1 Kings 1:1-2:12 - King David Kicks The Bucket

Today, we're starting off in 1 Kings, and we've entitled this particular episode, David Kicks the Bucket.

Now, if you've learned the Bible at all, if you've read many stories of the Bible, you'll definitely come across the name of this king, David. David was one that most famously took out Goliath with just a sling and a stone.

He was also the one that really unified Israel and kind of started to make it more of a powerhouse nation in the Middle East, not as much as it would become later.

But David was really one that enlarged the kingdom in a lot of ways and did a lot for the kingdom of Israel. Not only that, he was also one that had some big mistakes as well.

Many of us would know about David in Bathsheba and some of the faults that he had there. But in all of it, David was one that followed after God. God would later say that David was a man after his own heart.

This is really the end of his story and the beginning of his son Solomon's story. But the story starts off, it says that David was old. The Bible says he was stricken in years.

You know, it's one thing to be old, but when God calls you old, you know that you're old. But at this time, his body had really deteriorated so much that he couldn't even produce enough body heat to keep his own body warm.

And so his servants were like, hey, you know what, let's get a whole person, and that person's whole job will be to give David body heat. And I'm glad we don't have to do that now. Now we have stuff like heated blankets and stuff.

And don't you have a heated blanket?

I do have a heated blanket, and it's a trap in the mornings.

I bet. All I've got is a tortilla blanket, but it's not quite big enough to cover both my shoulders and my feet. So either my top half can be warm, or my bottom half can be warm, but I can't get both my toes and my shoulders warm at the same time.

Well, now you know how David felt.

Yep, yep, now I know how David felt.

But this person was named Abishag, the Shunammite, and while she wasn't technically one of David's wives or one of his concubines, as if you read in 1 Kings 1, as it tells you about there, she was still one that even with that position of just

providing body heat was one that was really looked up to, and we'll see later in the story, someone even tried to use her position and her leadership and the thing that she had in order to get ahead in the kingdom. But, so all of this is happening to

David. He's basically incapacitated at this point. So now it's time for a new king to really take the throne. And the person that really exalted themselves and they wanted to be the one was Adonijah the son of Haggath.

And Adonijah, if you're looking at the passage down in verse 5, he said, he exalted himself saying, I will be king. And he prepared him chariots and horsemen and 50 men to run before him.

And his father had not displeased or rebuked him at any time saying, why have you done this or why have you done so? And Bible says he was a goodly man or a handsome man, and his mother bare him after Absalom.

So many of us would know the story of Absalom. Absalom was the one that had the sister, Tamar, that had undergone so much. And all of us would, of course, know that story.

And so Adonijah was Absalom's younger brother. Absalom was one that had tried to usurp the kingdom. He had captured Jerusalem.

He had taken several of his father's concubines and made them part of his own harem. He took the king's old advisor.

It was just tons of stuff that Absalom had done in trying to take the throne until he was actually captured because his hair, which was very, very long, famously long, got caught in a tree.

And when some of David's men came across him, they went, oh, sweet, free target practice. And that's what they did. So this is that guy's younger brother, Adonijah.

You have any, I was going to say, you have any evil siblings, Carlos, but I guess the better question is, do you have any stories of particularly evil siblings?

No, I did grow up by myself, so I did not have any stories of evil siblings in my house.

I have three siblings and I can testify all siblings are evil. So that's my recommendation for this. No, I'm just kidding.

But Adonijah was one that really had a lot of the same ambitions as Absalom. And we can see some of this in verse number 7.

It says, He conferred with Joab the son of Zariah and with Abiathar the priest, and they followed Adonijah, and they following Adonijah helped him.

But Zadok the priest, Baniah the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Re, and the mighty men which belonged to David, were not with Adonijah. So Adonijah gets a few people to come along with him.

One of them, David's old right hand man, Joab, and Abiathar the priest, and they had joined up with him. But there were many that weren't with Adonijah.

In verse number 9, we see Adonijah slew sheep and oxen and fat cattle by the stone of Zoholeth, which is by Enrogel. And he called all his brethren the king's sons and all the men of Judah the king's servants.

