Okay, so here we are in lesson two entitled Solomon the Wise. We just laid the foundation of the groundwork for the Bible study and first and second kings, authorship, dating, structure, themes, typology, all that stuff, and lesson one. So we're now ready to dive into chapter one verse one. And we're going to do that now.
There's a little bit of obstacles or speed bumps, you can say, for Solomon becoming king. And we're going to deal with that drama here in chapter one and chapter two. So let's begin now by reading verses one through four and see what happens at the end of David's reign. And I would say really quickly, of course, obviously there's overlap.
We mentioned this in the last lesson between first kings and second Samuel. Second Samuel follows the trajectory of David's kingdom, his rise, and his fall. If you want to look at that in the aftermath of his sin. And now at the end of second Samuel, the last thing that happened was David's census and how that was sinful.
And we talked about how Satan instigated that, God allows it, and David kind of falls flat on his face. And so he is left there in Jerusalem offering up a sacrifice to atone for his sin to stop the pestilence. So he's still alive in the end of second Samuel, as you probably well know. But now as we open up to first Kings chapter one, he is very old and he's on his way out, basically.
He's not the strong, vigorous warrior that he once was. All right, so let's read now the chapter one verse one. Now King David was old and advanced in years. And although they covered him with clothes, he could not get warm.
Therefore his servants said to him, let a young maiden be sought for my Lord the king and that I wait upon the king and be his nurse and that I lie in your bosom that my Lord the king may be warm. So they sought for a beautiful maiden throughout all the territory of Israel and found Abish Ag, the Shinnamite. I don't know why Abish Ag, the Shinnamite. And brought her to the king and maiden was very beautiful and she became the king's nurse and minister to him, but the king knew her not.
All right, now we'll stop right there. King David is about 70 years old at this point. If you go back to second Samuel chapter five, verse four, it says that David was 30 years old when he began to reign and he reigned for 40 years at Hebron over Judah, seven years, six months before he became king over all Jerusalem for 33 years. So if you go back to second Samuel gives you these little details if he reigns for 40 years after he was 30 years old when he started, then we're talking right now in the opening verses of chapter one verse one here in first Kings.
He's about 70 years old and he can't get warm. He's had a hard life. He's killed many people. He's established his authority.
He's been running for his life for many years away from Son, all of the drama that he dealt with probably left an impact on him. So he is not doing so well. He can't get warm and they didn't really have electric heater blankets back then or maybe not even hot water bottles. So the next best thing to an electric blanket is a really beautiful young maiden.
And that's exactly what they did. They went and found Abish Ag, the Shinnamite and she warmed him. It was not a sexual relationship. She was just a nurse keeping him warm with body heat and so on and so forth.
So Abish Ag, the electric blanket is helping him out. And while this while he's getting older and becoming a little bit more frail and colder, it seems to be, his son Adonaija is seeking the throne. He's not meant to be the king, although many people think he is. He's seeking the throne.
And well, it seems to be he's seeking the throne for quite some time. And David never corrects him. So let's read on here verses five and following and see what's going on. So verse five, Adonaija the son of a gieth exalted himself.
That's immediately a bad sign, by the way. He is exalting himself saying, I will be king and he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen and fifty men to run before him. His father had never at any time displeased him by asking, why have you done thus and so? He was also a very handsome man and he was born next after Absalom.
He conferred with Joab and with Abiathir the priest and they followed Adonaija and helped him. But Zadak the priest, Ben and Aya and Nathan the prophet, Shimei and Reh and a bunch of other mighty men were not with Adonaija. In verse nine, Adonaija sacrificed sheep, ox and fatlings by the serpent stone, which is by Enrogle and he invited all his brothers, the king sons, and all the royal officials of Judah but he did not invite Nathan or Ben and Aya, the mighty men or solemn in his brother. All right, lend there with verse 10 here.
