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1st
Kings 1:1-53 “Now
king David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with
clothes, but he gat no heat. 2 Wherefore
his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young
virgin: and let her stand before the
king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the
king may get heat. 3 So
they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the coasts of Israel, and found
Abishag a Shunammite, and brought her to the king. 4
And the damsel was very fair, and
cherished the king, and ministered to him:
but the king knew her not. 5
Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted
himself, saying, I will be king: and he
prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. 6
And his father had not displeased him at
any time in saying, Why hast thou done so? and he also was a very goodly
man; and his mother bare him after Absalom. 7
And he conferred with Joab the son of
Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest:
and they following Adonijah helped him. 8
But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the
son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Rei, and the mighty
men which belonged to David, were not with Adonijah. 9
And Adonijah slew sheep and oxen and fat
cattle by the stone of Zoheleth, which is by Enrogel, and called all his
brethren the king’s sons, and all the men of Judah the king’s servants: 10
but Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, and
the mighty men, and Solomon his brother, he called not. 11
Wherefore Nathan spake unto Bathsheba
the mother of Solomon, saying, Hast thou not heard that Adonijah the son of
Haggith doth reign, and David our lord knoweth it not? 12
Now therefore come, let me, I pray thee,
give thee counsel, that thou mayest save thine own life, and the life of thy
son Solomon. 13 Go
and get thee in unto king David, and say unto him, Didst not thou, my lord, O
king, swear unto thine handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign
after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? why then doth Adonijah reign? 14
Behold, while thou yet talkest there
with the king, I also will come in after thee, and confirm thy words. 15
And Bathsheba went in unto the king into
the chamber: and the king was very old;
and Abishag the Shunammite ministered unto the king. 16
And Bathsheba bowed, and did obeisance
unto the king. And the king said, What
wouldest thou? 17 And
she said unto him, My lord, thou swarest by the LORD
thy God unto thine handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall
reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne. 18
And now, behold, Adonijah reigneth; and
now, my lord the king, thou knowest it not: 19
And he hath slain oxen and fat cattle
and sheep in abundance, and hath called all the sons of the king, and Abiathar
the priest, and Joab the captain of the host:
but Solomon thy servant hath he not called. 20
And thou, my lord, O king, the eyes of
all Israel are upon thee, that thou shouldest tell them who shall sit on
the throne of my lord the king after him. 21
Otherwise it shall come to pass, when my
lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be
counted offenders. 22 And,
lo, while she yet talked with the king, Nathan the prophet also came in. 23
And they told the king, saying, Behold
Nathan the prophet. And when he was come
in before the king, he bowed himself before the king with his face to the
ground. 24 And
Nathan said, My lord, O king, hast thou said, Adonijah shall reign after me,
and he shall sit upon my throne? 25
For he is gone down this day, and hath
slain oxen and fat cattle and sheep in abundance, and hath called all the
king’s sons, and the captains of the host, and Abiathar the priest; and,
behold, they eat and drink before him, and say, God save king Adonijah. 26
But me, even me thy servant, and
Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and thy servant Solomon,
hath he not called. 27 Is
this thing done by my lord the king, and thou hast not shewed it unto
thy servant, who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him? 28
Then king David answered and said, Call
me Bathsheba. And she came into the
king’s presence, and stood before the king. 29
And the king sware, and said, As
the LORD
liveth, that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress, 30
even as I sware unto thee by the LORD
God of Israel, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he
shall sit upon my throne in my stead; even so will I certainly do this day. 31
Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the earth, and did reverence to
the king, and said, Let my lord king David live for ever. 32
And king David said, Call me Zadok the
priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. And they came before the king. 33
The king also said unto them, Take with
you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own
mule, and bring him down to Gihon: 34
and let Zadok the priest and Nathan the
prophet anoint him there king over Israel: and blow ye with the trumpet, and
say, God save king Solomon. 35 Then
ye shall come up after him, that he may come and sit upon my throne; for he
shall be king in my stead: and I have
appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah. 36
And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered
the king, and said, Amen: the LORD
God of my lord the king say so too.
37 As
the LORD
hath been with my lord the king even so be he with Solomon, and make his throne
greater than the throne of my lord king David. 38
So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the
prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites, and the
Pelethites, went down, and caused Solomon to ride upon king David’s mule, and
brought him to Gihon. 39 And
Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed
Solomon. And they blew the trumpet; and
all the people said, God save king Solomon. 40
And all the people came up after him,
and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth
rent with the sound of them. 41 And
Adonijah and all the guests that were with him heard it as they
had made an end of eating. And when Joab
heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, Wherefore is this noise of the
city being in an uproar? 42 And
while he yet spake, behold, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came: and Adonijah said unto him, Come in; for thou
art a valiant man, and bringest good tidings. 43
And Jonathan answered and said to
Adonijah, Verily our lord king David hath made Solomon king. 44
And the king hath sent with him Zadok
the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the
Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and they have caused him to ride upon the
king’s mule: 45 and
Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon: and they are come up from thence rejoicing,
so that the city rang again. This is
the noise that ye have heard. 46 And
also Solomon sitteth on the throne of the kingdom. 47
And moreover the king’s servants came to
bless our lord king David, saying, God make the name of Solomon better than thy
name, and make his throne greater than thy throne. And the king bowed himself upon the bed. 48
And also thus said the king, Blessed be
the LORD
God of Israel, which hath given one to sit on my throne this day, mine
eyes even seeing it. 49 And
all the guests that were with Adonijah were afraid, and rose up, and
went every man his way. 50 And
Adonijah feared because of Solomon, and arose, and went, and caught hold on the
horns of the altar. 51 And
it was told Solomon, saying, Behold, Adonijah feareth king Solomon: for, lo, he hath caught hold on the horns of
the altar, saying, Let king Solomon swear unto me to day that he will not slay
his servant with the sword. 52 And
Solomon said, If he will shew himself a worthy man, there shall not an hair of
him fall to the earth: but if wickedness
shall be found in him, he shall die. 53
So king Solomon sent, and they brought
him down from the altar. And he came and
bowed himself to king Solomon: and
Solomon said unto him, Go to thine house.” Introduction [Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED681] “1st
Book of Kings, by the way, people are asking, are we going to have communion, I
figured we’d let David kick the bucket first, and then between David and
Solomon. So we could have stopped at 1st
Kings, but we’re kind of in flow with the end of David’s life, always wondered
where that phrase came from, from Mrs. O’Leary’s cow. 1st Kings and 2nd Kings
originally one book, the Septuagint divided them, one book. The author is a question mark. Some feel that Ezra wrote it, other
scholarship feels there’s not enough information for Ezra to write. I’m not sure about that. Some think Ezekiel, the Talmud says Jeremiah,
because 1st and 2nd Kings takes us from Solomon to the
Captivity, to Zedekiah, the last of Judah’s kings, to Nebuchadnezzar
coming. Most scholars agree that whoever
the author was compiled the information of those 400 years had the benefit of
standing at the back of it to put this together, so certainly it’s an
interesting journey. Here in 1st
Kings the first eleven chapters will take us through the kingdom handed to
Solomon, and his life. And from the 12th
chapter to the 22nd chapter we have the history of the kings, eight
of them that were part of Judah godly, not all, but eight of them, and none of
the kings of the north [the House of Israel], and David’s lineage rule over the
tribes of Judah [Levi and half tribe of Benjamin] in the south, in chapter 17
we pick up with Elijah speaking to the nation [both nations, the House of
Israel and the House of Judah] in the midst of all of that. So a very, very fascinating remarkable
record, historic certainly. 1st
and 2nd Chronicles written, cover some of the same things but from
the perspective of the priests, and what was happening spiritually through
this, we have the historical record here in many ways as we move on through
these chapters. And we begin with David,
aged, probably about 70 years old at this point in time. Now
King David Was Old & Stricken In Years It
says “Now king David was old and stricken in years; and they covered
him with clothes, but he gat no heat.” (verse 1) I love the King James, “he
gat no heat” sounds like a great Blues song, he gat no heat, covered me with
clothes, but I couldn’t get warm, sounds like a great song. 70 years, these are hard years, there were no
clinics, no doctors the way we understand them, there were no supplements, you
couldn’t buy one of those juicers on TV, these were 70 hard years. Plus you consider this kid as a teenager
fighting with a bear and a lion, defending the flock of his father, from the
time of Goliath, being in bad standing with Saul, beginning to flee, the stress
of all of that as a young man, 15 to 20 years fleeing, finally taking the
throne, the things that he went through, wars after wars with the Philistines,
his own failing with Bathsheba, the disaster in his family, his son being
killed after seducing Tamar, Absalom causing a rebellion, just follow through,
none of these were easy years. So David
is old, he is well-stricken in years, and he gat no heat, he’s cold. I don’t know if you’ve ever been so tired,
probably twice in my life for some reason or other, for days doing something,
and just fatigued, when you just crash.
