1 Kings 2

Discussion Questions

1. What are some tangible things we can do to advance God’s kingdom here on earth? How do we foster kingdom stability, and promote kingdom living?
2. Are we eagerly anticipating the ultimate coming of God’s kingdom when he will return to set all things right? In the meantime, how do we work, wait, and walk well?
3. In Chapter 2, we read David’s last recorded words to his son, Solomon. As we reflect on our own lives, are we actively pointing others to God? What do our words and actions communicate to others? What are we passing on?
4. David exhorts Solomon to keep God’s statutes so that he will succeed in all things. How do we measure success? How does God measure success? What defines a flourishing/blessed life?

Transcript

We study through books of the Bible here at the Village Chapel, and we do have extra copies if you would like one to follow along. This is another good day to have the text in front of you, so raise your hand up real high and somebody will drop one off if you want a paper copy. You can probably see up on the screen there as well, the QR code, and you may feel free to access the house network, if you would just like to follow along in the text online. The QR code will also give you the notes and quotes here for today’s study.

Despite King David being on his deathbed, feeble and frail, despite the older brother Adonijah’s attempted coup d’état, the older brother of Solomon, that is; Solomon had now become king just as Yahweh had promised and had planned. Here is the story of an uncertain and shaky kingdom that was being reset or reestablished, redirected, if you will.

The Hebrew word, the verb that’s used four different times in this, chapter two, is “Kun,” K-U-N, and it means established. You’ll see it in verse 12, verse 24, verse 45 and verse 46. So, it really serves as a thematic thread throughout chapter two, which is another really bumpy ride. We’re going to take this again, just like we always do, but it’s a bumpy ride. I hope you’ll sit up straight and pay close attention. Yahweh guides and establishes His choice for Israel’s king with Solomon on the throne, setting up the lineage that will one day lead to and include David’s greatest son, Jesus Himself, the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. But this story does raise some interesting questions, as it did last week for us.

They might include these questions, and perhaps you’ve had these questions before: Can God be trusted? Does God know what He is doing? What has God actually promised to do and does He have both the power and the will to actually do that, fulfill His promises? This is all really important, especially as regards what we’re calling this study, which is “The King of Redemption History.” I love that. And then today we’re going to call it “Establishing God’s Kingdom” here for chapter two. Would you look at the text with me?

“As David’s time to die drew near, he charged Solomon, his son,” and then we’re going to get for the next few verses here down to verse nine, David’s final words to Solomon. And remember he’s chosen Solomon over Adonijah. Adonijah tried to do this coup d’état, and he tried to establish himself, assert himself, as King. David heard about it through Nathan and Bathsheba. David shut it down immediately and had Solomon anointed king. So, he pulls Solomon to his bedside and here’s what David’s final words are. He says, “I’m going the way of all the earth.” David, back 3,000 years ago, knew what we all know right now, that out of every 100 persons born on the earth, 100 of us will also leave the earth in death. And he knew this. He knew the statistics. It was overwhelming. Along the way, there is one who got back up from death, not just in the temporary resuscitation, but in what we call the resurrection. He is King David’s greatest son, Jesus, and the one we trust in.

But as he pulls Solomon before him, he says, “I’m going to go the way of all the earth. Be strong therefore and show yourself a man. Keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances and his testimonies according to what is written in the law of Moses, that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn so that the Lord may carry out His promise, which He spoke concerning me saying, ‘If your sons are careful of their way to walk before me in truth with all of their heart and with all their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.'”

And then verse five kind of takes an interesting turn. “Now you also know that Joab,” Joab was King David’s commander, general of the armies even before King David became king, when there was this sort of guerilla band of guys following David throughout the wilderness as King Saul was chasing David to kill him. Joab was faithful to David in the sense that he was the commander of David’s armies. Well, this all kind of went sour over the last few years, “You know what Joab, the son of Zeruiah, did to me and what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner, and to Amasa, the son of Jether whom he killed. He also shed the blood of war in peace.”