So Adonaija seeking the throne, we immediately see this contrast of him being exalts himself. This is very much in connection with the big thing we saw throughout verse and second Samuel that begins with Hannah's beautiful canticle. This thing of reversals like we've seen, right, where God will bring down the mighty and lift up below. So he is exalting himself and later you're going to see Solomon the wise, like almost entitled to Solomon the humble and wise, because at least in the beginning of his reign he has a humble man and he knows he needs God's assistance to be king.
And he was the one who allows his father David and God himself to raise him up. So there's a big contrast between Adonaija here and Solomon the one who exalts himself and is brought down and then the one who is humble and is brought up. Well as we read these verses, it says that David had never at any time displeased him by saying why have you done thus and so, because clearly he's setting up his own authority. And this also touches upon a theme in the Samuel books that we saw, especially second Samuel.
King David had a big problem correcting his children. There's a lot of examples of this with Ammon and Absalom. And of course, as nephew Joe Ab, we're going to deal with him in just a second. There's various individuals within his kingdom, specifically his household and his children.
King David consistently had a disciplinary problem. And it seems right here David didn't step up and say something and he should have because everything that Adonaija's doing is a big echo of what Absalom did. Now if you remember the story of Absalom, Absalom rose up against his father and it didn't end well. And there's a lot of parallels going on here between Adonaija and Absalom to the point where Adonaija is a new Absalom.
Now it does say here that Adonaija was next after Absalom. So by all intents and purposes, by all appearances, it would seem that Adonaija was next in line. If you go back to second Samuel chapter three, this is David's first sons are born and then you've got Kaleeb, in fact I'm going to flip back here as quickly as I can to chapter three. Verse two, it says there were sons born to David at Hebron because remember he ruled in Jerusalem, excuse me, he ruled in Judah first.
His first born was Abnam, then it was Kaleeb, then it was Absalom, then Adonaija. All right now Amnon is dead because we saw that whole story back in second Samuel when Absalom kills Amnon. Kaleeb is presumed dead. We don't know anything about this boy at all.
If an Absalom rises up against his father and then is ended up getting his hair stuck up in the oak and Joab kills him if you remember that story. So next in line is Adonaija. So like I say by all appearances, people would seem to want to support Adonaija. Many do but many don't and that tells us already there is a split in allegiances where many folks do support Adonaija but he doesn't get the support of some significant characters.
He doesn't get everybody's support and he certainly doesn't invite Solomon to this feasting and revelry because clearly he knows Solomon must have been the intended heir by their father but he's exalting himself trying to make himself the king. So he is a new Absalom figure and there's a lot of echoes. So immediately you see these echoes and exalting himself. You know this is not going to go well.
In scripture, if you exalt yourself in pride and rebel against God's will, it's just not going to go so well. And that's exactly what's happening with Adonaija but here in your notes, looking at various commentaries I put together some of the parallels for you. So Absalom and now Adonaija, both of them, so Adonaija is doing a bunch of things that echoes Absalom. Number one, he assembles a small army of horses and chariots and foot soldiers.
That's what Absalom did and I have the references in your notes. You want to go check that out. Adonaija is very handsome just like Absalom was. Next, number three, he invites key leaders to support him.
Specifically in this story, Joe Absalom represents the military side and Abiathar which was one of the priests that would be the priesthood side and some others as well. But again, not everybody, not the mighty men, not Nathan and others. Number four, he offers sacrifices for himself like Absalom did. Number five, he rebels against the lawful king.
So Absalom against his father, now Adonaija against Solomon. And I would even argue Adonaija rebels against David as well, his father because David is still alive and is very clear by not inviting Solomon and then seeing how the rest of the story plays out. Adonaija knew Solomon was the intended heir by the father David and didn't follow his father's wishes. So you could make the connection that Adonaija rebels against David as well.
All right, number six, Adonaija is good. We're going to see this in the next chapter, so we're a little head of ourselves. He does desire to take David's concubine, Abiagal, electric blanket, the hot water bottle. It doesn't get her.
We'll see how that plays out in a moment. But that's what Absalom did. He slept with his father's concubines and brought daylight on top of the palace. So there's six parallels here.