But Nathan the prophet and Benaiah and the mighty men and Solomon his brother, he called not.

Wherefore, Nathan spake unto Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, saying, Hast thou not heard that Adonijah, the son of Haggath, doth reign, and David our lord knoweth it not?

Now therefore, come, let me, I pray thee, give thee counsel that thou mayst save thine own life and the life of thy son Solomon.

Go and get the end unto King David, and say unto him, Dith'st 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?

Behold, while thou yet talkest there with the king, I also will come in after thee and confirm thy words. So what you have happening here is Nathan, who's a prophet, you'd remember him from the story of Bathsheba.

He was the one that told David, thou art the man. And I think it's awesome that even after all this time, after all of these years, David had still kept Nathan around.

And even though Nathan had called David out on his sin and told him he was guilty and he was wrong, that he didn't give up on Nathan, he didn't get rid of him afterwards going, you know, I don't want to think about that time where I messed up.

I don't want to have any remembrance of that. But instead, he kept him in his life. And it's an awesome thing to have friends in your life who will call you out when you're doing wrong.

Anyone can compliment you, anyone can tell you how great you are, but it's a great thing to have friends that will call you out and will help encourage you to do what's right.

Carlos, have you had any times like that where someone's, I don't know, corrected you or kind of called you out to do what's right or called you out that you were doing something wrong?

Yeah, if you feel like at first, you kind of feel like a little tension between you and that person, but in the long run, you realize that, you know, they're helping you and they're for your good.

So I feel like if David wasn't around to be a help to David, then especially in this situation where he had no idea about Adonijah, and so he tells Bathsheba what's going on. So he's really just a great friend to David.

Yeah, definitely. And I think here too, it shows some of Nathan's character that, you know, Bathsheba was the one at least partially involved in that sin with David back in 2 Samuel, I think it's 11 or so.

But Nathan didn't allow the sin that had occurred to forever color his interactions with those around him, that he didn't cut off David and say, OK, David, you've messed up, so now nothing, like I'm not going to have a relationship with you anymore.

I'm not going to tell you what God wants you to hear. Any of that he didn't cut off Bathsheba and say, OK, well, she's just a terrible person. And so I'm not going to interact with her or listen to anything she says.

Here, he's acting on both David's behalf of wanting to carry out the wishes that David had made known that Bathsheba's son was going to be the one that was going to sit on the throne of Israel.

And he's also working on Bathsheba's behalf so that she would be safe as the mother of one of the contenders for the crown. Solomon was the one that David had previously said, hey, Solomon's going to reign.

He had not said that Aniagel was going to reign.

And so I think it's really awesome that Nathan has here kind of shows this thing of forgiveness really and a thing to meet people where they're at and not just where they were of realizing that growth can take place and really should take place as we

follow God.

Yeah.

You have anything else from that first little section?

I do not.

Okay.

All right.

So what happens next is Bathsheba does go in and she tells David about this plot by Adonijah, how he's put together this big group of people and how he's been doing these sacrifices and things and how he didn't invite any of the people that the king

really trusted in and believed in, like Nathan and Bathsheba and Solomon and all of those things. She reminds him of his promises that he's made that Solomon would be the one to reign on the throne.

And as she's telling him all of this, then Nathan comes in and says the exact same thing.

Kind of that thing you have in the Old Testament of in the mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established of just establishing credibility of the story that's being said.

So then what happens down in verse 28, David answers, he says, Call me Bathsheba, she came into the king's presence and stood before the king and the king promised and said, As the Lord lives, that has redeemed my soul out of all distress, even as I

swore 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.

So, here you have David going, Okay, now that I know what's going on, now that I've been made aware, I'm not okay with this. Adonijah is not going to be the next king. And so, he starts taking care of business.

In verse 32, King David says, Call me Zadok the priest, and Nathan the prophet, and Maniah the son of Jehoiada, and they came before the king.

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 Gilhan. 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 of 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.