He did it in peace time, in other words. “And he put the blood of war on his belt about his waist and on his sandals on his feet. So, act according to your wisdom and do not let his gray hair go down to Sheol in peace.” It’s interesting to me that he doesn’t mention that Joab also killed Absalom. That’s not even mentioned here. I don’t know why. I couldn’t find a Bible commentator that knew why. I found a couple that said, “We don’t know why,” so I’ll quote them. “We don’t know why.” We’ll have to wait until later to find out at some point.

And then there’s another little turn, verse seven. Remember, the dying words of David to his son Solomon, “But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai, the Gileadite.” Raise your hand if you know Barzillai the Gileadite. Okay, so we studied first and second Samuel together and all the way back in there you’ll read of Barzillai the Gileadite a few times, but especially in 2 Samuel 17. As Absalom tries to take the throne from David, David chooses to leave Jerusalem and retreat. Along the way, he and his band of sort of merry followers, they are treated in a healthy way by Barzillai the Gileadite. He gives them food and supplies as they’re traveling, even though Absalom is the apparent ruler, and in another coup d’état is going to take Jerusalem.

So, David says, “Show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite. Let them be among those who eat at your table for they assisted me when I fled from Absalom, your brother.” Verse eight. “Behold, there is with you Shimei, the son of Gera, the Benjamite of Bahurim. Now it was he who cursed me with a violent curse on the day I went to Mahanaim.” This is in 2 Samuel 15 or 16, as Absalom’s coming in, David’s leaving Jerusalem. He’s marching along the road going down the Kidron Valley up the Mount of Olives.

There’s this guy here named Shimei, and he’s like a wild, crazy guy. He’s heckling David all along the way, throwing dirt clods and rocks and stones and cursing him in every way. Just abusing him publicly in front of everybody, this guy. David hasn’t forgotten that. It says, “He who cursed me with a violent curse on the day I went to Mahanaim, but when he came down to me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.'” See, after Absalom is booted and David is coming back, this guy, Shimei runs back to David and does a big apology. David was just in a very merciful mood as he was coming back and he was just caught up in all of that moment of, “Oh, we’re going back to the palace. Oh, good.”

He said, “Nobody’s going to die today,” and so he tells Shimei he wouldn’t put him to death. But now David remembers this, he hasn’t let go of it and he is going to tell Solomon, “By the way, you take care of him for me. I said, ‘I won’t put you to death by the sword,’ now therefore do not let him go unpunished for you are a wise man and you will know what you ought to do to him and you will bring his gray hair down to Sheol with blood.” Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. Okay, verses 1 through 10, to me it kind of sounds like almost two different people, but it’s not. These are David’s dying words and it’s basically in two parts.

Part one, “Don’t forget to have your quiet time.” Part two, “Kill all those people I don’t like, but be nice to that one guy who was nice to me that one time.” That’s craziness. But, really, those first four verses, amazing. If you want to mine for some gold, there’s like 10 things there. I’ll get back to that in a second, but we’ve got to read the rest of this chapter. But there’s some really powerful stuff in those first four verses about King David’s charge to Solomon. Verse 11, “The days that David reigned over Israel were 40 years: seven years he reigned in Hebron and 33 years he reigned in Jerusalem.” That’s true. Before he moved to Jerusalem and took over the throne, he spent seven years there in Hebron, which is to the south and west of Jerusalem. So, for 33 years he reigned in Jerusalem.

“Solomon sat on the throne of David, his father, and his kingdom was,” here it is, “firmly established.” Kun, K-U-N in Hebrew. This is, I think, the theme here, establishing God’s kingdom. Verse 13 all the way to 43 are a description of how Solomon responds and how this all kind of works itself out. Let me fly through it, okay? “Adonijah, the son of Haggith,” Haggith was his mother who is one of the eight wives of David, “came to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon.” Remember, Solomon’s the king now. “‘Do you come peacefully?’” Bathsheba says. And she had every reason to be cautious about his approach. And he said “Peacefully,” and I would say, don’t always accept what people say when they say that kind of thing because you’ll see what happens here. He said, “I have something to say to you.” And she said, “Speak.” So, he said, “You know that the kingdom was mine and that all Israel expected me to be king. However, the kingdom has turned about and become my brother’s for it was from the Lord.”