There's a bonus one. So stay tuned. Don't get the pause to go do something else great. I'm going to give you a seventh bonus connection here in chapter two that I think a lot of people have it.
I don't even know if anybody has made this connection. So Hank Tite and I'm going to share a seventh very important connection that Solomon's going to make momentarily. All right, so it's not going to go well. He is a new Absalom character and he's going to end up losing his life as a result.
But nevertheless, he crowns himself king out of banquet, surrounded by his supporters. He's grasping at authority. This is not good. Meanwhile, now in verse nine, excuse me, verse 10, Nathan the prophet comes to Bathsheba.
I'm just going to summarize this longer section here. Nathan says to Bathsheba, look, hey, if you're not heard what Adonaija has done, David doesn't know it. So go into David's presence and tell him what's going on. And then I'm going to come in after you and confirm your words, right?
So it can be a one, two punch happening. David's just trying to stay warm with Abishag and eating his soup or whatever he's doing. He has no idea what's going on. Although I think it's clear there was some warning signs previously in David did nothing.
So now it's kind of coming to a head. So Bathsheba, turning his daughter of the oath, we talk a lot about her, obviously in second Samuel chapter 11 when David took her to sleep with her. So Bathsheba goes in and says a bunch of stuff that's King David helped Lord specifically for 17. She says to David, my Lord, you swore to your maid servant by the Lord your God, saying Solomon, your son shall reign after me and he shall sit upon my throne.
So Nathan says, remind him of his oath that he made to you. Now we don't know exactly when David swore an oath by God to Bathsheba that Solomon would sit on the throne. It seems to be a little bit implied, many people will say, and I have a little footnote for you on the bottom of the page, that this might have happened in second Samuel chapter 12 when after everything happened with the adultery, murder affair, and the child that was conceived by David and Bathsheba had died, time goes on. David comforts Bathsheba and the Lord says that their second sign will be named Solomon, which means peaceful.
And it seems that maybe this is the area where David promised Bathsheba that Solomon would be his heir. Now David didn't swear this to her on his own accord. It's very, very important to know that the parallel passages in the books of Chronicles, specifically First Chronicles 22 and First Chronicles 28, they make it very clear that all along God wanted Solomon to be David's heir. I want to talk a lot about these passages in the next lesson with the construction of the Temple, because God gave a lot of instructions to David about preparing the table, but the instructions for the Temple, excuse me, the instructions for preparing the Temple was given to David by God, and it was clear that Solomon would be the one to do it, of all of his sons.
I'll read this one passage in First Chronicles 28 verse 6. David is speaking about God, and he says, he God said to me, it is Solomon, your son who shall build my house and my course. For I have chosen him to be my son and I will be his father. I will establish his kingdom forever if he continues to be faithful, etc., etc., etc.
We'll come back to these passages later on in the next lesson, but I want to be clear. In this point, I think it's evident that God says to David, Solomon is going to be your heir. He's going to build the Temple. And then David at some point swears this to Bathsheba.
She now is going to remind him of this oath. And then he thinks he's going to come in right afterwards. Now again, I think this is another one of those little verses. It proves that people knew about Solomon's selection as heir.
Nathan knew it, Bathsheba knew it, others did as well. That's why Solomon was not invited to Erenites' revelries. Okay. All right.
Now one thing that's pretty cool about this, I pulled it from your Navar Bible, the Bible commentary. I really like this little reflection about Bathsheba's role in God's plan of salvation and keeping things on track. And I just thought this was a nice little reflection. So I decided to put it here in the notes.
It says here, quote, Bathsheba's actions have something in common with those of Sarah, the wife of Abraham and Rebecca, the way these women cooperate in God's plans, leading salvation history in directions known with a foreseen helps us to see the way the blessed virgin cooperates and salvation. When God makes her the mother of the Messiah, the son of David by overruling the natural laws of human generation. I just really like that. They wear women all over the place from Genesis all the way down to the blessed Virgin Mary and others in the ministry of the apostles.