So the men do exactly that. They go, they anoint Solomon, they blow the trumpet, all the people said, God save King Solomon.

In verse 40, 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. I have been in some awesome music services.

I haven't been in any music services yet, where the ground split open. Have you?

I have not, but that sounds like an interesting experience.

It does. Apparently, we need to add some pipes to our music service here. Do you know where to get any pipes?

Probably Amazon.

Yeah, you can get anything on Amazon.

Yeah, so this all happens. It's a great day for really all of the good guys in the story. All of them are safe.

Nathan's done his job. Bathsheba is not going to die. David's kept his promises.

Solomon is doing everything that God had really designed for him to be able to have. But there's some people that aren't necessarily as happy with this particular turn of events, and that's Adonijah.

So in verse 41, Adonijah and all the guests that were with him heard it. They heard all of the sound and the noise that was coming from Solomon's coronation 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?

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 bring us good tidings.

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, Nathan the prophet, Baniah the son of Jehoiah, and the Karathites, 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 you have heard, and also Solomon sitteth on the throne of the kingdom.

I like how it's like three different times in those verses where the guy comes and talks, he's like, Hey, Solomon was anointed king, and this, and this, and this happened because Solomon was anointed king, and it was here that he was anointed king,

kind of just letting him know, Hey, your ploy for the throne didn't work, you are in big trouble. So then in verse number 50, Adonijah feared because of Solomon, and arose and went and caught hold on the horns of the altar.

That was something that you could do in the old days if you wanted to be safe from legal punishment. You could go to the temple and be like, No, don't kill me. I'm innocent, which is why I didn't just go through the normal legal proceedings.

You can definitely trust me. So this is what Adonijah is doing.

Verse 51, he 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 today that he will not slay his servant with the sword.

And Solomon said, If you will show himself a worthy man, there shall not inherit of him fall to the earth, but of wickedness shall be found in him, he shall die.

So king Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the altar, and he came and bound himself to king Solomon, and then Solomon said unto him, Go to thine house. He said, Go home. So this is an awesome little section in here.

And I like that going back to... Where was that? Back in the beginning of chapter 1.

Ah, yes.

In verse number 9, where Adonijah kills sheep and oxen and fattened cattle, and calls all of his brethren the king's children, all the men of Judah the king's servants, where he's done all of this work to try and say like, I'm super great, I'm all

this, and it comes up to nothing. If you have to tell people how great you are, or if you have to insist on how skilled, or how much ability you have, you probably don't have that much.

In the words of Jesus, is it the words of Jesus or the words of Solomon? He that exalted himself shall be based, and he that abased himself shall be exalted.

I think that's in Matthew.

Okay, great. Okay, so Jesus said, but this is very, very apparent in this passage, that Adonijah tried to make something great of himself, but he was doing it all without any of the right to the throne, really without any of the hearts of the people.

If he had to try and persuade them all to get on to his side, but it just proves that they weren't on his side to begin with. Any thoughts on that?

Yeah, in verse 10 it says, But Nathan the prophet, and Baniah the mighty man, and Solomon his brother, he called not. It's pretty obvious he knew what he was doing wasn't right because he didn't call people that were closest to David.

And if you really want to try to make a shot for the throne, he could have done something a little more under the radar, but he was killing everything in his sight. And Nathan still knew and was able to let David know.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, going back to one of the thoughts from earlier, again, just surrounding yourself with good people, with people who are in the right, will help you to make better life decisions as well. Yeah, definitely.

Along those lines, David at the very beginning of chapter 2 gives a few thoughts to Solomon, particularly as it related to some people that David had interacted with for many years.

It says, Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die, and he charged or committed to Solomon his son, saying, I go the way of all the earth, be thou strong therefore, and show thyself a man, 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, that the Lord may continue his

word, which he spake concerning me, saying, If thy children take ye to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail thee a man on the throne of Israel. Moreover, thou knowest also what Joab

the son of Zoriah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel, and to Abner the son of Ner, and to Amasah the son of Jethur, whom he slew and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was

about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet. Do therefore, according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoary head go down to the grave in peace. There, his gray-haired head go down to the grave in peace. So what David's talking about here

with Abner and Amasah is these were two generals that were on the opposing side of a civil war that David was a part of after the death of Saul. Some of the tribes of Israel didn't want to join up with David and with Judah yet.

