Amen. We're gonna be looking at an object of mercy who really did deserve wrath in 1 Kings 1. And we're getting close to the end of this sermon series on the life of David, but we're gonna begin reading at 1 Kings 1 and verse 41. Now Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they finished eating. And when Joab heard the sound of the horn, he said, why is the city in such a noisy uproar? While he was still speaking, there came Jonathan, the son of Abiathar, the priest, and Adonijah said to him, Come in, for you are a prominent man, and bring good news." Then Jonathan answered and said to Adonijah, No, 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, the Cherithites and the Pelethites, and they have made him ride on the king's mule. So Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king at Gihon and they have gone up from there rejoicing so that the city is in an uproar. This is the noise that you have heard. Also Solomon sits on the throne of the kingdom. And moreover, the king's servants have gone to bless our Lord, King David saying, may God make the name of Solomon better than your name and may he make his throne greater than your throne. Then the king bowed himself on the bed. Also the king said thus, blessed be the Lord God of Israel who was given one to sit on my throne this day while my eyes see it. So all the guests who were with Adonijah were afraid and arose and each one went his way. Now Adonijah was afraid of Solomon, so he arose and went and took hold of the horns of the altar. And it was told Solomon, saying, Indeed, Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon. For look, he has taken hold of the horns of the altar, saying, Let King Solomon swear to me today that he will not put his servant to death with the sword. Then Solomon said, If he proves himself a worthy man, not one hair of him shall fall to the ground. But if wickedness is found in him, he shall die. So King Solomon sent them to bring him down from the altar and he came and fell down before King Solomon. And Solomon said to him, go to your house. Now the days of David drew near that he should die. And he charged Solomon, his son, saying, I go the way of all the earth. Be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man. And keep the charge of the Lord your God to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn. But the Lord may fulfill his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, he said, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel. Moreover, you know also what Joab, the son of Zeruiah, did to me and what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner, the son of Ner, and Amasa, the son of Jether, whom he killed. and he shed the blood of war in peacetime and put the blood of war on his belt that was around his waist and on his sandals that were on his feet. Therefore do according to your wisdom and do not let his gray hair go down to the grave in peace. but show kindness to the sons of Barzilai, the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table. For so they came to me when I fled from Absalom, your brother. And see, you have with you Shimei, the son of Gerah, a Benjamite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a malicious curse on the day when I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by the Lord, saying, I will not put you to death with the sword. Now, therefore, do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man and know what you ought to do to him. but bring his gray hair down to the grave with blood. Father, we thank you for your word, and it is our desire to not only understand it, but to apply it. And we pray that you would be pleased to receive the responses of our hearts and the meditations of our minds as we continue to worship you. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Last week we looked at the nature of conspiracies and how most of them fail in the womb or shortly after they are birthed. Now some are successful, but even then God is in control and they cannot thwart the advancement of His new covenant kingdom. And the prophecy in Psalm 2, I think, is quite clear on that. We should definitely not be paralyzed anyway by the presence of conspiracies. Now today we're going to be looking at the aftermath of a failed conspiracy, and in some countries that can be quite bloody. When I was reading on the aftermath of one of the attempted assassinations of Hitler, and the attempt of the military to take over in a coup, there was almost 5,000 executions, pretty bloody aftermath. This past December 30, there was an attempted overthrow of the country of Gambia, and you see the bloody aftermath that's occurring there, and you've seen it in other countries that have been in the news in Africa. And when you look at those, you're looking at the normal aftermath. It's not pretty. And so Adonijah's party had reason to fear. Humanists like Adonijah would smack down any resistance to his efforts to take over the kingdom. Nathan already made that pretty clear in chapter 1. that that was his plan. It was to rout out any potential resistance by slaying them. So he was planning on a bloody purge. And so it is a striking contrast to see the mercy of David and of Solomon. David's advice and Solomon's actions are incredibly restrained. Now some people do criticize David's words in chapter 2. They think, boy, that's harsh. And I don't think so at all. We'll look at the balance between justice and mercy there. But in the wake of a coup, there are reasons to be on guard. Nevertheless, the combination of mercy and justice in these two chapters, I think, are a marvelous picture of the mercy and the justice of Jesus Christ. And so let's start by looking at the failure of Adonijah's conspiracy. Verse 41. Now Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they finished eating. And when Joab heard the sound of the horn, he said, Why is the city in such a noisy uproar? While he was still speaking, there came Jonathan, the son of Abiathar the