40 Minutes In The Old Testament - 1 Kings 1:28-53 (Episode 291)

Episode Date: November 11, 2021

David makes Solomon king and the city shakes as the new king rides on David's mule and sits on his throne. Joab senses a storm is coming. And Adonijah fears for his life and clings to horns on the altar. Chad and Daniel discuss all of this. Have a listen! 1517 Podcast Network 1517 YouTube Donate

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast and check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. Last week, we started a new book, Chad. We started First Kings, which is only sort of like an entirely new thing. It's more like the third part of four books. But, you know, as the Bible is divided, it's a new book. Same characters that we're beginning with, anyway. And so last week, we saw a very old David. He's not able to get warm. He's a little unaware of what's going on in his kingdom. He's not really out there taking in the happenings of Israel.

And so he's near death. His son, his eldest remaining son, knows this and is assuming that the kingdom is soon going to be his. So he's taking steps to ensure that that is the case. And Bathsheba and the prophet Nathan have different ideas about this. And so they have someone else in mind. And so they have gone to David together, one at a time, but they've concocted this together, and they've gone to David and, I guess, reminded him of a promise that he made or maybe didn't make. We're not sure. Maybe he made it, maybe he didn't. Anyway, they say that he made it, that Solomon would be king. Now, David seems like he's in a state that if he didn't make this promise maybe he could be convinced that he did or or maybe in fact he did make this promise

and he's being legitimately reminded of it we're not told and we're not sure we don't we don't have anything before this of him making that promise but then again you know we don't have every word that david ever spoke so we don't know we can only guess but uh david is finally going to do something though yeah he's uh he's finally gonna rouse himself you know we we start out this book with David being old, can't stay warm. He's no longer able to be sexually active. So the beginning portrait of David is of a king who's basically, he's got a lame duck presidency, as we would say here in the States.

He's just not, he's not aware of what's going on in his kingdom. He's not making decisions. It's really, I mean, in some ways, it's kind of a continuation of what we saw in the closing chapters of 2 Samuel, right? this gradual decline of David, where more and more it's other people who seem to be pulling the strings in this kingdom. So that's up to this point, anyway, up to verse 28. That is the picture we have of David. He's kind of passive. He's infirm. He is losing his grip on things. But as we'll see in verse 28, he finally actually sits up in bed and does something. He's about to make a

make a decision and this decision will have the ripple effect throughout the rest of kings because it's not going to be his eldest son adonijah but it's going to be bathsheba's son solomon who is going to reign in his place so we have that whole scene you described to us laid out in the the verses leading up to 28 where bathsheba goes in talks to david nathan comes in talks to David Bathsheba comes back in talks to David and now we're about to pick up where David has called Bathsheba back in and we're going to hear what he has to say to her so verse 28 King David answered call Bathsheba to me oh by the way I meant to mention this so kind of a something going on in the background here with the mother's names in Hebrew that I think is is perhaps winked at so

So Bathsheba, Bathsheba, the last part of her name, S-H-E-B-A in English, in Hebrew is Shabbat, which is related to oath. So she's this daughter of an oath. Now, of course, that is Solomon's mother. Now, the mother of this other guy, Adonijah, is Hagith. Her name is from Hagag, which means feast. So actually what's going on here with the mother's names matches what's happening with their sons. so the son of son of feasting if we can call him that adonijah he is well he's feasting he's having this great party with his friends and his supporters and they're thinking everything's

going to go great he's going to be king everything's just going to be perfect for him to assume the throne because you know dad doesn't know what's going on and he's the firstborn after all and so that's happening with this the son of the mother of feasting but then you've got the son of the mother of oath over here, Solomon, who is about to actually become king because David has sworn this oath to him. Anyway, that's kind of a little Hebrew side story happening there. So David calls her, says, call Bathsheba to me. So she comes back in, stands before the king, and the king swore to her. So he shabba, that's the verb that I was mentioning with this whole swearing or oath-taking. So the king Shabbat to Bathsheba, to the daughter of swearing. And here's