A couple times I remember just crashing and getting the shakes and not
being able to get warm, because you’re so fatigued, going to bed and getting
under the covers and just sleeping like a log.
But just David is worn by the years, he can’t get warm at this point in
time, and those were difficult hard years.
70 was old for these days anyhow, and he’s 70 years old having been
through everything that he went through.
Verse 15 tells us that when Bathsheba went in to him, he was in the
chamber, he was in his room, verse 47 says “And moreover the king’s
servants came to bless our lord king David, saying, God make the name of
Solomon better than thy name, and make his throne greater than thy throne. And the king bowed himself upon the bed.” So it seems that David is so worn at this
point in time, he’s confined to his chamber, he’s confined to his bed, he’s
unable to get warm, he has seen, no doubt, remarkable, remarkable things. It says “Wherefore his servants said unto
him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin: and let her stand before the king, and let
her cherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the king may get
heat.” (verses 2) This is before
electric blankets, simple solution in that day.
Josephus makes mention of it even in his days, in the days of
Christ. There’s no inclination here that
this was a sexual relationship. They
chose a virgin, besides serving the king, she was to sleep next to him to try
to warm him, it tells us specifically, David had no sexual relationship with
her. But under the Mosaic Law it would
be a virgin to be chosen, it could never be a married woman chosen for this
job…Some hotels they pay someone to come in and lay in your bed now before you
get there to warm it up for you, isn’t that ridiculous? I’ve never been that cold. [In the Revolutionary days, 1600s through
1800s, they had bedwarmers made out of brass, you’d put hot coals from the
fireplace in them and rub them around under the sheets to warm up the
bed.] Josephus evidently at the end of
his life had the same thing, and even till the Middle Ages this was prescribed
at times. I’m thinking as I read this,
were is Rizpah when you need her, remember Saul’s concubine? her name means
“Hot Coal,” and David here can’t get heat, they should have found her. This reminds me of another story [laughter],
my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, he’s with the Lord now, but years ago on
the West Coast they bought this electric blanket, why you need one of those in
California, I’m not sure. And she’s
always cold, and he was always hot, she was always freezing, turning up the
thing on her side, and he was always turning it down, ‘Man, it’s hot here,’ and
somehow the controls had gotten switched on the blanket, so she was freezing on
her side, turning it all the way up, cooking him, and he was sweating and turning
his all the way off and freezing her out, a queer application, if you want
there. It says “So they sought for a
fair damsel throughout all the coasts of Israel, and found Abishag a
Shunammite, and brought her to the king.” (verse 3) We’re going to find out this is a
beautiful woman, and some others, at least one of David’s sons pursues her, the
question is, is this the same as the Shulamite in the Song of Solomon? there’s
no hard evidence for that, some have put that forward. But when the Holy Spirit tells you, it
doesn’t say she was good looking, it said she was very good looking, and he
gets the “very” through the quill to the page.
This is a beautiful young woman, “And the damsel was very
fair, and cherished the king, and ministered to him: but the king knew her not.” (verse 4)
notice this, it was not sexual. She
could probably be considered a concubine, he had more than one wife, but there
was nothing sexual about this relationship.
Seeing
His Father Is About To Die, Adonijah Tries To Usurp The Throne Now,
Adonijah, we’re introduced to him verse 5, Adonijah is the fourth son, Adonijah
is the oldest living son. Remember that
Absalom killed Amnon because he had a relationship with Tamar his sister,
Absalom’s sister from the same mother. Chileab
passed off the scene early, we have no record of him, most scholarship feel he
died from one reason or another, Absalom was killed by Joab, and the oldest
living son, in most dynasties would be heir to the throne, who was Adonijah. But no doubt, people in the palace understood
that Solomon was to be the next king.
Bathsheba’s going to say to the king twice, that he sware that. When we get to Chronicles, we’re going to
find out that the LORD
gave David plans for the Temple, and told David that Solomon would be the king
that sat upon his throne. So here is
David, very old, not coming out to the public, laying, bedridden, they’re
ministering to him to try to keep his body heat up. And Adonijah steps in here, it says “Then
Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, I will be king: and he prepared him chariots and horsemen,
and fifty men to run before him.” (verse 5) the same number that Absalom
had chosen in his rebellion, and he’s decided that he’s going to take the
kingdom. Now, David has had problems in
the household, David once he committed adultery with Bathsheba, murdered her
husband, it seems like any structure in his home disintegrated. The man, David, was forged in the furnace of
affliction, this is a man who was a man’s man, this was a man who had as a
teenager, had enough faith in God, knew his God well enough to take on a lion,
and grab a lion by the beard. That still
freaks me out when I think about that, and a bear, and then to go out and face
Goliath by himself, and then years of hardship in the mountains, years of
trusting the LORD,
years of having opportunity to do what Adonijah did here, and yet he didn’t
step up to take the throne, he didn’t assert himself. David would write to us in the Psalms,
‘Promotion doesn’t come from the north or the south, that it comes from
the LORD,’
he understood that. The problem is, you had this man then, and as
a man, a human, he fell and made mistakes, but he’s a great man, he’s a man
after God’s own heart, he’s in the palace.
But his sons were not raised in the wilderness, they weren’t raised in
difficulty, they were raised with a silver spoon in their mouth in the
palace. And it’s part of David’s
heartache, and Adonijah here just feels like he’s going to assert himself. Now this is crisis management. We see it all around us today. The real leadership when there’s a crisis
figures out how to step in and to rectify things. Opportunistic leadership sees a crisis, and
steps in and works it to their benefit, and to their power, and to their moving
their own career forward, and Adonijah is that kind of a leader here, as we
look at this. And he is stepping into
the picture, figuring ‘I’m going exalt myself here, I’m going to take the
throne,’ he gets himself chariots and horsemen, to put on some displays to
impress and sway the people. Because
people are going to know, ‘Did David die, we’re not hearing anything, is
Adonijah the next son, is he going to take things over?’ Notice this in verse 6, “And his
father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so? and
he also was a very goodly man; and his mother bare him
after Absalom.” he was very handsome.
So it tells us here, his father had never laid the rod on him, this is a
spoiled brat is what it says in the Hebrew.
His father had never displeased him, never challenged him, never spanked
him, never dealt with him. And it’s
really interesting to watch David, here’s a guy who has tremendous victories on
the battlefield, and the one battlefield where he never gets victory is in his
home. I mean, Solomon is going to write,
I think 13 verses on raising children, 12 of them say ‘beat ‘em’ Solomon’s going to say “apply the rod,” it’s
never punishment, but it’s discipline.
And Solomon, very interesting, is going to see that, and going to
prescribe that, no doubt things that he learned from his father. And there is a tradition that is
unsubstantiated, that says that Nathan reared Solomon, that a big part of
Solomon’s upbringing was under the tutelage of Nathan. Now I don’t doubt that, because when Solomon
was born, you remember back in 2nd Samuel chapter 12, it tells us
when he was born, by Nathan God spoke to David, when David named Solomon,
Nathan said he is going to be called Jedidiah, which means “beloved of the LORD,”
and evidently Nathan the Prophet knew from the time he was born that God had a
specific calling on his life. So Solomon
is much different than the other sons, Solomon is the one to take the throne,
but here it tells us that Adonijah was a kid that never got spanked, never got
dealt with, he’s a kid no doubt that’s used to getting his way, he grew up in
the palace, he had a horse whenever he wanted, a sword whenever he wanted, he
could go hunting whenever he wanted, he had Prime Rib whenever he wanted, he’d
watch whatever he wanted, video games as soon as they came out, everything he
wanted he got. “And he conferred with
Joab the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest: and they following Adonijah helped him.”
