First Kings chapter 2.
I wondered why Adonijah was killed for asking to marry Abishag and so I looked up a commentary which basically said Adonijah was still trying to be deceitful even though he claims he came in peace to Bethsheba. Abishag is the woman who lay with King David to keep him warm and she nursed him. In the eyes of Israel it was assumed she was a part of King David's concubine. For Adonijah to marry her would then give the impression that he was indeed a king since she was considered a part of King David's concubine. Solomon saw his deceit and immediately had him killed.
King David had final words on his death bed to the new King, Solomon. So they were therefore very valuable words. He wanted to make sure restitution was made.
My dad, on his deathbed with cancer, gathered all of us kids and daughter-in-laws and had each of us kids come into his bedroom and he shared his final words. One of the things he said to me was he regrets he didn't give his life to the Lord sooner. And he wanted me to give an altar call at his funeral service. So I did.
It's a reminder to me, we are on this Earth for a short time and sharing Christ is where it's at. Our life needs to be all about Jesus and all about sharing Jesus!
David’s advice to his son, Solomon, about his enemies may seem harsh but he wanted to help the young king establish and secure his throne. (Solomon was around 16 yrs old.) David was 30 when he was made king; he had many years of training and preparation before hand. David knew that those who oppose God’s appointed king were opposing God. It’s something to think about in our worldview today – God has allowed the leaders we have today, shouldn’t we as a nation show more respect regardless of our personal views? 1 Peter 2: 13-17 has some clear instructions to us about this.
Adonijah just didn’t seem to let go of trying to find a way to become the king. Solomon already spared his life before in the first chapter. Things end differently for him in the second chapter. Adonijah showed that he couldn’t be trusted and it resulted in his own death. This certainly isn’t the first time that we’ve seen a brother having a brother killed in the Old Testament or even seeing murder take place within this same family before as Absalom had killed Amnon for raping his sister, Tamar years ago. How sad that David’s sons couldn’t live in peace with each other!
Why is it that love and kindness can sometimes be shown better to complete and total strangers while it might not happen so easily with someone who is within the immediate family? There’s probably many reasons or excuses that could be given for this. One would be that our own family usually sees us at our worst and family members may cause each other the most pain which can be extremely difficult to forgive. Sometimes it is our own flesh and blood that we may have the most challenging time at getting along with.
Jeanine brought up a good point about showing more respect. I want to focus on 1 Peter 2:17.
“Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”
I realize that the New Testament wasn’t written yet, but I was just thinking about what a difference it would have made for Adonijah if he could’ve followed these instructions that we have written for us as well as what is written in the very next chapter of 1 Peter.
Take a look at 1 Peter 3:8-12.
Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”