord, the king, may keep warm.’ So, they searched for a beautiful girl throughout all the territory of Israel and found Abishag, the Shunammite, and brought her to the king. The girl was very beautiful, and she became the king’s nurse, and served him.” And notice this though, this is interesting, “but the king did not cohabitate,” some of your English translations will say. Some of your English translations will say “did not know her.” Some will say “did not have relations with her.”

And yes, it means what we think it means. He did not do that. It doesn’t tell us why he did not do that. He is a man who has had some difficulty with seeing younger women in places and being drawn to them. And he’s got eight wives right now, by the way, eight wives, okay? So, husbands, if you have trouble remembering one anniversary, he’s got eight. I think some of the kings will have as many as 18.

And of course, Solomon will have 700 wives and 300 concubines, which would be a woman who was brought into the household but not given the status of wife but nonetheless still expected to be at the service of the king. What in the world is this about? Some of you have to be thinking that. Raise your hand if that, in some way, crossed your mind. I want to be the pastor that speaks for you as regard these things. It’s a curious thing.

But I think that we cannot say more than the text says. And we also can’t under-interpret. It does say some things here. He was cold, he was old, and he had some people on his court that were concerned about him. And so, they found somebody that could lie next to him, that could keep him warm. And I know in our oversexualized culture that we live in, all of us just find this really weird. And I don’t understand it.

Trust me, I read a lot of commentaries on this, looking for the answers. There are a lot of commentaries that just skirt around it and just try to keep it moving. But I think it’s obvious that we ought to find ourselves at 3,000 years later, in a different culture, different time with lots of things, lots of ways of keeping ourselves warm. And some of you like to keep yourself cool. How many of you have thermostat battles in your household? Yeah, come on. We do.

Now, at 45 years of marriage, we’re finally settled in on a number. 68 degrees, baby. Love it. So good. Yes, ma’am. Okay. We got another 68. Okay. Yeah. Oh, Kim says that’s sleeping temperature only. Like the rest of the day, what is it? Huh? 70? 70. Okay, good. So, there you go. But that’s not happening here. They don’t have thermostats. And so, for whatever reason, this is the way they dealt with it.

There was good news for Abishag. We have to remember these are real people, and I’m going to really make this point, or I’ll drive this home: she lives in Shunem. It’s not right next to Jerusalem, and they go looking throughout the entire nation for her, and she might’ve had plans to do something else with her life. I think it’s important that we notice this stuff.

This is weird in a lot of ways, but it’s also really personal for a lot of people, no matter who you are and no matter who you relate to in this story. It’s interesting that this little four-verse pericope is here as we move into now, reading about Adonijah. He’s almost the complete opposite of David, and yet he is his eldest living son right now. Verse five, “Adonijah, the son of Haggith.” Haggith is actually one of the eight wives, by the way.

When I read Haggith, I pictured somebody with a big, tall, black, pointed hat and a big wart on her nose, and the name sounded more like… I don’t know. It just didn’t sound right. But evidently, it was one of his wives. “And Adonijah exalted himself,” and that’s always a bad sign on anybody, “…saying, ‘I will be king.'” I’m the king of the world. There he goes. “So, he prepared for himself chariots horseman with 15, 50 rather, men to run before him.”

This echoes what we would remember, those of us who studied through 1 and 2 Samuel, this echoes what Absalom did before Adonijah. “His father, David, had never crossed him at any time by asking, ‘Why have you done so?'” In other words, his father was a bad father. His father never called him to account, never disciplined him. And that’s why he gets it into his head that he should be king. And he’s going to assert himself and exalt himself.

Parents, take a lesson from the bad example of David as a parent. “So, he also was very handsome like Absalom, and he was born after Absalom in sequence. He had conferred with Joab, the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar, the priest, following him, and Adonijah, they helped him.” So, he’s got a bunch of supporters he’s gathering around him as he wants to be king. Notice who’s missing? There’s no prophet in the group.

