>> Jen: Well, faith listeners, today we are in the book of one kings and we're going to talk about Solomon killing his brother and why he would do that. So stay tuned. Before we begin today's episode, I have a public service announcement. Do not try chicory root coffee. It is disgusting. I've been trying to find some coffee alternatives because, you know, I love coffee very much,
but it does not set very well with me. I've been okay with it recently and I have been drinking it, but I'd like to be able to drink coffee every single day and not feel sick. So I've been looking for coffee alternatives that are not tea because I don't really like tea very much. And, uh, I found chicory root coffee and everybody's like, it's the best thing ever. It's the best coffee substitute you're ever
going to get. And so I got a very expensive bag of this chicory root coffee and opened it and smelled it and was like, oh boy, that does not smell very good. But I brewed it anyway. And after I poured myself a cup of it, I smelled it and it smelled about 5000 times worse than it did in the bag. Like, it smelled like just sweat. It just smelled like a sweaty gym. That is the best way I can describe it. And then I drank it and it also tasted like a sweaty gym. It was
not good. And so I talked to my sister about it and my sister was like, well, chicory root is so good for you. You might have to, you know, just drink a little bit here and there over time and maybe you'll end up liking it more than coffee. And I'm very skeptical because it doesn't smell good and it does not taste good. It's worse than the worst tea I have ever drunk. So we'll see if I end up liking
chicory root coffee in the future. But for now, I actually do have just a normal cup of coffee because nothing beats coffee. There is nothing on earth that beats just a hot, wonderful cup of coffee. No tea can do it. No chicory root coffee. Probably the mushroom coffee is disgusting too. Only coffee is good, I imagine. So. If you're looking for a good cup of coffee, make sure to check out seven weeks coffee, the coffee brand that
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Let's go ahead and read one kings two, verses 13 through 27. Today we're going to talk about Solomon killing Adonijah and why he did this. I'll be reading out of the w eb as I always do, but please feel free to grab the version of the Bible that you prefer this morning and also your beverage, whatever it might be, preferably coffee. I know you crazy tea drinkers like tea, so whatever you prefer. But let's go ahead and give reverence to God's word today by reading first kings 213 through 27.
Then Adonijah, the son of Haggath, came to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon. She said, do you come peaceably? He said, peaceably. He said, moreover, I have something to tell you. She said, sayanhe. He said, you know that the kingdom was mine and that all of Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign. However, the kingdom is turned around and has become my brothers, for it was his from Yahweh. Now I ask one petition of you.
Dont deny me. She said to him, say on. Um. He said, please speak to Solomon the king, for he will not tell you no, that he give me Abishag the shunammite as wife. Bathsheba said, alright, I will speak for you to the kingdom. Bathsheba therefore went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. The king rose up to meet her and bowed himself to her and sat down on his throne and caused a throne to be set for the king's mother. And she sat on his right hand. Then she said, I ask one small
petition of you. Don't deny me. The king said to her, ask on my mother, for I will not deny you. She said, let Abishag the shunammite be given to Adonijah, your brother as wife. King Solomon answered his why do you ask Abishag the shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also, for he is my elder brother, even for him. And for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah. Then King Solomon swore by Yahweh, saying, God, do so to me. And more also, if Adonijah has not
spoken this word against his own life. Now therefore, as Yahweh lives, who has established me and set me on my father Davids throne, and who has made me a house as he promised, surely Adonijah shall be put to death today, King Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and he fell on him so that he died to
Abiathar, the priest. The king said, go to Anathoth, to your own fields, for you are worthy of death, but I will not at this time put you to death, because you bore the lord Yahweh's ark before David, my father, and because you were afflicted in all which my father was afflicted. So Solomon thrust Abiathar out from being priest to yahweh, that he might fulfill Yahweh's word, which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.
So the last time we discussed first kings, David had died, and Solomon became the next king. But there was some drama that took place before Solomon could take the throne, mainly with his older brother, Adonijah, who was one of David's sons from a different mother. Adonijah decided that he wanted to be the next kingdom, even though Adonijah knew that the
throne belonged to Solomon. But Adonijah was willing to do whatever he could in order to gain the throne, which meant that he would have eventually tried to kill Solomon and also Solomon's mother. So Adonijah was a bad guy, and he almost succeeded at taking the throne away from Solomon. However, that was not God's plan. Once again, God's plan is always going to prevail. God wanted Solomon to be the next king, and Solomon was, in fact, going to be the next king.
