>> Jen: Hey, good morning, friends and faithful listeners. Welcome to the Bible explain podcast. I'm so glad you're here to share a delicious cup of coffee with me this morning. I am back to drinking coffee. I told you at the end of last week that I was drinking tea primarily, but now I'm back to coffee and, uh, I've been doing fine with it. It has not been bothering me. I'm sure it probably will start bothering me in a few days, but I've been enjoying my coffee while I can, while I am,
um, not bothered by it. So maybe it's like just certain times of the year that I can have coffee and not get bothered by it. Because sometimes I'm totally fine when I drink coffee, and then other times it really messes me up. I don't know what it is, but, uh, I'm back to enjoying and drinking coffee again, which is very wonderful for me. However, in, like, two months when I can't drink coffee again, I'll be going back to tea and complaining about that until I get used to tea again.
But anyway, tell me, do you prefer coffee or tea? I love hearing from you guys. And also, if you have a prayer request, please don't hesitate to email me and tell me what your prayer request is, and I will write you down in my prayer journal, and I will pray for you for the week. And I do read every email that I get. I try to respond to every single one. Sometimes it is difficult to do, but I do read every single email that I
get. Just to let you guys know. Now, one kings, one is what we're going to be talking about today. We're going to be finishing up this chapter, actually, and discussing Adonijah a little bit more. And this weird kind of tradition that people would do when they were begging for mercy, where they would grab the horns of the altar. So we'll talk about that. We'll also be talking about how, uh, Solomon is anointed king and what goes on with all of that.
This is one kings, 132 53. Today, make sure to grab your cup of coffee or your cup of tea and your bible out of the version that you prefer. And let's give reverence to God's word together. King David said, call to me, Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. They came before the king. The king said to them, take with you the servants of your lord and cause Solomon my son, to ride on my
own mule and bring him down to Gihon. Let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet, anoint him there king over Israel, blow the trumpet and say, long live King Solomon. Then come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne, for he shall be king in my place. I have appointed him to be the prince over Israel and over Judah. Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, answered the king and said,
amen. May Yahweh, the God of my lord the king, say so, as Yahweh has been with my lord the king, even so, may he be with Solomon and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord king David. So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David's mule and brought him to Gihon. Zadok the priest took the horn of
oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. They blew the trumpet, and all the people said, long live King Solomon. All the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes and rejoiced with a great joy so that the earth shook with their sound. Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they were finished eating. When Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, why is this noise of the city being in an uproar while he yet spoke?
Behold, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came, and Adonijah said, come in, for you are a worthy man and bring good news. Jonathan answered, Adonijah, most certainly, our lord King David has made Solomon king. The king has sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada and the Cherethites and the pelethites, and they have caused him to ride on the king's mule. Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon. They have
come up from there, rejoicing. So the city rang again. This is the noise that you have heard. Moreover, the king's servants have come to bless our lord King David, saying, may your God make the name of Solomon better than your name and make his throne greater than your throne. And the king bowed himself on the bed also. Thus said the king, blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who has given one to sit on my throne today. My eyes even
seeing it. All the guests of Adonijah were afraid, and they rose up, and each man went his own way. Adonijah was afraid because of Solomon, and he rose and went and hung onto the horns of the altar. Solomon was told, behold, Adonijah fears King Solomon, for, behold, he is hanging onto the horns of the altar, saying, let King Solomon swear to me first that he will not kill his servant with the sword. Solomon said, if he shows himself a worthy mandev,
not a hair of his head shall fall to the earth. But if wickedness is found in him, he shall die. So King Solomon sent. And they brought him down from the altar. He came and bowed down to King Solomon. And Solomon said to him, go to your house. So in the last chapter that we talked about on Monday, we discussed how Adonijah, who was one of David's sons, the fourthborn, decided that he was just gonna make himself kingdom even though King David was still alive.