priest, And Adonijah said to him, come in for you are a prominent man and bring good news. Now, those two verses show that Adonijah is so confident in the success of his conspiracy that even the noise that's going on in the city does not dampen his spirits. He's expecting good news. Joab's a little bit worried. He's kind of edgy by that, but not Adonijah. He says, come in for you are a prominent man and bring good news. Now, in Matthew Henry's commentary, he only makes one comment on that, but I think it's a great rhetorical question that he asks. He asks, but how can those who do evil deeds expect to have good tidings? And I think it's a great question. It's a great question. We cannot claim Romans 8.28 when we are in rebellion against God. We cannot claim Romans 8, verse 31, where God says, you know, if God is for us, who can be against us? And if we're in rebellion against God, we cannot claim those promises. Don't expect good to keep rolling in your favor when you are in rebellion against God. And for sure, don't act as if God's providence just overlooks rebellion in the world. That's really approaching providence with a lack of faith. It's the opposite of faith. Faith is always founded in the commandments and the promises of Scripture. And Jonathan's answer, I think, summarizes it quite well in verse 43. And Jonathan answered and said to Adonijah, no. Our Lord King David has made Solomon king. The no indicates that this is not good news for Adonijah or for any of his co-conspirators. And the application I make is what is good news to God's people who are following him is not good news to those who are in rebellion against God. God has providentially, down through history, made Romans 8, 28 a dividing line between His people and those who are not His people. And that is a verse that is so frequently misquoted that I think it bears looking at again. So many times people quote it out of context and they say, all things work together for good. No, that's not what it says. It says, for we, and who is the we? It's definitely not rebels. For we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the cold according to His purpose. And the next two verses indicate one more condition. It is to those who are being conformed to the image of His Son. So what is good news for us is really bad news for rebels. When we sing the prayer of Christ in Psalm 101, hopefully that's in the outline, Psalm 101 after the service, you'll see that this is true. It is only when we are in Christ that his battle cry against sin can be anything that we can say, yes, amen, we agree with you, Lord, because we're secure in the Lord Jesus Christ. It becomes good news. Anyway, Jonathan narrates everything that we've already covered last week, so we're not gonna spend a lot of time on it, But beginning at verse 44, the king has sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the Cherithites and the Pelethites, and they have made him ride on the king's mule. So Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king at Gihon, and they have gone up from their rejoicing so that the city is in an uproar. This is the noise that you have heard. So we're not talking about a small private event here, we are talking about a public ceremony and the whole city having come into agreement with David having made Solomon the king. So picking up at verse 46, also Solomon sits on the throne of the kingdom. And moreover, the king's servants have gone to bless our Lord, King David, saying, may God make the name of Solomon better than your name. And may he make his throne greater than your throne. Then the king bowed himself on the bed. Also the king said thus, blessed be the Lord God of Israel who was given one to sit on my throne this day while my eyes see it. So it's clear he's not just making Solomon king in the future. He already is king. He already has the army behind him and the city seems to be coming into agreement behind him. So what seemed like a sure deal for Adonijah just moments before has suddenly become an impossibility. There is no way that Adonijah and Joab are going to be able to sustain this coup. So what happens? Well, everybody slinks away. So all the guests who were with Adonijah were afraid and arose, and each one went his own way. Adonijah's kind of left alone. Conspirators are bold when things are going their way, but the Lord can evaporate that boldness almost instantaneously. Just as Haman became instantly terrified when his conspiracy was exposed in the book of Esther, Adonijah and his guests are terrified at what might happen to them. Now, some of it could be from a guilty conscience and lack of security in the Lord. Some of it could be because they're projecting their own viewpoints and their own values on Solomon that he was planning on killing Solomon and David and anybody else who was working with them. In fact, Bathsheba was going to be killed by Nathan, according to the prophecy of Nathan. And so they could be thinking, well, he's going to do exactly the same thing to us that we had intended to do to them. They know they're guilty. And certainly retaliation seems to be the most natural response. Solomon's mercy is not the norm. Retaliation is the norm. And by the way, that's true even in mild-mannered countries like America. Actually, I don't think of America as mild-mannered. We've probably killed more people than a lot of countries put together when you count abortion and the wars that we've been involved in. But it's one of the reasons why over the last 100 years, you've not had very many attempts to unseat the Speaker of the House. I don't think there's been any successful attempts out there. Maybe there have, but anyway, the reason people are very fearful of doing that is because retaliation is almost instantly what happens. You get kicked off of committees. You get blocked in every legislation that you're going to introduce to the House. They dry up the monies that could go to your post office, anything that you're doing. So there's