(verse 7) Joab is David’s nephew.
Now this has got to be very painful to David. Joab may know, because he had killed Abner
and Amasa, David’s general, that David was tired of him, that he had fallen out
of favour. Benaiah seems to be the man
closest to David, who was a great warrior, I can’t wait to meet him, and I wish
we had more print about Benaiah, he’s a man that I very much admire. And Joab may know that his favour with David
is on the ill, so he falls in with Adonijah.
And Joab must have known that Solomon should be taking the throne, and
Joab had always been loyal to David, but Joab had his own agenda sometimes,
Joab is a rough character, this is one mean hombre. But he goes in now with Adonijah. Interesting, and surprising thing, is that
Abiathar the priest goes with Adonijah, because when the priests were
slaughtered at Nob by Saul, back in 1st Samuel 22 or around there,
Abiathar fled and came to David, and David had protected him, and Abiathar had
been loyal to David all of his career.
In fact, when Absalom led the rebellion, remember Abiathar’s son Jonathan
helped David and let him know what was going on, it was through Abiathar and
his son Jonathan, it was part of David coming back to the throne. So it has to sting David a bit as we examine
this, as we go through here. Zadok ends
up to be the priest faithful to David.
Zadok, we’re going to read about his descendents in the Book of Ezekiel,
the last 8 chapters, when the Temple of God is established during the
Millennium, it says the other families of priests (of the Levitical Priests)
stand before the people and serve, but it says the sons of Zadok stand before
the LORD,
they minister to him, it says. And it
tells us, in that Temple, when we went through Ezekiel, every cubit, every
foot, every detail, it’s staggering to read through it, because that’s going to
be, you read about the gate. Why all the
detail, why every stone, why? Because
the King of kings is going to walk through that gate. And every inch of that gate needs to be
mentioned. And the King of kings is
going to go into that Temple, and it says there isn’t anything in there but a
wooden table. Isn’t that interesting, no
Ark, no Menorah, no Table of Incense, no Shewbread, Jesus will be in there, a
wooden table, and the sons of Zadok will stand before him and minster to him. Imagine.
Perhaps Abiathar turns and goes with Adonijah and Joab, because he feels
a step under Zadok, because we’re going to find out the real Tabernacle still
remains at Gibeon, and Zadok was of the line of priests that officiated at
Gibeon and also in Jerusalem, so he may have, in the standing of the priests,
the upside to Abiathar, and possibly Abiathar had thought, being loyal to
David, that he would end up to be the prominent line of the priesthood, we
don’t know. We don’t know that. [Comment: Abiathar was of the line that descended from
Eli, whose line had been cursed by God, that none of that line would live to
old age, and somehow, through the graces and mercy of David, he had in fact
lived to old age, but this curse on his line was still in effect, the line that
was to take over was in Zadok’s family line.]
But they decide to follow Adonijah, so we have Joab, the military
commander, Abiathar the priest, no prophet if you’ll notice, there is no
prophet in the rebellion. Then it says, but,
in contrast to that, “But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of
Jehoiada,” whose the son of a priest, we’re told that in Chronicles,
“and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Rei, and the mighty men which belonged
to David, were not with Adonijah.” (verse 8) Now we’re not sure if this is the same
Shimei that was a rat earlier, if it is, he doesn’t last long in this Book, I
find it hard to believe this is the same man, I don’t know, and Rei, we’re not
sure, “and the mighty men which belonged to David, were not with
Adonijah.” Adonijah evidently was
very careful who he invited to his rebellion.
And Adonijah, whose 34 to 35 years old at this point in time, “And
Adonijah slew sheep and oxen and fat cattle by the stone of Zoheleth, which is
by Enrogel, and called all his brethren the king’s sons, and all the men of
Judah the king’s servants:” (verse 9) he calls them to a feast, so
evidently he’s not sacrificing animals in worship, he slaughters these animals
at Zoheleth, down by the well of Enrogel, which is down by the Valley of
Kidron, it’s the Valley of Hinnom, the other end of what was the city of David,
the Jebusite city in those days just south of the present Temple Mount. And they are gathered down by that
spring. That spring and the Gihon Spring
were the two major springs for the city.
And he is down there, trying to install himself as the king, he
slaughters these animals, he makes a feast, he invites those he knew would be
supportive, they come to his feast. And
again, in contrast verse 10 says, “but Nathan the prophet, and
Benaiah, and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother, he called not.” Now that’s the first mention of Solomon
since 2nd Samuel chapter 12, when he’s born and we hear about him,
that’s the first time he’s mentioned in all the history of David. There it tells us very specifically, God
named him ‘Jedidiah, Beloved of the LORD.’ And
because he’s out of focus, he’s out of the mainstream, because he’s not on the
stage, because he’s not getting attention, has nothing to do with whether he’s
beloved of the LORD
or not. In fact, some people feel that
way, ‘I’m never in the center of things, I never get attention, I never get
my place.’ Here’s Solomon, Jedidiah,
set aside, beloved of the LORD,
receiving sweet counsel no doubt from David in his older years, from Nathan,
what a place to be. You know, he’s kind
of like one of those kids raised by older people, you know, just gleaning. And it doesn’t seem like he strives the whole
time, he’s only about 17 years old at this point in time. Listen, David is over 50 when falls into sin
with Bathsheba, somewhere in his early 50s it seems. The first child that she gets pregnant with
dies, and it’s after that, we don’t know how long after that, no too long after
that, Solomon is born. So if we’re three
years after that, or two years after that, and David’s now 70, Solomon is about
17 years old at this point in time, if you can imagine that. His older brother, Adonijah, 34 or 35, no
doubt thinks he’s much more the man to take the throne, but God has different
plans, that’s for sure. Nathan
Gets Wind Of The Rebellion & Warns Bathsheba--Who Goes To David “Wherefore
Nathan spake unto Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, Hast thou not heard
that Adonijah the son of Haggith doth reign, and David our lord knoweth it
not?” (verse 11) Nathan
knows what’s going on, smart old guy.
Now is this by the Spirit? I
would hope so, not just a scheming prophet, but he hears from the LORD
here. And again, tradition, some
traditions seem to indicate that Solomon was reared by him [Nathan], Nathan is
very aware that Solomon is to take the throne.
He goes to Bathsheba. Now look,
Bathsheba in our minds, we kind of have a very negative opinion of her, she in
my estimation, by this time as the years go by, is quite the woman, has a
genuine concern for the nation, certainly for her son [she had four under
David]. I think we might paint her, if
we fall, if we make a mistake, if you’ve blown it, it doesn’t mean down the
years, that we can’t experience some genuine restoration, repentance, and
usefulness again. And she seems to be
quite the woman if Nathan the Prophet goes to her for help. And we’re going to find Adonijah goes to her
for help, remarkably. So he goes to
Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, saying “Hast thou not heard that Adonijah
the son of Haggith doth reign, and David our lord knoweth it not?” Every time I hear of Haggith I imagine a big
wart on her nose. “Now therefore
come, let me, I pray thee, give thee counsel, that thou mayest save thine own
life, and the life of thy son Solomon.
