CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.—
1 Kings 2:13. Comest thou peaceably?—After recent events, there was reason to suspect his design.
1 Kings 2:15. The kingdom is turned about—He prudently thus evades the charge on Bathsheba of having herself been accessory to this issue.
1 Kings 2:16. Deny me not; lit., turn not away my face.
1 Kings 2:18. Well, I will speak for thee—She saw not the cunning of Adonijah and might have thought this gratification would appease his disappointment.
1 Kings 2:22. Ask for him the kingdom also—Solomon saw his crafty aim. The wives and concubines of a deceased king became the property of his successor to the throne (2 Samuel 12:8); hence the possession of Abishag would have given to Adonijah an additional apparent right to the kingdom; it was treason, therefore, for him, a subject, to claim a member of the royal harem as his wife; and Solomon recognised it as one step towards the seizure of the crown, or as a scheme by which Adonijah sought to found a rival dynasty. Hence the summary justice (1 Kings 2:25), and hence, too, the religious oath (1 Kings 2:23), for the royal line of David might not be imperilled by intrigue.
HOMILETICS OF 1 Kings 2:13-25
THE DOOM OF A TREASONABLE SPIRIT
1 Kings 2:1. That a treasonable spirit is slow to learn a lesson from past misfortunes. One would have thought that after the lamentable and disgraceful failure of his recent enterprise Adonijah would not have had the hardihood to risk another defeat. His conduct at this time reveals his character as a restless, intriguing, ambitious man. There are some men who will not be taught. The advice of the wise is contemptuously thrown away: the most calamitous events and their obvious lessons are speedily forgotten. The love of plotting and scheming amounts in some men to a passion; they are often blinded by their own cunning, and caught in the snares they had laid for the feet of others. Envy and ambition are turbulent elements, difficult to allay, and often hurrying their victims to certain ruin.
II. That a treasonable spirit has no scruple as to the method adopted in gaining its end.
1. It will flatter a mother’s vanity. Treason is a tortuous policy, and seeks to use others as tools to accomplish its designs. Instead of going direct to the king, Adonijah strove to influence the mother in his favour. He spoke of her son in a way to gratify the mother’s heart, and to disguise the insincerity that lay beneath his words. Flattery is one of the most polished and effective weapons of the schemer.
2. It is regardless of veracity. “Thou knowest that all Israel set their faces on me.” This was a great exaggeration. He had really no very large following (see 1 Kings 1:39-40; 1 Kings 1:45; 1 Kings 1:49). It was well known the Lord had chosen Solomon. Accuracy as to matters of fact never troubles the conscience of some people. The liar is never at a loss for arguments, nor very particular as to their character. Says the proverb—“It is an easy thing to find a staff to beat a dog with.”
3. It can affect a mock saintliness. “For it was his from the Lord.” From such lips, this sounds very much like cant! The aim was evidently to deceive Bathsheba as to the real intention of securing her advocacy. Of all methods to attain sinister ends, the rôle of the religious hypocrite is the most detestable. There are some natures over whom it exerts a potent charm.
III. That a treasonable spirit is prompted by base motives (1 Kings 2:17). The beauty of Abishag had made its impression on Adonijah. Blinded by sensual passion and the lust of power, he disregarded the incestuous proposal to marry his father’s widow. Such an union was directly contrary to positive law (Leviticus 18:8). The darkest designs are the offspring of the lowest motives, and an ambitious zeal for place and the public weal often covers the desire for a wider scope in the personal indulgence of sensual instincts (Psalms 37:12).
IV. A treasonable spirit knows no bounds to its ambition. Nothing short of kingship could satisfy Adonijah. His possession of Abishag was intended as a means to that end. Her eminent beauty and near relation to David would give her a powerful interest at court. In the oriental mind a monarch was so sacred, such a divinity hedged him in, that whatever was brought near to him was thenceforth separate from common use. This sacred and separate character attached especially to the royal harem. The inmates either remained widows for the rest of their lives, or became the wives of the deceased king’s successor. When a monarch was murdered or dethroned, or succeeded by one whose title was doubtful, the latter alternative was almost always adopted. The Pseudo Smerdis married all the wives of Cambyses (Herod. iii. 68); and Darius married all the wives of the Pseudo-Smerdis (ib. ch. 88). So David, when he succeeded Saul, had all the wives of Saul (2 Samuel 12:8); and Absalom, when he seized the crown, by the advice of Ahitophel, went in unto his father’s concubines (ib. 1 Kings 16:22). These are examples of what seems to have been a universal practice; and the result was such a close connection in public opinion between the title of the crown and the possession of the deceased monarch’s wives, that to have granted Adonijah’s request would have been the strongest encouragement to his pretensions.—Speaker’s Comm. Woman is often courted for the sake of the place and power to which she can introduce her suitor: the serpent addressed the woman first in order to gain the man. The ambition of a treasonable spirit is as avaricious and insatiable as it is reckless in the agencies it employs.