And so there was a long war that took place over six or seven years. And both of the generals mentioned here were under things of in a city of refuge where they weren't allowed to be killed under the law.

The other one was killed maliciously, not in the heat of battle or anything like that. But Joab, to both of these men, had shown himself a very bloody man.

Joab was also the one who had made it so that Uriah the Hittite would die at the hands of the Syrians, I think it might have been, back in 1 Samuel 11 with Bathsheba.

So it does kind of surprise me that Joab took Adonijah's side in all of this power grab and all of that. But it's what Joab did, and so David tells Solomon, hey, you need to punish Joab because of what he's done.

I've already made a promise that I wouldn't take action against him, but I'm committing it to you that you need to take him down.

Then in verse number 7, he says, But show kindness into the sons of Barzalai 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.

He tells them next, hey, there's this guy that took us in when Absalom had caused yet another civil war, and he fed me and those that were with me, and so I want you to feed him and show kindness to him.

I think it's really important there just to note that we need to show gratitude to those who have shown kindness to us.

For people that have spoken into our lives, that have given us anything, that have taught us, there needs to be a gratitude and a desire to reciprocate as much as we can for those who have done good things to us. Any thoughts on that?

No, I just think it's a, the only thing I have is that it's very important to just be thankful for those people, especially that invested in you spiritually, because it goes a really long way.

Yeah, definitely. Then next we have, he says in verse number 8, Behold, the Haswithi Shimei, the son of Gerah, a Benjamite of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mecha Naim. Man, so many Hebrew names, Mecha Naim.

But he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I swear to him by the Lord, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword. Now, therefore, hold him not guiltless, for thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him.

But his hoary head bring thou down to the grave with blood.

Again, he says there's this guy that has really been in a state of evil and badness for many, many years, and he deserves to be punished, but because of the promises that I've made, I couldn't punish him, but you can and you should.

Then in verses 10 and 11, so David slept with his fathers, or he died, was buried with his ancestors, and was buried in the city of David.

And the days that David reigned over Israel were 40 years, seven years reigned in Hebron, and 30 and three years reigned he in Jerusalem.

And it's kind of a slightly less climactic end to a life that was lived with a lot of adventure and a lot of craziness. This was the boy who killed giants. This was the young man who killed hundreds of Philistines.

The songs sung about him were that he killed tens of thousands. This was the one that wrote so many of the Psalms that we enjoy.

This was the king that set up so much of the riches and the timber and the fine resources and materials and everything for the temple. This was David and he died not on a battlefield, not by betrayal, but just in a simple way.

But this was one that God had really spent a lot of time talking about in his Word, almost more than any other person in Scripture.

God devotes a ton of time to David because of his heart for God and because of the importance that he played in Israel's nation and in the heritage and parentage of Christ that he would eventually come through.

Do you have any thoughts on David in general, Carlos?

One of the things I love about David is just even from a young age, his willingness to be obedient to God. And a lot of times people think that they have so much time to serve the Lord.

And I think it's just a great reminder that it's not a bad thing to be obedient right away. And the Lord definitely had to get his attention sometimes with things that he messed up on.

But one thing I love about God is that even through David's situations, through his mess up, saying his sin, that he still was able to use David.

And I think that's one of the things that people struggle with a lot, is they dwell on the past too much and they don't think that God can use them.

But there's multiple examples in the Bible that can help us as modern day Christians realize that God is able to use you even with your faults.

Yeah, definitely.