Go and get thee in unto king David, and say unto him, Didst not thou, my
lord, O king, swear unto thine handmaid, saying,” so this is something that
had taken place in the past, “Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after
me, and he shall sit upon my throne? why then doth Adonijah reign? Behold, while thou yet talkest there with the
king, I also will come in after thee, and confirm thy words. And Bathsheba went in unto the king into the
chamber: and the king was very old; and
Abishag the Shunammite ministered unto the king. And Bathsheba bowed, and did obeisance unto
the king. And the king said, What
wouldest thou?” ‘Honey, what do you want?’ he loved Bathsheba. “And she said unto him,
My lord, thou swarest by the LORD
thy God unto thine handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall
reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne. And now, behold, Adonijah reigneth; and now,
my lord the king, thou knowest it not:” ‘they’re doing this behind
your back.’ “And
he hath slain oxen and fat cattle and sheep in abundance, and hath called all
the sons of the king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab the captain of the
host: but Solomon thy servant hath he
not called. And thou, my lord, O king,
the eyes of all Israel are upon thee, that thou shouldest tell them who
shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. Otherwise it shall come to pass, when my lord
the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be
counted offenders.” (verses 12-21) They’d
probably be put to death, because typical in that culture, sadly, when a king
came to power, he would slaughter all the remnants of the previous dynasty so
there would be no threat, and often times, more than not, anyone who was there
that could be a threat to his throne. So
she said ‘You know, David if you don’t deal with this, and Adonijah keeps
the throne, he’s going to view Solomon and I as offenders, it will be the end
of our lives.’ Now look, as I
look at this, think of everything David has been through, he’s fallen, he’s
made mistakes, and he has reaped what he has sown, many times over. And God has faithfully dealt with him, and
broken him, and made him a deeper man and a better man in some ways, and again,
the Psalms that we love, are the ones no doubt written after his failing, that
tell us more of the grace of God. But
you think of everything he had been through, with Absalom and Ahithophel his
closest counselor. And now he’s old, now here he is laying on his deathbed, and
you’re thinking at that point in your life ‘Now just let thy servant depart
in peace,’ as Simeon would say in the Temple courts, ‘LORD,
here I am, I’ve run the race, I’ve fought the fight, I’ve done my best, here I
am, give me a few days of sun, with no rain, and let me slip out of here, LORD,
in peace.’ And
here he is at the very end of his life, hearing again that one of his sons is
rebelling against him, stirring up all the pain of Absalom who he loved so
deeply, he’s hearing that his military commander that’s been with him for years
is now part of the rebellion, no doubt worried about Solomon, because he’s
tender, he’s a man of peace. Abiathar,
that part of the priesthood who had been loyal, David had preserved his life,
now turning on him. You think, here’s a
guy at the end of his life, how often can you think ‘LORD,
have you forsaken me? you don’t love me, this is what I get, at the end of
everything, here I lay, does it have to be in misery, can’t I go out in some
peace?’ David
was a man who trusted his God, and we’re going to hear, David is a man, at this
point in his life, who believes in the promises of God. David is a man who believes that God will
bless him and bless his throne, and bless his son, and bless his kingdom, and
remarkably, all of this stuff going on, any human eye would measure, that would
seem to overwhelm you, David somehow, even though his physical frame is weak,
even though he’s tired, his spirit, his mind, he’s able to stand against this,
make decisive decisions, move forward, and in great faith handled this. Somehow he knows, without the light you and
I have, without the New Testament, that the LORD
said “I will never leave thee or forsake thee,” he knows that in his heart
somehow, “Behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.” David loves his God, and he loves his God
because one of the things he knows of…all of the insanity and pain, at the very
end of his life, at the very end of his life.
And I think, you know, that’s the way we want to be, when we get there,
and I don’t think we’re going to get there, I think the Lord’s going to descend
with a shout and the voice of the archangel and the trumpet guy. I can’t imagine it going through there [i.e.
us going through the tribulation, or the first 3.5 years of it under the False
prophet and Beast person]. But, we want
to go that way, whatever we’re hearing around us at that point in time, to say ‘God’s
got it under control, God has made a promise, God had prophecied about his
Kingdom, God is going to set his own King upon his throne forever, the throne
of David,’ you know, David is somehow able to bear up under this. And yet I think he is a great man, with great
passion, with a great heart, great emotion, and I’m amazed as I look at
this. I think, ‘Don’t let me hear my
sons are trying to steal the house, or overthrow the kingdom,’ what
heartache would be in that, it’s unimaginable to me. Nathan
Confirms Bathsheba’s Words Verse
22 says, she’s in there giving him the
spiel “And, lo, while she yet talked with the king, Nathan the prophet also
came in. And they told the king, saying,
Behold Nathan the prophet. And when he
was come in before the king, he bowed himself before the king with his face to
the ground.” (verses 22-23) these two old guys now, how interesting. “And Nathan said, My lord, O king, hast
thou said, Adonijah shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? For he is gone down this day, and hath slain
oxen and fat cattle and sheep in abundance, and hath called all the king’s
sons, and the captains of the host, and Abiathar the priest; and, behold, they
eat and drink before him, and say, God save king Adonijah.” ‘There’s a big
bash going on, David, right now.’ “But
me, even me thy servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of
Jehoiada, and thy servant Solomon, hath he not called. Is this thing done by my lord the king, and
thou hast not shewed it unto thy servant, who should sit on the throne
of my lord the king after him?” (verses 24-27)
‘David, this doesn’t seem like you, that this would happen, and you
wouldn’t tell me,’ because with the installation of a new king the
prophet was to be there to pour the horn of oil upon his head, it would be the
place of Zadok and Nathan to be there when the king is ordained, and they said ‘David,
what’s going on, this is happening right now, big party’s going on, and it
doesn’t seem like you. I’ve been with
you all of these years, David, we’ve been through thick and thin, I’ve always
told you the truth, I’ve never been a yes-man, I’ve been by your side, watched
your son Solomon grow. What is this,
what’s going on, that you’ve not showed it to thy servant, I don’t understand?’
“Then king David answered and said, Call me Bathsheba. And she came into the king’s presence, and
stood before the king.” now he’s got his faculties, he may not have heat,
but his brain’s still cooking. Now he’s
got some confidence in her, and evidently she left the room when Nathan the
Prophet came, culturally that’s what would happen, your wife, a woman in your
presence, if a prophet or your general, somebody came in to talk, they would
diplomatically leave. He says “Call
me Bathsheba. And she came into the
king’s presence, and stood before the king.
And the king sware, and said, As the LORD
liveth, that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress,” and
no doubt that wasn’t just Philistines and giants, that was his own fall, and
his own failure, “even as I sware unto thee” so he’s telling Bathsheba ‘I
made this promise to you,’ “by the LORD
God of Israel, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he
shall sit upon my throne in my stead; even so will I certainly do this
day. Then Bathsheba bowed with her
face to the earth, and did reverence to the king, and said, Let my lord king
David live for ever. (verses 28-31)
he knows the importance of shutting down the other thing that’s going on. Now she’s being polite, the proper thing to
do, she knows he’s failing, he’s not going to live forever, you don’t want to
live that way shivering. I hate to be
cold, I hate to be hot, but I hate to be cold.
I like the cold, I married into a beach family, my vacations are always
at the beach. My idea of a vacation is
sitting on the porch in the mountains with the snow, with a hoodie on, and my
cup of coffee and my Bible, no noise, happy as a lark. I like the cool, but I don’t like, because
I’m happy, in our house I wear shorts all winter in the house, because Kath’s
got the thermostat, she walks by, and I walk by right afterwards and turn it
right back down again. I say ‘Honey,
what am I supposed to do, get out the beach towel and lay on the floor? I’m
cooking in here,’ and just turn the thing down. Look, I like to be cool, I don’t like to be
cold. I like the cool weather, I like
the cold weather, I like to be dressed warm, cup of coffee. But because I like the cold, once I get cold,
I don’t like it, because it really has to be cold for me to get cold. So I don’t like that, so I can’t imagine
David, all this bad news, I’d be saying ‘Lord, just take me, do whatever you
want with the kingdom, just get me warm beside the gate, or just give me a
heavenly blanket, but get me outa here.’
“Let my lord king David live for ever.” That’s just courtesy. David
Immediately Orders Solomon’s Coronation As King “And
king David said, Call me Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah
the son of Jehoiada.” Jehoiada his dad was a
priest, 1st Chronicles 27:5,
“And they came before the king.” (verse 32) Benaiah, his dad’s a priest, instead of
following the priesthood he decides to be a warrior, I just like this guy. “The king also said unto them, Take with
you the servants of your lord, and cause Solomon my son to ride upon mine own
mule, and bring him down to Gihon: and
let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there king over Israel:
and blow ye with the trumpet, and say, God save king Solomon.