And also King David had somebody else in mind for the throne, who happened to be Solomon. And also God had actually chosen Solomon. And Adonijah was aware of all of this but didn't care. He was similar to Absalom, his older brother, who had died because Absalom had tried to take the throne from King David. Previous to this, Adonijah was following in Absalom's footsteps. So Adonijah did many of the same things that Absalom did. He made a big show of
everything. He tried to schmooze the people of Israel and possibly would have succeeded, very likely would have succeeded, and then would have probably killed Solomon, because he knew that Solomon was the one who was truly worthy to be on the throne. David was getting old, and he was not informed about things as much as he should have been. That is how Adonijah thought, that he would slip right in there to try to become the next king of Israel behind David's
back. And ad Nijah would just wait for his dad to die so that he could just become the next king. So when David catches wind of all of this, he acts very quickly. Now, David himself couldn't get up out of bed. He was old, and these were his last days. So he says to his servants, call to me, Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada. So David knew that these three men in particular, who had a very good reputation in Israel, were
still on David's side. They had not defected to try to join ad Nijah, unlike Joab and Abiathar, the other priest. So David calls these three men. They come to David. And so David says to them, cause my son Solomon to ride on my own mule and bring him down to Gihon. Now, Gihon was a very central location in Israel, I believe it was where a well was. So it would have been a place where many people gathered to get their
water and to communicate with each other. So this would have been a very good location for Solomon to be anointed as the next king. Then in verse 34, let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there king over
Israel. So two men, a prophet and a priest, were to anoint Solomon as the next kingdom, which, by the way, Solomon would be riding on David's mule, which was a, uh, very important part of the story because mules only belonged to the royal family, because in Israel they were really hard to get because of the fact that Israelites were not supposed to cross breed animals. And as we know, a mule is a cross between a donkey and a horse. So typical israelite people did not have mules. They were only
for the royal family. That's because it was like the fancy animal to own, because Israel, the rest of Israel didn't have any mules. They were like, reserved for the israelite king and imported from a, uh, different country and everything like that. So that's another thing, is that Solomon would be riding on a mule, an animal that was reserved only for the king of Israel and the princes of Israel. So this would show that Solomon had the king's approval
because it would be David's own mule. And I'm sure this mule was also decorated with, uh, you know, ornaments that showed that it belonged to the king. And Solomon riding this mule, all the people would understand that Solomon had David's very own personal blessing for becoming the next king. So Solomon riding in on David's own mule was a big part of
the story. So David tells the priest to take Solomon down to Gihon, a very central location, while Solomon's riding on the mule, so that all of Israel could see Solomon becoming the next king. Even though Adonijah was already trying to make his own bid for the throne and trying to charm the people of Israel into thinking that he is the next king, David was going to act quicker this time. He was going to act very precisely to make sure that Solomon was
the next king. He was not going to make the same mistake that he did with Absalom, where he was very inactive with Absalom several chapters ago. In two, Samuel and Absalom was able to almost succeed in getting the throne from his father. But this time David says, no, we're going to act quickly. So after Solomon is anointed in Gihon, David tells his servants to take Solomon back to David's throne room and have Solomon sit on the
throne. And while all of this is happening, they're supposed to make a whole bunch of noise and cheer for Solomon and blow horns and basically do, like, a parade in front of Solomon, declaring him to be the next kingdom. So in verse 36, when Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, Benaiah, don't forget, was one of David's mighty men, he was the captain of the guard, kind of took over Joab's job, it seems like. Benaiah answers the king, and he says, amen. May Yahweh, the God of
my lord the king, say so. May he even be so with Solomon and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord, King David. What, shockingly enough, actually happened. Solomon became a. The greatest king in Israel's history. He was the most successful at bringing wealth into Israel. So Solomon made Israel very great. However, Solomon kind of started the deterioration of Israel spiritually, even though Solomon started out very,
very good. So in verse 38, Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, along with the Cherethites and the Pelethites. Now, those two groups were, uh, some of David's army, so they would have been likely the bow and arrow people and also the slingshot people, from my understanding, the soldiers who fought from a long distance, they went down with Solomon and had him ride on King
