Introduction to Kings (Part C)

Loyal to the King.

Have no reason not to be loyal. These men stood with David at his worst and they're standing with him to his death. These are the lessons that come off the Bible pages for us. It's not just a history story. It's anointed information cherry picked by the hand of the Holy Spirit preserved and delivered to us and we have no excuse to say, Oh, I didn't know how I should behave. It's not just a history story. It's not just a history story.

Well, there's a civil government here in operation two and he is violating it. James chapter four. God, speaking of God, he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Now, that ain't Adonijah and I don't want that to be me.

Peter, Peter really opens it up. He says, likewise, you younger people submit your selves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Do you believe that? Well, I used to believe it but God took too long to give the grace that I was waiting for. Then you weren't humbled. God does take time.

He does work mysteriously. Accept it. There's nothing you can do about it. You can't force the hand of God.

You can't decide with it. The same self-promoting style that Adonijah is exhibiting here that the New Testament writers, as I just read, are warning against, that's the same style as Satan. Satan said, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.

Well, there's nothing higher. He wants to put himself over God. Adonijah would also justify his coup by considering Solomon an illegitimate son. How convenient. He had decided that he's not a real prince.

I am. They would do this with our Lord. They would throw him to his face and John makes sure it's recorded for us that he was born of a virgin. Yeah, we believe that. That's what the world's response was to this day. When you do the deeds of your father, then they said to him, we are not born of fornication. We have one Father, God.

Well, they were wrong. Spiritually, especially. But that's it. We weren't born of fornication, Jesus. You, on the other hand, have this question mark on your life. It says here in verse 5, he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run before him. Just like Absalom.

He repeats the same, the identical mistake. Appearance meant more than character for him. Even to this day, that's a big deal with a lot of people.

Appearance. What about when you go to church and you put on that Sunday best appearance? Well, if it's legitimate, if it's born in or built on integrity, you're genuinely trying to get it right.

It's far better than being a fraud. Adonijah still needed the king's blessing. To be king, we'll get that in verse 20, but he thinks that he's going to pull this off anyway.

Verse 6. And his father had not rebuked him at any time by saying, why have you done so? He was also very good looking.

His mother had borne him after Absalom. Well, he had been getting away with arrogant assumptions all of his life. Until now, he's simply arrogant. He doesn't even have the ability to stop himself. Nor is he interested.

That's why he wouldn't have the ability. This unchecked air of superiority will cost him his life because with that unchecked air of superiority comes a sense of entitlement that you are not entitled to. He won't let it go. When he is put down for this attempted coup, he's going to try it again.

He won't survive the second attempt. Parents who don't correct their children just let others suffer their children. It's unfortunate. Everybody's got to, you know, okay, here's the brat.

What are we going to do? You can't discipline somebody else's kid, not without a nuclear event. And so, I hope our Christian parents will, you know, just some parents just can't seem to tell their little darlings, no. And that's the very thing those little darlings crave many times. And me! It doesn't have to be mean and vicious. You just know and you enforce your will.

My will be done. In David's defense, he apparently is unaware of Adonijah's real intent. That comes out in verse 11 when Nathan brings it up to Bathsheba that David doesn't know this coup is going on. He probably knew some of the things that, he certainly knew some of the things that Adonijah was doing. And he should have nipped them in the bud and he did not.

But at this point, he's preoccupied again with not chilling. His mother had borne him after Absalom, meaning he was younger than Absalom, but not that they share the same mother. Absalom's mother name was Maacah, whereas Adonijah's mother is Hagith, a feminized form of Hegei. God is going to overrule this appointment that's in the mind of Adonijah. Verse 7. Incidentally, as we should know, it was already clear from long ago that Solomon was going to be king after David the kingdom knew this. Verse 7. A nephew, bloodthirsty, always ready to kill, Abiathar the priest, both men, really unwaving loyalty to David.

You know, Joab was Joab, but still, bottom line, he was loyal to David up until now. There is no fool like an old fool, though young fools can rival them with the damage they do. Which would you rather deal with, an old fool or a young fool? Neither.

They're the same. It's just one has had time to correct themselves and blew it. Proverbs 14, 7. Go from the presence of a foolish man when you do not perceive in him the lips of knowledge.

Well, what other way should it be? Here are two fools, old and young. Young Adonijah, well, more than two. Then you have Abiathar and Joab, the older fools. By the other priests, he joined David when Saul had Joab kill the preset Nob. He had been faithful to David all that time. And because of his commitment to David, he became one of David's advisors and friends. And yet, look at the loyalty.

Loyalty is a big deal for us. Christians think I'm saved. I don't need any virtues, some Christians think. I'm saved.

Jesus loves me. Why do I have to be burdened with virtues? Who needs to be loyal? If I see something that I don't care for, I just change teams.

Yeah, that helps hell out so much. When Satan comes across truly loyal Christians, he comes against opposition that counts, that beats him down. Here, in this incident with Adonijah, Abiathar's first recorded act of disloyalty, disloyalty to what David had embraced, which was God's will through the revelation of the prophet Nathan. Abiathar knew the prophecy, he knew the will of God concerning Solomon. So why did he side against it?