And I think the themes of forgiveness and second chances are kind of woven all throughout that first and second chapter of 1 Kings, the fact that David's there and David's been given so many new chances by God, even though he had committed adultery,

he had encouraged other people to set people out for murder, he was one that had sinned and had cost people their lives, he was one that, you know, so many different things had gone wrong in David's life, but he constantly came back to God and said,

you're the only one that I can trust, you're the one that I'm relying on. And we can see also with Bathsheba that even with some of the sins that really she's known for, that there was also forgiveness with God and there was a dedication of God to

still blessing her and her family, Solomon and on. There's forgiveness there. All of these awesome things that happen all the way through, even how Solomon forgives Adonijah.

It was very customary, and you can read about this, we'll go through it later, especially in 2 Kings, but when kings would usurp the throne, there would be tons of violence that would occur. Plenty of people got assassinated.

We'll read tons about that in the upcoming weeks. But the fact that Solomon forgave Adonijah is really testament to his character at this point in his life.

And I think just for me, the encouragement is that no matter what people do, there's always forgiveness to be found, not always necessarily because they deserve it, but because of the forgiveness that we've been given by God, we can forgive others.

I love the verse in Ephesians 4.32, it says, And be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

God didn't even forgive us because, you know, we said, oh, I want you to be my savior now. God didn't say, okay, your sins are going to all be wiped clean because of that.

It was because of what Christ did on our behalf that God said, I can forgive your sin because of the shed blood of Christ, because the payment has been made, I can now forgive you.

So when people do us wrong in our life, we don't necessarily have to say, man, Carlos kicked me and stole my wallet. Now I have to forgive him.

It can really be, hey, Carlos kicked me, stole my wallet, but I know that Jesus has already forgiven Carlos. I know that Jesus is the one that paid for Carlos' sins. And so I can forgive Carlos because Jesus has forgiven Carlos.

That doesn't necessarily mean that I let my wallet always hang out in front of Carlos, but it does mean that we don't have to walk around entrapped and hurt and scarred by bitterness. Instead, we can walk in some of that newness of life.

Any other thoughts on the passage, Solomon ascending to the throne? Any of that?

Yeah, I think if Solomon wouldn't have forgiven Adonijah, that it just leaves a really heavy burden on that person, and especially he's going to be king.

He probably has a lot of the other things to deal with, so I feel like in our own life, harboring on to bitterness and unforgiveness really just hurts us, and we can't prosper in our walk with God.

Yeah, definitely. I love how it's phrased. I believe it's Hebrews 13.

It might be Hebrews 12. I'm turning there now, but it talks about the root of bitterness springing up and many be that are defiled. Here we go.

Hebrews 12.16.

Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat, sorry, one verse prior, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.

And then that leads to what I just read about Esau and how he sold his birthright as a result of the bitterness that took place in his life.

And I love what you said, I think, if Solomon starts off his reign with killing Adonijah before any violence, anything had taken place without forgiveness being offered, it would really have changed his whole outlook and his interactions with the

throne going forward. And I don't know that God would have necessarily blessed in the same way that he was able to without Solomon's heart of wanting to seek forgiveness and reconciliation first. So thank you all for listening to the podcast today.

As we mentioned, we're going to be going through first some of the stories in 1st and 2nd Kings. And I have always loved these stories growing up.

There's lots of stuff of political intrigue, great battles, awesome miracles that take place through prophets. It's just an awesome section of scripture that we don't always get to go through.

And so this podcast is a way for us to be able to do that. We should be releasing these episodes pretty much each week. I believe it's on Friday mornings.

And so with all that being said, I want to say thank you so much for listening. If you want to contact us, you can do so on Instagram or on Facebook with the handle at Bible Babbles or at Bible Babbles at Bible Babbles at Bible. Oh my goodness.

Carlos, why don't you say the word Bible Babbles?

Thank you.

Bible Babbles Podcast. And you can find us on there. You can send us a message or a I've heard it called both DMs and PMs.

Which one?

I believe the correct term now is DM.

Okay, great. So you can DM us on there. If you have any questions, if you have any topics that you'd like us to do, maybe an episode on or a particular story you'd like to hear our take on.

But thank you so much for listening. We hope you have a great day. I'm Bryon.

And this is Carlos.

Thanks for joining us.