Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself.
Usurpation
David is “old and stricken in years.” Round about him there are certain proceedings which are almost always associated with the death of great men. There are persons who are wondering who will succeed to the throne. One man has made up his mind that he will be the king. Could we understand all that is going on in the minds of our friends when we ourselves arc approaching the hour and article of death, we should be surprised by some revelations of character which we had little suspected. Adonijah said, “I will be king” (1 Kings 1:5). How certainly, then, he will not! “Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself.” He did not hear the voice sounding far away in the coming time which said, “Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased.” You will find that Adonijah was a spoiled child, for “his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so?” (1 Kings 1:6). That is the explanation. Every will has to be broken, and it ought to be broken as soon as possible; it is not as if the will could go on always having its own way, marching from conquering to conquer, going on from throne to throne; it is the law of life, and it is the most solemn fact in personal history, that the will must be broken, in the sense of being subdued, chastened, made to feel that there are other wills in creation, and that peace can only come by mutual understanding and concession. How cruel, then, are parents! They think they are kind, but their kindness is the worst form of cruelty. How would it be in physical matters? You say that a man’s hand is out of action, and the doctor says that hand might have been as good as the other if the infirmity or accident had been attended to when the child was young. That we call reason. A child does not see straightly; its eye is somewhat askance; and the doctor again says that eye could have been made perfectly right if it had been attended to when the child was young. When the doctor says that, everybody looks upon him as a wise man. So many things ought to have been done when we were young! Yet we ourselves will not do them to those who are young, and who depend upon us for discipline, education, and general training. When Adonijah said, “I will be king,” he carried to its logical issue the training which he had received, or lacked, at home. How will he set about this business? Exactly like a spoiled child. There is a striking consistency in all the parts of his character and action. If you ask for his programme, you may yourself write it for him; them is no need to make inquiry as to what he will do. Spoiled children can only do one thing. They are absolutely destitute of originality. What, then, does Adonijah do? He copied, Absalom,. whom in some degree he resembled, being also “a very goodly man.” That is to say, a well-favoured man physically; good to look upon, a handsome, noble figure. What will Adonijah do? The answer is in the fifth verse: “He prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.” How will Adonijah proceed? quite consistently. In the seventh verse we find him still pursuing the same level of thought and purpose: “And he conferred with Joab the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest.” What was Abiathar the priest? the priest of the tent in which the ark of God was kept? or was he but some subordinate, good and honest in his own way, hut a little tempted to believe in chariots and horses and forerunners and outriders? Alas! it is possible for a priest even to be so demented. This was the bound of Adonijah’s counsel; the crafty Joab and Abiathar. Not the people. The people were to be taken by a storm of music. That was Adonijah’s great plan for taking the nation! But the people are wiser than they are often thought to be. Have faith in the people. You cannot easily measure them. Taken one by one, they do not seem to amount to much; but when they touch one another, and feel the contagion of sympathy and the inspiration of common interests; when they listen as one man to the voice of the declaimer or the charmer, the reasoner and the statesman, they know who is right and who is wrong. Why these signs of masonry? Why this desire to get away from the society of pure women and frank children, question-asking youth, and unsuspecting love! Why did you not call Zadok and Nathan and Solomon? Out of thine own month I condemn thee. The honest man would have said, Let all come; this thing shall not he done in a corner; it is right, sound, clear-hearted, through and through--come one, come all, and guide me if I am wrong. The right man need not be in any hurry. He will be sent for in due time. What became of Adonijah? He “feared because of Solomon, and arose, and went, and caught hold on the horns of the altar”--the projecting pieces of wood overlaid with gold, to which the sacrifices were fastened with bands or ropes. Laying hold of these, he thought he had the right of asylum; and he feared Solomon, saying, “Let King Solomon swear unto me to-day that he will not slay his servant with the sword” (1 Kings 1:50-51). “Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased.” Adonijah, who began by saying, “I will be king,” ended by saying, I am a servant. See the end of all vanity, foolish conceit, mistaken and selfish ambition; so Solomon, being a king in very deed, said: He shall have a conditional pardon--If he will shew himself a worthy man, there shall not an hair of him fall to the earth: but if wickedness shall be found in him, he shall die” (1 Kings 1:52-53). So Adonijah became a ticket-of-leave man. What a fame! but right. Do not let us mistake this: for we are all ticket-of-leave men. Let there be no boasting. We are all out of hell conditionally. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Adonijah
I. Beware of ambition. When regulated, restrained, and guided, ambition serves a good end. It rouses to activity, and it tends to produce a generous and noble character. But when it is inspired only by selfishness, by the desire simply to attain to a certain position, so that vanity may be indulged and pride gratified--by the determination to outstrip your fellows and win certain prizes for which they too are toiling;--when, in short, there is nothing but self to be consulted and flattered and appeased, it is dangerous. It may lead you to do much that is evil, to trample on that which is sacred, to break through and cast down the barriers which God’s law has erected around you, to despise the nearest and dearest relationships of human life. Under its withering influence he loses sight of the eternal in the temporal, ignores the spiritual in the carnal, and forgets God in self! There is no ban laid by God on advancement or “getting on.” You are not forbidden to attain earthly honours, to acquire what are called the world’s “good things.” But then, recollect, you must regard them only as subordinate to higher things. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
II. Beware of disobedience to parents. It may be an old, but it is a permanent command, “Honour thy father and thy mother,” etc.
III. Beware of evil associations. The unholy alliance at Enrogel broke up, immediately on the arrival of adverse tidings. Joab, Abiathar, and their confederates disappeared, and left Adonijah to his own devices. There was no deep affection, and no bond of pure love to keep them together; selfishness was at the root of the association. They fawned, and flattered, and fled. Wicked men do not care for their companions beyond the point of advantage. They have no interest in each other’s welfare, and they are suspicious of each other’s designs and of each other’s fidelity. Accomplices and partners in guilt indulge in mutual accusations and revelations which show the slender nature of the tie which binds them together. There is no love--no true, deep, self-sacrificing love--such as dwells in the hearts of Christian brethren, united in Jesus Christ. (A. Williamson.)
When the play is out
Honour must put off the robes when the play is done, make it never so glorious a show on this world’s stage; it hath but a short part to act. A great name of worldly glory is but like a peal rung on the bells, the common people are the clappers, the rope that moves them is popularity; if you once let go your hold and leave pulling, the clapper lies still, and farewell honour. (T. Adams.)
Ambition, destructive
The principal thing that excited the public hatred, and at last caused the death of Julius Caesar was his passion for the title of king. It was the first thing that gave offence to the multitude, and it afforded his inveterate enemies a very plausible plea. (Plutarch.)