what he says, as the Lord lives, who has redeemed my soul out of every adversity, as I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, saying, Solomon, your son shall reign after me, and he shall sit of my throne in my place, even so will I do this day. So David is quoting back to Bathsheba the very words, and he's expanding upon it, but he's quoting back to her the very words that Nathan suggested to him and that Bathsheba has suggested to him as well. And he's swearing this divine oath, he's kind of doubling down on it, in fact, when he tells her this. He does change the language a little bit he says solomon he says quoting himself solomon your son shall reign after me okay so this is in time so after me after i'm after i'm gone he's gonna reign after me he shall sit on my

throne but then he adds here in my place so this is good this is not going to be one of those the king is dead long live the king situations this is going to be one of those the king is still alive but even while he's still living he's going to be replaced by his by his son which so there is sort of a co-regency taking place we might say yeah which you know when you're not living in a democracy uh or anything if you if a king has someone in mind that he really wants to be king after him uh if he's very old uh that this is probably the way that you want to do that you want to sort of make him king you want to pass that scepter while you're still alive so that Otherwise, I mean, we know this throughout all sorts of history, right?

If the king dies suddenly, well, then you've got a huge problem on your hands because everyone starts making their claims. But if the king's alive and he just says, this is the guy, then he can sort of get the guy that he wants. And so that's one of the things about this that makes it just a little bit blurry is where you're like, well, okay. So if David knew that he had made this oath, he might have been wanting to think this way sooner, right, as opposed to being prodded to do it. Now, it could have been just that he's delirious and stuff, too, and at this point and doesn't need somebody to come in and say, hey, you made this promise and it's probably time to act on that. Who knows? But if you do have someone in mind, especially if they're not the eldest son, you probably want to take care of that while you're still living. yeah because otherwise i mean if this if if all this had not happened and david had died suddenly

then it would have just kind of stood to reason in probably everybody's eyes that adonijah was to be his replacement after all he was the oldest son up to this point so who knows why david had not acted i suspected this has to do with his overall passivity he's just not doing a whole lot he's not active he's not he's not engaging he's trying to stay warm actions yeah he's trying to stay warm in bed with a with a virgin teenager that's all all you can do that's the that's the way we have a hymn picture there at the beginning of of the chapter uh so he says this to uh to Bathsheba and then she does kind of the the formal courtly bow she bows with the face to the ground pays homage to the king and said may my lord king David live forever so she wishes him well you kind

of get I mean the overall impression we have a relationship between David and Bathsheba is pretty formal at this point, right? I mean, I know that we're 21st century Americans and we're very far removed from this, but I don't know how it wouldn't be awkward even back then for a husband and wife, first of all, to realize, okay, you're one of many wives. You're one of many lovers that the king has. And there is this young virgin who's warming him and you're going into the bedroom to talk to him that just has awkward written all over it so anyway this is this in other words this isn't kind of you know one of a very kind of warm and and uh uh warm and welcoming scene between husband and wife this is more like king and subject except in case this case the subject

happens to be one of the king's many wives yeah this this looks different if she's like walking into the throne room and he's seated there up on the throne and stuff and even that would look more sort of regal and and this this is just super weird yeah it's extremely awkward so anyway she's she's got what uh uh what she wants what nathan wants and of course we also know in the midst of this and this is something we haven't made explicit i don't think but you know the midst of this is this is what god wants too uh when we're not downplaying that we're just You got to hold two things in tension here. You got to hold the political realities on the ground, which are suffused with all kinds of private concerns and family stuff and marriage stuff going on here. him well this is my son and i want him to be king and you got all that real stuff from real sinners

happening on the ground and the bible does does never back away from revealing that a lot of the things that are happening here are from pure and impure motives so this is kind of typical simul justus epicator kind of stuff happening all these people are simultaneously saints and sinners and so a lot of the things happening on the ground between people are for good and bad reasons pure and impure motives so that's happening but bear in mind that behind all of this you also have the providential lord who is also making sure that his will is done and he wants solomon to be the king and he's going to make sure solomon is the king and yeah all the material he has to work with happens to be a deeply flawed humanity. Of course, when God's will is being done, it's going