And I would rather have translated that as him saying, “I guess that’s what God wanted.” He just doesn’t seem to have bought in because you’ll see in a second. “I’m making one request of you, Bathsheba, do not refuse me.” And she said, “Speak.” Then he said, “Please speak to Solomon the king for he will not refuse you that he may give me Abishag, the Shunammite, as a wife.” Remember, Abishag is the one from the last chapter when David was old and cold and in his bed and they couldn’t keep him warm. They had all the blankets of the world on him, and some members of his court said, “Let’s find a beautiful young woman that she could be a bed warmer for him,” and so she comes. And verse four tells us he did not have relations with her.

So, we know that she literally came in for David. At that stage in his life, for whatever reason, he isn’t falling to the lust of the flesh. He’s being cared for by Abishag, but he never slept with her. She was considered among the women who would be like a concubine of his at that point. Here comes Adonijah asking for her hand. “Please speak to Solomon the king that he would give me Abishag the Shunammite as a wife.” Bathsheba said, “Very well, I will speak to the king for you.” The heart always makes a convert of the head. I think Bathsheba shows herself in some ways perhaps here to have felt bad about the fact that Adonijah, who was by cultural rights, the eldest living son of David. By cultural rights, he should have been the next king.

But as we’ve seen throughout the pages of Scripture, Yahweh doesn’t always behave by cultural standards, does He? Sometimes He does things in a reverse kind of a way, an unexpected way, and indeed, this is one of those occasions. But for whatever reason Bathsheba says, “I’ll speak to the king.” Here, verse 19. “Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose to meet her, bowed before her, sat on his throne, and then he had a throne set for the king’s mother. She sat on his right.” So, she’s got a real place in his life and even there in the royal room, the court, if you will.

She said, “I’m making one small request of you. Do not refuse me.” The king said to her, “Ask my mother, for I will not refuse you.” Probably not the wisest moment of Solomon’s life, but remember he hasn’t asked for wisdom yet. That’s coming next week, so we’ll see him grow in wisdom. So, she said, “Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah, your brother, as a wife.” King Solomon answered and said to his mother, “And why are you asking Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him also the kingdom, for he is my older brother, even for him, for Abiathar, the priest and for Joab, the son of Zeruiah.”

And, see, these were co-conspirators with Adonijah: Abiathar the priest, Joab, the son of Zeruiah. So, King Solomon swore by the Lord saying, this is in front of Bathsheba, “May God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life. Now therefore, as the Lord lives who has established me and set me on the throne of David, my father, and who has made me a house as he promised, surely Adonijah will be put to death today.” So, King Solomon sent Benaiah, this is going to become his Joab, if you will. “So, Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada and he fell upon him,” meaning he fell upon Adonijah,” so that he died.”

Verse 26, “Then, to Abiathar the priest, the king said,” here he’s going to treat Abiathar with just wisdom I think here in this case, “Go to Anathoth…” this is a little town just outside of Jerusalem, “…to your own field.” By the way, this is the hometown of Jeremiah the prophet a number of years later. I love when you triangulate some of these stories and you start to see the way this is a very small place, Israel. It’s about as big as the State of New Jersey.

So he says to Abiathar, “Go to Anathoth, to your own field for you deserve to die, but I will not put you to death at this time because you carried the ark of the Lord God before my father David and because you were afflicted in every way with which my father was afflicted.” So, Solomon dismissed Abiathar from being priest to the Lord in order to fulfill the word of the Lord, which he had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. Again, you can jump back and see in some of your margins and some of your Bibles will have references, so you can go back and look over their stories.

