Solomon's Coronation
1 Kings 1

Introduction

One of the things that has fascinated me in recent years is how people continually misunderstand how Donald Trump works. Now I’m not making a comment one way or another ABOUT Trump. I think it best that ministers stay out of politics from up the front. What I’m commenting on is how Trump’s opponents continually misunderstand how Trump operates, to their enormous detriment. So one example is Steven Colbert, who took over hosting the Late Show from David Letterman in 2015. In the 2016 Presidential Campaign, Colbert took it upon himself to attack Donald Trump incessantly almost every night on his show. Yet what Colbert failed to realise is Donald Trump doesn’t care if people are saying nasty things about him. He just wants people talking about him.

Trump once told Piers Morgan that if he turns the news on in the morning and no one is talking about him he’ll send out a crazy Tweet and WATCH the news change in real time. So Colbert’s attacks ended up making Trump more popular. The same goes for the lawfare waged against Trump in 2023. The more lawsuits the Democrats brought against Trump the more public support he got. Trump’s opponents keep misunderstanding how Trump operates to their enormous detriment.

Now the reason I mention this is because just like Trump’s opponents, many PEOPLE fail to understand how God works. And our passage today is a prime example. So we’re kicking off a new sermon series today looking at the book of 1 Kings. Now we don’t have time this term to look at every passage, so we’re just hitting the highlights. But 1 and 2 kings are the history books that deal with the Monarchy in Israel. So here are the top 5 milestones of Israel’s history up to this point:

So the people of Israel became a nation in the Exodus from Egypt, outlined in the book of Exodus
Following the Exodus came the 40 years of wandering in the desert, outlined in Numbers to Deuteronomy
Following the 40 years of wandering came the conquest of the Promised Land, outlined in the book of Joshua
Following the conquest came the period of the Judges, outlined in the book of Judges
Then 1 and 2 Samuel outline Israel’s transition from being led by Judges, to being led by kings culminating in the famous King David.

And at every step of the way in this history the reader is left asking ‘is THIS how God is going to fulfil his promises to Abraham?’ So back in Genesis 12 God made 3 promises to Abraham:

The first was his descendants would become a nation … which happened in the Exodus.
The second was his descendants would be given a land of their own … which happened in Joshua.
And the THIRD was … his descendants would bless ALL nations.

Yet by the end of 2 Samuel … that hasn’t happened yet. BUT … the reader is left thinking ‘MAYBE King David is the answer to this one’. So although David sinned heinously by committing adultery with Bathsheba … then having her husband Uriah killed … he DID repent … and God forgave him. So David was a successful warrior … killing the giant Goliath. David was a successful leader … uniting the tribes of Israel into one nation under God. And on top of all THAT … God promised to USE David’s family … to bring about blessing to the nations. We see that in 2 Sam 7. So things are looking up.

But the book of 1 Kings OPENS with King David now very old and very frail … leaving the reader to ask ‘who then will bring ABOUT this promised blessing to the nations?’ And our passage today looks at 2 very different approaches to bringing this about. One of those approaches understands how God operates. The other doesn’t … to his enormous detriment. And so what we’re looking at today is … how DOES God like to operate? Because IF we can figure this out … we’re better placed to avoid the kind of mistakes Donald Trumps opponents seem to keep making.

And I’ve got 3 points today to help us better understand how God works. And we’re going to do so by looking at the 3 main players in this passage; who are King David … his son Adonijah … and the prophet Nathan. So we’re going to begin by seeing how David CANNOT be the fulfilment of God’s promise to bless the nations … because he’s now very old and frail. So I’ve titled our first point (i) The frailty of David. We’ll then see how NOT to behave when it comes to God’s promises … which I’ve titled (ii) The arrogance of Adonijah. We’ll then conclude by seeing how God DOES operate … through what I’ve titled (iii) The wisdom of Nathan. So please come with me … as we try to better understand how God works.

The frailty of David

And the book of 1 Kings begins with a very old King David:

1 Kings 1:1-2 (NIV) When King David was very old, he could not keep warm even when they put covers over him. 2 So his attendants said to him, “Let us look for a young virgin to serve the king and take care of him. She can lie beside him so that our lord the king may keep warm.”

So King David is about 70 at this stage … which might sound quite young to modern ears. But the average life expectancy back then was 40-50. So 70 back then is like 90 today. Yet not only is David now very frail PHYSICALLY … we’re told 2 things about David in this chapter that tell us David is quite frail SPIRITUALLY as well.

And the FIRST has to do with how David chooses to keep himself warm. Now it IS David’s attendants who come up with this plan … v. 2. But David agrees. And that plan is to get David an electric blanket … basically. So they search the kingdom … and find a very pretty … very young electric blanket … who has never kept anyone else warm before.