to look, in many ways, bad from our perspective, but that's the way God always works. Whatever the political or church or family situation might be, that's the way providence happens. It doesn't mean that everything is going to be beautiful and tied together neatly with a bow. It just means that well you know god raises up leaders he puts down leaders he puts kings on the throne he removes kings from the throne and his will is going to be done in one way or another because ultimately he's the one who is guiding these these events yeah and i do think it's i mean i i i don't think it's a secret uh at this point uh that you know obviously that that sheba was uriah's wife and that david now has her and this is her son and if you were like just picking somebody to be the the next

uh king of israel this is not the person that you would pick no no i mean the son of the woman that david committed adultery with and then had her husband murdered probably probably not your first pick yeah there's a lot of you're like this guy comes with a lot of baggage like this is not this is we probably want to like leave that in the in the past and move on to something to so the better we don't want to we don't have to be confronted with that all the time and then of course this is the guy that god wants of course yeah yeah that is typical it's a typical god choice like okay the god david's got a bunch of sons here uh i mean probably no telling how many sons he's got all right uh and then it's like you prayed all of them before god it's like nope nope

Nope. Nope. Anymore? Well, there is the son of Bathsheba, Solomon. I mean, it's like the whole choosing of David all over again, right? Parades of her seven sons. No, no, no, no, no. Got any more? Well, yeah. There's a kid, youngest. He's out there with a sheep. We'll go get him. That's kind of the situation here. Well, there is Solomon. He's got, like you say, all this baggage. God's like, yeah, that's what I want. I want that guy with all this past to be my present king. So David is going to act here. Verse 32, King David says, it's like he goes from doing nothing to being extremely active and passing down a bunch of authoritative decrees.

he says call to me zadok the priest nathan the prophet and benaiah the son of jehoiada and those three names are going to come up quite a bit in these next few verses so you got a priest you got a prophet and we're most familiar with the prophet of course because we've heard from nathan multiple times he was the one who called david to repent back in the uriah incident and he's also the one through whom god gave the promise to david in second samuel 7 so we know nathan but he's there with zadok the priest and this other guy benaiah the son of jehoiada that we're going to hear a whole lot more about as the the story progresses benaiah is going to turn into the next joab as we will as we will see so they these guys come before the king and the king

says to them take with you the servants of the lord and these are probably david's personal bodyguard the kerathites and the pellethites that we've heard so much about these foreign mercenaries that are employed to be david's personal bodyguard so take with you the servants of your lord so my servants and have solomon my son ride on my own mule and then bring him down to gihon so a couple couple of things here uh that are that are important first of all why is this riding on my own mule accident here? Well, because everybody knew the mount of David. Everybody knew that this was David's own mount, but it was more than that. It wasn't just like the mule that he happened to ride around on. This was also because it was his, it was emblematic of

his office. So you could kind of picture this as a living walking throne, if you will. So when David sat on his mule he was basically sitting on his throne and just like he guided this animal where he wanted it to go so the king was there to guide the kingdom so in that way the mule itself was sort of a representative of the kingdom or a a substitute for the throne if you will so that's why solomon is placed on david's own own own mule so have him set him on mule and then bring him down to Gihon. So Gihon is a spring that is right east of Jerusalem, down in the Kidron Valley. It was a main water source for Jerusalem, and that's where the coronation or the anointing is about to take place. Now, I want to come back to that. Well, go ahead. Now, as I said, this is them putting

Solomon on Air Force One and flying him to the inauguration site, and that's what was happening here that's precisely what's happening there yeah yeah and if you're you know if you're picking up on some palm sending nuances here you're right we'll come back to that in just a second i want to kind of finish what's happening with uh the instructions of david so take him to the spring and let zadok the priest and nathan the prophet bear anoint him king over israel So anoint is mashach. Of course, this is the verb for whence we get mashach, which comes in English as Messiah. So I like to translate this as Messiah him.