What do prophets do? Point out sin, speak on behalf of God to the people. Nobody to call him into account. “Zadok, the priest, Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, Nathan, the prophet, and Shime and Rei, and the mighty men who belonged to David were not with Adonijah.” That’s underlined, “were not with Adonijah.” These are the ones he left out of his party. “Adonijah sacrificed sheep and oxen and fatlings by the stone at Zoheleth, which is beside Ein Rogel.”

That’s a spring. It’s probably half a mile or so outside of the city. “He invited all his brothers, the kings’ sons, and all the men of Judah, the king’s servant.” So, he’s got a coup d’état going here. He’s celebrating as if it’s a fait accompli. It’s already done. It’s a done deal. There’s no reversing this, okay? “He did not invite Nathan, the prophet, Benaiah, the mighty men, and Solomon, his brother. Nathan spoke to…” Nathan is a prophet, by the way, and he’s not invited to this.

“Nathan spoke to Bathsheba,” Remember Bathsheba, right? “…mother of Solomon, saying, ‘Have you not heard that Adonijah, son of Haggith, has become king, and David, our Lord does not know it?’ So, now, come. Please let me give you counsel and save your life and the life of your son, Solomon.” Because their lives would be at stake. If Adonijah became king, he would go around killing everybody else who would be a potential challenger.

“‘Go at once to King David,’ Nathan says to Bathsheba. ‘Say to him, ‘Have you not, my Lord, oh king, sworn to your maidservant, saying surely, ‘Solomon, your son shall be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne.’? Why, then, has Adonijah become king? Behold, while you are still there speaking with the king, I will come in after you and confirm your words. So, Bathsheba went into the king in his bedroom.” See, he’s bedridden. That’s why she has to go in there.

“Now, the king was very old, and Abishag, the Shunammite, was ministering to the king.” So, here’s Bathsheba, a wife of King David, not by her own wishes would be my argument if you go back in the storyline, but yet nonetheless, she has become this. And she’s the mother of Solomon. And now, she’s in the room with Abishag and with King David. And Abishag is ministering to the king in some way.

“Bathsheba bowed and prostrated herself before the king. And the king said, ‘What do you wish?’ And she said to him, ‘My Lord, you swore to your maidservant by the Lord, your God, saying surely, “Your son, Solomon, shall be king after me and he shall sit on my throne.” And now behold, Adonijah is king. And now, my Lord, the king, you do not know it.’”

See, if you cross-reference this with 1 Chronicles 22, you’ll see indeed that Solomon was singled out by David to be the next king. “‘Now, behold, Adonijah is king. And now, my Lord, the king, you do not know it.'” So, verse 19, “‘He sacrificed oxen, fatlings, sheep, and abundance, and has invited all the sons of the king and Abiathar, the priest, and Joab, the commander of the army, but he was not invited, Solomon, your servant. And as for you now, my Lord, the king, the eyes of all Israel are on you to tell them who shall sit on the throne of my Lord, the king after him. Otherwise, it will come about as soon as my Lord, the king sleeps with his fathers that I and my son, Solomon, will be considered offenders, likely put to death.’ Behold, while she was still speaking with the king, Nathan, the prophet, came in [ just like he said he would.] And they told the king, saying, ‘Here’s Nathan, the prophet.’

And when he came in before the king, he prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground, and Nathan said, ‘My Lord, the king, you’ve said “Adonijah shall be king after me. He shall sit on my throne.” For he has gone down today and has sacrificed oxen, and fatlings, and sheep, and abundance, and has invited all the king’s sons, and the commanders of the army, and Abiathar, the priest. And behold, they’re eating and drinking before him. And they say, “Long live, King Adonijah.” But me, even me, your servant, and Zadok, the priest, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and your servant, Solomon, he has not invited. Has this thing been done by my Lord, the king, and you have not shown to your servants who should sit on the throne of my Lord the king after him?’” Well, then King David answered, Remember, he’s old, he’s cold, he’s feeble in a lot of ways, and yet something has stirred him now. See? and here’s what he says, “Call Bathsheba to me.”