Now v. 4 tells us the king ‘did not have sexual relations with that woman’. Yet before we say ‘oh … how NOBLE of David’ … we need to remember King David had 8 wives and at LEAST 10 concubines … probably many more. And in case you don’t know … a concubine was a woman you had sex with … but never married. So while we criticise Solomon for having 700 wives and 300 concubines … which is BEYOND ridiculous … where do you think Solomon learnt that from? OK … David has no qualms about having sex with many women he was not married to. So when it says ‘he had no sexual relations with her’ … that’s not a comment on David’s ‘noble’ character. It’s a comment on his physical frailty. In his state … he was likely no longer ABLE to have sexual relations.

But even though poor Abishag isn’t a sex object … she’s still treated like an object here. Like imagine YOU had a 15–16-year-old daughter. And like all parents of that day … you have high hopes of her finding a loving husband and having heaps of kids … which was how you survived back then. But then along comes this 70-year-old king … and he just conscripts your daughter … to sleep in bed with him every night. That’s not how I want my daughter treated. So David is not treating Abishag well here.

Yet not only is David a horrible womaniser … he’s also a terrible father. To begin with … if you have over 20 kids to over a dozen different women … like David did … those kids are automatically going to grow up with insufficient time with their father. Many powerful men throughout history have seen having many children with multiple wives as a sign of strength and success. Yet it invariably ends up being a source of weakness and failure. The reason being … those children in effect grow up with an absentee father … or at best a part-time one. So David’s kids are automatically on the back foot.

Yet what makes it even WORSE … is HOW David raises his kids … which we see in v. 5. So we’re still on David here … but we’re told:

1 Kings 1:5-6 (NIV) Now Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, put himself forward and said, “I will be king.” So he got chariots and horses ready, with fifty men to run ahead of him. 6 (His father had never rebuked him by asking, “Why do you behave as you do?)

So not only was David a part-time father … he also never disciplined his kids. The reason being … David LOVED his kids … and he desperately wanted his kids to love him back. And he thought the best way to do that … was to never discipline them. Yet kids NEED discipline. OK … the research on this is in. The parenting style that produces the best results is what is called ‘Authoritative’. And the authoritative parenting style (i) lays down strict boundaries, (ii) explains those boundaries, and (iii) enforces those boundaries when the child steps out of line. And David never did that with his kids … which resulted in chaos.

OK … his firstborn Amnon raped his half-sister Tamar … which David did nothing about.
Tamar’s brother Absolom then conspired to KILL Amnon … which David did nothing about.
Absolom then stages a coup … to take the throne by force … and ALL David cares about is Absolom not being hurt
And now David’s forthborn Adonijah is trying to take the throne by force as well

So what we learn in the opening 5 verses of 1 Kings … is David is NOT the kind of king … not the kind of Messiah … who will bring blessing to all nations. He is too frail … both physically and spiritually.

The arrogance of Adonijah

So … who CAN fill the shoes God laid out in 2 Samuel 7? For those not familiar … this is what God said to David in 2 Samuel 7:

2 Samuel 7:12-13 (NIV) When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

So which of David’s 20 odd sons is going to succeed their father on the throne? Well … enter Adonijah … who we believe is David’s oldest remaining son at this stage. Now the name Adonijah comes from 2 Hebrew words … (i) Adoni … meaning ‘my Lord’ … or ‘my boss’, and (ii) Yahweh … which is God’s ACTUAL name. So the name Adonijah literally means ‘MY Lord is THE Lord’ … or ‘My boss is Yahweh’. So does Adonijah live up to his name?

Well David was told at age 15 that he would one day be king. And even though he had countless opportunities to kill Saul and take the throne by force … he refused. Instead he waited 15 long years … for God’s timing to come about. In contrast … Adonijah DOESN’T wait for the Lord’s timing. He instead proclaims ‘my Lord … is ME’. Adonijah puts HIMSELF forward to be king.

Now Adonijah doesn’t have the military support to take the throne by force … like his brother Absolom had years earlier. But he DOES take a leaf out of Absolom’s book … getting 50 men to run ahead of his chariot … v. 5 … just like Absolom had done. He THEN gets 2 very important officials on board with his plan … those being Abiathar the priest and Joab the commander of David’s army. Of NOTE … is who Adonijah DOESN’T get on board:

1 Kings 1:8 (NIV) But Zadok the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei and Rei and David’s special guard did not join Adonijah.

Now who is Zadok? Well in David’s day there were 2 High Priests. Zadok … who was descended from Aaron’s third son Eleazar … and Abiathar … who was descended from Aaron’s 4th son Ithamar. And BOTH these priests had shown unrelenting loyalty to David throughout his reign. Then Benaiah was the captain of David’s royal guard … and one of David’s mighty men. Now we’re not told WHY Adonijah didn’t confer with these men. But it’s likely he knew he had a better chance with Abiathar and Joab.

