DISCOVERING STABILITY

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

"Now you yourself know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me — what he did to the two commanders of Israel's armies, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. He killed them, shedding their blood in peacetime as if in battle, and with that blood stained the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet. Deal with him according to your wisdom, but do not let his gray head go down to the grave in peace.“

"But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai of Gilead and let them be among those who eat at your table. They stood by me when I fled from your brother Absalom.”

"And remember, you have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, who called down bitter curses on me the day I went to Mahanaim. When he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord: 'I will not put you to death by the sword.' But now, do not consider him innocent. You are a man of wisdom; you will know what to do to him. Bring his gray head down to the grave in blood."

Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. He had reigned forty years over Israel—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three in Jerusalem. So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his rule was firmly established.

Now Adonijah, the son of Haggith, went to Bathsheba, Solomon's mother. Bathsheba asked him, "Do you come peacefully?"

He answered, "Yes, peacefully." Then he added, "I have something to say to you."

"You may say it," she replied.

"As you know," he said, "the kingdom was mine. All Israel looked to me as their king. But things changed, and the kingdom has gone to my brother; for it has come to him from the Lord. Now I have one request to make of you. Do not refuse me."

"You may make it," she said.

So he continued, "Please ask King Solomon—he will not refuse you—to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife."

"Very well," Bathsheba replied, "I will speak to the king for you."

When Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, the king stood up to meet her, bowed down to her and sat down on his throne. He had a throne brought for the king's mother, and she sat down at his right hand.

"I have one small request to make of you," she said. "Do not refuse me."

The king replied, "Make it, my mother; I will not refuse you."

So she said, "Let Abishag the Shunammite be given in marriage to your brother Adonijah."

King Solomon answered his mother, "Why do you request Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? You might as well request the kingdom for him — after all, he is my older brother — yes, for him and for Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah!"

Then King Solomon swore by the Lord: "May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if Adonijah does not pay with his life for this request! And now, as surely as the Lord lives — he who has established me securely on the throne of my father David and has founded a dynasty for me as he promised—Adonijah shall be put to death today!" So King Solomon gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he struck down Adonijah and he died.

To Abiathar the priest the king said, "Go back to your fields in Anathoth. You deserve to die, but I will not put you to death now, because you carried the ark of the Sovereign Lord before my father David and shared all my father's hardships." So Solomon removed Abiathar from the priesthood of the Lord, fulfilling the word the Lord had spoken at Shiloh about the house of Eli.

When the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah though not with Absalom, he fled to the tent of the Lord and took hold of the horns of the altar. King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the tent of the Lord and was beside the altar. Then Solomon ordered Benaiah son of Jehoiada, "Go, strike him down!"

So Benaiah entered the tent of the Lord and said to Joab, "The king says, 'Come out!' "

But he answered, "No, I will die here."

Benaiah reported to the king, "This is how Joab answered me."

Then the king commanded Benaiah, "Do as he says. Strike him down and bury him, and so clear me and my father's house of the guilt of the innocent blood that Joab shed. The Lord will repay him for the blood he shed, because without the knowledge of my father David he attacked two men and killed them with the sword. Both of them — Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel's army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah's army—were better men and more upright than he. May the guilt of their blood rest on the head of Joab and his descendants forever. But on David and his descendants, his house and his throne, may there be the Lord's peace forever."

So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up and struck down Joab and killed him, and he was buried on his own land in the desert. The king put Benaiah son of Jehoiada over the army in Joab's position and replaced Abiathar with Zadok the priest.

Then the king sent for Shimei and said to him, "Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there, but do not go anywhere else. The day you leave and cross the Kidron Valley, you can be sure you will die; your blood will be on your own head."

Shimei answered the king, "What you say is good. Your servant will do as my lord the king has said." And Shimei stayed in Jerusalem for a long time.

But three years later, two of Shimei's slaves ran off to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath, and Shimei was told, "Your slaves are in Gath." At this, he saddled his donkey and went to Achish at Gath in search of his slaves. So Shimei went away and brought the slaves back from Gath.

When Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had returned, the king summoned Shimei and said to him, "Did I not make you swear by the Lord and warn you, 'On the day you leave to go anywhere else, you can be sure you will die'? At that time you said to me, 'What you say is good. I will obey.' Why then did you not keep your oath to the Lord and obey the command I gave you?"

The king also said to Shimei, "You know in your heart all the wrong you did to my father David. Now the Lord will repay you for your wrongdoing. But King Solomon will be blessed, and David's throne will remain secure before the Lord forever."

Then the king gave the order to Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck Shimei down and killed him.

The kingdom was now firmly established in Solomon's hands.

1 Kings 2:5-46

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As Chapter 2 of 1st Kings opens, David is close to death and so he gives Solomon charges…things to do to ensure he has a prosperous reign.

He then gives Solomon closing instructions that we see at the start of this passage…instructions that take care of what was unfinished business on David’s part. And that unfinished business revolved around how to deal with people who may of may not cause instability during his reign.

The first person David warned about was Joab. Now we have seen Joab do David good such as when he attempted to get David to see the wrong in taking a census of his fighting men. But more often we have seen Joab defy David, taking matters in his own hands and even going as far as murdering if it suited his purposes.

