May 29. I KINGS 1-2; PSALM 37, 71, 94

 

 

I Kings 1.5

5 About that time David’s son Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, began boasting, “I will make myself king.” So he provided himself with chariots and charioteers and recruited fifty men to run in front of him.So he provided himself with chariots and charioteers and recruited fifty men to run in front of him. 

 

David is near death and one of his sons Adonijah decides that this is his opportunity to become king. However, Adonijah violated a basic principle in the Scriptures that we should let God exalt us and not exalt ourselves.

 

Psalm 75:6-7 

For exaltation comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south.

But God is the Judge: He puts down one and exalts another.

 

James 4:10 

Humble yourselves in the sight of the LORD, and He will lift you up. 

 

He adopts the same strategy as his brother Absalom when he tried to usurp the throne from his father David. That decision ended in the death of Absalom, a broken family, confused people, and needless deaths of others. This attempt ends up much the same way. 

Adonijah hires an entourage, begins to proclaim himself as king, strategically invites the “right” people to his coronation (those who would be his yes men and get a direct benefit as such) but some people he did not invite. People who were loyal to David or possessed wisdom and insight that would tell him the truth. 

 

8 But Zadok the priest, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei, Rei, and the mighty men who belonged to David, were not with Adonijah.

 

Beware of yes men or women who tell you what you want to hear because they just may be leading you to your demise. Surround yourself with sycophants and they will feed your ego all it wants to hear then your arrogance will blind you to reality. Sometimes who is not with us in our decisions is more important and speaks to what we should do than who is with us.

 

It is hard to hear “your wrong” or “that is a bad decision” or “your heart is not right with God” but thank God for those who will tell you the truth, they just may save you lots of pain, embarrassment or even your life.

 

Even after his coup was defeated and God’s choice of King the newly crowned Solomon forgives his brother and allows him to live, Adonijah still persists in his blind arrogance. 

 

2.15 He replied, “As you know, the kingdom was rightfully mine; all Israel wanted me to be the next king. But the tables were turned, and the kingdom went to my brother instead; for that is the way the Lord wanted it.

 

Adonijah seems to suffer from delusions of grandeur. He imagines that there was widespread popular support for him as king. In reality, he only had a handful of influential malcontents to support him, and they quickly deserted him when it was evident that David and God favored Solomon. It really does not matter to Adonijah what God thinks or does it matters what others say about him and what he wants. 

 

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.” 

 

Now Adonijah wants to declare or build a claim to Solomon's throne by taking David's widowed concubine as his wife. This bit of narcissistic delusion cost Adonijah his life as Solomon rightfully has him executed for trying once again to usurp the throne for himself.

 

“Heavenly Father please deliver me from blind ambition and the trap of surrounding myself with only those who will tell me what I want to hear. Empower me to seek out and humbly submit to those who are wiser and more seasoned than I even though I may not agree with their counsel. Protect me this day from blind arrogance, exalt me when you think I am ready, allow me the patience and the wisdom to be thankful for where I am today.”