Then
ye shall come up after him, that he may come and sit upon my throne; for he
shall be king in my stead: and I have
appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah.” (verses 33-35) So the king had
a mule, it wasn’t a donkey like the normal burrow, royalty had a hybrid of that,
which was a mule, but it was a beast of burden, and it was a symbol in the
ancient culture, of the fact that the king was the servant of the people. So he would ride a mule. And no doubt the people in Jerusalem
recognized his mule. This was the most
famous mule in the world, at this point in time, no doubt. I don’t know, maybe his great grandfather was
Balaam’s donkey that talked out loud, I don’t know that, but this one right now
is the most famous one going. And no
doubt the people recognized him by the saddle, by everything, and he says ‘Take
Benaiah, take Zadok, take Nathan, take the Special Ops, Navy Seals and Green
Berets, Delta Force, and go on down to Gihon Spring,’ now the Gihon
Spring is down the Kidron Valley, about half a mile north of Enrogel where the
other party is, the other party is all the way down the end of the bottom of
the city, about halfway down to the Gihon Spring, he says ‘take my son
Solomon down there to Gihon Spring, put him on my mule,’ “and let Zadok the
priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there king over Israel: and blow ye the trumpet, and say, God save
king Solomon. Then ye shall come up
after him, that he may come and sit upon my throne; for he shall be king in my
stead: and I have appointed him to be
ruler over Israel and over Judah. And
Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said, Amen: the LORD
God of my lord the king say so too.
As the LORD
hath been with my lord the king even so be he with Solomon, and make his throne
greater than the throne of my lord king David.” (verses 34-37) And David
doesn’t have any insecurities, has no problem with that. Saul would have lost his mind if he heard
somebody say that. But David is
completely in step with that, he has no problem with it at all. “So Zadok the priest, and Nathan the
prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites, and the
Pelethites,” these are the Special Forces, “went down, and caused
Solomon to ride upon king David’s mule, and brought him to Gihon.” (verse
38) So you have to imagine the
scene, there’s the palace there in Jerusalem, all of a sudden the trumpets are
blowing, people start to look, here’s the king’s mule brought out with the
special saddle, they kind of recognize that, all of a sudden Benaiah’s out
there, just a guy with his sword, everything he’s got on, he must have had some
cool armour, and all of a sudden here comes all the Special Forces running out,
the Cherethites and Pelethites, they’re all there, and now Nathan the Prophet
comes, Zadok the priest comes, they’re putting Solomon on the king’s mule. The whole city, it says, is stirred. Listen, understand the scene we’re going into
here, it’s going to say that the entire city begins to shout to the point where
the ground shakes. Most of them have
never seen this, and anybody whose probably under 45, David’s reigned for 40
years, so figure, if you’re under five years old it didn’t mean much to you the
first time he sat on the throne, anybody whose under say 45 years old has never
seen anything like this. Imagine having
the same president for 40 years. I
didn’t say what president, I said imagine, listen, put yourself in their shoes,
this is a president who institutes the worship of God in the middle of the
nation, this is a president who commands days of prayer, this a president who
demands national repentance, this is a president who sets up national worship,
not just on local levels, national worship, he sets up courses of priests, and
musical instruments, this is a king who has victory after victory. Nobody even wants to mess with him, this is a
king who constantly speaks of the LORD
as God, for 40 years people have lived under that. Imagine, you’re born, you’re 20, you’re 30,
this is all you’ve ever known. And all
of a sudden there’s change taking place.
The kingdom is being handed over, people are looking, they’re wondering,
they’ve never seen anything like this in their lives. I don’t know how many older folks are there
who remember Saul or they remember when David took the throne. But I’m sure for the majority of them, this
is a once in a lifetime experience, they look at it, they’re amazed. And as they get excited, here comes the
Special Forces, here comes this young 17-year-old sitting on this royal mule,
the trumpets are blowing, and the priest is there, the prophet that everybody
knows is there, and all these Navy Seals everywhere, you have to imagine this
scene, what God is doing here, and how remarkable it must be. Verse 39, “And Zadok the priest took an
horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet; and all the people
said, God save king Solomon.” The holy oil, a picture of the Holy Spirit
coming on his life. Now look, David’s
laying in his bed, David must be listening to this out the window. I wonder if he’s thinking about when Samuel
the Prophet poured the oil on his head, and probably about the same age? It seems he’s too weak to get up and look out
the window. “And Zadok the priest
took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet; and all the people
said, God save king Solomon. And
all the people came up after him,” they’re
coming back up now to the palace, “and the people piped with pipes, and
rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them.”
(verses 39-40) the idea is, there was so much rejoicing and screaming and
the trumpets, people rejoicing, that it was shaking Jerusalem. Adonijah’s
Party-Goers Hear The Noise Of Solomon’s Coronation Celebration “And
Adonijah and all the guests that were with him heard it as they
had made an end of eating. And when Joab
heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, Wherefore is this noise of the
city being in an uproar?” (verse 41)
he’s going to be Uh-Oh-nijah soon. Now
Joab, this is an old veteran, this is an army guy, he hears a trumpet any day
through the crowd, he’d been taking signals from trumpets for decades. It says when Joab heard the noise of the
trumpet he said “Wherefore is this noise of the city being in an
uproar?” are we declaring war, did David die? “And while he yet spake, behold,
Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came:
and Adonijah said unto him, Come in; for thou art a valiant man,
and bringest good tidings.” (verse 42) ah, wrong again Adonijah. And Jonathan said, ‘ok, here’s the good
news,’ “And Jonathan answered and
said to Adonijah, Verily our lord king David hath made Solomon king. And the king hath sent with him Zadok the
priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the
Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and they have caused him to ride upon the
king’s mule: and Zadok the priest and
Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon: and they are come up from thence rejoicing,
so that the city rang again. This is
the noise that ye have heard.” (verses 43-45) When was the last time the city rang, was it
when they brought the Ark of the Covenant up, finally? What an interesting line, the city of
Jerusalem, “so that the city rang again.”
I want to tell you something, that city’s going to ring again, it
shall ring again, when David’s Son comes, King of kings, the Lord of lords,
it’s gonna happen, the city will ring again.
Imagine these people, the city rang again, what an interesting
phrase. “This is the noise
that ye have heard. And also Solomon
sitteth on the throne of the kingdom.
And moreover the king’s servants came to bless our lord king David,
saying, God make the name of Solomon better than thy name, and make his throne
greater than thy throne. And the king
bowed himself upon the bed.” (verses 46-47)
they’re coming into David’s chamber, saying, ‘It’s happened,
we’ve anointed him, he’s on your throne, the people are rejoicing,’ “And
the king bowed himself upon the bed.” David agrees, and he bows before the hand of
the LORD,
‘God, this is your will, you told me Solomon would take the throne,’ how
different from Saul, there’s no envy, no jealousy, this is God’s plan, he bowed
to it, he’s rejoicing, his son Solomon has taken the throne. “And also thus said the king, Blessed be
the LORD
God of Israel, which hath given one to sit on my throne this day, mine
eyes even seeing it.” (verse 48) ‘Looking
at the word of God fulfilled in my life.’
The
Party’s Over For Adonijah “And
all the guests that were with Adonijah were afraid, and rose up, and
went every man his way.” (verse 49) Party’s
over! People will be there for the Prime
Rib, but once this happens they’re all gone.
“And Adonijah feared because of Solomon, and arose, and went,” and
I imagine he did that rather quickly, “and caught hold on the horns of the
altar.” (verse 50) he ran into the precincts there where David had brought
up the Ark and put up a temporary tabernacle, the original Tabernacle being in
Gibeon at this point in time, and he grabbed the horns of the altar where
sacrifices were made, claiming God’s mercy, claiming that he understood that
it’s only through atonement that any man is worth anything, claiming sanctuary
there, took hold of the horns of the altar.