But, basically, what Solomon does here is, instead of killing Abiathar, like he did Adonijah, he simply fires Abiathar from being priest and sends him back to his home. Verse 28, “Now, the news to came to Joab,” and you can imagine the word is spreading fast that Solomon is cleaning house. “Now, the news came to Joab for Joab had followed Adonijah, although he had not followed Absalom. Joab fled to the tent of the Lord, took hold of the horns of the altar.”

This is in the tabernacle. The temple has not been built yet. “And it was told King Solomon that Joab had fled to the tent of the Lord. Behold, he is beside the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, saying, ‘Go fall upon him.'” And that means go kill him. If you need me to make that clear, that’s exactly what that means. “Benaiah came to the tent of the Lord and said to him, ‘Thus the king has said, “Come out,” but he said, “No, for I will die here.”‘.

And Benaiah brought the king word again saying, ‘Thus spoke Joab and thus he answered me.’ And the king said to him, ‘Do as he has spoken and fall upon him and bury him that you may remove from me and from my father’s house, the blood which Joab shed without cause. The Lord will return his blood on his own head because he fell upon two men more righteous and better than he and killed them with the sword while my father David did not know it.’ Abner the son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel and Amasa, the son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah.”

Again, he doesn’t mention Absalom here. “So shall their blood return on the head of Joab on the head of his descendants forever. But to David and his descendants and his house and his throne, may there be peace from the Lord forever. So Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, went up and fell upon him and put him to death and he was buried at his own house in the wilderness and the king appointed Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, over the army in his place, that is in Joab’s place, and the king appointed Zadok, the priest, in the place of Abiathar.”

Remember the one who’s been fired? Zadok has now taken his place. “Now, the king sent to and called for Shimei and said to him, ‘Build for yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there. Do not go out from there to any place for what will happen on the day you go out and cross over the brook, Kidron, you will know for certain that you shall surely die, your blood shall be on your own head.'” So, “I’m going to give you the opportunity to live,” just as he’s done to Abiathar, “but I’m going to confine you under house arrest,” essentially is what’s happening here. And just like Abiathar has a choice, Shimei has a choice.

And we see this throughout the Old Testament. These folks have some choices, and they just keep making bad choices, including Solomon along the way. “For it will happen the day you go out and cross over the brook, Kidron, you will know for certain that you will surely die, your blood shall be on your own head.” Shimei then said to the king, “Thy word is good. As my Lord the king has said, so your servant will do.” So, he’s agreeing to this whole thing. He is fully aware. It’s very clear. “And Shimei lived in Jerusalem many days.” So, some time passes. “It came about at the end of three years that two of the servants of Shimei ran away to Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath.” This is a Philistine city. “And they told Shimei, saying, ‘Behold, your servants are in Gath.'”

Gath was the hometown of Goliath. Some of you’ll remember that. “And then Shimei rose and saddled his donkey, and he went to Gath to Achish to look for his servants and Shimei went and brought his servants from Gath. And it was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned and the king sent and called for Shimei and said to him, ‘Did I not make you swear by the Lord and solemnly warn you, saying, “You will know for certain that on the day you depart and go anywhere, you shall surely die.” And you said to me, “The word which I have heard is good.” Why then have you not kept the oath of the Lord and the commandment which I have laid on you?’

The king also said to Shimei, ‘You know all the evil which you acknowledge in your heart, which you did to my father David, therefore the Lord shall return your evil on your own head. But King Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be blessed,'” or established rather, there’s that word again, “‘before the Lord forever.’ So the king commanded Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and he went out and fell upon him so that he died. Thus, the kingdom was established, [kun] in the hands of Solomon.” Okay, like last week, I’m going to say what you’re all thinking. What is this doing in the Bible? And how can we go from, “Have good devotions,” to “Take care of business for me”?

I mean, it sounds like David is the dying mafia don. “Yo, my boy. Take care of business for me.” And it sounds like Solomon’s going, “Okay, Pops,” and he’s the original wise guy in that regard, isn’t he? He does that kind of thing and it’s just one of those kinds of chapters where you can find yourself struggling. What was the promise of the Lord? Because I think this is important for us to understand. What was that promise?