Evidently, she had stepped out when Nathan came in. “She came into the king’s presence and stood before the king. The king vowed,” And here’s what David said, here’s what was so important to him. It’s the first thing out of his mouth to respond to this whole scenario. “‘As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress, surely as I vowed to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, saying, your son, Solomon, shall be king after me. He shall sit on my throne in my place. I will indeed do so this day.'”

And you should underline, “This day.” It is always this day, time for us to remember the king of redemption history, His will and His ways. Today is the day of salvation. “Bathsheba bowed with her face to the ground and prostrated herself before the king and said, ‘May the Lord, King David live forever.’ The King David said, ‘Call to me Zadok, the priest, Nathan, the prophet, Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada.’ And they came back into the king’s presence.

The king said to them, ‘Take with you the servants of your Lord, have my son Solomon ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon.'” Gihon is a spring that’s closer to the palace. Gihon is the spring that feeds the pool of Siloam where, in John 9, the Lord Jesus, the greater king David, will have a man see. He’ll spread some mud on a blind man’s eyes, and he’ll tell him, “Go down and wash in the pool of Siloam,” which the water source comes from Gihon right here.

So, even the mention of it, to me, is a bit of a foreshadowing of what the greater King David will do later. “Zadok, the priest, Nathan, the prophet, anoint him there as king over Israel, and blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live, King Solomon.'” This is King David saying this, “‘Then you shall come up after him and you should come and sit on my throne and be king in my place for I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and Judah, the joint kingdom.’ And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, answered the king and said, ‘Amen.'” That means truly, “‘Thus may the Lord, the God of my Lord, the king say, ‘As the Lord has been with my Lord, the king so he may be with Solomon and may his throne greater than the throne of my Lord King David.'” It’s interesting to me that Yahweh, God, the Lord, is just now getting a mention.

When we go back up to verse 29, it’s all of Adonijah’s machinations and all of his little conspiracy and all that’s done apart from any mention of God at all. “Solomon, anointed king,” verse 38, says, “’Zadok, the priest, Nathan, the prophet, Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada.'” So, remember, there’s a prophet involved now. “The Cherethites and the Pelethites…” that’s the first time that group is mentioned there. I love some of these Old Testament names.

When we get to the “ites,” that’s what we like to call them, the ites. You read about the Jebusites, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and you always think of the termites and the flashlights, and all these words that we have. Those names. But who are the Cherethites and the Pelethites? So, I had to look it up because I’m curious. I’m one of those kind of guys about these kinds of names. And these guys are evidently the Secret Service of the time.

These are the guys that have the little earpiece, and they go, “Hey, King David, he’s incoming, incoming. He’s coming. Watch out for Adonijah, watch out for Adonijah. Here comes Bathsheba.” And they’re doing that. These are the guys that are really highly skilled warriors. And they’re the protectors. And they’re not with Adonijah. They’re still with David. So, he tells them to… or these guys do. They actually go and they get to Solomon, put him on King David’s mule.

You guys understand, back in their day, that’s like chariot. In a sense, that’s like saying, “You take my Bentley.” And the Bentley is really obvious. Why? Because it belongs to King David. And you’re going to drive the Bentley down to the Gihon springs there, and everyone who sees this happening is going to know whoever’s in that Bentley is the real king. So, he’s on the king’s mule.

The king’s mule, for us, that sounds like, “Oh, couldn’t he get a more expensive… like a horse for instance or something?” No, that’s the king. When the king is coming with peace and in peace, he rides a mule. And so, it probably had an awesome saddle and an amazing blanket on it, and it probably had jewels all over it and everything like that. But it’s the king’s mule and people would have known that Solomon was to be the king.

“Zadok, the priest, took the horn of oil from the tent, anointed Solomon…” This is what prophets did. Samuel anointed David. Here, Zadok anoints Solomon. “And they blew the trumpet. All the people yelled, ‘Long live, King Solomon.’ All the people went up after him, and the people were playing on flutes and rejoicing with great joy. So, the earth shook at their noise.” The earth shook. I love it when the earth shakes. In Bethlehem, the earth shook. All of Jerusalem shook.