David's mule, and they brought him to Gihon. It says, Zadok the priest then took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. So Zadok, who was the high priest of Israel and who was on King David's side, unlike Abiathar, who was another very famous priest of Israel during this time, Zadok takes the special anointing oil from the tent of meeting, and he brings it to Solomon and anoints
Solomon as king. Right then and there, it says they blew the trumpet, and all the people screamed along live Solomon. It says they were piping with pipes and rejoicing with a great joy. So they had all these musical instruments. They were singing, they were dancing, dancing in front of Solomon as Solomon becomes the next king and rides through Israel. So everyone in Jerusalem would have heard about this, right? Because the entire city is making such
a huge noise. In fact, the noise was so big that Adonijah, who is still eating his celebratory meal, ends up hearing about it. Joab gets all irritated. He's like, why is the city in such an uproar. What is this noise I'm hearing? So Joab's irritated, and the entire dinner party is basically stalled because they're wondering what's going on in Jerusalem. It says, while they were speaking, behold Jonathan, the son of Abiathar the priest, came. Remember, Abiathar was on the side of
Adonijah. Jonathan was Abiathar's son. And it sounds like was on the side also of Adonijah as well, because his father was. So Jonathan goes in, and he has everything except good news for Adonijah. Even though this was great news for King David and for all of Israel, it was terrible news for Adonijah. So Jonathan answers Adonijah, most certainly, our lord king David has made Solomon
king. The king has sent him with Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, bnei the son of Jehoiada and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and they have caused him to ride on the king's own mule. Now, Jonathan is retelling this story with urgency here. He's like, look, all of these things happened. So Adonijah, sorry, but you're screwed. Basically, Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon. They have come up from their rejoicing so that the
city is ringing out. This is the noise that you have heard also. Solomon now sits on the throne of the kingdom. Moreover, the king's servants came to bless our lord, the king David, saying, may your God make the name of Solomon better than your name and make his throne greater than your throne. And I'm sure that that is the part right there that scares AdOnijah the most here, is that the israelite people are on the side of King David this time back with Absalom. The Israelites were on
the side of Absalom. They wanted to reject King David and make Absalom their next king. But Adonijah is now realizing that the Israelites actually are on the side of King David and Solomon this time. So Adonijah is probably terrified when he hears that all of these people are going to bless King Solomon now and are blessing King David for making the choice
for Solomon for the throne. So Jonathan finishes his story, and he said, the king answered the people, blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, who is given one to sit on my throne today. My eyes even seeing it. And that's the real kicker. David chose Solomon, certainly, and Adonijah now knows it for sure. Adonijah, I truly do believe, already knew that Solomon was next in line for the
throne and that David had chosen Solomon. I think Adonijah was trying to get around that, because don't forget, when Adonijah first threw this big party that he's currently at, that this big feast, he didn't invite Solomon. He invited everybody else, but he did not invite Solomon, and he did not invite, um, the other people who are loyal to David. For example, Nathan the prophet, Zadok the priest,
and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada. He did not invite those three men because he knew they weren't on his side, which tells you that Adonijah knew that these three men wanted to make Solomon the next kingdom and that David had chosen Solomon to be the next king. Adonijah, without a shadow of a doubt, would have killed Solomon. Everyone knew
it. This entire chapter is basically about that, how, if Adonijah succeeds, Solomon is dead, and so is Solomon's mother, Bathsheba, and so is anybody else who tries to get in the way of Adonijah. Everyone knew this. That is why David had to act so quickly here, and he did act very quickly. He acted so quickly that Adonijah wasn't even finished eating this meal yet. That is how
quickly all of this took place. Now, granted, I'm sure these parties lasted for a lot longer back in these days, but David crowned Solomon as king very quickly, and this made all of the people of Israel very excited over Solomon being the next king, because they were able to witness the coronation. They were able to know for sure that David's
blessing was with Solomon. And also, they probably got caught up in the emotion of all of it, this, like, joy and excitement and this big parade that took place. So the people were with Solomon and rejected Adonijah, and David also was with Solomon and rejected Adonijah. So Adonijah now is terrified, and so is every single person that came to this big feast that he prepared for them. They initially came to this feast expecting and believing that