I’m going to throw it up on the screen for you. “I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong.” This is the promise the Lord is making to David. “If he sins I will correct and discipline him with a rod like any father would do, but my favor will not be taken from him. Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever.” This finds its immediate fulfillment in Solomon and its ultimate fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus. You say, “I don’t see Solomon’s name there.”

Okay, let’s go to 1 Chronicles 28 where we read, “Of all my sons, for the Lord has given me many sons,” [this is David] He [the Lord] has chosen my son, Solomon, to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. He said to me, ‘Your son Solomon is the one who shall build my house and my courts for I have chosen him to be a son to me and I will be a father to him. I will establish his kingdom forever if he resolutely performs my commandments and my ordinances.'”

And so here we have, I think, the promises of God clarified. I think what’s important for us to be able to do as Bible students ourselves, living so many years later, roughly 3,000 years later, is we look at the genre of literature. This is prophetic historical narrative, and we must, as we interpret it, allow it to speak as it wants to, to us. And some of this will be very specific to certain people at certain times and places and we need to interpret it and apply it when it speaks that way.

Some of the other things that we find in prophetic historical narrative will be more like timeless truths and we read them, and we do the good job, the hard work, of rightly dividing the word of truth. And so, I want to draw a distinction between the first part, “Have some good devotions,” there’s more to it than just that, I don’t mean to trivialize it, and this other stuff that we’re reading here. There are some very specific people, and to establish God’s kingdom, the current iteration of God’s Kingdom with Solomon as king, there had to be some enemies, evidently, removed. Let’s look first at the part that makes a whole lot of easy sense to us. Advice regarding character and spiritual life. Be strong. What does that mean?

It’s very important. Two words. It’s the kind of thing the Lord would say through His angel to Joshua before he goes into the promised land. Be strong is the kind of thing a father would say to a son who is about to go on a dangerous mission or journey or that sort of thing. So, the Lord, through David, saying to Solomon, “Be strong. You will have resistance, there will be tension, there will be times where the resistance will come from outside and other times the temptation will come from inside.”

The same thing happened with the church and the book of Acts. If you study Acts at all, it had external pressure, people trying to shut it down all the time, and it also had internal tension, some infighting, some mixed motives, some people struggling for power and position and all that sort of thing. And that happens. But “Be strong” is important. “Show yourself a man” is not a call for what some in our modern day might call toxic masculinity. And I don’t know where these terms come from. I didn’t find that term 10 years ago and haven’t been able to find toxic femininity anywhere.

But there are these terms and there are some really mean men. And I don’t mean to say that there aren’t any mean men, just like I wouldn’t say there aren’t any mean women – mean-spirited and trying to take advantage, and it’s wrong. But be strong and show yourself a man. We should not undercut and dismiss the call to biblical manhood, nor should we ever undercut the call to biblical womanhood for women. We’re not confused about the two. The Bible is very clear about how God created human persons and so we don’t want to dismiss that, and at the same time, we want to be loving and careful and kind to all those in our culture that struggle with some of these issues.

I myself have some friends and some loved ones who struggle with these things, and so I don’t mean to trivialize it, but at the same time I don’t want to, just for the sake of everybody’s feelings, dismiss what’s said here. Solomon needed to be strong, and he needed to show himself a man. Third, “Keep the charge of the Lord your God.” If the question comes, what does it mean to show yourself a man? Here comes the answer. It’s not “Get up and scream at people.” It’s not “Go down, take a bunch of steroids, lift a bunch of weights so that you can prove you’re the strongest dude on the block.” It’s not “You’re going to go out and be the World Wrestling Federation champion” or whatever. It’s not that. To be a man in the biblical sense means to keep the charge of the Lord your God.