They're very much involved in God's plan of salvation. And so here you've got a pretender to the throne trying to take that David's authority and Bathsheba is involved in trying to get it back on track. So I just like that. So take it for what it is.
I thought that was kind of nice. All right. So this story goes on now. Bathsheba and Nathan successfully tell David this is what's going on.
And David will say absolutely I'm sticking with Solomon. Let's read a few of these verses actually. Chapter 1 verse 28, King David said, call Bathsheba to me. So she came to the king's presence instead before the king and the king swore saying 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 so sit upon my throne and my stead even so I will do this day.
So he doubles down clearly his mind as sharp as ever. Look, I did swear to you, I am going to make this happen. So here's what you got to do in verses 32 and following. He gives instructions calls out of the priest, call Nathan the prophet, call Ben and Ia who represents the military and go have him sit on my own mule, bring him down to the Guihone River which flows out of Jerusalem and anoint him there, King of Israel.
So we're going to take care of his business right here, right now. That's exactly what happened. So let me read the passage of 38 and following. So in obedience to David, is that a priest, Nathan the prophet and Ben and Ia and the kerathites and the pelipites and probably mighty men and others.
They all went down and caused Solomon to ride on King David's mule and they brought him to the Guihone, the spring or the little river that flows out of Jerusalem. There's that a priest took a horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the trumpet and all the people said long live King Solomon and all the people went up after him playing on pipes rejoicing with great joys so that the earth was split by their noise. I really love that.
Everyone is so excited and jacked up and just celebratory that the earth is split by the noise of celebrating Solomon as the successor of David. So there's a lot going on here in this little story. Number one, he rides in on a mule. He does not ride in on a mighty war horse and various individuals have pointed this out.
In the ancient nearsome world and also in the Greco-Roman world, a conqueror, a king, an emperor comes marching into his capital or into a city on a mighty war horse. He sees the champion and he overthrows enemies in all of this but not the king of Israel, not the Davidic king. He comes in riding on a mule which is an animal of service. It's a beast of burden and that's very, very significant because the king of Israel, and I shared this with you before in the previous studies on 1st and 2nd Samuel, the king is the bridegroom of the people.
So the people of Israel are like the bride of the king. That's this metaphorical relationship that they have. The king is supposed to protect his people and provide for her and defend her and sustain her like a husband would lovingly do for his wife and his family. And so this is symbolized by an animal of service.
When you're going to come in for the intention of serving your people, you don't come in as a conqueror of your people. You don't come in as exerting your authority over your people. Only a weak man would do that, right? So that's immediately a very cool contrast of what is going on here versus in other cultures.
Solomon is the groom, the husband of Israel and he is called to serve her. So that's number one. Now there's a little quote here from another commentary for your ancient Catholic study Bible which says, anointing involves pouring oil upon the head of a candidate whether a prophet, priest or king. It is a sign of the spirit coming down upon the recipients.
A little short comment here but what I like, I said a ton, talk about this a ton. If you go back to the study on Samuel, specifically, lessons three and four when talking about the anointing of Saul and the anointing of David. There's a lot I said there about what the anointing symbolizes and it's a type of confirmation and it's just there's a lot to say about the Christian being anointed by the spirit as well. So go back, by all means check out that Bible study on Second Samuel, our first Second Samuel lesson is two and three specifically for all the connections with Christian life.
But what I will point out here is that this entry, this beautiful celebratory entry into Jerusalem, writing a mule while everybody is geeking out is definitely a connection to Jesus. On Palm Sunday, on the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, everybody knows what's happening here. Everybody is proclaiming Jesus as the son of David who has come to restore and transform and upgrade the David King. In fact, Mark says that as much.
If you go to the parallel passages in the four gospels, Jesus comes in writing on a beast of burden and everybody says, Hosanna, the highest, you know, blessed is he comes in the name of the Lord. But Mark is clear, blessed is the coming of the kingdom of David. They know that Jesus is acting like a new king Solomon because this is how Solomon wrote into Jerusalem, goes to the key home, is anointed and he takes his throne. So for ever since the Babylonian captivity now, everybody is waiting for the new David King to come, the Messiah, the Messiah, right?
