Righteousness and Judgment Are the Foundation of His Throne: 1 Kings 2:13-46

From: Meditations on 1 Kings By: Henri L. Rossier

1 Kings 2:13‑46 • 7 min. read • grade level: 10

Scarcely is the throne inaugurated before elements hostile and foreign to the kingdom manifest themselves; but it is the character of the kingdom of righteousness to reprove all that is not in harmony with itself. In Solomon’s presence the flesh can no longer push itself forward nor freely follow its bent.

Adonijah addresses himself to Bathsheba, that she may present his request to the king, her son. “Comest thou peaceably?” asks this pious woman who stands in doubt of the son of Haggith. She knew in effect that if he would have succeeded in his projects, she and her “son Solomon should be counted offenders” (1 Kings 1:21²¹Otherwise it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders. (1 Kings 1:21)). This man though outwardly broken is nevertheless far from being so in his heart. “Thou knowest,” he says, “that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign” (1 Kings 2:15¹⁵And he said, Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign: howbeit the kingdom is turned about, and is become my brother's: for it was his from the Lord. (1 Kings 2:15)). How could such pretensions fail to raise the indignation of the true king? He — Adonijah — to have all the rights of succession to the crown and to the people of David! His words alone betoken an embittered heart, a bitterness long suppressed now manifesting itself because he had not judged himself in the least. To be sure, he also adds: “The kingdom is turned about, and is become my brother’s: for it was his from the Lord,” but is this a true recognition of the will of God, a true submission to the throne of righteousness? Adonijah accepts this because he cannot do otherwise. Certainly he does not belong to the “willing people” in the day of the power of the son of David. To his mind Solomon is an intruder, and this being the case, what must be the Lord who had established Solomon therefore be to Adonijah?

“And now,” he says, “I ask one petition of thee, deny me not... that he give me Abishag the Shunammite to wife” (1 Kings 2:16-17¹⁶And now I ask one petition of thee, deny me not. And she said unto him, Say on. ¹⁷And he said, Speak, I pray thee, unto Solomon the king, (for he will not say thee nay,) that he give me Abishag the Shunammite to wife. (1 Kings 2:16‑17)). Abishag! — that young maiden who had served David and had tenderly cared for him, who had lived in the intimacy of the king of grace, to be given to this rebellious man whom only the patience of Solomon had spared to this moment! How little he knew both David and Solomon!1 To give Abishag to him would be to admit to him some right to his father’s succession, some contact with the kingdom which he might be able to assert at some favorable occasion; it would be to accept his pretensions and the revolt led by Joab and Abiathar (1 Kings 2:22²²And king Solomon answered and said unto his mother, And why dost thou ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? ask for him the kingdom also; for he is mine elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah. (1 Kings 2:22)) as legitimate. Should the woman who as a chaste virgin had served David be given to this profane man?

It will be the same with regard to the Church. Will the King of Glory ever consent to yield to another the bride He has chosen for Himself as King of Grace? The Antichrist, the man of sin, may hope to rob Christ of His bride by seizing apostate Christendom, become Babylon the Great at the end; but his efforts to substitute himself for Christ, to take possession of His bride, and to seize the kingdom will end for both the harlot and for himself in the lake of fire and brimstone. Here judgment did not have to wait: the very same day Adonijah is put to death.

The leader of the conspiracy, the false king, having met his fate, Solomon’s righteousness catches up with the priest (1 Kings 2:26-27²⁶And unto Abiathar the priest said the king, Get thee to Anathoth, unto thine own fields; for thou art worthy of death: but I will not at this time put thee to death, because thou barest the ark of the Lord God before David my father, and because thou hast been afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted. ²⁷So Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto the Lord; that he might fulfil the word of the Lord, which he spake concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. (1 Kings 2:26‑27)) who had been supported for a long while by David, but whose sentence the Lord had already spoken to the ears of Eli (1 Sam. 2:35³⁵And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever. (1 Samuel 2:35)). Here we find the principle that is expressed in the words “I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau” (Mal. 1:2-3²I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, ³And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. (Malachi 1:2‑3)) pronounced thirteen centuries after He had said, “The elder shall serve the younger” (Gen. 25:23²³And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. (Genesis 25:23)). It was the Lord’s free choice, but the sentence is pronounced only after Esau had manifested himself to be the irreconcilable enemy of God and of His people. It is the same with regard to Abiathar. One hundred thirty-five years after the judgment is announced, he is cut off from the priesthood, after having first furnished a reason for his judgment by his alliance with the rebel.