“And it was told Solomon, saying, Behold, Adonijah feareth king
Solomon: for, lo, he hath caught hold on
the horns of the altar, saying, Let king Solomon swear unto me to day that he
will not slay his servant with the sword.” (verse 51) Now he’s Solomon’s servant, he was a king
a little while ago at the party. “And
Solomon said, If he will shew himself a worthy man, there shall not an hair of
him fall to the earth: but if wickedness
shall be found in him, he shall die.” (verse 52) That’s a mouthful for a 17-year-old, talking
about his brother. “So king Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the
altar. And he came and bowed himself to
king Solomon: and Solomon said unto him,
Go to thine house.” (verse 53) ‘Go
home’ that’s what it says, Go to thine house. 1st
Kings 2:1-11 “Now
the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son,
saying, 2 I
go the way of all the earth: be thou
strong therefore, and shew thyself a man; 3
and keep the charge of the LORD
thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and
his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that
thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest
thyself: 4 that
the LORD
may continue his word which he spake concerning me, saying, If thy children
take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and
with all their soul, there shall not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of
Israel. 5 Moreover
thou knowest also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he
did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son of Ner, and
unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war in peace,
and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was upon his loins, and in
his shoes that were on his feet. 6
Do therefore according to thy wisdom,
and let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace. 7
But shew kindness unto the sons of
Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of those that eat at thy table: for so they came to me when I fled because of
Absalom thy brother. 8 And,
behold, thou hast with thee Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite of
Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to
Mahanaim: but he came down to meet me at
Jordan, and I sware to him by the LORD,
saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword. 9
Now therefore hold him not
guiltless: for thou art a wise
man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him; but his hoar head bring
thou down to the grave with blood. 10
So David slept with his fathers, and was
buried in the city of David. 11 And
the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty
and three years reigned he in Jerusalem.” David’s
Last Words To Solomon Now,
time, we don’t know how much time elapses between chapter 1 and chapter 2,
evidently it was not very long, because David is failing. And it says “Now the days of David drew
nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying,
I go the way of all the earth: be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself a
man;” (verses 1-2) hard verse for me, my
best friend wrote a song ‘As I go the way of all the earth, as I step
through the door where time is no more, I shall see God,’ from this
verse. David, knowing he’s getting ready
to breathe his last, calls Solomon in to give him a charge. This is an emotional scene, this is a dad and
a son, this is a dad and a son. And some
things happen there, all love comes from father-son love. Before the worlds were formed, the only
Beloved of the Father agreed to offer himself, before anything was formed,
because of a love between father and a son the earth was formed, Satan was
allowed to deceive, the plan of redemption rolled out, and all husband-wife
love, sibling love, relative love, friendship love, all other loves are borne
out of father-son love. This is one of
those, you look at this, and here’s a dad and his 17-year-old son, and it says
David knows Solomon is a man of peace, he’s young. We’re going to see, in a couple chapters,
when Solomon ends up standing before the LORD,
and the LORD
says ‘Solomon, what do you want me to do for you?’ Solomon
said, ‘And now O LORD
my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father, and I am
but a little child, and know not how to go out (that is to war) and to come in
again, and thy servant is in the midst of a great people.’ You
hear Solomon’s description of himself, he says ‘God, I’m young,’ like
Jeremiah, ‘I’m inexperienced, I’m not a man of war, I don’t know how to go
out and come in again,’ and David no doubt knows that. Imagine looking at a 17-year-old, you’re
handing him the keys to the kingdom as it were, you know there’s adversaries,
you know there’s enemies. But he also
knows that God had made him a promise, so you can imagine these two together,
saying some things that need to be said.
I believe David has complete peace, ‘I’m going the way of all the
earth,’ I didn’t expect to be the only one who didn’t fall in with
the program.’ And he has great
light, he said in one of the Psalms, ‘I’ll be satisfied when I awake in
thy likeness,’ [not sure where that quote came from] he said “At
thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (16:11b), ‘One thing I have
desired of the LORD,
and that will I seek after,’ that he might
come into the house of the LORD,
that he might behold his beauty in his Temple, and he’s speaking out of eternal
things, just David about to see him face to face. I believe he has tremendous peace, I believe
he has tremendous light, and he grabs this boy, this 17-year-old, and no doubt
God’s anointing is on his life, God’s calling had been there. And he says to him, “I go the way of all
the earth.” We read that, I remember
my dad, passing, hospice care, my mom there, he had been unconscious for over a
day, hadn’t said anything, my mom was sitting next to the bed and said
something to him, and he opened his eyes and he looked over for the first time,
he said “Emmy, I’m dying,” and he just faded off again. I remember being there with him, just crying,
he had just been, you know, gone for over 24 hours, hadn’t moved, hadn’t said
anything, unconscious, and I just said ‘Dad, I love you,’ just put my
head on his shoulder, and his arm came around me, and he leaned over and kissed
me. This is the scene we have here, ‘Solomon,
I’m going the way of all the earth,’ I bet Solomon had tears in his
eyes, he said ‘Be strong therefore, it’s your turn, you’re stepping up to
the plate, and show thyself a man,’ a boy raised in the palace, didn’t
have the gristle and callouses that David had, but he said ‘Show thyself
a man.’ And then David is going
to define for us what he means, and it’s so important. Look at verse 3, he says to Solomon “and
keep the charge of the LORD
thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and
his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that
thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest
thyself:” (verse 3) You know, David says ‘Be thou a man,
son, I want you to be a man. Understand,
I’m not more of a man because I defeated a giant, I’m not more of a man because
I’m a man of war, a man of battle, when I tell you to be a man, this is not the
kind of man you need to be for our nation, it has nothing to do with human
potential, and human strength, it is not based on experience, it doesn’t matter
what background you came from, whether you were a junkie, whether you were
raised in the Rockefeller family, went to MIT with a high IQ, or whether you
struggled to put blocks together, none of that’s the issue. The issue is, if you’re going to be the man
that God needs now, that God wants now, that can change human history, then
you’re a man who will walk in his ways, you will keep his statutes, and his
testimonies, and his judgments, that you may be blest, that you may prosper in
everything that you do.’ That
has not changed. And nobody in this room
is disqualified from stepping into that place before the Lord, it doesn’t
matter what your background was, it doesn’t matter how many mistakes you made,
it doesn’t matter how black your resume is, and it doesn’t matter if you grew
up in a religious family. Some people
think ‘Well what’s your testimony?’ one
guy says ‘Well I was a Hell’s Angel, and I did this, shot 17 guys, got
heroine needles hanging out of both arms, I beat up 30 guys, and I did this,
and I was going to do this, then I got saved,’ ‘Wow, that guy’s got a testimony,’ and
the other guy says ‘Well I grew up in a Baptist church, I never did anything
wrong, I got saved.’ We think a
guy’s gotta get worse so he can really get saved, but that’s how carnal we
are. Let me give you the outline,
there’s only one testimony, I was a jerk, I was going to hell, I got saved. Everything else was details you work in
around that outline, that’s the only outline there is, I was a jerk, I was
going to hell, and I got saved. And
everything else is details, everything else is details. And it doesn’t matter that David was a great
man of war, that didn’t qualify him to be king more than this 17-year-old who
was going to step into that place, and his failure was in defection from the LORD. His failure was never relative to his prowess
as a warrior or anything else. And David
said, ‘Solomon, you be a man, but this is what it looks like, you walk
with him, you walk in his ways, because he’s the King of Israel, not me, not
you. You do his bidding, his ordinances,
his statutes, his testimonies, his Law.
He can prosper you in whatever you put your hand to do. Son, it’s not about the natural, it’s not
about whether you’re bashful,’ he was bashful, this kid, ‘it’s
about another world, it’s about another Kingdom.’ And it is for us tonight, and as we
look at this world, the important thing, is that you and I genuinely have hold
of something of another world. Because,
if the Rapture doesn’t happen, we’re all going to go in the way of all the
earth, all of us, every 100 people born 100 people die, nobody here is going to
beat the odds. You might think, I read
this article, ‘I’m going to get frozen, they’re going to put me in liquid
nitrogen, 1,000 years from now they’re going to thaw me out and fix me,’ there’ll
be a power outage, you’ll be gone in no time.
A solar flare is going to take care of you. Just think how crazy we are, 100 people born
100 people die, war doesn’t increase death [it only decreases overall
population by killing off reproductive-age males and females caught up in it,
that may have contributed to the birthrate though]. It may make it sooner for some young people,
but war does not increase the ratio of death, disease does not increase the
ratio of death, murder and rape and drunk driving does not increase the ratio
of death. That doesn’t mean there
shouldn’t be order and culture in society.
The point is, none of those things effect the rate of death, that is
total in every generation, in every generation.