David highlights this fact when he tells Solomon that Joab killed two of his commanders, Abner and Amasa, “shedding their blood in peacetime as if in battle” and staining the belt around his waist and sandals on his feet “with that blood”. David concludes his warning to Solomon by advising him to “deal with him according to your wisdom” but not to allow him to “go down to the grave in peace.“

The second person David warned Solomon about was Shimei who you’ll recall cursed David as he fled Jerusalem after the threat of Absalom. Later, Shimei asked for David’s forgiveness and mercy at the Jordan as David returned following Absalom’s death and David took an oath “by the Lord” to not harm him. However, David now tells Solomon to “not consider him innocent” but rather to bring him “down to the grave in blood”.

So what did happen to Joab and Shimei?

Well, let’s observe Joab first.

As we read the scriptures, we see where his fate was tied to Adonijah, who Joab had decided to side with against David. Adonijah entered the scene again after David’s death, this time going to Bathsheba and requesting to marry Abishag, the young virgin who had laid with David to keep him warm after he had gotten older.

And so Bathsheba took the request to Solomon who immediately sensed that Adonijah was up to no good. For you see there was a cultural rule that would have given Adonijah claim to the throne if he married a member of the king’s harem. So Adonijah had not given up trying to become king by whatever means possible. In other words, he had evil intentions and you’ll remember that Solomon had told him earlier that this would lead to his death after he had already pardoned Adonijah once for scheming against him.

So in response to Adonijah’s actions, we read where Solomon swears the following by the Lord:

"May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if Adonijah does not pay with his life for this request! And now, as surely as the Lord lives — he who has established me securely on the throne of my father David and has founded a dynasty for me as he promised — Adonijah shall be put to death today!"

And with that, Solomon “gave orders to Benaiah” and “he struck down” and killed Adonijah.

Well, news traveled fast and found its way to Joab who “fled to the tent of the Lord and took hold of the horns of the altar”. And when Solomon was told of Joab’s whereabouts, he “ordered Benaiah” to "Go, strike him down!" So Benaiah entered the tent where the altar was and told Joab to come out but he refused saying, “No, I will die here."

And so Benaiah took the news to Solomon and inquired about what the king wanted him to do to which Solomon replies:

"Do as he says. Strike him down and bury him, and so clear me and my father's house of the guilt of the innocent blood that Joab shed. The Lord will repay him for the blood he shed, because without the knowledge of my father David he attacked two men and killed them with the sword. Both of them — Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel's army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah's army—were better men and more upright than he. May the guilt of their blood rest on the head of Joab and his descendants forever. But on David and his descendants, his house and his throne, may there be the Lord's peace forever."

And with that, Benaiah “went up and struck down Joab and killed him, and he was buried on his own land in the desert”. Meanwhile, Solomon appointed Benaiah as his new commander of the army.

So Joab and Adonijah were eliminated and out of the way. They would trouble Solomon no more. The only adversary mentioned by David who was left was Shimei. Would he seal his doom like Adonijah? The scriptures show us that the answer is yes…but not before Solomon set the stage for Shimei to show himself untrustworthy.

For we read where Solomon sent for Shimei and gave him the following edict:

"Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there, but do not go anywhere else. The day you leave and cross the Kidron Valley, you can be sure you will die; your blood will be on your own head."

The edict was simple. All Shimei had to do was obey it and show he could be trusted and for three years he did remain obedient. But then “two of (his) slaves ran off to Achish and after Shimei was informed of their escape, he decided to saddle his donkey and travel to Achish at Gath” where he found his slaves and brought them back from Gath.

Well, news of Shimei’s trip made it back to Solomon who summoned Shimei and said:

“Did I not make you swear by the Lord and warn you, 'On the day you leave to go anywhere else, you can be sure you will die'? At that time you said to me, 'What you say is good. I will obey.' Why then did you not keep your oath to the Lord and obey the command I gave you?"

And Solomon wasn’t through chastising Shimei. For he added:

"You know in your heart all the wrong you did to my father David. Now the Lord will repay you for your wrongdoing. But King Solomon will be blessed, and David's throne will remain secure before the Lord forever."

And with that, Solomon “gave the order to Benaiah” and he “went out, …struck Shimei down and killed him”.

Another potential adversary was gone.

As we look at the scripture passage, we see where Solomon took a few other actions, replacing Abiathar, who had conspired with Adonijah, with Zadok and showing “kindness to the sons of Barzillai” who stood by David when he fled from Absalom and thus gained access to eat at Solomon’s table.

With this, Solomon had tied up all loose ends from his father’s reign and was now ready to write his own chapter of royal leadership over Israel...a reign he could only hope would be as prosperous as his father’s who reigned 40 years. Indeed, scripture tells us that Solomon’s rule over the kingdom was firmly established…all because he wisely took the necessary steps to bring about stability.

And we can do the same if we trust in the Lord to guide us.

For just as Solomon received instruction from his father as to how he could find stability in his rule by taking certain steps, so too will our Father in heaven instruct us and show us the way. We need only seek Him, listen to Him and obediently follow His expectations. He’ll take care of the rest.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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