Welcome to this Daily PBJ devotional. Read 1 Kings 2, Hosea 5 and 6, and 1 Timothy 6. This devotional is about 1 Kings 2. As the time drew near for David to die, he charged his son Solomon, I am about to go the way of all the earth. So be strong, and prove yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His statutes, commandments, ordinances, and decrees, as written in the law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do, and wherever you turn, and so that the Lord may fulfill His promise to me. If your descendants take heed to walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel. Moreover, you know what Joab son of Zariah did to me, what he did to Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether, the two commanders of the armies of Israel. He killed them in peacetime to avenge the blood of war. He stained with the blood of war the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet. So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace. but show loving devotion to the sons of Barzillai, the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table, because they stood by me when I fled from your brother Absalom. Keep an eye on Shimei, the son of Gerah, the Benjamite from Bahuram, who is with you. He called down bitter curses against me on the day I went to Mahanaim. But when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord, I will never put you to the sword. Now therefore, do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man. You know what you ought to do to him to bring his gray head down to Sheol in blood. Then David rested with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. The length of David's reign over Israel was forty years, seven years in Hebron, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his kingdom was firmly established. Now Adonijah, son of Haggath, went to Bathsheba, mother of Solomon, and she asked, Do you come in peace? Yes, in peace, he replied. Then he said, I have something to tell you. Say it, she answered. You know that the kingship was mine, he said. All Israel expected that I should reign, but the kingship has turned to my brother, for it has come to him from the Lord. So now I have just one request of you. Do not deny me." "'State your request,' she told him. Adonijah replied, "'Please speak to King Solomon, since he will not turn you down. Let him give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife.'" Very well, Bathsheba replied, I will speak to the king for you. So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. The king stood up to greet her, bowed to her, and sat down on his throne. Then the king had a throne brought for his mother, who sat down at his right hand. I have just one small request of you," she said. Do not deny me. Make your request, my mother, the king replied, for I will not deny you. So Bathsheba said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to your brother Adonijah as his wife. King Solomon answered his mother, Why do you request Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Since he is my older brother, you might as well request the kingdom for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab son of Zariah. Then King Solomon swore by the Lord, May God punish me, and ever so severely, if Adonijah has not made this request at the expense of his life. And now, as surely as the Lord lives, the one who established me, who set me on the throne of my father David, and who founded for me a dynasty as he promised, surely 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. Then the king said to Abiathar the priest, Go back to your fields in Anathoth. Even though you deserve to die, I will not put you to death at this time, since you carried the ark of the Lord God before my father David, and you suffered through all that my father suffered. So Solomon banished Abiathar from the priesthood of the Lord, and thus fulfilled the word that the Lord had spoken at Shiloh against the house of Eli. When the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah, but not with Absalom, he fled to the tent of the Lord and took hold of the horns of the altar. It was reported to King Solomon, Joab has fled to the tent of the Lord and is now beside the altar. So Solomon sent Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, saying, Go, strike him down. And Benaiah entered the tent of the Lord and said to Joab, The king says, Come out. But Joab replied, no, I will die here. So Benaiah relayed the message to the king, saying, this is how Joab answered me. And the king replied, Do just as he says, strike him down and bury him. And so remove from me and from the house of my father the innocent blood that Joab shed. The Lord will bring his bloodshed back upon his own head. For without the knowledge of my father David, he struck down two men more righteous and better than he, when he put to the sword Abner, son of Ner, commander of Israel's army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah's army. Their blood will come back upon the heads of Joab and his descendants forever. But for David, his descendants, his house, and his throne, there shall be peace from the Lord forever. So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up, struck down Joab, and killed him. He was buried at his own home in the wilderness, and the king appointed Benaiah son of Jehoiada in Joab's place over the army, and he appointed Zadok the priest in Abiathar's place. Then the king summoned Shimei and said to him, Build a house for yourself in Jerusalem and live there, but do not go anywhere else. On the day you go out and cross the Kidron valley, know for sure that you will die. Your blood will be on your own head. The sentence is fair, Shimei replied. Your servant will do as my lord the king has spoken. And Shimei lived in Jerusalem for a long time. After three years, however, two of Shimei's slaves ran away to Achish, son of Mecca, king of Gath. And Shimei was told, Look, your slaves are in Gath. So Shimei saddled his donkey and set out to Achish at Gath in search of his slaves, and he brought them 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 and go elsewhere, know for sure that you will die? And you told me, The sentence is fair. I will comply. So why have you not kept your oath to the Lord and the command that I gave you? The king also said, You know in your heart all the evil that you did to my father David. Therefore the Lord will bring your evil back upon your head. But King Solomon will be blessed, and David's throne will remain secure before the Lord forever. Then the king commanded Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and