retaliation. That's the norm, but certainly in full-fledged coups in other countries, it can be a bloody aftermath. This is what made Benjamin Franklin say to his fellow seceders, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately. The difference between July 4 being a great celebration and a hero thing or it being something that is considered treason is just which side wins, right? And so it can be an awful thing. And I think it's important to see that this is the norm in order to appreciate the depth of God's mercy to rebels who cling to the horns of the altar today. It should astound us that God would have mercy to any of us. It is not normal. So let's look at the next point, the abnormal mercy that Solomon extends. Now it shouldn't be abnormal, but it is. Beginning at verse 50. Now Adonijah was afraid of Solomon, so he arose and went and took hold of the horns of the altar. Now this was a provision implied in Exodus chapter 21 and verses 12 through 14. Now in that passage it's worded negatively. It says if anybody grabs hold of the horns of the altar and he is a murderer, You have to take him off of the horns of the altar and slay him. You can show him no mercy. And by the way, that explains why that Solomon could not show any mercy to Joab. He had to be killed, even though he wouldn't let go of the horns of the altar. He'd just kill him right there. Because murder was the one thing where there could not be any mercy shown, even with repentance. But grabbing holds of the altar in Exodus 21 implies that people did this for other crimes that they had been involved in. And that provision has been interpreted in two different ways. The first way some people interpret it is they say, well, before they entered into the land, before there were cities of refuge, the altar served as a kind of a city of refuge that people could go to if they were innocent, being charged, if there was an accidental crime or something like that. And this is kind of a remnant of that, where he is doing the same kind of a thing. Well, if that was the case, then there would have to be a court trial, and the court trial would determine whether he's innocent or not. And I doubt very much that Shimei can plead his innocence. I think there's too much evidence against him to do that. The other interpretation, this is the one that I adopt, I think for several reasons, it's more likely, is that clinging to the horns of the altar implies the exact opposite. They're not implying innocence. They are pleading for forgiveness. Pleading for forgiveness from God and from man. And so it implies repentance. It is appealing to the atonement of Christ to which the blood that was painted on the horns of the altar pointed forward to. And since the law of God allowed a lesser penalty than capital punishment when there was repentance, with the exception of murder, with murder that was different, Since that was the case, since a lower penalty could be given, it makes total sense of the narrative that follows. There could be no mercy shown to Joab, even with repentance, but mercy could be shown to a person like Adonijah if he did not repeat his crimes. Now either way you interpret it, Adonijah is hoping to avert his death. Picking up at verse 51. And it was told Solomon saying, indeed Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon, for look, he has taken hold of the horns of the altar saying, let King Solomon swear to me today that he will not put his servant to death with the sword. Then Solomon said, if he proves himself a worthy man, not one hair of him shall fall to the earth, but of wickedness, is found in him, he shall die. So King Solomon sent them to bring him down from the altar, and he came and fell down before King Solomon. And Solomon said to him, go to your house." Now even though Solomon shows mercy, he recognizes This Adonijah is still a dangerous person in the kingdom. In fact, he's still trying to control the situation to some degree, because what does Adonijah do? He's demanding that Solomon swear an oath that he's not going to kill him. This is not a time that you do any demanding. You plead for mercy, right? And so Solomon, he doesn't do any oath. He simply gives a promise with conditions attached, and the conditions are two. First, that Adonijah could not get involved in politics or public life anymore. That's what go to your house means. You can go now and you can be a private citizen. And I think it's a very, very reasonable condition. And second, no further signs of rebellion or wickedness can be found in him. In other words, this is mercy, but it is not naivete. It was a lesser penalty than death, but not a declaration of innocence. And providentially, this whole incident stands as a wonderful type of the kingdom of Jesus and of the gospel of His grace. As David stands for Jesus in the conquest of Canaan, the conquest of the world, so to speak, Solomon stands as a type of Jesus in the future period of peace, when there's going to be a converted world. That was the symbolism, by the way, of the mule. We picked that up last week. The horse was a symbol of conquest and war, and the mule was a symbol of peace. And Solomon was supposed to be a type of Christ, the Prince of Peace. So I think it's significant that Solomon characterizes the beginning of his reign with peace to those who are repentant and acknowledging the blood of atonement that was symbolized by the blood that was on the horns of the altar. I think it's a wonderful image of both justice and grace. And in terms of the fear in this passage, Matthew Henry comments on the typology. He says, thus, those who oppose Christ and his kingdom will shortly be made to tremble before him and call in vain to rocks and mountains to shelter them from his wrath. Of course, it's only through Jesus that we can find shelter. But that's the point. Rebels today can find mercy when they are willing to lay hold of the horns of the altar and to plead His blood. Okay, there is such a thing as rebellion, where there's