And our hope tonight is that we have something of another world, I’m
looking forward to seeing my dad again, I’m looking forward to the reunion
that’s going to happen there. We have
100 funerals a year here, so you multiply that over the years, we have a bigger
congregation in heaven than most congregations have on earth. Just imagine what the reunion is going to be
like [this is the reunion for all believers, Old Testament and New alike,
Revelation 19:7-9, the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, taking place on the Sea of
Glass, on the New Jerusalem]. It says
when Peter, James and John went to the mount of transfiguration, that they saw
Moses and Elijah, they recognized them when the glory of God was there. You’re not going to say, ‘Is Abraham here
somewhere?’ you’re going to know him when you see him, and he’s going to
know you. [I’d say that’s pure
speculation, we’ll know when we get there, is all I can be sure of.] David
Instructs Solomon On How To Be A Man Of God 1st
Kings chapter 2, we looked at the first two verses last week, we looked at
Adonijah’s attempt to take the throne, David under the urging of Nathan and his
wife Bathsheba moving forward, placing Solomon upon the throne, Adonijah
finally fleeing to take the horns of the altar.
Solomon calling for him, and telling him to go to his home. We’re not exactly sure the length of time
between chapter 1 and chapter 2, it’s a short amount of time. If on your own you read 1st
Chronicles 28 and 29, you see the great gathering, the nation is gathered there
in Jerusalem, the thousands of them gather.
And it says David at that point rises off his bed, evidently it seems
he’s carried publicly on a litter, and he’s been weak and he’s been consigned
to, in his old age and his weakness to his bed, and he rises and he challenges
the nation that Solomon is surely the one that God has chosen. He challenges them in regards to building the
Temple. That’s why it’s in Chronicles,
Chronicles gives us the same view of things, as in 1st and 2nd
Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, those parts of the Scripture,
but from the priest’s point of view. But
it will give you the idea of the measure, attention that was brought to
Solomon, and David passing off the scene as the whole nation is gathered to
hear David speak and then pray. And here
in the beginning of this chapter, we’re just brought now to the point where it
says “Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged
Solomon his son, saying, I
go the way of all the earth:” (verse 1) ‘I’m dying, it’s time for me to go
the way every man has gone,’ “be thou strong therefore, and shew thyself
a man;” (verse 2) that’s where we’ve come.
Not “show thyself a male,” it doesn’t say that. There’s a difference, ‘Show thyself a
man,’ there are a lot of males in the world that aren’t men. What is the measure of a man then, and in
these days? It doesn’t just say that
you’re a male, he said ‘Show yourself a man,’ there was character
attached to that, there was strength attached to that, but strength in the
right way. He’s saying ‘Solomon,
it’s time for you to show the stuff that you’re made of, what God is doing in
your life, not just show you’re a male.’
Many of us know lots of males that are not much of a measure of
a man. Look at the world today, so
sadly, what does that mean? ‘Can you
hold your liquor? Are you a real man? Can you take a punch? I know you can dish it out, but can you take
one?’ or ‘Tell us about your female conquests,’ what is the measure
of a man today, how much he has in a bank account? It’s so sad to think about that, I think
outside the church, what washes over the minds of young men, young women today
in regards to what it is to be cool, what it is to be successful, what it is to
be a woman, not just a female, what it is to be a man in this world, is vastly
different than what God has to say. And
there is so much, we’re exposed to much of the media, it doesn’t have anything
to do with time, with eternity, what this is involved with, with the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. The stakes are high, life
comes and life goes, it passes away quickly, this is all about eternity, and
it’s all about Jesus Christ, and it’s all about do we come to that place where
we’re committed to him, where we repent of our sins, we accept his salvation
and his love, and we find real life.
It’s endless, it goes on past the end of physical life. So there’s this challenge, now look, again, I
can’t imagine personally Solomon’s older than 17, David was over 50 when he
fell into sin with Bathsheba, we know he’s about 70 years old here dying. The first child that was born of that union
died, Solomon was the second, so if that process of the first one, burying the
child, and then the second pregnancy, you figure that at least had to take
three years, Solomon is 17 at the most. If
it took more than we know between the first child that died and then Solomon
was born, it could be less. Josephus
says that Solomon is 15 years old at this time.
Eusebius, one of the Church fathers said that Solomon was 12 years old
at this time [hadn’t had his Bar Mitzvah yet].
And David, who had been a king for decades, is looking into the eyes of
his son whose been a king for days, he has no idea. And he says ‘Solomon, now it’s time,
I’m going, I love you, God has a plan for your life, it’s time for you to show
yourself a man.’ And look at
what he says a man is, it begins with verse 3, this is a measure of a
man, he says “and keep the charge of the LORD
thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and
his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that
thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself:”
(verse 3) ‘Solomon,
you’re second in command, you keep the charge of the real King of Israel.’ Now look, his statutes, most feel
relate to worship [Leviticus 23:1-44, Leviticus 11:1-47 are statutes, the
judgements are given in Exodus chapters 21-23, which are based on the Ten
Commandments given in Exodus 20:1-17], to walk in his ways, we find those
throughout the Scripture. His judgments
probably relative to civil law, his testimonies relative to the record in
Scripture of Moses and so many others, all of these things written in the Law
of Moses [the Torah, Genesis through Deuteronomy]. He says, the reason is, “that thou mayest
prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself:” (verse
3c) ‘Solomon, this is a
measure of a man.’ And it’s the
charge I’m bringing today, none of those things that the world would put in
front of you, but the deal is, ‘Walk in the ways of the Lord, his way is
what it is all about, keep his statutes, keep his testimonies, his judgments,
his commandments, everything that’s written in the Word, walk in the ways of
the LORD.’ Because
the world’s going to throw all of this other stuff on you, and the world is
going to promise all of this other stuff is going to satisfy you. And listen, Solomon gets off to a great
start, that’s why we want to take note of this record, because he starts out so
wonderfully. He starts out so
remarkably, and ultimately he turns his back on these things, and he
transgresses every one of them. As you
read the Book of Proverbs, Solomon transgressed everything he wrote in the Book
of Proverbs, and no doubt he heard so many of those things from David. David’s saying ‘I’ve made my mistakes
with women, I’ve made my mistakes with all of the kids, I didn’t discipline
them, don’t give yourself to alcohol, this thing is not important, that thing
is not important, do this, do that.’ And
you look at Solomon’s life, and he somehow turns from all of these things. And he’s getting started with advantages that
it’s hard for you and I to imagine, everything is there for him. There’s not a financial problem in the
world. There’s not a problem with safety
or security, there’s not a problem with his family around him, all of that he
straightens out quickly. This is a guy
with benefits that’s hard for you and I to imagine, and he benefits
spiritually. And the interesting study
of his life, now he comes back the LORD
at the end, but it is interesting for him to turn away from all of these
things. Look, Deuteronomy
had said this, and it’s important, God had said “When thou art come into
the land which the LORD
thy God hath giveth thee, and thou shalt possess it, and ye shall dwell
therein, and you are going to say ‘I will set a king over me as all the other
nations around,” the nation was to be a
theocracy with God reigning from the Tabernacle, and then from the Temple, but
he said ‘You’re gonna want a king, I know the way you are,’ he says, ‘You
shall not choose a king from any of the foreign nations around you, the king
you choose must be one of your brethren, but he shall not multiply horses to
himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should
multiply horses, for as much as the LORD
has said unto you, you shall henceforth return no more that way. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself,
that his heart turn not away, neither shall he greatly multiply him in silver
and in gold. It shall be, when he
sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom,’ listen,
‘that he shall write himself a copy of this law in a book, out of that
which is before the priests and the Levites.’
We’re not sure if it’s just the Book of Deuteronomy he’s to
write, or the whole Book of Moses, it says this young king Solomon, in the
early days of his reign was to sit alone with a copy of the Law from the
priests, and hand write his own copy of it.