When the wise men from the east came with the story, the news of the new baby king who had been predicted, and all of Jerusalem trembled, we’re told. It’s really amazing when the Lord shakes things up. “Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it. [They finished eating.] When Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, ‘What is the city making such an uproar? Why is the city making such an uproar?’ While he was still speaking, behold Jonathan, the son of Abiathar, the priest, came in. Then Adonijah said, ‘Come in for you are a valiant man. You must be bringing good news.’ Jonathan answered and said to Adonijah, ‘No, our Lord, King David has made Solomon the king.'” Now everybody goes ro-ro.

That’s the moment where you’re just like, “Holy moly. Right now, we’ve just been having this big party. We’ve just made the big announcement that Adonijah is the king. We’ve got the band there, we’ve got the food there, we’ve killed all kinds of animals, and we’re having a feast. And now, this guy comes in and says that the king…” This is another one of those times where you just go, “Wow,” and it shuts everything down.

Verse 44, “‘The king has also sent with him Zadok, the priest, Nathan, the prophet, Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and they have made him ride on the king’s mule. Zadok, the priest, and Nathan, the prophet, have anointed him king in Gihon, and they have come up from their rejoicing so that the city is in an uproar. This is the noise which you have heard.'”

May the Lord shake us and wake us. May we be in an uproar. I love hearing you sing, “Oh, praise the name of the Lord, our God.” That’s what we were designed for. I don’t know if you’ve heard it, but I heard God’s people singing God’s praise and exalting God as king. And that is brilliant. And that should move our hearts, even the most jaded among us, even the most crusty among us, even the most self-exalting among us, even the most hurt among us, the most-of-your-life-that-might-have-been-taken-from-the-direction-you-thought-it-was-going-to-go among us. “‘This is the noise which you have heard.'”

Verse 46, “‘Besides Solomon has even taken his seat on the throne of kingdom. Moreover, the king’s servant came to bless our Lord, King David, saying, ‘May your God make the name of Solomon better than your name and his throne greater than your throne.’ And the king bowed himself on the bed. The king has also said thus, ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has granted one to sit on my throne today while my own eyes see it.'”

Well, what in the world is going to happen? Verse 49, we’ll finish the chapter, “Then all the guests [of the Adonijah tailgate, or chariot gate party, all of them] were terrified. They arose and each went his own way.” Talk about scattered in fear. “Adonijah was afraid of Solomon. He arose and he went and took hold of the horns of the altar.”

This would be in the tabernacle. The temple hasn’t been built yet. But he takes hold of the horns of the altar thinking, “If I hold onto the horns of the altar here, perhaps they won’t kill me because I’m in a sacred place.” “And that was told Solomon saying, “Behold, Adonijah is afraid of the King Solomon, for behold, he has taken hold of the horns of the altar saying that, ‘King Solomon, swear to me today he will not put his servant to death with the sword.’ And Solomon said…” What would you do if you were Solomon? “‘If he will be a worthy man, not one of his hairs will fall to the ground. But if wickedness is found in him, he will die.’ So, King Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the altar. And he came, prostrated himself before King Solomon. And Solomon said to him, ‘Go to your house.'”

And it’s fascinating that he didn’t immediately kill him, that he didn’t slay him. It would have been in keeping with the way they thought back then. Again, 3,000 years ago, things were done differently. And let me remind you that much of what we read in here is going to be reportage, especially those first four verses. This is the author reporting what actually happened.

We get into trouble, I think, sometimes, like in the Book of Acts, when we try to take what is a description and try to make it a prescription. And we say to ourselves, “Oh, where’s the holy tongues of fire?” You just call yourself a Christian, whereas you, speaking in some kind of foreign language you didn’t study or whatever. And we get into trouble when we try to take stuff that’s reportage and turn it into some kind of mandate.

