David pretends to capture the city of Rabbah that has already been captured:Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the sons of Ammon and captured the royal city. Joab sent messengers to David and said, “I have fought against Rabbah, I have even captured the city of waters. “Now therefore, gather the rest of the people together and camp against the city and capture it, or I will capture the city myself and it will be named after me.” So David gathered all the people and went to Rabbah, fought against it and captured it. Then he took the crown of their king from his head; and its weight was a talent of gold, and in it was a precious stone; and it was placed on David’s head. And he brought out the spoil of the city in great amounts. He also brought out the people who were in it, and set them under saws, sharp iron instruments, and iron axes, and made them pass through the brick kiln. And thus he did to all the cities of the sons of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.--II Samuel 12:26-31
Amnon wants what he cannot have
Amnon, David’s oldest son, thinks he is in love with his sister Tamar. Following bad advice, he is persuaded by his so-called friend and cousin Jonadab to develop a plan. The great pretender pretends to be sick and then ask his father the king if Tamar can bake some bread for him. Putting one over on the old man, he deceives his father David. David sends Tamar to Amnon’s house to prepare food for him. Amnon takes advantage of his strength to overpower Tamar and to rape her. What originally felt like love quickly turns to hate. Amnon then has her thrown out of the house in disgrace. The Lion King has no teeth. The Bible records that David heard about this and was very angry. However, neither confrontation nor punishment is recorded. Amnon appears to have gotten away with this sinful act against his sister who now has to live with the pain and the shame.
Solomon’s step-sister Tamar
Why did Tamar not question her father's decision not to punish Amnon? Tamar tried to stop her brother’s advances by pleading with him first on moral codes and public opinion to not violate her since such a thing is not done in Israel. Next she tried to deceive him into believing that if he only asked the king for her the king would agree. She says “for he will not withhold me from you.” After being violated, she pleads with Amnon, “Don’t send me away like this.”
Once molested she thinks it is better to stay in this unnatural relationship than to be sent away. You may wonder why she did this. Unfortunately, this happens too often. A person is sinned against is often ashamed to let anyone know for fear of the guilt and the shame that it will bring. They think that they somehow caused this, that it is their own fault. This is stinking thinking. It is never good to stay in an abusive relation under any circumstances. It is never good to keep silent about an offense like this or to cover it up. In this case her step brother Amnon ends up discarding her like a piece of trash.
Absalom (Tamar's brother), the silent menace
Absalom learns of what Amnon has done to his sister and he tells her to keep silent about it. Already he has it in his heart to kill Amnon. It is just a matter of time. He did not speak to Amnon either good or bad. After two full years, Absalom throws a sheep shearing party. He invites his father David the king. However, David is too busy with affairs of state and declines the invitation. Then he asked the king to let Amnon come to the party. Then David said “Why should he go with you?”. He appears to suspect something and so instead of sending Amnon alone with Absalom he sends all of his sons with him.
Absalom boldly has Amnon killed. The rest of the king's sons get on their donkeys and flee. Absalom must have confided in Jonadab, because when the king hears that Absalom has killed all of the kings sons. Jonadab, the guy that put Amnon up to raping his sister, speaks up and tells the king that it is only Amnon that has been killed because Absalom was angry about him abusing his sister. Now David had to be remembering what Nathan the Prophet had prophesied i.e., “the sword shall never depart from your house."
So Absalom gets away with murder and his father does not address it, just like he did not address Amnon and let him get away with rape and abuse. Through another series of unfortunate events Absalom allies himself with Ahithophel, David’s counselor (Bathsheba’s grandfather/Solomon’s great grandfather), and together they plot a military coup. David hears about it and flees the city for his life.
Listening to unwise counsel
Ahithophel advises Absalom to abuse David’s concubines on the roof top in broad daylight so that all of Israel will know that Absalom has made himself odious to his father. Rejecting the wise counsel of other advisors, Ahithophel hangs himself after his other counsel is not taken to pursue David and overtake him as quickly as possible.
Playing with the major league players
Once David regains his military strength he takes advantage of it and sends three armies out to overthrow the coup. He sounds like he is pretending to go with them but the people don’t want to let him. Then he says “Whatever you seems best to you I will do.” That is lame lame lame lame lame. Who is king? Who should know what is best when it comes to battle? Who is still pretending? Deadly Hangout Note: It is because of this that a third son of David ends up stuck hanging in a tree and eventually ends up dead.
