Pick A Side

Pick a Side

Text: 1 Kings 1:1-9

Well good morning everyone. I want to thank you all once again for having me fill in for Pastor Tony. It’s always a privilege to be here with you all, and I’m so very grateful for the opportunity to share God’s Word with you this morning.

We’re going to be looking at 1 Kings this morning… and we’re going to be in chapter one. While you’re turning there, I’m going to go ahead and go to the Lord in prayer.

(PRAYER)

Now I’m actually going to preach through this entire chapter this morning, but I’m not going to read the entire text. You’ll have to do that later on today when you get home. Instead, I’m just going to read through to verse 9 and we’ll get to the rest as we go (READ TEXT).

Ok, now let me give you a little background to this passage.

Adonijah is at this time, David’s oldest living son, and in that day and age, and in that culture, the oldest son usually was the one who was in line for the throne. We’ve seen that before with Jacob and Esau way back in the book of Genesis… Esau was first in line… he was the oldest, and he was expected to get the blessing and the inheritance, but Jacob ended up getting it… ya’ll remember that right? Well, Adonijah, being the oldest surviving son of David, expects that he’s next in line to be king. David’s oldest son, Amnon was murdered by his 3rd son Absalom, and Absalom rebelled and tried to take the throne, and he was killed in that rebellion. So that leaves Adonijah, who should be the next in line.

And what we see here is that David is on his deathbed. He’s an older man now… most scholars say he was probably in his early 70’s… Now if you’re in your 70’s and you’re still getting around ok – praise the Lord, but you’ve got to remember that David has lived 10 lifetimes in just those 70 or so years. He’s been in countless battles, he’s fought off the enemies of Israel many times, and like I said a second ago, he even had to stop the rebellion of Absalom, his son. He’s been affected by sin… his own sin, and sin in the world. He’s seen a lot, and done a lot, and it takes a toll on a person.

I always tell folks, “It’s not the age that gets ya’ it’s the mileage.” And David is what we would call high mileage. And so, he’s basically worn out, and worn down.

And in our text, we see that his son Adonijah, recognizes that as well. He’s seen his dad, and he knows that there probably isn’t much left in the tank (or so he thinks), and he takes the opportunity, and proclaims himself as the new King of Israel. And if we just look at it through the worlds eyes, it seems like Adonijah is pretty smart in how he does this – right?

He gets the support of the army behind him by getting General Joab to back him, and he gets the High Priest Abiathar to back him… and both of those guys have served David faithfully for many years, but now here’s his oldest living son, saying, “Ok guys, it’s now time to serve me.” And for all we know, they may have thought that was David’s will.

We aren’t given any insight into whether or not they knew the whole story.

But the point is – Adonijah is hedging his bets. He’s shoring up his base and his support, and his power.

The truth is – he’s in rebellion. David hasn’t died yet. He’s still alive. He’s kind of like that song, “aint as good as he once was…”. And so we need to understand that Adonijah is in rebellion. He’s opposing the ruling authority in two ways… one – he’s going against his king… and two… this may even be more of an act of rebellion… he’s going against his dad.

Look again with me at verse 5 (READ).

Now that sounds an awful lot like Isaiah 14:12-15… if you’re not familiar with that, let me read it to you… it says, “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star (Lucifer), son of dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God, I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit.”