he went out and struck Shimei down, and he died. Thus, the kingdom was firmly established in the hand of Solomon. This is God's word. In today's passage, David formally passed the baton of leadership to his son Solomon, the one God had chosen to be David's successor as king. Along with the privilege of becoming king, Solomon would now bear the responsibility of leading the nation. David began, therefore, by charging him to take his responsibility seriously with the maturity of a man as we saw in verse 2. That meant living in obedience to God's word as recorded in the Law of Moses, as we saw in verse 3. If Solomon would lead that way, David told him, you will prosper in all you do. That's verse 3 in the NIV. It was a reminder of God's covenant promise of blessing to those who obey his word. David finished the first part of his instruction by reminding Solomon of the Davidic covenant, namely, that the Lord had promised an unbroken line of succession on Israel's throne to David's family, if they lived in faithful obedience to the Lord, as verse 4 says. No pressure or anything, Solomon, but you'd hate to be the first and only successor to David, the one who messed up an eternal covenant. Having charged Solomon with the important principles of serving as king, David turned now to some unfinished business. He charged Solomon to do the following things. Punish Joab for his ruthless killings, as we saw in verses five and six. Reward the descendants of Barzillai for their loyalty to David, as we saw in verse seven. Third, to deal with Shimei son of Gerah, as we saw in verses eight and nine. More on him a little bit later. Before dealing with family business, however, Solomon was confronted with an immediate challenge to his rulership. Solomon's brother Adonijah, the very one who tried to take a shortcut to the throne back in 1 Kings chapter 1. But that same guy requested Solomon's permission to marry David's, um, platonic companion, Abishag the Shunammite, as we saw in verses 12 through 21. And you can see 1 Kings 1, 1 through 4 for more about her. Adonijah even used Solomon's own mother, Bathsheba, to make the request. Maybe Bathsheba was just a kind-hearted soul, or maybe she was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. But somehow, she did not see what a dangerous move this was politically. Solomon did see the danger, however, as we saw in verse 22, and had Adonijah killed, as we saw in verses 23 through 25. Although Abiathar the priest had supported Adonijah in chapter 1, Solomon was gracious to him, letting him live out of respect to his service for the Lord, as we saw in verse 26. But he did remove him as priest. That move, incidentally, fulfilled God's prophecy to Eli, as we saw in verse 27. Solomon executed Joab, according to verses 28 through 35, and that action both fulfilled David's charge to him back in verses 5 and 6, and brought punishment on Joab for backing Adonijah. Finally, Solomon turned his attention to Shimei. Now you'll remember that Shimei was from the same tribe as Saul and that he cursed David as David was fleeing Jerusalem from Absalom. Compare 2 Samuel 16 to this passage here. David had mercy on Shimei, both at the time he cursed David, back in 2 Samuel 16, 8-13, and secondly when David returned to power after defeating Absalom in 2 Samuel 19, verses 9-12. Although David had been merciful to Shimei for many years, David had not forgotten what Shimei did. That's why he commanded Solomon to deal with him, as we saw in verses 8 and 9. Some have argued that David carried a grudge against Shimei, but that he held off on following through with that grudge during his lifetime. I'm not sure I agree that David held a grudge, but he certainly remembered him. By waiting until Solomon was king and then charging Solomon to deal with Shimei, David was appealing to the king for justice. It is the responsibility of a king to deal justly with people. David had a legitimate complaint with Shimei. While he was king, however, if he were to deal with Shimei himself, David risked losing the confidence of the people by acting or appearing to act in vindictiveness and cruelty, even though it was a just thing to deal with this man. So instead of being the plaintiff and the judge in Shimei's case, David waited until there was a new king, namely Solomon, that David could contact about his case. So what we have here, as I see it, is an appeal for justice from David to King Solomon. David, in a sense, recused himself during his lifetime. and during his administration as king. When David's rulership effectively ended, it was appropriate for David to ask the next king for justice, even if the next ruler was his own son. Like his father before him, Solomon was gracious to Shimei, allowing him to live under a sort of house arrest, or a city arrest, as we saw in verses 36 through 38 in Jerusalem. But when Shimei broke Solomon's rule, Solomon did what he promised David he would do. He took Shimei's life. I see David's instructions and Solomon's actions here not as vindictive, but as merciful. They gave Shimei time to live and to repent, as well as space to live and to work in. It was only after Shimei broke those very reasonable rules that justice fell on him. The passage leads me to think about Jesus' command to love our enemies. Whenever life is unfair and seemingly unjust to us, Christ commanded us to commit our cause to God and expect Him to repay. Sometimes God's work of justice may be accomplished through human justice and the human justice system. And that may take a long time. David's patience and the way he went about getting justice through the next king provides us with an example to follow. Have you been treated unjustly? Have you sought to deal with that injustice in a way that loves your enemies, treating them with mercy when there is repentance, but committing the matter to God and the appropriate human leaders? Or are you seeking revenge of some kind on your own? Follow David's example to glorify God in your life when you are the victim of injustice. If you found this devotional helpful, subscribe to it by email by going to dailypbj.com slash subscribe. This is completely free and you can always unsubscribe, so give it a try. And please consider becoming part of my financial support network so I can recover the costs of this and continue to serve you and others. Go to dailypbj.com slash support for more information about that. Please share this with someone else who might be edified in their faith and in their knowledge of God by it. And I'll see you next time. May God bless you. Hope you have a great day today.