12/7/2010 8:23:20 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Solomon the strategist PT.1
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: 1Kings 2:12-25
Message of the verses: “ 12
¶ And Solomon sat on the throne of David
his father, and his kingdom was firmly established. 13 Now Adonijah the son of Haggith came to
Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. And she said, "Do you come
peacefully?" And he said, "Peacefully." 14 Then he said, "I have something to say
to you." And she said, "Speak." 15 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 his from the LORD. 16 "Now I am making one request of you; do
not refuse me." And she said to him, "Speak." 17 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." 18 Bathsheba said,
"Very well; I will speak to the king for you." 19 So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to
him for Adonijah. And the king arose to meet her, bowed before her, and sat on
his throne; then he had a throne set for the king’s mother, and she sat on his
right. 20 Then she said, "I am
making one small request of you; do not refuse me." And the king said to
her, "Ask, my mother, for I will not refuse you." 21 So she said, "Let Abishag the Shunammite
be given to Adonijah your brother as a wife." 22 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!" 23 Then King Solomon swore by the LORD, saying,
"May God do so to me and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word
against his own life. 24 "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
shall be put to death today." 25 So
King Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell upon him so that he
died.”
This
is the first sub-point in the last main point of this chapter in Warren
Wiersbe’s commentary on 1Kings. He calls
this last main point “Solomon the strategist” and this sub-point is called
“Adonijah’s request.”
I
would suppose that one would have to understand ancient history to understand
why Adonijah would be killed for asking for the woman who was caring for his
father when he was about to die. Now I
do understand that Abishag would be considered a concubine of David and from
reading what happened when Absalom took over the kingdom that he publicly slept
with David concubines means that this meant that he was showing himself as
king, so I would guess that this meant the same thing.
Before
David died he gave Solomon a list of things to do in order to make sure that
the kingdom was firmly in his hands, but this was not on the list. Adonijah came to Bathsheba to ask for this
request and because of this many people come to the conclusion that she was not
really smart when it came to her court savvy, but one must only remember how
she handled herself when Adonijah was trying to take over the kingdom from her
husband and her son and it was very savvy, so why is there reason to believe
that she was not as smart when it came to this incident? Dr. Wiersbe points out that he believes that
Bathsheba knew the importance of this request, and I personally believe that
Joab was the one who put Adonijah up to this in the first place in one last
attempt to get control of the kingdom.
Dr. Wiersbe writes, “I may be in error, but I feel that she took
Adonijah at his word, knowing that
Solomon would use this as an opportunity to expose Adonijah’s scheme. By having Abishag as his wife, Adonijah was
claiming to be coregent with Solomon!” One more point before I move on and that
was that Adonijah knew that the Lord had chosen Solomon to be the next king and
yet he went right ahead and tried to take it away, and I suppose he knew it was
going to fail, and again I think that Joab has a lot of influence on this.
Solomon
handled this situation probably in a way not even his father would have handled
it, but perhaps in David’s earlier years he would have killed his own brother
if the situation was similar. At any
rate that is what Solomon did and the thing that I keep going back to is that
Adonijah knew that it was the Lord’s sovereign will that Solomon be the next
king and all he had to do was accept it, but he couldn’t and paid for it with
his life. Dr. Wiersbe writes that this
was the forth son of David to die, which goes back to when he had sinned with
Bathsheba causing this trouble in the first place. David was not around to see this last one
fall but perhaps he knew it was coming because of what he had done. I remember in the conversion of Saul of
Tarsus, one of the first times I read about it in the old KJV where the Lord
asked Saul why he was kicking against the pricks, and they were long sticks
that when needed would keep the oxen moving, which is something the oxen should
not be kicking against. This is what
Adonijah was doing and he paid for it with his life.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I don’t want to kick against the pricks like
Saul was doing in trying to stop Christianity and Adonijah was doing trying to
take over the kingdom against the will of the Lord. The question that I have is are these
illnesses that I am having to keep me from going to Hawaii or is it just a delay
because I still have some work to do here?
I have a desire to make a wittiness to Dr. Morris, and I pray that this
is what this illness is all about, giving me a chance to meet with Dr. Morris
again, and so I pray for his salvation and the chance to speak to him again.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Trust the Lord to guide my steps each day so that I
won’t be kicking against the pricks.
2.
Give myself to the Lord for worship and service
today.
3.
Continue to learn contentment.
4.
Remember that I am in a spiritual battle, and in
great need of the spiritual armor.
12/7/2010 9:31:48 AM
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