And Solomon did, in fact, get the throne, because what ended up happening was David, who was on his deathbed, heard about what Adonijah Nijah was doing, and David acted very quickly and decided to make this big parade showing Solomon getting coronated, basically. And so the people actually listened to King David and decided to make
Solomon their king. Shockingly enough, we've seen several times before where the people of Israel don't always listen to King David and try to, uh, get a different king on the throne instead of him. But this time, they actually listened to King David and decided that Solomon would, in fact, be a good king. So Adonijah was rejected by pretty much
everybody. And after Adonijah was rejected, he was terrified of Solomon, because he knew that Solomon would likely do the same thing that Adonijah was going to do to Solomon, which was kill him. So Adonijah begs for mercy from Solomon in the last chapter. And, uh, Solomon actually grants mercy to Adonijah. He says to Adonijah, if you stay out of my way and don't cause any more trouble, then I will spare your life. So Adonijah agrees and goes
home. But now we see that Adonijah is up to some tricks once again. It says in verse 13, Adonijah, the son of Haggith, came to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon. She said, do you come peaceably? And he said, yes, I come peaceably. Now, of course, Bathsheba was going to ask this because Adonijah, only a short time ago, was likely going to kill her. So Bathsheba does well to ask. Adonijah, why are you here? Why have you come to see me? Are you trying to kill me? What's going on
here? Adonijah says, no, no, I'm not trying to kill you. I come in peace. And, in fact, I have something I'd like to say to you. So Bathsheba is interested, and she says, okay, what do you want to say to me? He says, you know that the kingdom was mine and that all of Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign. However, the kingdom is turned around and has become my brother's, for it was his from Yahweh. Now, I ask a petition
of you. Don't deny me. You notice what Adonijah is doing here is he's going to Bathsheba and not Solomon to ask of this favor that he's about to ask for. That's the first manipulation. The second manipulation is that he's trying to make Bathsheba feel sorry for him. He's like, you know, Bathsheba, everybody liked me, but Yahweh decided it wasn't for me and it was for Solomon instead. And so everybody has turned against me. So he's making Bathsheba or he's trying to make
Bathsheba feel sorry for him. And it actually works because Bathsheba was willing to hear his request. So he says to her, please speak to Solomon the king, because he's not going to tell his own mother, no. I want to have Abishag the shunammite as my wife. If you remember who Abishag was, she was mentioned a chapter ago in one kings one. Abishag was the last concubine that David ever took. She was a young, beautiful woman. A shunammite, it says, and she primarily became David's
nurse. Now, I went into why I thought it was bad for David to take a concubine, even if they didn't have sex and never did the deed. It still, in my opinion, was wrong of him to take a concubine, because he had many wives and many concubines. And we know, based upon scripture, that God's design for marriage is one man and one
woman. And you might actually ask when saying that, well, if God's design for marriage was one man and one woman, why did he allow all these men in the Old Testament, like all these faithful men, to have concubines and to have multiple wives? Well, because God is very merciful, it was clearly wrong for David to take multiple wives based upon the Old Testament law, where it specifically said that a king needed to have one wife instead of having multiple wives. But David, of
course, took multiple wives. But God, because he was very merciful, didn't punish David for that sin here on earth. Now, we just learned yesterday in the book of one corinthians that each and every one of us is going to stand before God and give an account for everything that we have done. So even though God didn't punish David on earth for his misuse of women and for having multiple wives, that doesn't mean he's not going to get punished when his judgment day comes.
So that is why God does nothing outright punish people in the Old Testament for having multiple wives, even though we know from scripture that it was, in fact, a sin to have multiple wives. That being said, David did take multiple concubines and multiple wives. And Abishag happened to be the last concubine that David took. Now, Abishag, because she did not sleep with David, she was more of a nurse to David. Why she had to be young and beautiful and a virgin, don't
know. David probably could have found any kind of nurse to help him. But that's just what David did. He was so accustomed to having concubines and accustomed to having multiple wives that he took another concubine. But Abishag was, in fact, a concubine, regardless of the fact that she was David's nurse, and because she was the concubine of the kingdom, we know that concubines couldn't just get remarried at will once they were a concubine. They basically were a concubine
for life, even after the king died. That means that Abishag very likely would never get remarried unless by some chance somebody was able to gain favor with the king and possibly, uh, be a kinsman redeemer for one of the concubines. But I don't even know if that ever happened. Otherwise, the concubine was the king's concubine for life. And that also means that she wouldn't become the concubine of the next king either, because the next king would have been the son of the previous
king. And we know, based upon the Old Testament law, a son was not allowed to sleep with his father's concubines. That was clearly laid out in scripture. Now, because Abishag did not technically sleep with David and did not have sexual relations with him, that kind of muddies the water a little bit. So maybe she could have gotten remarried to one of David's sons. But even that is kind of
toeing a line a little bit. There is some speculation that Solomon fell in love with Abishag because in, I think it's the song, uh, of Solomon, which Solomon wrote, he mentions a shulamite woman being the object of his affection. However, shunammite and shulamite are different, but because they sound so similar, a lot of people think that Solomon, uh, fell in love with Abishag later on. But there is nothing in scripture to back that up. That is 100% speculation.