So let the priest, Zadok, and the prophet, Nathan, their Messiah him, anoint him, little M Messiah, of course, anoint him or Messiah him as king over Israel. It's a good reminder, just as an aside here, it's a good reminder that when you hear Messiah, or in greek christ typically that is connected with with kingship so when we you know when we hear jesus christ or jesus the messiah we might picture and we we will say this you know well priests were anointed and and prophets were anointed and kings were anointed and i don't dispute that but primarily the title of mashiach that is messiah or christos that is christ those were primarily associated with the office of king so jesus christ is basically another way of saying

jesus king that is jesus the one who is the anointed king over over israel in fact over over everything of course but that's what's about to happen he's going to be anointed king over israel and then david's not done he says and then i want you to blow the trumpet so get the shofar that's the hebrew for trumpet here blow the shofar and say you're gonna you're gonna blow the trumpet, but that's not enough. I want you to say something. I want you to say, long live King Solomon. Just in case there's any confusion here, we're going to name names when we do this. Long live King Solomon. And then you shall come up after him and he shall come and sit on my throne for he shall be king in my place. There's that language we heard earlier. He shall be king

in my place. And I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah. So not just Judah, but over Israel as well as over Judah. So those are David's instructions. We'll see, of course, how these are carried out in just a minute. But David is making sure that there's no doubt whatsoever of who his choice is going to be. He's going to make sure that this doesn't happen in private this happens very publicly and as we'll see in just a second it does become a very very public scene where you have all of jerusalem there in this great procession that brings solomon from the spring of gihon back to back to the city he names names him make sure that solomon is named as the king long live king not just not just long live solomon but long live king

solomon he's got his priest there he's got his prophet there and he's going to make sure that he rides on on his own mule and then david will enter the city of jerusalem i mean excuse me solomon will enter the city of jerusalem and just to kind of give a to to to go up in the air as a word to give a bigger perspective here and what's about to happen solomon is brought to the throne of david it's going to be the king and really what's the what is the major task that solomon is going to be given to do as time goes on well he's going to build the temple there in jerusalem now take all that and read that through a palm sunday lens it becomes pretty cool because here you have the son of david jesus of nazareth so he is the one that was truly

prophesied back in second samuel chapter seven this one who was going to reign on the throne of his father david so you have the son of david he's coming from where he's coming from the east The spring of Gihon is to the east side of Jerusalem. He's coming from the east, and he doesn't come walking in. Now, as far as we know, in the Gospels, on Palm Sunday was the only time that Jesus is ever described as having been riding on an animal. If he did some other time, fine, but the only time we're ever told he rode on an animal is when he rode in on Palm Sunday. And he's riding, of course, on a donkey, and he's greeted by the crowds. And one of the things they say is, you know, this is the son of David.

He's come to take the throne of his father, of his father, David. And this is one more cool connection here. What does Jesus do when he rides into Jerusalem? Where does he go? He goes immediately to the temple and begins to overturn the tables of the money changers and to let the animals free and to cause quite the ruckus. in the temple so that's in contrast to solomon because solomon rides in to assume the throne and then to build the temple jesus rides in as a son of david to assume his own throne which will

happen on good friday but also to upset the stuff at the temple because things are about to change the temple itself is no longer going solomon's temple or herod's temple that temple is no longer going to be needed because a new temple has has arrived yeah yeah you have solomon the the son of david who rides in and builds the temple and you have david or you have jesus uh the the prophesied son of david coming and saying in three days i'm going to tear this temple down yeah all right we're about to have a temple destruction and a temple reconstruction except the temple we're about to have is a a very different very different kind of temple but that's some uh that's some really instructive foreshadowing that's happening here and when you so when you read first kings

chapter one in light of the events in in the gospels then it becomes pretty clear that this is as it were the the canvas upon which that first kings one is the canvas upon which the palm sunday picture is is painted so you're intended to view each of these together and you know when you do that, when you read what's happening in the Gospels in light of 1 Kings 1, and when you read 1 Kings 1 in light of what's happening in the Gospels, then actually both of them expand in their meaning. That's ideally the way we interpret the Scriptures. We don't just read something in isolation, because when we do that, we're always going to under-read it. But if we read 1 Kings 1 in light of the Gospels, and the Gospels in light of 1 Kings 1, well then both of them, as it were,