And when so Jesus comes in writing on a donkey and everybody is singing, Hosanna, the highest is a lot to say here with the triumphal entry and connected with the psalms and just beautiful things going on. But I have these passages for you in your notes, specifically Zechariah chapter 9 prophesied, the coming of the king of the donkey. I don't want to turn this into a study on the gospels, but I definitely want you to understand Jesus coming into the city is 100% an echo of Solomon doing it. And everybody knows it.
That's why they say blessed is the coming of the king of David. Jesus is the new king and he is coming to take his throne. Now, one little difference here is Jesus takes his throne when he mounts the cross, right? This is how he establishes his kingdom when he goes upon the cross.
There's a little bit of a discontinuity right there. Solomon begins to reign after he enters the city. Jesus begins to reign when he is crucified. And there's one more little bit of typology, which I've not seen made before.
I could be totally wrong there for. So take it with a grain of salt. So what happens with Jesus is Jesus is coming into the city and he is proclaimed king, great, just like Solomon was. So when Solomon comes into the city, he's anointed to proclaim king.
Remember that he had opposition. So his brother, Abiathar and Joab and sorry, his brother, excuse me, Adonaija in the priest Abiathar in the military commander, Joab and others, many others rebelled against Solomon and opposed Solomon. In that way, I personally think that Joab and Abiathar and Adonaija and others, they are types of the rebellious Jews and the religious establishment, the authority of the Sanhedrin who rebellions Jesus, the new Solomon. I think that's the deeper connection of what's going on here.
Solomon is anointed king, but he has opposition from the establishment. So just like Jesus, the new Solomon comes in, is proclaimed king, is anointed king, and takes his throne on the cross, but he too is opposed by the religious establishment. So you take that a little further connection to prayer and think about that. All right.
So after this happens, everybody hears all the supporters of Adonaija hear about what has happened, how Solomon was made king and crowned, and it says the scripture says they trembled, right? So Adonaija quickly runs to the altar in supplication for mercy, and I want to point one little verse out for you in chapter one verse 52. Solomon says, If he proves to be a worthy man, not one of his hairs shall fall to the earth, but if wickedness is now to him, he shall die. So he says, look brother, Adonaija, I'm not going to kill you if you prove worthy and loyal and steadfast.
No more shenanigans. I am the king. This is God's will. This is David's will.
Our father's will. I am king. So if you remain loyal, not one of your hairs will fall to the ground. And this my friend, I believe is another connection to Absalam.
I haven't seen this before. I think I think Solomon is saying, don't forget what happened to Absalom. And if you go back to his story, remember, Absalom was a good looking guy. And what was one of the most distinguishing parts of his features, his characteristics, is his hair.
He was good looking, but he had flowing locks of gorgeous hair. And he was very vain and prideful about that and ended up being his downfall. And there's some more connections here with the wise clever woman approaching David. You have to go back to the Bible study and see what the point is.
The point is that Absalom fell because of his hair. And so David is saying, Hey, if you're loyal, you won't be like Absalom. If you're disloyal, you will die just like Absalom. And the reference to the hairs on your head is 100%.
I believe Solomon's wise little, maybe not so subtle reference to what happened to Adam and I just big brother. You see what I mean? All right. So just a loyal and it's all going to be fine.
So that's chapter one. Now let's go into chapter two here and study David's final words to Solomon and how it echoes so many other great leaders of the Old Testament that we've seen so far. So let's read chapter two verses two and following. Hey, this is Dr.
Nick. Thank you so much for listening to this course sample. If you enjoyed it and want to listen to the entire lesson, please become a student over at Scripture and tradition.com where you can listen to this entire course, but also all the other courses that we have available in the S&T audio library where you can listen to them on demand, however, and whenever you want. So thank you so much.
God bless you and keep setting your Bible.