And for husbands, in my study in Ephesians in my podcast, we just came through chapter five, man, it means laying down your life for your wife as Christ laid down his life for the church. That’s what it means to be a good husband. I’m 45 years in, we’re still figuring all that out, but keep the charge of the Lord your God, which includes walking in His ways. In other words, not just verbal consent to the existence of God, but actually walking that out in every bit of your life. It’s really, really important. And that looks like keeping God’s statutes, His laws, His commandments, His ordinances, His rules, His testimonies, His admonitions. I love this little string of synonyms.

It’s as if David is saying to Solomon, “It’s not unclear what God’s will is for you.” Now, in our day and time, we all are so concerned about God’s will as it regards our job or which school we should go to, or should I marry this person, or should I date this person, shall I live or… And we have all these events that we’re planning our entire identity and life around. God’s will for us is expressly revealed, and it has more to do with our character than with how much money we make or where we go to school or how popular we are.

It’s really about following His ordinances, keeping His statutes, His laws, His commandments so that we will be that group of people who have been set apart by God in a dark world, shining as lights, brightly, as witnesses and testimonies to the Lord, according to what is written in the Law of Moses, number six up there. In other words, it’s not just up to the individual. “You do you,” would be the way the world we live in says it. And no, the Bible says, “No, you do Jesus. You be like Jesus. You live like Jesus would.” Ultimately, that’s where this all goes because He’s the fulfillment of all of God’s commands, all of God’s statutes, all of God’s testimonies. All of this points forward to the Lord Jesus. We’re supposed to live like Jesus would live in any instance, in any case, that you may succeed in all that you do, wherever you turn.

There is a way of describing the kind of success God views as success. It’s called blessed. Jesus uses it over and over again in the Beatitudes. Blessed flourishing would be the soul, even the soul that suffers, even the soul that has turned itself completely over to the Lord, His will, His ways, His wisdom. Yes, that’s how we find the blessed life that we may succeed according to the way God would define success and that we may it carry out. And I love this, “That the Lord may carry out His promise.” This is the purpose, David is telling Solomon, for which you should do all of these things. We’re invited to join Yahweh in the work He’s doing as the King of Redemption History.

Dale Ralph Davis would say, “Law obedience is the condition for promise enjoyment.” I like that. Law obedience is this condition for promise enjoyment. We learned so much here and Dale Ralph Davis goes on to say, “Kingdom stability is not anchored in our experiences or our profession, not in our education or pedigree, nor in our ministerial achievements, but only in obedience to the clear word we have long possessed.” God’s not left us in the dark. See, that’s what I love, that David said that this is according to the Laws of Moses that have been written down.

It’s not just you kind of make a way for you the way you want everything to go. No, that’s not it at all. And I don’t know about you, but I, for one, I’m so greatly relieved about that. Maybe you’re not, but I am. Why? Because I don’t think freedom is found in me just getting to do whatever I want to do. I think that’s false freedom. I think my heart, my “wanter” as we’ve called it here before, is actually broken and misguided. I often want things that aren’t good for me and, frankly, I often want things that aren’t good for you or others. Let me put it that way. I don’t mean you specifically, but you can probably think of some people that you, frankly, don’t want things that are good for them because you’re mad at them.

You’re holding onto anger and bitterness. You’re mad at them. And the simple trivial version is you’re driving down the road, somebody cuts you off, you want the Lord to bless them, but with a brick or a bale of hay or something. You just don’t… Your wishes aren’t good for them is the thing. And it’s not just that we want our team to win, although maybe it is that way in some of the political games that are being played in the world in which we live. My team, no matter what. I don’t think that’s the way we’re to be. I think we’re to turn this all over to the Lord and there’s where true freedom is found, because no matter who’s in the State House or the White House, it doesn’t matter to me. Why? Because God’s on the throne of my life. I belong to Him, lock, stock and barrel.

There’s nothing anybody in the State House or White House can do that’s going to take that away from me, so I’m really free, you see? I’m completely free. This is why the Apostle Paul could sing hymns in jail. He was chained to a smelly old Roman soldier. He was in prison, and he was writing Philippians using the word joy, joy, joy over and over again. He was talking about, “The joy of the Lord is my strength. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice,” while a rat is nibbling on his toes. He’s joyful. That’s freedom. That’s real freedom right there. I love here that we see the Kingdom of God will be established in us as we study God’s Word. Solomon, study God’s Word, know its testimony. He uses all those synonyms to say, “You need to study God’s Word.” That’s why we at the Village Chapel study through books of the Bible.