Thus the reign of righteousness commences with the judgment of all those who when placed under the grace and longsuffering of God had not availed themselves of this to reconcile their hearts and their actions to this rule. Abiathar was all the more guilty in that he had borne the ark of the Lord before David, and that he had also shared in his afflictions from the beginning (1 Sam. 22:20²⁰And one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David. (1 Samuel 22:20)). Thus he had had part in the testimony of the Lord’s anointed and had suffered. Solomon recognizes this, but in the only case where Abiathar’s faithfulness is put to the test and where it is a matter of the glory of the son of David, he makes shipwreck and abandons his master. The word of the Lord, long suspended, is fulfilled: Abiathar is rejected.

Joab comes next. Of him it is expressly said that he had not turned after Absalom (1 Kings 2:28²⁸Then tidings came to Joab: for Joab had turned after Adonijah, though he turned not after Absalom. And Joab fled unto the tabernacle of the Lord, and caught hold on the horns of the altar. (1 Kings 2:28)), whatever may have been his feeling in this, as we have seen in the Second Book of Samuel. But it was a far more serious thing to turn away from the reign of righteousness at its beginning, for this denoted an absolute lack of fear in the presence of him who was destined to sit as glorious king upon his throne.

Joab flees to the tabernacle and takes hold of the horns of the altar. That cannot save him. The Word of God is against him: “If a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from my altar, that he may die” (Ex. 21:14¹⁴But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from mine altar, that he may die. (Exodus 21:14)). Solomon remembers this. When Joab’s judgment is determined it is too late for the altar to shelter him. Vengeance must be executed upon him in order that “upon David, and upon his seed, and upon his house, and upon his throne, shall there be peace forever from the Lord” (1 Kings 2:33³³Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his seed for ever: but upon David, and upon his seed, and upon his house, and upon his throne, shall there be peace for ever from the Lord. (1 Kings 2:33)), for without vengeance, blood would have remained upon the house of David. Judgment was necessary for his glory.

Lastly comes Shimei (1 Kings 2:36-46³⁶And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Build thee an house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and go not forth thence any whither. ³⁷For it shall be, that on the day thou goest out, and passest over the brook Kidron, thou shalt know for certain that thou shalt surely die: thy blood shall be upon thine own head. ³⁸And Shimei said unto the king, The saying is good: as my lord the king hath said, so will thy servant do. And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days. ³⁹And it came to pass at the end of three years, that two of the servants of Shimei ran away unto Achish son of Maachah king of Gath. And they told Shimei, saying, Behold, thy servants be in Gath. ⁴⁰And Shimei arose, and saddled his ass, and went to Gath to Achish to seek his servants: and Shimei went, and brought his servants from Gath. ⁴¹And it was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and was come again. ⁴²And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Did I not make thee to swear by the Lord, and protested unto thee, saying, Know for a certain, on the day thou goest out, and walkest abroad any whither, that thou shalt surely die? and thou saidst unto me, The word that I have heard is good. ⁴³Why then hast thou not kept the oath of the Lord, and the commandment that I have charged thee with? ⁴⁴The king said moreover to Shimei, Thou knowest all the wickedness which thine heart is privy to, that thou didst to David my father: therefore the Lord shall return thy wickedness upon thine own head; ⁴⁵And king Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord for ever. ⁴⁶So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; which went out, and fell upon him, that he died. And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon. (1 Kings 2:36‑46)). Solomon places him on the footing of responsibility and he accepts this. He thus reveals his pure ignorance of his state of sin and consequently of his incapacity to obey. Had not Israel spoken the very same words when the law was proposed? “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (Ex. 19:8⁸And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord. (Exodus 19:8)). And so Shimei: “The saying is good: as my lord the king hath said, so will thy servant do” (1 Kings 2:38³⁸And Shimei said unto the king, The saying is good: as my lord the king hath said, so will thy servant do. And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days. (1 Kings 2:38)). He knows, wretched man, that to disobey means death for him and that his blood will be upon his own head and nevertheless he is unable to do aught but disobey. He is unable to surrender two runaway slaves. In order to regain possession of them for a day, he sacrifices his own life! What a picture of the world which knows the law of God and which will not and cannot submit to it once a passing interest comes between the will of God and itself. He is judged by his own word: “The word that I have heard is good” (1 Kings 2:42⁴²And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Did I not make thee to swear by the Lord, and protested unto thee, saying, Know for a certain, on the day thou goest out, and walkest abroad any whither, that thou shalt surely die? and thou saidst unto me, The word that I have heard is good. (1 Kings 2:42)). The man who is placed under responsibility and who accepts this and fails, cannot be tolerated under the reign of righteousness.

1. Nothing gives us any positive authority, as we have said in chapter 1, to identify Abishag the Shunammite with the Shulamite of the Song of Songs, the beloved of Solomon; moreover it is prudent in the application of these types not to go beyond that which the Word clearly teaches us.

Click here to show subject links in the text for more information.