become more beautiful, because we see how the Spirit has inspired each of these in order to address the same sort of reality, but in a deeper and more meaningful way. Okay, so that took us through the end of 35. David finishes his speech, Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, answered the king, and he says, Amen, Amen. May the Lord, the god of my father may the lord the god of my lord the king say so as the lord has been with my lord the king this is kind of confusing because there's two different lords here if you're just listening in the podcast we there's two different lords here there's there's capital l capital o capital r capital d so yahweh as the lord has been with with my adon my lord the king even so may he

be with Solomon and make his throne greater than the throne of my Lord King David. That's quite a statement right there. He's saying, yeah, I mean, we want God to be with your son Solomon for sure, just like he's been with you, just like he's brought you into the kingdom and on the throne. We definitely want that, but we want Solomon, your son's throne, to be even greater than the throne to my lord king david so jehoiada makes his little speech there and then they get to book they get to work zadok the priest nathan the prophet benaiah the son of jehoiada and david's personal bodyguard the kerathites and the pelethites they all go down and they had solomon ride on king david's mule and they brought him to the spring gihon just like david had instructed and there verse 39

And Zadok the priest, and it's important to just to make sure that we catch that. So this isn't Nathan the prophet. This is Zadok the priest that does this. So Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tent. Now, we're not told which tent this is, but I find it hard to believe it's anything but the tabernacle, that holy tent. So this isn't just a horn of oil that Zadok happened to have back at his house. And so he's like, hey, I got some olive oil. I'll bring that.

We'll use that. No, this is a horn of oil that's holy, that's sacred, that's from the tabernacle, from the priestly place. That's why I accented it to Zadok who does this. So Zadok, this priestly guy, takes a horn of sacred oil from the sacred tent. And then with that, he, Messiah Solomon, he anoints Solomon. then as David instructed they blow the shofar and then all the people now we're told it's not just Nathan and Zadok and Benaiah and the Karathites and Pelophites all the people said long live King Solomon so the exact refrain that David had indicated and then all the people

went up after him and they put on quite the scene that's this that's another one of these Palm Sunday kind of deals we're not told that they were cutting down branches of trees and all that but they are having quite a party and they're having they're making a lot of noise in fact we have hyperbole here it says they're playing on pipes and they're rejoicing with great joy and you know how much are we rejoicing this is the hyperbole the earth was split by their noise yeah that's that's a party i mean the earth is like quaking so much it begins to split open yeah i mean obviously you're trying to find a way to tell you that this is this is a ruckus i mean this thing is loud that's a great yeah uh it's a great way to translate it this is quite the

ruckus yeah now one thing we're going to get into that into this next one thing that happens in the in the scriptures like sometimes you're not sure how long something takes to happen especially like the way that the old testament reads like you know it'll be like david said to do this and then they went and did this and then you figure out that it took like a year for this thing to happen or whatever right this is not the case here i mean this this happens quick because as we're about to find out this isn't something that just happened you know next week or like or it happened you know two months later as they were getting everything organized they organized this and did it at the same time that adonijah is having his feast so

and we know that that feast was going on and they these people were uninvited and so that they came he said david what's going on here i mean this this had to have been happened in a matter of a day yeah yeah yeah this went down fast yeah and i i suppose it did because maybe david probably david but certainly all the others actors in this they realized they needed to get it done quickly because adonijah was acting quickly i mean he'd already been greasing the wheels he'd gathered around him you know all these runners and the chariot all the trappings of the king and he had this feast and so he has his supporters there so adonijah is acting like any minute now he's going to be acclaimed as king by the people

so nathan and bathsheba and zadok and abiathar and all these these other folks they probably think to themselves we got to act now yeah you know not tomorrow not next week but we need to we need to get this done so as you indicate that's what that's what happens verse 41 says adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it heard what well they heard the piping and this general ruckus happening as they finished feasting you can just kind of picture the scene i'm sure everybody was having a good time you know having plenty of food and i'm sure there was plenty of drink there and everybody's coming up to adonijah and putting their arm over his shoulder and said man you are you are going to be such a great king i mean just look at you look at all you've done

you're david's oldest son just can't wait for you to take that throne everything's going to be great probably already making some requests you know maybe we get this done that done and then in the middle of all this everybody hears something so there is kind of a uh an instructive difference here everybody heard it that is they heard this ruckus but joab the military guy specifically heard the sound of the trumpet he heard the shofar so joab's ears doesn't just hear a general you know noise coming from the city they were obviously close enough to the city to hear this happening but joab the soldier he hears the shofar and so he knows something is up probably as soon as that shofar hits his ears joab's heart stops for a minute because he knows this can't be good

so he says what does this uproar in the city mean and while he was still speaking uh jonathan the son of abiathar the priest came and adonijah said come in for you uh You're a worthy man and bring good news. Boy, are you wrong. I like this reply, though. I like the reply of no. You're a worthy man and bring good news. Not today.