We get into trouble. Why? Because some of us start to think that if God doesn’t behave the exact same way He behaved in this story, then whatever’s going on in my life, He somehow isn’t living up to His promise of faithfulness. We need to be careful about how we interpret and apply these things. All right. So, I do have a couple of slides. I would love to be able to do this. And I’ve got to do it quickly. As I say, please listen very fast.

“Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” In 1 Kings 1, we see the frailty and decline of King David. That’s, I think, fairly obvious. And I don’t actually have to explain much about it other than to say there is a massive contrast between Adonijah and David. David is old. David is cold. He’s failing. He’s going to die in the next chapter. We’re going to read that. Adonijah, on the other hand, is young, virile, very self-confident, very self-aware, very self-obsessed. And I think what’s important for us to notice David, who has been an adulterer, who has been a man who arranged for the murder of Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, a man who’s gone through so much difficulty when he was young, being chased all over the country by King Saul, who wanted to kill him, throw his spears and send his army after him all the time. He’s been through so much, David has.

And some of it in a victim status, but some of it as a villain himself, with Bathsheba, et cetera. So, to that kind of person at the end of his life, looking back on everything, God still says, “I will speak through this man in this moment.” And what he says is, “God is my redeemer.” See, that’s a beautiful thing when you start to think about it.

We also notice here the indentured beauty of Abishag, the physical beauty, is what drew the court to literally indenture her. And we don’t know whether this process was for her incredibly bad, but we can only say what’s said here, but I can imagine that some of this could be rather difficult, and some of it just gross. Listen, a lot of us don’t want to snuggle with somebody we don’t know. The men’s retreat – we never share beds on the men’s retreat, right?

So, it’s like those are the places we just don’t go. And I’ve heard there are high-end hotels where they’ll send bed warmers into the hotel room. And I’m not talking about a device. I’m talking about a person who’s going to go in and warm your bed for you before you check in. Not interested. So, keep that to yourself. That will not be a hotel I can afford. But what’s fascinating to me is how Abishag is… I mean, as some traditions have her. This is fascinating to me, this Shunamite.

And there’s variant spellings, Shulem, Shunem. Is it possible? Especially in the Catholic tradition, is it possible? Are they right? Could she be the woman who becomes Solomon’s beautiful Song of Songs subject because she’s a Shulammite woman, unnamed? Is it possible? I don’t know. It could be possible. Is she maybe the Shunammite woman later in 2 Kings 4, whom the prophet Elisha comes across?

And if she’s really young right now, could she live that long and be the wealthy older woman living in Shunem? I don’t know. I’m not sure. The opportunistic, we also see, the ambitions of Adonijah. But I want to say about Abishag for a second. I jumped too soon there. She’s a part of God’s redemption history, taken, and I don’t know if she was abused or not. I’m just saying this. Her life wasn’t just her own. Whatever happened to her?

But the Lord can use anybody, broken, taken, people who are full of themselves. I’m going to make the argument that this God of the Bible even loves Adonijah. Okay? So, I think it’s really important for us. And he is the opportunistic ambitious one who is very self-oriented. And I don’t know what makes you blind with ambition. I don’t know what makes you ignore what others are saying. “No, this is what God wants. This over here is what God wants.”

But there are probably things in your life where you ignore that information and that advice and that counsel and you just go over here anyway. Why? Because your desires are disordered. Your priorities need to be reordered, and the only one that can do that is the Lord, the Holy Spirit. You nurture that by feeding on His Word. That’s why we study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel.

The prophetic faithfulness, notice this, of Nathan and Bathsheba. Of course, Nathan comes to Bathsheba originally and says, “Listen, for the sake of you and your son, I’m going to tell you that we should do this thing.” But behind it all, Nathan is a prophet, and he knows what the Lord’s will is. And so, he and Bathsheba together have this prophetic persistence in spite of it all, even entering the presence of a king. A king could literally say, “Kill her. Kill him,” and the attendants would have done that. So, they, at great risk, still come in and they basically say to David, “You haven’t even heard this what’s going on right under your own nose, right?” And so, I think that’s quite amazing.