Adonijah was going to be the next king. Now they are leaving this feast in complete shame and terror. It is extremely embarrassing for everybody there, including Adonijah who is probably the most ashamed and embarrassed of everybody. Everyone, it says, left the feast in terror. Each man went to his own house, is what it says, because now that Solomon is officially the next king of Israel, supporting Adonijah as the king has become very dangerous just in, like,
a half of a second. So they all leave, and they go to their own house very quietly. Ad, uh, Nijah was afraid, and he arose and went and hung onto the horns of the altar, is what it says. I could not find anywhere any kind of historical evidence as to why people used to do this. This is only mentioned twice in scripture, and both of them are in one kings. The first one is right here. The next one will be in the next chapter, where people grab the horns of the altar for, like, fear of
their lives. Now, what altar was this? I would imagine it was not the altar in the tabernacle. I would imagine it was probably one of the other altars around Israel at the time. Don't forget, at the end of two Samuel, David actually made an altar to God on a threshing floor. It could have been that altar that Adonijah fled to. But regardless, he flees to the altar and grabs onto the horns of the altar. Now, the horns of the altar were something that God had commanded the altars to have, these
horns. The horn obviously represents God as the horn of salvation, which is what David called him in two Samuel as well, the horn of salvation. If you remember, many times in battle, Joab would blow a horn when the battle was finished. That meant that the men could stop fighting and they could flee. It was like the call of salvation. They didn't have to fight any longer. So these horns probably signified God being the
horn of salvation. So Adonijah goes to whatever altar it was, does not say which one, and he takes hold of the horns of the altar. It's very likely that Adonijah didn't just invent this. It was probably something that people did to cry out for mercy, either to God or to somebody who they thought was going to kill them. Adonijah, in this case, believed that Solomon was going to kill him, because Solomon knew that Adonijah was trying to, uh, usurp the throne
minutes before Solomon became the king. So that is why Adonijah was terrified, because don't forget that Adonijah was going to kill Solomon. So Adonijah thinks that Solomon is going to do the same thing to him. That is why he goes and grabs the horns of the altar to, like, beg for mercy from Solomon. So Solomon was told, behold, Adonijah fears you because he is holding on to the horns of the altar, saying, let King Solomon swear to me first that he will not kill his servant with
the sword. So Solomon hears about Adonijah being very pitiful, and, uh, Solomon promises, actually, he says, look, I'm not going to kill him. If he shows himself to be a worthy man, not a hair of his head shall fall to the earth. But if wickedness is found in him, he shall die. So he's like, I'm not going to touch a hair on his head. As long as he stays out of the way, as long as he proves himself to be righteous and not to be a troublemaker, I will not kill
him. So the servants of Solomon go to ad Nijah at the altar, grasping onto the horns, and they take him away. They're like, it's okay, you don't have to grab onto the horns of the altar. Everything's fine. Solomon says, he won't kill you. So Adonijah comes to the throne room, where Solomon is now sitting on the throne in place of King David. And Adonijah, it says, falls to the ground. He bows down to King Solomon, and Solomon says to him, go home.
So Solomon is probably very irritated, quite honestly, for everything that just happened. But Solomon decides to show mercy. He saw that Adonijah was pleading for his life with the horns of the altar, and that is why he allows Adonijah to just go home and not to bother him anymore. So now Solomon is the next king, even though David is still alive. King David has now given over the throne to Solomon. So Solomon is going to act as the next kingdom even before David dies.
Alright, faithful listeners, I hope you enjoyed your cup of coffee or your cup of tea while we read through one kings one today and finished it up. Um, it's just crazy to me how many problems were always arising in David's family, like with all of his sons. And it specifically says, because David did not discipline his sons, that verse is actually in one kings chapter one. We talked about it on Monday. David did not discipline his kids, but fortunately, Solomon was a little bit more wise.
We're going to talk about Solomon and who he was in the next coming chapters. The era of David is ending, and the era of Solomon is now beginning. But anyway, faithful listeners, make sure to check all the links listed in the description of this episode. If you haven't subscribed to the YouTube channel, I recommend doing that because my sister and my brother in law recently sent with me to do part three of their escape from the IFB denomination, which
I'm very, very excited about. And it's a very long interview, so I'm going to be editing that video and putting it up on YouTube very quickly, so you don't want to miss it. Make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel linked in the description of this episode. Happy listening and God bless.