It’s what’s really good for us and we want the Kingdom of God established in us. This is how we gain God’s perspective and God’s wisdom. This is how we discern God’s will and God’s ways. We get in his Word. As I said last week, lessons for redemption’s history in the past will bring us wisdom for the present and guidance for the future. “Thy Word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against Thee,” is so important. “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path,” is so important. What’s your view of Scripture? Nice inspirational book or the Word of God for us, the platform for belief and behavior for you personally? The Scotch catechism, Lewis said, says that “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever,” but we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify God, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.

Do you think of God that way? He’s not just the rule machine up there. He wants you to enjoy Him. He wants you to find this freedom that I’m talking about because God is infinitely and supremely glorious and praiseworthy. Glorifying God is exactly what we should do. We were designed for this. We were designed for Him as worshipers. And you’re all worshiping something. It’s either God or something that isn’t God. But make no mistake, you are worshiping every day, every moment, all 86,400 seconds of the 24-hour period we call Sunday.

We are worshiping something. I like Packer, too, he said, “If you ask why is this happening in your life, no light may come. But if you ask, ‘How am I going to glorify God right now?’ ah, there will be an answer.” I love that. I think that changes my view of literally everything. I’ve got to hurry. Number one, establishing God’s Kingdom. It’s established despite the formidable opposition from without. I think we see that here. I mean, what do we do with those verses that have all that violence and that retributive justice?  Some will see this as vengeance. Some will see this as justice. Which is it? Honestly, I don’t know.

It seems to me, though, that I have to remove some of the enemies of my spiritual life out of my life. And it doesn’t mean I should go kill them, but it might mean that I set aside some relationship, like I stop hanging out with some people. Why? Because they lead me astray, and I don’t have the strength to resist what they want me to do. So, there may be some people, there may be some places, there may be some props in your life that need to go if you are going to grow spiritually, and I can’t tell you what those are. I don’t know. I just know that that seems to have been the case for me.

And so, we see that the opposition from without doesn’t have to stop the establishment of God’s Kingdom in your heart and in mine. I think that’s important. We see that here – God’s Kingdom will be established despite significant failures within. In David, we see a guy who’s a failure. In Solomon, we see a guy who’s a failure. In Adonijah, we see another guy. I mean, there isn’t anybody in this chapter that’s the hero. As a matter of fact, there’s nobody in the entire Bible except Jesus who’s the hero, ultimately. All human beings need a savior, a redeemer. All of us need a much greater king than we can vote in or keep in. We all need a much greater king than is on offer just among us.

It’s really important for us to know that. We need to turn to Him, but with hope. Because even as a failure myself, I mean the only thing I’m consistent at is being inconsistent. Sometimes my spiritual life looks like this on a graph, and hallelujah, though, the Lord uses people like David and Solomon. And the last line of that chapter is, “The kingdom was established.” And it’s God’s choice of a kingdom. We know that because we already read the verses where God chose Solomon.

Israel’s king was old, cold and bedridden. Adonijah was a greedy opportunist, fixated on gaining power for himself. Solomon has a great start in some ways, but even now we already see him sort of doing some of the same stuff that David did, and that Joab did, and he’s got another guy, Benaiah, that he’s making do what Joab did. So, it’s already telling us there’s darkness, there’s brokenness there, but God’s Kingdom will be established despite all of that. God’s Kingdom will be established despite undesirable circumstances and unseemly events just like the ones we just read about, just like the ones we see in our own world, as well.