What is wrong with people who do this? They know better. It's not a little or subtle thing.

This is very deliberate. It tells us there at verse 7, they followed and helped Adonijah. Vergaren calculated a disobedient priesthood would contribute very much a satanically corrupted kingdom. If the priesthood is corrupt, then the salt of the earth is missing.

Things that would thwart the work of Satan in the kingdom are out of the way. That's when Peter says, you are a royal priesthood. It's not a little statement. It's a huge statement. You represent to God Almighty other people through prayer and through service.

The converse is true also. An obedient pastor, it means a truer church. And that should mean a greater witness of the people. These men, Joab and Abiathar, they are supporting the unanointed. And they should both have known better.

This is what troublemakers do. Instead of moving on, they nest and cause unrest and that's what's happening in the kingdom. Adonijah had a good life. He could have had a happy life as a prince, very wealthy, in the position he held, the influence. Instead of using it for good, he uses it on himself. And it killed him. Verse 8, then Zadok the priest, Benaniah the son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shemaiah, Reah, and the mighty men who belong to David were not with Adonijah. Yeah, now the music changes.

Here's the 18. It is not written that the faithful should become disloyal. There's no law that insists, you know what, you're going to be disloyal.

Not so. And we see it in these men. They're not disloyal to David. Zadok was faithful to his god and to his king no matter what his colleagues were doing and Abiathar was the co-priest, high priest of Israel. Yeah, that might be Abiathar.

That ain't me. This was the way with Elijah and the prophets and this is the way it's supposed to be with us. Yeah, you can trade on what God's clear will is.

I'm not going with you. Then Benaniah the son of Jehoiada. We like Benaniah because he is an upholder of justice and he is loyal. He will execute Adonijah, he will execute Joab, and he will execute Shemaiah. Not the same one here in this verse but the one that was hurling stones and insults at David when Absalom came against David. Then there's Nathan the prophet.

Ever trustworthy as God's prophet to the king for the kingdom. It is our duty to row with men whom God is using. It is our duty to do this.

It's not an option. There's some folks over there, God is working with them and I don't have anything to do. I'm just going to keep doing nothing. It's your duty. You moved away and you found a church that was preaching the word of God. It is your duty to join and to row with them. Take some of the hits. Sometimes God is just sifting the flock.

Make sure you land on your feet. Shemaiah and Reih, the identities are unknown. It says here, and the mighty men who belong to David were not with Adonijah.

Where would I have been on that day? I would have liked to believe I would have been with the mighty men loyal to the king. Have no reason not to be loyal. These men stood with David at his worst and they're standing with him to his death. These are the lessons that come off the Bible pages for us. It's not just a history story. It's anointed information, cherry picked by the hand of the Holy Spirit, preserved and delivered to us and we have no excuse to say, oh I didn't know how I should behave under the forces of disloyalty.

Oh yeah you did, because the story is right there. All of us need to be reminded from time to time, because things get blurry for us. That's what the emotions do. The emotions bring fog.

We just can't see things. When those days happen to us, slow it down almost to a halt and just let the Lord do what he is supposed to do. Take some of the hits, but you know Christians are so fragile you hear me say this all the time.

They get their feelings hurt and poof, run away, retreat, wave the white flag, turn on others, justify your being meanness to others. Even me. Sometimes something as pastor happens and I say, Lord, I'm not feeling the love, but I know where to go to and I know who to tell that I don't feel the love, because he is the only one that can help me. And he does.

He always has and he always will. And I may be disappointed with a lot of things in this life, but I am sticking with my God. Verse 9, And Adonai just sacrificed sheep and oxen and fatted cattle by the stone of Zehilloth, which is in Enrogal.

He also invited all his brothers, the king's sons, and all the men of Judah, the king's servants. Well, this little celebration is going to be very small compared to when Solomon is pronounced king. That's going to roar from the springs of Gihon.

This is going to be nothing compared to that. There's a lack of excitement behind Adonai. There was this intellectual siding with him. There's no mention of the thrill of his appointment. Joab. What's Joab going to bring?

Well, I'll kill anybody if you need it, but other than that, he just doesn't bring it and the spirit's not with him. It says by the stone of Zehilloth. The Hebrew word Zehilloth means serpent or to creep.

It was a landmark that must have resembled a serpent, rather symbolic of the usurping nature of the serpent and what Adonai was doing. He would not have seen it. We're supposed to see this. We're supposed to come to our Bible and say this is not just a history book. There are messages, there are types, there are lessons, and they're all over the place. I may not see them all. I can remember not maybe about a year ago reading a section of scripture in Isaiah and just not getting it, and it was a piece of section of scripture that I hadn't known so well. It was just I can't get it. I since have overcome that, but I mean, it happens. Well, there's a whole lot of other Bible out there for me. No shortage. God, I don't know, humbling me.