I'm not. Nope. Sorry. Alas. Nope. I'm not the bearer of good news here. I mean, the whole scene kind of reminds me of if you think back to those chapters before when David is waiting to hear news from Absalom, about Absalom,

and one of the runners comes up, and he's like, oh, yeah, that guy obviously is going to be a bearer of good news. Well, he wasn't either, just like Jonathan's going to be a bearer of good news. He says no. For our Lord, King David, and he does call him our Lord, so he acknowledges that David still has authority. He still has that regal power to make decisions. Our Lord, King David, and you can just imagine hearing a pin drop

when he says these next words, has made Solomon king. And the king has sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Karathites and the Pelathites. And then he begins to give all these details in this sort of breathless recitation of everything that's just transpired. I'm assuming that Jonathan was watching all this go down, And as soon as he saw it, he's like, I've got to run over there to where they're having the feast and let everybody know what's happening. So he goes on.

He says they had him ride on the king's mule and say, Dr. Priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king at Gihon. They've gone up from there rejoicing. So the city's in an uproar that this is the noise that you have heard. and then he goes on and in hebrew there's multiple occasions here where he has uh there's a very short phrase called which which very short word which is gom which you could translate as what's more so it's almost like he's he's thinking of extra details he's like what's more this happened and then what's more this happened and what's more this happened so four different times it occurs in these these next few verses so what's more solomon sits on the royal throne and what's

more, the king's servants came to congratulate the Lord King David. They said, may your God make the name of Solomon more famous than yours and make his throne greater than your throne. And the king bowed himself on his bed. And what's more, the king said, blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has granted someone to sit on my throne this day, my own eyes seeing it. Now, Jonathan hams things up a little bit because he had some things in there we aren't told from earlier but he's excited and he's nervous i'm sure and he's once you're gonna throw it all out there for all the guests to hear i mean this is the ultimate thing i mean what he's basically being like is dude it's over uh david was bowing down to this guy it's over man this is the ultimate wet blanket on a

party i don't i don't know if there's ever been a a heavier wetter blanket thrown on a party than what jonathan just does now so he lays it all out i mean he adds some details uh here and there but he's got the basic story but this is what david said to do and this is what they did and this is david's response and so pretty much sorry adonijah but your party's over your chances of being king are are over now as well and this is not just bad news like hey i don't think you're going to be king uh this is bad news and uh hey there is a king and he probably you and him probably have a problem yeah you're about to have a come to come to jesus meeting with with solomon yeah but can you imagine you're at a nigel the the things running through your head right now

i mean i've i've been in situations where you know i think i got it made and then something happens and you realize the exact opposite it's always just emotionally devastating of course but uh imagine this situation not only is adonijah emotionally decimated uh but yeah he's got to be wondering am i gonna am i even gonna live through this yeah i mean something many bad things could be about to could be about to go down yeah and you know that joab is like hearing that thing being like man how like how am i out of the loop again like why is why does this keep happening to me yeah we won't get to it this episode but the next episode we're we're at we're about to say goodbye to mr joab we've we spent a lot of time with him but uh his his days are going to be

numbered but yeah i'm sure he's he's also trying to figure out where he stands with with everything so uh first of all all these guests of adonijah all the all the glad handers and the you know congratulators they know that it's over so it says they actually trembled as soon as they heard this news and they got up and each went his own way this is this is some people being like i was never here yeah yeah i was fishing i was fishing that day actually yeah that's where i was i was i was away on a trip when the uh the party for solomon happened i certainly was not at adonijah's feast so they they trembled they get up and they hightail it adonijah feared solomon then there's an understatement for you adonijah feared solomon so what do you do in the ancient world

when you're afraid you think you're about to to die and you're looking for asylum well one of the things that you could do and this was not just an israelite thing this actually happens to be fairly prevalent in a lot of a lot of the ancient near eastern cultures you could seek asylum by grabbing hold of an altar so that's what he did it says he got up adonijah got up went and took hold of the horns on the altar so in uh uh and we've archaeologists have found examples of these these horned altars basically what you have is the corner at the four corners of the altars you have a projectile coming up, or whatever you want to call it.

