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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.
The Aftermath of the Conspiracy
Series Life of David
| Sermon ID | 9953161844300 |
| Duration | 56:11 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 1 Kings 1:41 |
| Language | English |
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