God’s kingdom will be established in spite of the earthquake, in spite of the tsunamis, in spite of the cancer, in spite of the pandemic. God is in control of human history, even in the midst of all of the storm raging, even in the face of all the giants we have to face, and we can see the battle as belonging to us or to the Lord. We can trust in our boats and our own ability to navigate the Sea of Galilee, or we can say, “No, wait a minute, we got the Messiah in our boat. Let’s appeal to Him and see what He will make out of this,” whether the physical outcome is our choice or not.

God’s Kingdom will ultimately be established by one greater than King David and greater than King Solomon. And His name is Jesus. These events in 1 Kings, chapter two, were a foreshadowing of another day, an even greater day, as we see this transition of power from David. Now it’s Solomon. Some people think of Solomon only as the wisest and the wealthiest, but, man, he’s kooky. Seven hundred wives and 300 concubines. I mean, he’s off the charts. It all goes to his head.

He’s already starting to do things that you kind of go, “I just can’t see that as the right solution.” But we’ll see him, just like us, going before the Lord seeking wisdom, and look forward to that. That’ll be a highlight, really, in the story of Solomon. David and Solomon had plenty of power, plenty of authority, knowledge and wisdom, but that righteousness and without faithfulness, they could never become the king that we all want, and we all need. You see, that’s the difference between Jesus and all these other ones.

Power. Jesus has all authority and all power in all of reality. He made that claim in the gospel records: “All authority has been given to me.” And then He made these kinds of claims: He made the claim that He will return and set things right. That means He knows what’s right, and that means He intends to do something about it. Again, rejoice in King Jesus. Put your hope and your confidence and trust and your faith in King Jesus. “Christ is everywhere throughout the Old Testament. It speaks of Him explicitly and implicitly in promises, patterns, types, hints and images. Through these various ways, the Old Testament reveals and anticipates the richness of His character: His work, His life, His glory, His hope, His might, His love, His suffering, His wisdom, and so much more, and it does this all before the historical event of His incarnation.”

Scott Redd is the president of Reformed Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, a good friend of a bunch of us here on staff and was just here for the Sing Conference. We had time to chat and talk a little bit and told him we were going to be studying 1 and 2 Kings. He was very, very excited about it, and I thought he really hit it right there. Christ is throughout the pages of Scripture; He even claimed that in Luke 22, that all those Scriptures point to and find their fulfillment in Him.

Another good friend is Trevin Wax. He’ll be here for one of our Biblical Thinking events on October 4th. He says, “Stressed? Scared? Anxious? Distracted? Remember King Jesus. Take time to avert your eyes from everything else and look squarely at Him. Look to His perfect life in your place. Look to His death on the cross for your sins. Look to His resurrection victory. Look to His exaltation as king. Look to His promise to come again.” That’s just simple gospel advice to us, isn’t it? So beautiful.

I’ll close with this Keller quote, and then I want us to sing and respond to our great King. Keller says, “His miracles are not just proofs that He has power but also wonderful foretastes of what He is going to do with that power. His miracles are not just a challenge to our minds, but a promise to our hearts, that the world we all want is coming.” Listen, no matter what may happen with all the earthly leaders of our nations or of our churches, for that matter, this much is true. We will always be looking for a better king until we finally turn to the King of Kings, to Jesus, and ask Him to be the king that no one else could ever really be.

Jesus is the King of Redemption History. He is the only one powerful enough, the only one wise enough, the only one good enough. And He is kind, and He is waiting for you to turn to Him. He’s worthy. Let’s praise His name. Will you join me in prayer? Thank you, Lord, for this passage, although we don’t understand all of it. We have these gaps of 3,000 years, Lord. We have these cultural gaps. We have these religious gaps. We have these tradition gaps. And when we read stuff like this, sometimes it offsets us a little bit or unnerves us in some way, but I hope, Lord, for each and every one of us, that what we’ll see shining throughout all of these pages is how much we need King Jesus. Whether we lived 3,000 years ago or we live now, we have the same need. We need You as our king because of who You are. You’re the only one worthy. So, we lift up our empty hands of faith and we raise our eyes to Heaven. We raise our voices to Heaven, and we say, “Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.” Amen.