The thing is I never feel like I need to be humbled. And Rogel, just outside Jerusalem, not too far from the Gihon, is where the spies Jonathan and Ahimaaz had stayed when Absalom was chasing David out and they would funnel information back until they were spotted and then they moved on to another hiding place. But it was a source of water. Some believed it was a spring there.

It is well at this point. He went to where the water was to coronate himself. And I say that because Solomon is going to be sent to Gihon where the real spring of water, the major source of water for Jerusalem is. And you go to Israel, you can walk through Hezekiah's tunnel, which is quite nice. I should add, to go through the tunnel, Hezekiah's tunnel, there's no lighting in there. You have to bring a flashlight. And everybody else had these expensive lights. I had a pen light and it was just as bright. It's like, look at that. This thing is a gift.

I got it in the mail and it gave me all the illumination they had. So that was just funny. I didn't tell anybody that. They would have killed me. But anyhow, verse 10, but he did not invite Nathan the prophet, Benaniah the mighty man, or Solomon his brother. Well this sent Nathan into action.

You don't leave him off the list. And they did. And leaving these trusted confidants is a great indication that Adonijah had plans to usurp David. It was a plot. The fact that Solomon was excluded proves that Adonijah knew that Solomon was to be David's successor and he wasn't going to let that happen.

Well he wasn't able to stop it. Not a lot of love in this home of polygamy. Verse 11, so let's see now.

We can make it to 14. So Nathan spoke to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon saying, have you not heard that Adonijah the son of Hagith has become king and David our Lord does not know it? Well, again, this is Nathan who wrote the biographies of David and Solomon and dispatched by God to correct David.

Took a lot of guts to do that, to go to the king and put him down publicly over his sin. We're not dealing with a small character in Nathan the prophet. We are dealing with a real man of God and after that had taken place in the life of David and Nathan, their friendship continued. It wasn't like David's feelings were hurt and that's it, I'm done with you Nathan.

Not at all. What a grand testimony to both of these men. Their relationship thrived by dealing with something that was wrong and not ultimately sweeping it under the rug. David attempted to and Nathan pulled the rug back. And so after these years, Nathan is not only welcomed in David's court but he is trusted and his advice is valued. Verse 12, come please let me now give you advice that you may save your own life and the life of your son Solomon. So Nathan, of course, he's talking to Bathsheba. David's not yet in the picture and he's saying listen, there's a coup going on to take the throne, that means they're going to kill you and Solomon and this is what you need to do. Nathan's motives was for the fulfillment of God's promise, which should be our motive also. Not one jot or tittle shall pass away, Jesus said concerning the word.

I don't think that I've come to destroy it but to fulfill it. Well Nathan is determined to fulfill God's word and he's looking out for the safety of Solomon and Bathsheba and for the good of the kingdom. His struggle was to keep God's will central and that's what we see him doing. He believed the earlier message that God loved Solomon. That was part of the message, the message that earned Solomon the name Jedediah, beloved of Yahweh. They believed this and that gave Solomon special status among David's sons and they weren't going to let anything happen to it. Verse 13, go immediately to King David and say to him, did you not my lord, oh king, swear to your maidservant saying, surely your son Solomon shall reign after me and he shall sit on my throne.

Why then has Adonijah become king? David shivering, she knew that God spoke through this man, Nathan, as he's telling her what to do. Whether she liked what he said or not, these two had a history. There was Nathan that called her out as a sinner too. He was a devout godly man and there was no way she was going to lose sight of that.

Sixteen times he is known in the Bible as Nathan the prophet. You got to love this kind of stuff. You got to be able to see in the New Testament. Again, I've said this many times before, it's one thing to tell people that God loves them but do you believe he loves you? Do you believe God loves you? And it doesn't stop there. If you think that God loves you, does God love the Christian that is really irritating you?

I mean these are the things you got to work with. Oh, you don't have to but it is in your interest to, to never give up on trying to be perfect like Jesus Christ, no matter what. To never give up. What can Satan do to that? Verse fourteen, then while you are still talking there with the king, I also will come in after you and confirm your words. So Nathan is not only devout, he's wise of course. He's not only, he's devout and because he's devout, he's courageous and he is also wise.

What a combination. I believe every Christian can have these virtues but you got to work for them. Even if God gave you something, you still got to work. The curse says the sweat of your brow, only by the sweat of your brow will there be fruit. It's a fact of life. So even when the Lord does it, okay, he does it, he just, you know, he fed the four thousand. Yeah, well life goes on, doesn't it?

There's still other stuff to do and I've got to do some of it. And when you accept these things, they get so much easier. I just want to trust God all the time.

That's my goal in life. One of them. Anyway, here he says, the plan for Bathsheba, he says, you approach the king first. We're going to do this on the strength of two witnesses. And you have to understand there is a present danger for your life and David needs to know about this. And then, lest David think you are exaggerating the story, I will come in and I will back you up. I will bear witness to what you have said to David.

I will confirm what you told him, dispelling any suspicion that this is overblown. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.

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