no more sacrifice allowed for sin. Hebrews talks about that, where it's very rebellious. You look at Joab, you know, when he murdered these two people, he made a big deal about it. It says there that he took the blood from those people, put it on his belt, put it on his sandals. In other words, this was a high-handed sin. It was not just a sin of passion where he did it, you know, you know, without thinking. And there is such a thing as believers sinning a sin unto death, according to 1 John, last chapter, where he says, if a person sins, a brother sins a sin unto death, don't even pray for him. There's no hope for that person. He's not talking about that person headed toward hell. It's not the unpardonable sin. Unpardonable sin, I think, is a person heading toward hell, but the sin unto death is a sin that a brother engages in where God says, look, you have been so persistent and high-handed in your rebellion You're finished on earth, bring you to heaven, you're done for. So there is some of that that's involved, but the emphasis on this section is on mercy. Now, I could have ended with this verse because 1 Chronicles seems to indicate that there were some months of activity between chapters one and chapter two, at least that's the way many commentators take it, and I think It's almost necessitated by one little phrase in 1 Chronicles, and we'll get to that maybe next week. But since this author is deliberately taking the principles of justice and mercy in chapter one, linking them thematically with the principles of justice and mercy in chapter two, I'm gonna take the two together as well. So let's take a look at the first nine verses of chapter two. Verses one through nine of chapter two are divided up into two parts, and the first part is David's charge to keep the commandments of the Lord, and the second part is David's charge on what is necessary, his actions, what actions are necessary to secure his kingdom. Paul, our house, in his commentary comments, The order of commitment to the Lord and then securing the kingdom should be understood as significant since the second without the first would be useless. And I do believe that the writer wants us to understand David's charges in verses 5 through 9 in light of his absolute commitment to the law of God in verses 1 through 4. I think it would be a big mistake to say that David is engaged in lawlessness and petty vengeance in his discussion of Shimei later on in that past year. in that chapter. David is following the provisions of law and grace and so is Solomon. So the order of the passage I think is significant in interpreting both the justice and the mercy. I think they both conformed to his law. So let's go ahead and read these. Now the days of David drew near that he should die, and he charged Solomon, his son, saying, I go the way of all the earth. Be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God to walk in his way, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn. that the Lord may fulfill his word, which he spoke concerning me, saying, if your sons take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart, with all their soul, he said, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel. Now this charge explains in part why God had Solomon harassed by enemies toward the end of his reign, because he later starts disobeying God's law, and God says, why am I going to continue my peace? Why am I going to continue my blessing in your life. But this also explains all of the ups and downs that go in the rest of 1st and 2nd Kings. Even though outwardly, a king like Ahab may have seemed like he was prospering, he's not prospering at all as far as God is concerned. Throughout these two books, kings are judged by their adherence to God's law or the degrees of deviation that they make from God's law. And so the passage stands as a thematic measuring stick for every king that comes after that. It's one of the purposes of placing it here. But there are other things that God's law measures. It measures the success as a man. Let me quote House again. According to David, Solomon will only be strong and a man if he keeps the Mosaic covenant. He must take great pains to, quote, observe what God demands. This observing of God's standards should grow into a lifestyle, a, quote, walking in the ways of the Lord. How does one achieve this lifestyle? By adhering to the various elements of the law of Moses. And that's his whole commentary in this whole section there. But I think it's a nice summary of what's going on here, and it makes me want to take a detour and look at what faithful covenant succession of values looks like. Because Gary and I have determined this whole next year we're going to be focusing and emphasizing covenant succession. Every time it comes up in the passages, I'm going to be emphasizing that, okay? This morning I want to give you six more applications. We looked at quite a bit on covenant succession before. I want to give six more applications of these three verses to covenant succession. First, the generation, the next generation, that'd be my kids, they need to think about the death of us, the older generation. Sometimes younger people act as if their parents or grandparents are gonna be around forever, and they take things for granted. They don't take advantage of what their parents can bring into their lives, even when their parents are old, okay? They don't have the patience to spend time with their parents and discuss these issues of covenant succession, but they should. David says, I go the way of all the earth. We're all going to die. And that's why we have to have covenant succession, why we need to think about passing something on. That's why the younger generation needs to say, hey, mom and dad are gonna be dying. Is there paperwork in order? And are there different things that we need to do to help them to enable this covenant succession to happen? So that's the first application. We Americans don't tend to think about death too