V. That a treasonable spirit is unexpectedly detected and exposed (1 Kings 2:22-23). Solomon at once saw through the design of Adonijah. He appears, too, to have discovered some indications of another attempt at rebellion, in which Abiathar and Joab were implicated (1 Kings 2:22). He showed Bathsheba how she had been deceived by the flattery of Adonijah; and we can conceive with what alarm she would start back from the dark pitfall into which she was about unwittingly to plunge herself and son! A course of villany may go on for a long time in uninterrupted prosperity; but detection is sure to come, and the exposure will be humiliating and complete. Be sure your sin will find you out. In these days of literary enterprise, the columns of a thousand journals will exhibit your disgrace to the world in unmistakeable characters. If the mask could be torn from the face of society, what a horrid index would be presented to the festering mass of deceit, envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness which is ever heaving and spreading there! A day is coming when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed, and all wrongs redressed. But who can fathom the depth of that Divine patience that bears with the enormities of the wicked, and calmly waits for the hour of retribution? Better to find out and deplore our own sins before they are exposed and punished by omniscient and omnipotent justice.
VI. That a treasonable spirit meets with summary and unfaltering vengeance (1 Kings 2:24-25). Adonijah had before been pardoned, and his life spared, on condition that he acted worthily (1 Kings 1:52). That condition was violated; and now, without admitting any intercession for his life, he is solemnly doomed to death, and the sentence forthwith executed. The perils of the state sometimes demand the prompt and rigorous punishment of offenders. Sin entails a life of disappointment and misery, and a death of shame and infamy. The cunning of the wicked often overreaches itself, and the plot which is intended to gain a fortune terminates in a dishonoured grave. Many a head has been lost in the attempt to seize a crown. The ruin of the enemies of Christ’s kingdom is as sure as the unshakeable stability of that kingdom.
LESSONS:—
1. A treasonable spirit demoralizes man’s whole nature.
2. The cleverest plotter is no match for the simple wisdom of uprightness.
3. Persistency in sin intensifies the severity of the punishment.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1 Kings 2:13-25. Adonijah’s attempt to gain the throne.
1. Wherein this attempt consisted (1 Kings 2:13-18).
2. How it ended (1 Kings 2:19-25). Adonijah and his faction show the truth of what is often found—namely, that revolutionary men are not discouraged by the failure of their plans, and even disgraceful defeat, but always brood over the means of attaining their ambitious views and gratifying their thirst for power. Pardon and forbearance do not change them, but generally harden and embolden them. If they do not succeed by open force, they choose deceitful ways, notwithstanding all the promises they may have given; and they feign submission until they think their opportunity has arrived. Every one to whom God has confided the government should hear the words of David to Solomon: “Be strong, therefore, and show thyself a man;” for weakness is, in this respect, sin against God and man. As to Adonijah, the whole East knew but one punishment for such plans as he cherished—viz., death. Had his enterprise succeeded, he would doubtless have destroyed Solomon and his principal adherents, in accordance with the usual practice hitherto. Solomon, on the contrary, did not follow this custom, but showed forgiveness and generosity; in fact, he avoided all persecution of Adonijah’s partisans. Only when Adonijah, contrary to his word, and notwithstanding his humble homage, again appeared as pretender to the throne, and sought to reach his end by deceit and hypocrisy, did he order the affixed punishment.—Lange.
1 Kings 2:18. “I will speak for thee unto the king.” The Christian minister an ambassador.
1. He is divinely called and qualified.
2. He has influence with the court of heaven.
3. He pleads the cause of the needy.
4. He seeks to reconcile the rebellious to God.
5. He is appealed to for counsel by the distressed and penitent.
1 Kings 2:20. Bathsheba makes a petition against herself, and knows it not; her safety and life depend upon Solomon’s reign, yet she unwittingly moves for the advancement of Adonijah. In unfit supplications we are most heard when we are repelled. Thus doth our God many times answer our prayers with merciful denials, and most blesseth us in crossing our desires.—Bishop Hall.
1 Kings 2:22. “Ask for him the kingdom also.” For that is it he gapes after, and seeks to strengthen his cracked title by marrying the late king’s concubine, who was likely grown very gracious with the great ones, and as potent at court as was once here Dame Alice Pierce, King Edward III.’s concubine, who did whatsoever she pleased.—Trapp.
1 Kings 2:24. “Adonijah shall be put to death this day.” This day, before to-morrow, lest delay should breed danger. Who knoweth what a great-bellied day may bring forth? We are used to say—A day breaketh no square; but that is not always true. Oh, that we would be as quick in slaying our arch rebels—those predominant sins that threaten our precious souls!—Trapp.
1 Kings 2:25. “And he fell upon him that he died.” This was another piece of the punishment of David’s two great sins, the small and short pleasure whereof behold what a train and tail of calamities it draweth after it!—Trapp.