And I’m challenged by them because of their persistence and their faithfulness to the plans and purposes of God. Notice throughout it all, though, the inconspicuous providence of Yahweh. The Lord God is mentioned a few times in this chapter: verse 17, verse 19, verse 30, 36, 37, 47, 48. While Yahweh is not quoted as speaking directly here in this chapter, there are those who speak of Yahweh and speak with respect they do.

And the outcomes confirm that Yahweh remains in control of redemption history. In spite of all the self-consumed machinations of Adonijah, in spite of all of the brokenness that somebody like Abishag may have had to go through, in spite of all of the agedness. “My life is over, and I can’t do what I used to be able to do, and I used to be a mighty warrior, and people used to respect me, and now I’ve got to give away the mantle.” In spite of all of that, Yahweh, His plans and His purposes are being preserved as we go through 1 and 2 Kings.

I think that’s very important. What role might Christ be calling you to play in the ongoing story of redemption history? God has given you a story to tell of His faithfulness to you. Are you telling it? If not, why not? There are so many people that need to hear it. We had such a lovely night the other night down the hall here with our creative thinking group. And one of the things that made it so lovely for me was just the story of real people that were impacted in some way by some of the creativity that God has gifted a few people with. The stories of how they were drawn, for instance, to the statuary that is at the C.S. Lewis Square in Belfast there, and some of the young children as they would sit in that chair outside that wardrobe, in that statuary, and just look at that door that’s just slightly open, and they just looked with eyes of wonder.

We need to recover an apologetics not only of theology, not only of reason, but an apologetics of wonder and beauty. And not to say, “Shame on you. You should believe, blah, blah, blah,” and try to argue people. No. Show them how beautiful King Jesus is, how wonderful His majesty is, and how wonderful it is to bow before Him and recognize Him as the king of redemption history.

Three quotes, and I’ll let you go. “The typical temptation of the young is lust; of the middle-aged, ambition; and of the elderly, bitterness. Actually, all three drives are similar and related: ambition is a refined lust, bitterness a disappointed one.” And wherever you find yourself in that little quote there, whatever age you might be or whatever stage you might be in your own life, turn to the king of redemption history.

Don’t dismiss Him because your dreams haven’t been fulfilled. You’re bitter now because the outcomes didn’t go the way you want them to, or they might not in the future. And perhaps, maybe even just hearing this kind of a story today will be, for you, some wisdom to tuck away in your pocket for future. Lewis, himself, said, “All that we call human history – money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empire, slavery – is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”

Adonijah, and countless others, and frankly me, sometimes, you perhaps as well. There’s really only one who has proven Himself worthy and capable of being the king of redemption history. It’s Jesus. And whether your story sounds more like David, Abishag, Nathan, Bathsheba, or even Adonijah, here’s the good news: King Jesus is good enough, He’s kind enough, He’s powerful enough to save. He’s the one who’s able and eager to save you and to save me.

I’ll close with this from Tim [Keller], “Everybody has to live for something. Whatever that something is becomes ‘Lord’ [let’s say “King”] of your life,’ whether you think of it that way or not. Jesus, the only Lord [King] who, if you receive Him, will fulfill you completely, and, if you fail Him, will forgive you eternally.” And amen. Let’s pray:

Thank You, Lord, for this. Thank You for the kind of king You are. In spite of all of the leadership failures so many of us have experienced over the years – whether they’re politicians, or priests, or popes, or pastors, or parents, whatever they may be – Lord, let us now turn to You in this moment. And would You shake us, awaken us, some of us need some stirring, that we might turn to You. And as we come to this table to give thanks for Your gift, the gift of Your son who laid down His life for each and every one of us, that we might know Your salvation, Your wholeness, I pray, Lord, that indeed it would be King Jesus we worship, and thank, and praise and exalt. In His name we pray, amen and amen.