frequently, but we should. It's a part of the reality of life. Second, have the patriarch pass on a vision of faithfulness. Okay, David charges Solomon with what it will take to succeed. So there's an appropriate vision casting that he is giving. Adonijah didn't want that. Solomon did. Third, recognize that succession does not happen by itself. And I think that's implied in the word be strong. Okay, the charge be strong implies it takes strength of character to resist the inertia that tends to be around us and still grow from generation to generation. You know, the physical law of inertia means things tend to stay the same unless there's some force that's applied beyond that and Even beyond that, look at the law of entropy. It takes strength to resist these laws and actually grow. Entropy is going to make that vision deteriorate over time. So covenant succession does not happen without strength of character. And David wants Solomon to man up and to make the sacrifices that it's going to take in order to maintain a stewardship of covenant succession. So he says, be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man. We all tend to do what comes easiest, because we don't have a lot of time. And it takes a lot of work to do the kind of covenant succession that the book Gary and I gave to you talk about. So covenant succession does not happen by itself. Fathers need to man up and be strong and do what it takes to make it happen. Fourth, recognize that this covenant succession is a stewardship trust from the Lord. And you can see that in the phrase, and keep the charge of Jehovah your God. Now, if you want to translate it literally, it is keep the keeping of Jehovah your God. And it refers to a You know, being a custodian of something that the Lord has been keeping for you. He is the holder of the growing package of heritage and inheritance, and the heritage building, and He alone can prosper our keeping of that. And so what this passage is saying is that God Himself passed on from the previous generation something to David. He is now passing on something from David to Solomon. So this is dealing with a stewardship of covenant succession, but the package belongs to God. That's what the passage is indicating. We have a stewardship responsibility before God to maintain the good of the previous generation and to pass on that good to the next generation. It's a stewardship trust. Fifth, recognize that for the Christian, passing on a Christian heritage must be completely defined by God's word. I've been reading a fair bit on covenant succession, building a heritage, passing on finances, all that kind of stuff. And I tell you what, a lot of the books out there are only looking at the pagan dynasties. And it's sad because they're copying non-biblical principles of passing things on rather than looking at the biblical principles that need to be in place. So let's read verses three through four again. and keep the charge of the Lord your God to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, that the Lord may fulfill his word, which he spoke concerning me, saying, if your sons take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, he said, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel. Now, the words used are a comprehensive covering of every passage of Scripture. Let me just go through them each, each one. The word ways is derek in the Hebrew, and it's the most broad of the terms, and it refers to every instruction given in the Word that gives us direction, okay? It's the way that we're going. It's the direction that we are going. The word statutes, hakat, deals with the civil laws and indicates that a king needs to preserve or keep God's civil laws, not be making up his own civil laws. Okay, so he's a king and his responsibility is not to get creative and see if he can come up with a vast body of law like Congress has done. He's supposed to be keeping a heritage from the scriptures of civil statutes. The word commandments, mitzvah, refers to the moral code that governs his personal walk before God. So character does matter. A lot of times people separate, you know, your work and civics from character. No, character matters a great deal. And then the word judgments, mishpatai, deals with the biblical wisdom to be a good judge. There is all kinds of principles in the scripture that help judges give wise judicial judgments. And then finally the word testimony refers to the will of God as evidenced through providential history. So you see all of these people, they're examples, they're testimonies, as it were, to God's working through us. Now one of the commentators pointed out that this passage here says that every aspect of God's moral, civil, ceremonial, and historical word needs to be of interest to that king. Even his church life was a heritage that he needed to pass on from generation to generation. So I don't think you could get a clearer testimony than this little passage here that every jot and tittle of God's word needs to govern our lives. So we're talking about a Christian perspective on building a dynasty, not a pagan perspective. And then sixth, God guarantees success in Solomon's generation and covenant succession to future generations if they stick to His plan. People always talk about these unconditional covenants. Well, yeah, if you're in Christ, it's conditioned upon Christ's works, not your own. So in that sense, it's unconditional. But even the Abrahamic covenant was conditional. Look at that at Genesis 18 verse 19. The only way he's gonna fulfill the promises he gives to Abraham is because Abraham is taking seriously walking in his path. So read that and you'll see even the Abrahamic covenant is conditional in some sense of that word. So here he's saying Christian prosperity and passing on a heritage from generation to generation is conditional on doing things God's way. Okay? So this is another fantastic little section on the nature of covenant succession. And verses 1 through 4 deal with the positive