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May 29th
The bible reading today takes us to the death bed of David. 1 Kings 1-2, Palms 37,71,94.
David calls for his son Solomon, the new High Priest, Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and the head of David’s army, Benaiah...king, priest, prophet, and military leader.
David was still making preparations for the kingdom going forward after his death. It wasn't sentimentality that drove this meeting. It was the direct call of God involved that directed it.
What call? Solomon’s call to follow his dad as King in Israel. This call deviated from the norm. Normally the oldest living son was next in line. That would have been Adonijah. But according to scripture, David failed to let Adonijah know that his little brother, Solomon was God’s choice.
So when Adonijah finally found out from outside sources that Solomon would be the next king in Israel, he went ballistic. He rallied key people to help him to take the throne without David’s knowledge.
Abiathar the High Priest pledged alliance with Adonijah. Joab, King David’s former leader of the mighty men, sided with Adonijah. And Nathan the prophet stayed with David and Solomon.
Let me take a “literary” aside and address something very interesting to me. The one that stayed with David in this heated family positioning was the prophet. Some might be surprised that David accepted his support because it was the prophet Nathan that revealed the moral scandal to Israel between David Bathsheba and Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah...culminating in David’s ordering of Uriah’s death.
Some today...Or may I say “most” today would say that “telling the truth” is overrated. It hurts people’s feelings. They say it puts many at risk. They say telling the truth can destroy relationships they claim. I believe that the reason why David secured Nathan as a part of Solomon’s inner council, was because he knew that Nathan would tell young Solomon the truth no matter what. David knew first hand the grace of God in and through the truthtelling of Nathan.
Give me a truth-teller over every other godly characteristic of men. For loving me means telling me the truth. It leads to trust. Without which relationships are hard and impossible to navigate and sustain.
Before we close let us think about Jesus in this passage. Adonijah exalted himself and destroyed his life and his family’s life.
Indeed a word to the wise. May we fight hard with the power of the Holy Spirit against exalting ourselves. Paul would say, “Let God do it”!
Paul to the church in Phillipi...“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