Imagine that, to hand write his own copy of the Law. And he says here, ‘And it shall be with
him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life, that he may learn to
fear the LORD
his God, to keep all the words of this Law and these Statutes to do them, and
that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, that he turn not aside from
the commandment to the right hand or to the left, to the end that he may
prolong his days and his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.’ So Solomon is exposed to so much. And yet we’re going to see him, and he tells
us in Ecclesiastes, this guy ends up with 700 wives and 300 concubines. The law that he read said you shall not
multiply wives to yourself. Imagine a
thousand mother-in-laws. Don’t multiply
horses, he had stables of Egyptian horses all over the place. Don’t multiply gold, it says in the days of
Solomon there was so much gold that silver was counted as nothing. Some of the ancient rabbis said, Solomon had
this special guard that would run alongside of his chariot, and they all had
white silk on, they imported from all over the world, and they all had to be
over 6-foot tall, they had raven-black hair, and every morning they would grind
gold freshly and springle it in their hair and would run alongside his chariot. And this guy is out there. But let’s watch his beginnings, because
there’s a lesson here. And God loves him,
we’re going to read that. David says ‘This
is what being a man is all about, Solomon,’ “keep the charge of the LORD
thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and
his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses,” the
written Word is always true. Listen, any
time the written Word says it’s gonna end up this way, it ends up that way, any
time the written Word of God says it ain’t going to end up this way, it don’t
end up that way. Anytime the Word of God
says if you do this and walk this way, you’re going to end up empty and
miserable, I guarantee you, you’re going to end up empty and miserable. Anytime the Word of God says if you do this,
and you commit yourself to me, you’re going to end up blessed, I guarantee you,
you’re going to end up blessed. God’s
Word is going to abide forever, the heaven and earth is going to pass away [and
then God’s going to recreate new heavens and a new earth, cf. Revelation
21:1-23]. So he says ‘so that you
may prosper, this is what I want for you Solomon,’ “and withersoever thou
turnest thyself:” and by the way, that’s what God wants for all of us, in
the sense of spiritual prosperity, I’m not preaching a prosperity doctrine
here. But God wants us to live
blessed. “that the LORD
may continue his word which he spake concerning me,” this
is David now, “saying, If thy children take heed to their way, to walk
before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall
not fail thee (said he) a man on the throne of Israel.” (verse 4) So God clearly said, he wants their hearts,
he knows that if he has your heart, he’s got everything. If he’s got your mind, he’s still missing the
drive system. Solomon would say ‘Guard
your heart with all diligence,’ no doubt he heard it from his father, ‘Guard
your heart with all diligence, because from it flow the issues of life,’ the
issues of life do not flow from the intellect.
They flow from the seat of desire, they flow there because it’s more
powerful than our intellectual functions.
The heart if you let it mess with things it shouldn’t mess with, always
makes a convert of the mind. The heart,
if we guard it, and we keep it where we should be, desiring the right things,
God says (to Solomon) if you give me, walk with me with all of your heart and
all your soul, there shall not fail thee a man to sit upon the throne. David
Gives Solomon Some Practical Advice--Tying Up Loose Ends Joab
& Shimei Now,
David now comes to giving Solomon some very practical advice here, relative to
the trouble that he was leaving him. He
says “Moreover thou knowest also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and
what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner the son of
Ner, and unto Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war
in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was upon his
loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet.” (verse 5) David wasn’t there to see it, but
evidently the men who described Joab’s slaughter of Abner and Amasa said the
blood was splattered all over, David describes it. And he says to Solomon, “Do therefore according to thy
wisdom, and let not his hoar head go down to the grave in peace.” (verse
6) Now it seems like David is
being particularly tough here, there are a number of places, I’ll read you one
from the Book of Numbers, where it says this, it
says, “Moreover you shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer
which is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. You shall take no satisfaction for him, that
is fled to the city of refuge, that he should come again to dwell in the land,
until the death of the priest. So ye
shall not pollute the land wherein ye are, for blood, it defiles the land. And the land can not be cleansed of the blood
that is shed therein, but by the blood of him who shed it.” And the Law says that in more than
one place. And David realized, there
were problems in the kingdom, and some of them needed to be settled according
to the Word of God, so he says to him, ‘He slew Abner, he slew Amasa,’ and
interesting, David doesn’t say anything about Absalom, and I’m sure that that
was something that David took to his grave, that Joab had slain him. But he says ‘You need to deal with this
according to the wisdom that God has given you, don’t let his old gray head go
down to the grave in peace.’ And
no doubt part of these warnings are prophetic, listen, remember when they’re
putting Jesus on the cross in Matthew chapter 27, verse 35, and
it says ‘They parted my garments among them,’ and it says there ‘as
the Prophet has said,’ and it tells us clearly in more than one place
in the Gospels, that David was a Prophet.
And no doubt there are prophetic warnings here as he’s speaking to
Solomon. He says this, verse 7, “But
shew kindness unto the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be of
those that eat at thy table:” that means you’re sheltering them, you’re
giving them hospitality, let them be under your roof, “for so they came to
me when I fled because of Absalom thy brother.”
“And, behold, thou hast with thee Shimei the son of Gera, a
Benjamite of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I
went to Mahanaim: but he came down to
meet me at Jordan,” as David was returning, and look what David says,
“and I sware to him by the LORD,
saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword.” he’s saying to
Solomon, ‘I didn’t say you wouldn’t, I said I wouldn’t,’ “Now
therefore hold him not guiltless: for
thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him; but
his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood.” (verses 8-9) And then it just says “So David slept with
his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.” (verse 10) the last thing we heard is ‘kill this
guy, take care of this, get that guy, and then David slept.’ Look,
it’s the word of a believer, notice, he slept with his fathers, what fathers
will we sleep with, I hope the right ones, huh?
So David slept with his fathers, no doubt Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, “and
was buried in the city of David.” Now, the thrust of his life, he was a man
after God’s own heart, he was not a perfect man, there is not one that
exists. But the tenor of his life was
after God and he loved God. We’re going
to see the difference between him and Solomon as we move forward. It says he slept with his fathers, we know
this man, king, psalmist, prophet, military genius, warrior, architect, he’s
part of our future, because we read in more than one place that he’s going to
be an official during the Millennium, in Israel and in Jerusalem, so he’s part
of our future, we’ll see him again, he’s just sleeping now, he’s getting up
again. [Comment: king David, as the
Yahweh prophecied through his Prophet Ezekiel, said David would be king over
the regathered nation of Israel, whilst Jesus Christ would be King of kings,
and Lord of lords, over the entire earth, both ruling from Jerusalem. So David will be king over Israel again, over
the whole 12 tribes, with each of Jesus’ 12 apostles being over one tribe of
Israel (cf. Ezekiel 37:15-24-25-28).
Pastor Joe, and maybe it’s part of a Calvary Chapel doctrinal
interpretation, does not recognize the future resurrected king David as the
restored king over the united 12 tribes of Israel, but that is exactly what the
Word of God in Ezekiel 37 says. I choose
the believe what the Word of God says in this instance.] They buried him in the city of David, which
is not the old city of Jerusalem today, but south of there, the hill Ophel, the
city of Zion. And there’s always been a
question, because there’s another building today they call the Tomb of David,
it isn’t. Nehemiah in his day, talking
about rebuilding the city, said after him, Nehemiah repaired the part of the
wall…and half the part of Bethzor unto the place over against the sepulchre of
David, and to the pool that was made by the house. Peter, when he preaches on the Day of
Pentecost, says “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the
patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us
unto this day.” (Acts 2:29) So
it seems that in the days of the apostles and Jesus, they still knew an
accurate location of his tomb. There are
some non-biblical traditions and historic things that the Romans sealed it up
so no one would ever, it would never encourage them in a revolt against
Rome and the government [that idea never
worked with the Jews 😊]. There are traditions and things that happened
in the 6th century, the 11th century, supposedly two guys
dug into it and said they walked into this tomb, it was in Biblical Archeological
Review years ago, and I can’t find the issue, and they said they saw there a
throne, they saw a crown, they saw a sceptre, they saw a sword, they saw a
skeleton, and they knew that it was David’s tomb, and they said the wind began
to blow in the tomb, and things began to howl, and they came scooting outa
there, and the ground shook, and the whole thing caved in, so I don’t know if
that’s true. But it would be just like
the LORD
to be saving all that, wouldn’t it? He
loved David, certainly. So, David slept
with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David. “And the days that David reigned over
Israel were forty years: seven
years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in
Jerusalem.” (verse 11) “Then sat Solomon
upon the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was established greatly.”
(verse 12) the idea is, David is gone now.
[transcript of a connective expository sermon on 1st Kings
1:1-53 and 1st Kings 2:1-11, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary
Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116] related
links: Audio
version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED681
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