side, commitment to God. Then the next verses deal with the negative side. You got to deal with anything that's going to destroy that. And you got to also take actions to lay hold of anything that will benefit it. So let's go through verses 5 and 6. Verses 5 through 6. talk about the things needed if he's going to succeed. And the first thing he charges Solomon to do is to execute Joab. If possible, get rid of anything that will destroy covenant succession. Job was part of the conspiracy to put Adonijah on the throne, but I don't think that's the only reason God wants him dead. He says in verses five and six, Moreover, you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me and what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner and Amasa the son of Jether whom he killed and he shed the blood of war in peacetime and put the blood of war on his belt that was around his waist, on his sandals that were on his feet. Therefore do according to your wisdom and do not let his gray hair go down to the grave in peace." So Joab was a murderer and if the land was to have peace, the land had to be cleansed of the blood. Let me read to you from Numbers 35. Moreover, you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. And you shall take no ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the priest. So you shall not pollute the land where you are. for blood defiles the land and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it except by the blood of him who shed it. Therefore do not defile the land which you inhabit in the midst of which I dwell for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel." So here's the question. If it's so critical to kill Joab, why didn't David do it? Why is he having Solomon do the dirty work? Well, we saw before that David just did not have the power to do it. He tried to achieve that and could not do it. He couldn't even remove Joab from office. Two times he tried it and Joab finagled his way back in. Now Joab was an incredibly powerful man, and he did not have the power to deal with him. But now that Solomon was established on the throne, he's saying, do everything that you can to achieve this biblical goal. In any case, a repentant revolutionary might be forgiven when he clings to the horns of the altar, but Exodus 21 absolutely forbade a murderer who clung to the horns of the altar from being granted mercy. This was the time of Joab's weakness. This was the time to strike, and Solomon did so later on in this chapter, and I believe This was justice. I think it was a strict following of God's loss because he had two murders on his hand. He had a revolution on his hand and everyone was a witness to it. They didn't even need to have a court trial. Second, David charged his son to bless and honor true friends like Barzilai and his children. Do not neglect two true friends. Now you do want to make sure that they are true friends. They're not just people manipulating and using you. Recognize the difference. But verse seven says, but show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite and let them be among those who eat at your table for so they came to me when I fled from Absalom your brother. This was a huge debt that was owed to Barzillai. Now, it's not as if Barzillai wanted anything. He didn't. In fact, he said, I don't need anything back from your hand. I'm just doing this because you're in trouble. I'm a friend. I'm here to help you. But David wants his descendants to value that kind of friendship. He wants them to treat this friend of the family with the honor and the respect and the continued friendship that he deserved. And I think that's something that our individualistic culture doesn't tend to think about very much. Friendship in covenant succession. People think, why do I need to be a friend? You know, one of my parents' friends, you know? That's my dad's friend. That's not my friend. Why do I need to, in any way, be carrying this on? Well, you don't if your parents' friends were not true biblical friends. But such friends as Barzillai are so rare that when they are present, you need to value and sustain those friendships even after your parents pass on. Just think of it this way. God's loving kindness is an everlasting kindness that goes from generation to generation because of the fathers. Over and over, he blesses descendants, why? Because of David, right? And he blesses David because of their fathers. Well, if we're imitating God and his loving kindness, then I would say we ought to imitate God by blessing the friends of our parents, if they are true friends. So think even of friendships in terms of an inheritance. And then finally, David charged Solomon to recognize the danger that Shimei posed to the safety of the kingdom. David knew that with Shimei's volatile personality, his revolutionary tendencies, his undermining of authority, his rebellious spirit, that he might try something once again. He was not to be trusted. And some people think, well, that's not very Christian. You know, we need to embrace even rebellious people. Well, just read Titus 3 verse 10, I think it is, where it says, reject divisive man after the second and third, second and third or first and second, but anyway, after some admonitions, you're to reject them. Knowing such a person is warped and sinning, being self condemned. So even in the church, which does not have the power of the sword, I think such things need to be taken seriously, but how much more so within the state? Now some people question whether this was justice even in the state. Should Shimei have been restricted to one city? He was restricted in his travel, not be allowed to travel simply because of what he did to David. And was he guilty of something, a crime that was worthy of death? David certainly implies that he was. And so even if it may not have been proper for Solomon to put him to death right away, I think we need to analyze, you know, what are the ins and outs of that? Let me do the best I can at looking at verses