Adonijah then organises a special feast … where he invites ALL the royal officials and ALL his brothers … except Solomon. Now we can’t be certain … but it’s possible the king’s officials and sons may not have known exactly what this event was FOR. Adonijah’s plan was to ANNOUNCE himself king … with Abiathar the priest and Joab the Commander in Chief standing at his side … in the hope that the people would just accept his declaration. I mean after all … Adonijah is David’s oldest surviving son.

The wisdom of Nathan

Then enter the third main character in this passage … which is Nathan the prophet. Now this is only the 3rd time Nathan has appeared on the scene. His FIRST appearance was in 2 Samuel 7 … where HE told David that God would raise up a son for David to sit on the throne. Nathan’s SECOND appearance was to rebuke David for committing adultery and murder. His THIRD appearance is no less important. We read that Nathan goes to visit Solomon’s mother Bathsheba … and says this:

1 Kings 1:11-13 (NIV) “Have you not heard that Adonijah, the son of Haggith, has become king, and our lord David knows nothing about it? 12 Now then, let me advise you how you can save your own life and the life of your son Solomon. 13 Go in to King David and say to him, ‘My lord the king, did you not swear to me your servant: “Surely Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he will sit on my throne”?

Now this is the first time the reader has been told about this promise. We think the REASON Adonijah didn’t invite Solomon to HIS coronation is because David had promised the throne to Solomon. But this poses the question; WHY Solomon? Well we’re not told exactly. But what we ARE told in 2 Samuel 12 is that God had a special love for Solomon. He actually gave Solomon the name Jedidiah … which means ‘loved by the Lord’. And this son of David … who was loved by the Lord … now in danger … because ancient kings had a tendency of killing their rivals. So Nathan devises a plan … to break the news to David in such a way that will spur David into action. And his plan works. We read in:

1 Kings 1:32-34 (NIV) King David said, “Call in Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.” When they came before the king, 33 he said to them: “Take your lord’s servants with you and have Solomon my son mount my own mule and take him down to Gihon. 34 There have Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him king over Israel.

So … we have 2 very different approaches here … to claiming the promises of God. Adonijah and Solomon. Adonijah reflects how the world works. When Israel asked God to appoint a king over them … they did so because they wanted to be quote: ‘like the other nations’. God warmed them that ‘a king like the other nations’ will take and take and take. And that’s what Adonijah has done. He’s tried to TAKE the kingdom … for himself. Solomon on the other hand waited for God’s timing … like his father before him. And he didn’t try to TAKE the kingdom. He was LED by God’s prophet: Nathan.

And this is the way God operates … brothers and sisters. He rarely executes his plans through human strength. The way God operates … is through humility and weakness. About 1,000 years after Solomon was led through the streets on a mule … ANOTHER son of David was led into Jerusalem on a mule. Let me read to you what Matthew says about Jesus riding into Jerusalem:

Matthew 21:4-5 (NIV) This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: 5 “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”

Jesus is the ULTIMATE example of how God executes his plans through weakness. On paper … the cross is a resounding defeat … in which Satan killed the Son of God. Yet as the Bible tells us … that act of human weakness brought about the greatest victory in human history. All nations are blessed now … by the offer of having our sins forgiven … through Jesus’ death on the cross.

And friends … this is fundamental to how God works. OK … even though Steven Colbert wanted to take Trump down … I personally think he was pivotal in getting Trump elected in 2016. Likewise the prosecutors who kept bringing Trump up on charges were ALSO instrumental in getting Trump RE-elected in 2024. They misunderstood how Trump operates … to their enormous detriment. And unless we understand this is how God works … we’ll keep getting him wrong too. So let me close with 2 quick points of application. One is understanding how God operates in getting people INTO the kingdom … while the second is how God operates ONCE those people are in.

So begin with … the gospel says salvation is not through strength. It’s through humility and weakness. OK … there is NOTHING we can do to make up for our sin. Trying to EARN our salvation through our good works is like cheating on your spouse 2 nights a week for 30 years … then turning around and saying ‘but I made up for it … by NOT cheating on you the other 5 nights a week’. No spouse would accept that. Our good works … our strength … CANNOT save us. Salvation comes through admitting our weakness … and our need for a saviour.

Then once we have Jesus as saviour … we need him as Lord. I don’t know about you … but part of me likes to think God is LUCKY … to have an awesome Christian such as myself in his kingdom. ‘I mean look at all I do for you Lord’. Yet we need to remember God is omnipotent … omni-potent. Thinking our hard work is in some way HELPING out an omnipotent deity is like sending Elon Musk $100 in the mail … and thinking he’s LUCKY to have my contribution. Not only do we get IN the kingdom through weakness … we need to continue to live that way as well. In Season 4 of The Chosen … Matthew sums this up well. He says ‘every day I wake up … I have just 1 job. To follow Jesus. The rest just takes care of itself’. The way we LIVE as a Christian is by realising I don’t have all the answers. All I can do is follow Jesus … follow his word … and let God take care of the rest. For as God says in Isaiah 55; my ways are higher than your ways … and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.

Conclusion