So going back to the story in one kings two, Adonijah was asking to get married to his father's concubine. And this was directly against the Old Testament law. And if you recall a story about Absalom in two Samuel, you'll remember that Absalom, when he tried to take the throne from David, don't forget, Absalom was another one of David's sons who tried to take the throne away from David. The way he got so much power was by going and sleeping with his father's concubines, with David's
concubines. And that made Absalom look very powerful, as if he took everything that his father had, even his father's own wives or concubines. Adonijah here we've seen already, is really following in the footsteps of Absalom almost to the letter. Adonijah first introduced himself as the next king of Israel by trying to charm the people. Absalom
did the exact same thing. Adonijah put on a big show every single place that he went and, you know, had these beautiful chariots and beautiful horses and people, like, running with flags in front of him. Absalom did the exact same thing. And now Adonijah is once again following in Absalom's footsteps by trying to take as a wife one of David's concubines. So you can see here why this is so
problematic. Adonijah is still vying for the throne, and he's using his big brother, Absalom, who tried to do it before him, as the guide for what to do. So Adonijah manipulates Bathsheba. And he's like, look, you know, I'm in love with Abishag, and she never really slept with David, so it would be fine. And I know that Solomon won't deny his own mother if you go and ask Solomon for me. I'm, um, too afraid to go ask Solomon. So please, Bathsheba, go ask your son for this
favor for me. You know, I'm just a lowly person that had the throne taken from me, so please go do this for me. Bathsheba listens. She is, in fact, manipulated. She says, okay, fine. I will go ask Solomon for you. So Bathsheba goes to Solomon. The one thing I want to say about Bathsheba, you can tell that she is. I don't want to be too mean to BathSHeba's character, but she is not the sharpest tool in the shed. She kind of just seems to do whatever people tell her to do.
There is not a time that she is mentioned in scripture at any point in time where she is not just doing whatever somebody asks her to do. She doesn't really think much for herself, and it seems as if she is easily manipulated, unfortunately. So she goes to SOlomon, and it says here that Solomon rose up to meet her and bowed himself to her. He sat down on his throne, and he caused a throne to be set up for her. I. And she sat on his right hand, so he gives her a lot of
honor. And this is something, uh, very interesting about Solomon's character that we see right away. This is basically the first time we're really being introduced to Solomon, and already you can see that Solomon really cares about his mother, really has affection for her, and honors her in a very godly way, where he's bowing in front of her, even though he is the kingdom, and he's setting up a throne right next to him. She's sitting on his right side, so he's giving her so much
honor. So she sits down on her throne, and she says, I ask one small petition of you, please don't deny me. And the king says to her, ask on my mother, for I will not deny you. So Solomon's like, I'm an obedient son. Of course I won't deny you, um, mother. So she says, let Abishag the shunammite be given to Adonijah, your brother as wife. I can kind of understand, in a way, where Bathsheba is coming from, because not only was she manipulated, and she probably felt a little bit bad for
Adonijah with this sob story. He came and told her, being a young man, very much in love with this Abishag girl. But also, don't forget that Bathsheba probably didn't care at all about Abishag or any of the other concubines or wives that David had. She was probably like, whatever. I don't care if Abishag or any of the other concubines marry whoever, because they were my competition. So, truly, why would Bathsheba care if any of the other
concubines got remarried? But the reason she should have cared is because this directly affected her son. And Solomon is offended when he hears this request, and he does deny his mother this request. He says, why do you ask Abishag the shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also, why don't you? He's like, mom, what are you doing? Uh, do you want me to just give up the entire kingdom to Adonijah?
Can't you see what he's doing? He's doing the exact same thing that Absalom did all these years ago, when Absalom almost killed King David and you and everybody else in David's family. What are you doing here, mom? Asking Adonijah to be married to one of dad's concubines. That is going to make him so much more powerful. Can't you see what he's doing? So Solomon swears an oath by Yahweh. He says, God, do so to me and more. Also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life.