Something coming up that's horn-shaped anyway on the edge of each of these. And horns were symbolic of power and strength and authority, and so probably that's why you had horns on these altars. That was part of the

instructions on how the altar was to be built. But you could also grab these and claim asylum. So that's what he does he takes hold of the horns of the altar at this time by the way we haven't addressed the tabernacle for a while but there's a weird divorce that's happened here david has brought the ark of the covenant into jerusalem set up a tent so that's where the ark of the covenant is but the altar and the tabernacle are in gibeon so it's it's a very weird time in the tabernacle's history

but anyway that's what's happening so the the altar and i guess most of the tabernacle is in Gibeon, but the Ark of the Covenant is in Jerusalem. So that's the worship situation. So he goes to Gibeon, takes hold of the horns of the altar, and then they tell Solomon, the news is related to Solomon, look, Adonijah fears you, fears King Solomon, because he's laid hold of the horns of the altar. And here's what he said. This is what Adonijah says. Let King Solomon swear to me first that he will not put his servant to death with a sword so solomon says if he will show himself a worthy man in hebrew which sometimes can mean valiant or probably here it just means if you'll show yourself uh guiltless in the future so a worthy man if you do that if you don't cause

problems if you show yourself worthy then i guarantee you not one of his hairs shall fall to the earth so it'll be okay but if wickedness is found in him he shall die so he grants him clemency with the understanding that he's got to toe the line or else so king solomon sent and they brought him down from the altar presumably they relayed this promise of solomon to him he comes down from the altar he comes and he actually bows down before his brother before before solomon which no doubt was difficult to do but that's what he does and then solomon says to him go to your house yeah this yeah there's probably some like uh uh latent within that is the warning go to your house and behave brother because you're going to be watched yeah this is this is

interesting i first of all it seems that he's got a hold of the horns of the altar and he doesn't let them go right so he's just he's not moving he's just there and like i don't know for how long but he's there for a little bit uh until this message is brought to them they come back and say hey he's grabbed hold of the horns of the altar and when they he's like oh well i'm not going to harm him if he's you know if he turns out to be a worthy man you know if he tries anything shady then of course you know i'll have to kill him they have to go deliver this message and then bring him down from the altar so he's just up there like i'm not letting these things go until i have some assurances and then i think solomon does makes a a wise you can i mean this is a you can say

well this is a nice thing for him to do his brother you know he does this it's also a wise political move i mean i don't know that the kingdom's divided divided but wasn't as if there was nobody at this feast and it probably isn't the best way to start uh your reign by killing and your brother. So this seems like both a merciful thing to do. It's a generous thing to do. Other people would not do such a thing, I think, but also probably a politically wise thing to do. Yeah. Yeah. And as typical of this narrative, you kind of got both those things happening at once. I mean, you can have leaders that do things for compassionate reasons, but also for political reasons. And so the very first decision that Solomon makes as a king is a good

one yeah he doesn't act in sort of a vengeful sort of way but instead he he makes a a clear decision gives him clear parameters and then lets him lets him go free yeah and maybe he even understands like hey understood i understand why you thought this was yours but uh looks like it's not so i'm gonna be i'm gonna be leaning in here now in the the next chapter which we'll get to next uh we next chapter is quite a uh quite an account of of david's last words of solomon david's death and then how he tells him to wrap up some loose ends loose ends being named joab and shemay and barzillai so one good end and then two not so good ends to these other guys yeah well that's it we're out of time so we're gonna have to pick that up

next week uh but chad first kings is off to uh a rip-roaring start so i'm looking forward to it