eight through nine, trying to figure it out. And see, you have with you Shimei, the son of Gerah, Benjamite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a malicious curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim, and he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by the Lord, saying, I will not put you to death with the sword. Now, therefore, do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man, and you know what you ought to do to him, but bring his gray hair down to the grave with blood. And I'll just give you a foresight. Solomon doesn't do it right away. He just says, you're gonna be in a city, and you got free reign anywhere in there, but the moment you leave that city, you're dead man, just because of his danger. But let's start with whether he was worthy of death for cursing. I think most people would agree that he was worthy of death for engaging in treason, siding with Absalom in this revolt. But David here is highlighting the cursing. Was Shimei's repeated cursing of David worthy of death? You might say, well, it was not just a one-time curse. For miles, he's spitting out curses all the way along the road. And some people add in, I was talking with Robert Fugate, and he was saying the malicious curse, it's a specific kind of curse. Maybe there's occult that's involved here. There's some things we don't know for sure, but there is supernatural that's involved in curses. When we pronounce God's curses through the imprecatory Psalms, there is something supernatural that is happening. When occult people pronounce curses, there is something supernatural, and we need the protection of the Lord on that. So anyway, I won't get into all of those types of things, but I just want to mention that when I preached on 2 Samuel 16, 5-14, I didn't focus too much on that, but I did say that I didn't think it was a capital crime. I said it was a serious sin to curse God's rulers when they're not God's curses. I think you are allowed to come into agreement with God's curses and the imprecations. Otherwise, we're in trouble. All of the prophets cursed kings. A book of Revelation does so. But it has to be God's, not our own. But others say it was a capital crime. And after further research, I haven't necessarily switched sides, but I am at least on the fence. And I want to at least give you both sides of this. Their first argument, they've got three arguments saying it is a capital crime. Their first argument is that Exodus 22 verse 28 links cursing God and cursing a ruler as being equivalent. It says, you shall not revile God nor curse a ruler of your people. Now their argument is if the first one is a capital crime and the other is in parallel, then it implies that the other is a capital crime as well. The ruler represents God and God's authority, so to curse either one is really to curse God is their argument. That's the first argument. Their second argument is to link cursing of a king with cursing of a parent. And since those scriptures also forbid striking a parent, like Shimei threw stones and rocks at David, they support making Shimei's behavior criminal behavior. Now here are the scripture references. Exodus 21, verse 15. And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. Exodus 21, verse 17, and he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. Leviticus 20, verse 9, for everyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother. His blood shall be upon him. Deuteronomy 27, 16, curse it is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt, and all the people shall say amen. Proverbs 20, verse 20, whoever curses his father or his mother His lamp will be put out in deep darkness. You'll have to read Gary North's book, Victim's Rights, and then there's a big 1,000-page book that he's got that goes in more detail on that to see why it's not an automatic penalty and why the victim has a right to say, no, I forgive him. I'm not going to press the penalty. But in any case, just in case you think this is an archaic law, Jesus upholds this law in the Gospels. Let me read those passages. And keep in mind, the victim has to press for the penalty. Anyway, these are Jesus' words. Matthew 15, 4. For God commanded, saying, Honor your father and your mother, and he who curses father or mother, let him be put to death. But you say... And he goes on to criticize their rejection of this law. Mark 7 does the same. Mark 7, 10. For Moses said, Honor your father and your mother, and he who curses father or mother, let him be put to death. Now the very least, you kids need to take this to heart and realize God considers any cursing, any reviling of your parents to be an incredibly serious sin. For sure you ought to repent of it, right? That's the minimum that we could say. But anyway, in terms of whether this is a capital offense or not for cursing kings, that's the first stage of the second argument, they say, okay, there's six scriptures that explicitly call for the death penalty, at least as a maximum penalty for cursing parents. There's one scripture for striking parents. The second stage of the second argument is to say God applies this to civil officers in the book of Deuteronomy during the exposition of the fifth commandment, honor your father and your mother, okay? So it links the two together. So by divine inspiration, the regulations of Deuteronomy 16 verse 18 through Deuteronomy 18 verse 22, that's the fifth commandment and all its applications. If it's applied to civil officers, they say, then there is a logic to this. So they say it's significant that the exposition of the fifth commandment in Deuteronomy starts off by saying that cursing God deserves the death penalty because of the seriousness of that rebellion. Then Deuteronomy immediately goes to the state The civil government says that rebellion against the civil government, against the judge, or refusing to be bound by that judgment makes that man worthy of death. It's not quite the same, but it's similar. This is the incorrigibility