Adonijah fourth but not forgotten
In the movie "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, all of the brothers have the same parents. Before Solomon’s brother was born to Bathsheba in Jerusalem, David had six other wives and six sons born to him in Hebron. One from each of these six wives. Actually he had a few more wives who had sons born to him but the names of these women are not recorded. Nor are the names of concubines that also had sons born to him. Ref. I Chronicles 3:1-9
Sons were born to David at Hebron: his firstborn was Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelitess; and his second, Chileab, by Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur; and the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital; and the sixth, Ithream, by David’s wife Eglah.--II Samuel 3:2-5
One of the bad things about having children to so many different women is that there is no good role model for a good wholesome lasting relationship. The children have no real vision or hope of having an exclusive love relationship with that one person that God has created for them, much like the majority of kids nowadays who are from broken homes.
Another bad thing about being king and having a lot of sons is that some of them want to be king and are willing to kill the others to be king of the hill. Thus it was with Adonijah he was the fourth son. He wanted to cut in line to get to the top. I guess that Chileab the second son did not challenge Absalom or Adonijah for the throne. But Solomon is the real challenge due to prophecy and Adonijah knows that. So instead of inviting Solomon to the party and killing him there, Adonijah just left Solomon, Benaiah, the thirty mighty men and Nathan the prophet off the list.
Nathan instructs Bathsheba to go to the king and confront him on his promise to make Solomon King. This spoils the second coup.Remember the first coup involved one of David’s sons i.e., Absalom, one of David’s Generals Amasa and one of David’s counselor Ahithophel. The second coup has same script but different players: one of David’s sons i.e., Adonijah, one of David’s Generals i.e., Joab and one of David’s priests i.e., Abiathar. In both cases the three ringleaders, the son, the General, and the priest or counselor end up dead.
Solomon’s first days as king
Now Solomon loved the Lord, walking in all the statutes of his father David, except he burned incense in the high places.--I Kings 3:3
In 1 Kings 3:5, the Lord appears to Solomon in a dream and says “Ask whatever you wish me to give you.”
Solomon’s Prayer
Then Solomon said, “You have shown great loving kindness to Your servant David my father, according as he walked before You in truth and righteousness and uprightness of heart toward You; and You have reserved for him this great loving kindness, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. “Now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. “Your servant is in the midst of Your people which You have chosen, a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted. “So give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” --1 Kings 3:6-9
God’s answer
It was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice, behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. “I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days. “If you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will prolong your days.”--1 Kings 3:10-14
Solomon the wisest of all kings
Solomon displays some of this wisdom gift with two women fighting over a baby. It may not seem that big of a deal unless it came from a little child king/teenager king.
Now God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the seashore. Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men, than Ethan the Ezrahite, Heman, Calcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was known in all the surrounding nations. He also spoke 3,000 proverbs, and his songs were 1,005. He spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that grows on the wall; he spoke also of animals and birds and creeping things and fish. Men came from all peoples to hear the Wisdom of Solomon, from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.--1 Kings 4:29-34
Solomon builds a house for God
Now it came about when Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all that Solomon desired to do, that the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time, as He had appeared to him at Gibeon. The LORD said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your supplication, which you have made before Me; I have consecrated this house which you have built by putting My name there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. “As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’
“But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will cast out of My sight. So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. “And this house will become a heap of ruins; everyone who passes by will be astonished and hiss and say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’ “And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and adopted other gods and worshiped them and served them, therefore the LORD has brought all this adversity on them.’”--I Kings 9:1-9
Solomon’s last days/years as king
Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.” Solomon held fast to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.--1 Kings 11:1-8
“No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD, because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you"--Deuteronomy 23:3-4
Now the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the LORD had commanded. So the LORD said to Solomon, “Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant. “Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. “However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”--1 Kings 11:9-13
1.) As broken vessels we see that we are loved by God and we can do great things for God.
2.) We must remember God’s promises.
3.) We must also remember His warnings lest we end up at the end worshiping someone or something else instead of Jesus Christ our Creator and Redeemer.
No comments:
Post a Comment