So Solomon has no pity for Adonijah, because this is the second time now that Adonijah is trying to take the throne away from Solomon. And you might be asking, well, maybe Adonijah truly was passionate for Abishag. Uh, maybe he really did love her. And this was just, you know, young love. And why would Solomon get angry about that? Firstly, it never says anywhere here that Adonijah loved this Abishag woman. It never says it. It just says that he
requested to marry her. And why would he request to marry her to, other than if he is trying to once again gain the throne for himself and overthrow Solomon's rule? Especially when you see Adonijah following in the footsteps so perfectly with his big brother Absalom, who did the exact same thing? So there is nothing here to assume that Adonijah loved Abishag and that this was just young love or something like that. There's nothing
here to assume that. Plus, it's very possible that Adonijah was already married because he probably would have been in his thirties or forties at this time. So, no, scripture does not indicate anywhere that this is love. It indicates that this was another attempt at the throne. So what does Solomon do? He kills Adonijah, uh, immediately. Therefore, as Yahweh lives, who has established me and set me on my father David's throne, and it was
made me a house as promised. Surely Adonijah shall be put to death today, and Solomon does it. And personally, I think this was absolutely the right move for Solomon to make, because he had already gave a warning to Adonijah, and Adonijah did not listen to that warning. Tried to manipulate Solomon's mother, tried to get around Solomon, hoped maybe that Solomon was not, uh, as wise as he was, but Solomon did, in
fact, have a lot of wisdom. So it says, King Solomon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and he fell on him so that he died. And now Solomon, it looks like, is reinvigorated to get rid of everybody who was behind Adonijah. So he calls Abiathar, the priest. Abiathar was one of the people who had supported Adonijah, ah, at the beginning of all of this.
So he calls Abiathar the priest, and he says, go to anathoth, to your own fields, for you are worthy of death, but I will not at this time, put you to death, because you bore the lord Yahweh's ark before David, my father, and because you are afflicted in all which my father was afflicted. Abiather, you'll remember, was very old. He was, um, around when Saul was around. Unfortunately, Abiathar, his entire family, was completely wiped out by Saul.
Saul was very cruel man, trying to kill David way, way back in one Samuel. And, Saul ended up putting all of these priests to death because they helped David escape, even though they kind of didn't even really help David. They were neutral in the whole thing. But Solomon was going crazy, and so he thought that they were trying to help David. He slaughtered, like, 70 priests, and
Abiather was the only one who escaped. And, uh, Abiathor was very loyal to David until the whole thing with Adonijah trying to take over the throne. And Abiather at that point, uh, sided with Adonijah instead of Solomon. That being said, abiather did not side with Absalom several years before this, but he did side with Adonijah at the end. So Solomon takes the priesthood away from Abiathar and basically sends him home.
And he's like, abiathar you deserve to die for the treason that you did against my father, king David, and also against God by siding with Adonijah instead of me. Because you knew that God wanted me to be the next king. And so you deserve to die for that. But I am not going to kill you today, because you were very loyal to my father. You had a, uh, hard upbringing. You were afflicted in many ways. And also you bore Yahweh's ark. So I'm not going to kill you. So go home. Do not mess with me. And
so Abieur does, in fact, go home. He is stripped completely of his title of priest. And instead, Zadok the priest, who was of the line of Aaron, Zadok. Aaron being, uh, Moses brother. Zadok the priest became the permanent high priest. He actually was already the high priest. But, um, Abiather now was not even a priest anymore. Regardless of high priest or not, Abiather was totally stripped of his title and sent home to work on his own fields in
his old age. So Solomon showed Abiather mercy and did not kill him, but did give Abiathar a solid warning. But it says here in scripture to conclude that Solomon fulfilled Yahweh's word in verse 27, which Yahweh spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. If you remember, um, in one Samuel, chapter two, there was a man named Eli. This was, like before
Samuel was even born. Eli was the high priest at the time, but Eli had really nasty sons who was doing all sorts of terrible things and, uh, mistreating the people. Eli's sons were so bad, and Eli refused to punish them in any way. And so God actually came to Eli and said, I am going to take the priesthood from your family 100%. And it turned out that Abiather was related to Eli. And he was the last person in Eli's family to hold the title of
priest. So now that Abiathar is fully stripped of that priesthood, God's word fully came true. And now the house of Elijah was completely no longer part of the priesthood. Instead, it was transferred over to Zadok the priest. I learned something really interesting, actually, regarding Zadok the priest. There is a song that was written by Handel. You know, the famous musician. It's called Zadok the Priest. And it's a coronation song that I believe Great Britain to this day,
still uses for all of their coronations. And the entire song is just talking about how Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet went and anointed Solomon as the next king. That is the song that is sung at all of the coronations for Great Britain, which I found very interesting. But anyway, faithful listeners, hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you did, check out the shop, because cold weather is coming fast. It has been chilly at night where I'm at, and chilly
in the morning. Very nice during the day. I have no complaints about the weather right now, but in the morning, I'm cold and I need a hat. And so that's why I wear the psalm 40 beanie. It has psalm 40, verses one and two written on it. And it's a, uh, beautiful black knit beanie, which is unisex. And it has a really nice leatherette patch with the Bible verse on it. In fact, one of the male youth group students was wearing it the other day, and I was like, nice hat. He was like, thanks. I like
it. So check out those hats that are linked in the description of this episode. Make sure that you're nice and toasty this upcoming fall as the weather gets colder. Faithful listeners, have a wonderful rest of your day. I will see you all tomorrow for an episode from one corinthians. Until then, happy listening and God blessed.