rule. It says the man who acts presumptuously will not heed the priest who stands to minister there before the Lord your God or the judge. That man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel, and all the people shall hear and fear and no longer act presumptuously." But I think it's especially significant that the last section of that exposition of the fifth commandment is pointing forward to the coming Messiah, to the Lord Jesus Christ, that says anybody who won't listen to that prophet will be punished and the New Testament says will be put to death. And I'll end the sermon later by showing how all of this is symbolic of the Lord Jesus who will bring judgment against all who rebel against Him, will have mercy on rebels who cling to the horns of the altar. In any case, it does seem that there is some parallel between cursing of parents and rebellion against God's authority in a civil officer. Then the third argument that they bring up is this passage. David's advice to Solomon about Shimei should not be interpreted as contradicting his advice in verses 1 through 4. They're saying it would be weird to say hey Solomon I want you to follow every jot and tittle of God's Word don't deviate from anything that's in God's law Except yeah, I've come to think about it. I do want you to deviate on one law I want you to punish Shimei Contrary to the law even though he's not worthy of the death penalty Okay, that didn't make any sense so they say You put all of these reasons together, and it does seem to indicate that this was a crime worthy of death. So, okay, that's the one side. The other one's only going to take me 20 seconds to explain. The other possible way of interpreting it is to say, no, the cursing itself is not worthy of the death penalty. It's just a symptom of the treason. It's a symptom of the treason or an expression of the treason. It was the treason that was worthy of the death penalty. He sided with Absalom and that made him worthy of death. In any case, Shimei had three strikes against him. He unlawfully cursed David, he unlawfully stoned David, and he unlawfully engaged in treason or siding with Absalom. Matthew Henry says, it is dangerous being on the wrong side. Accessories to treason will be dealt with as principles. So if that's true, we need to explain why David forgave him and why Solomon shows him mercy as well. David may have done it because he was in a weak, vulnerable position. He needed Benjamin, Shimei's tribe, in order to stay in power. He may have done it because he's the victim and victims have the right to press charges or not press charges. Or he may have just made a big mistake in forgiving Shimei. I'm not even going to address that question. You guys can wrestle with it in your debates after the service if you want. But whatever the reason, Commentators point out that it providentially provides a beautiful picture of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Since both David and Solomon are types of Jesus, I think the significance is very precious. Everyone who rebels against Jesus deserves death and banishment from the Lord, which means banishment from heaven. And yet David and Solomon show mercy without in any way ignoring justice. Why? How? How was Shimei spared death? It was only by clinging to the horns of the altar, which meant touching the blood that was sprinkled or painted on those horns every single day. That's the only way he could do it. Those animals' death foreshadowed the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he's pleading the substitutionary death symbolized by those sacrifices. In Jesus, mercy and justice are both fulfilled. He bore the curse that we deserve. He gives us mercy and grace. But this passage illustrates that it's not lawless mercy or grace. God does not save us to make us comfortable in our sins. You read Matthew 1.21 where the whole purpose of His coming is that He shall save His people from their sins. Titus 1 says that grace teaches us to deny ungodly lusts and to live righteously. And then it goes on to say of Jesus, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. So once we have experienced mercy and grace, we are committed to a new way of living. We're committed to submission to King Jesus, the second David, or Solomon. Ongoing rebellion is utterly inconsistent with the state of a son. And I think that's a great note on which to end. Immediately after praying, we're going to be singing Psalm 101. And as we sing that, I really want to encourage you to sing it not so much as your own prayer to the Lord, which it can be. But I want you to be thinking of the meaning of each phrase by thinking of it as coming into agreement with Jesus' prayer. Okay? The Psalms are the prayers of Christ. And I think you'll see the subjects of justice and mercy in a whole new light when you sing it and see it through the eyes of Jesus. Anyway, let's pray. Father God, we thank you that you are holy, that you hate sin. There is coming a day when every vestige of sin will be completely wiped off the map of planet Earth. You will make a new heavens and a new earth in which dwelleth righteousness. We thank and bless you, Father, that you won't do it by getting rid of all humans. But instead, you redeem people to yourself. You show mercy. And yes, you do demand that we submit to your Lordship. But we're so grateful for the mercy that you have shown us. And it is our desire to be conformed more and more to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to be as righteous, as holy as it is possible for a sinful people to become. Help us to be totally sold out to You. Make us a people, Father, that reflect the love of Christ, the grace of Christ, the mercy and the justice of Christ. And may His passions be our passions. May what He loves be what we love, and what He hates be what we hate. We commit ourselves to you. We submit ourselves to the kingship of Christ and we glory in His salvation. And so we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.