WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.440 Okay, so we're coming towards, just as we were, we're coming towards the end of our 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:09.560 study in 1 Timothy in the morning worship, we're coming to the end of our study in the 00:00:09.560 --> 00:00:15.679 life of David in our evening worship together. 00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:23.920 And that's mainly been from 2 Samuel, but we're branching into the next book, which 00:00:23.920 --> 00:00:26.839 brings us towards the end of the story of King David. 00:00:26.839 --> 00:00:31.640 So it's First Kings, there's Bibles at the side if you want to help yourselves to Bibles 00:00:31.640 --> 00:00:35.280 to read or you can follow on the screen or just listen. 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:45.879 It's on page 278, and I'm going to read from verse 28 of the first chapter on page 279. 00:00:45.879 --> 00:00:51.039 But I'm just going to, I'm going to set the scene for you before we do so, because we've 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:57.759 got to the stage where David is really old, okay, and he's almost confined to his bedroom. 00:00:57.759 --> 00:01:03.600 He's weak and he's quite cold physically, and he's out of touch. 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:10.079 Even a beautiful young woman can't rouse him, although he's given a beautiful young woman 00:01:10.079 --> 00:01:11.759 to keep him warm. 00:01:11.759 --> 00:01:15.439 He seems to be uninformed about what's happening in his country. 00:01:15.439 --> 00:01:23.439 There's an impotency about him, and his son Adonijah during this period of David's weakness, 00:01:23.439 --> 00:01:31.239 who is now the next in line with four of David's sons already being killed, makes a move for 00:01:31.239 --> 00:01:34.120 the kingdom, makes a move for the throne. 00:01:34.120 --> 00:01:43.479 And he's very similar to Absalom, he's handsome, he's wild, he's a bit of a playboy character 00:01:43.480 --> 00:01:48.400 really, in one of the commentaries that I was reading, Dale Ralph Davis is a great commentator, 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:53.680 says that Absalom was high on glands, but low on brains and restraint. 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:56.200 And that's the kind of guy he was. 00:01:56.200 --> 00:02:02.000 And he invites all the power brokers of his day to come to a feast, to kind of prepare 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:05.320 him to anoint him to be the next king. 00:02:05.320 --> 00:02:11.319 It deliberately leaves out some of David's most loyal supporters, and Solomon, who is 00:02:11.319 --> 00:02:19.959 David's son and who indeed is the one who is God and David's heir to the throne. 00:02:19.959 --> 00:02:26.519 And when Solomon's mother hears about that Bathsheba, she and Nathan, if you remember 00:02:26.519 --> 00:02:32.039 Nathan from the past, the prophet who exposed David's sin in the first place with Bathsheba, 00:02:32.039 --> 00:02:35.359 they come together and say, we'll need to stop this because it's Solomon who's to be 00:02:35.359 --> 00:02:36.359 king. 00:02:36.360 --> 00:02:41.640 And they involve themselves in a pincer movement as they come and speak to David. 00:02:41.640 --> 00:02:43.560 And Nathan says, look, why wasn't I informed? 00:02:43.560 --> 00:02:45.760 You know, I've been with you all these years. 00:02:45.760 --> 00:02:46.760 Why wasn't I informed? 00:02:46.760 --> 00:02:48.640 And of course, David didn't know about it. 00:02:48.640 --> 00:02:52.840 And Bathsheba comes to him after that and says, look, what about your promise? 00:02:52.840 --> 00:02:54.800 Your promise to make my son Solomon king? 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:58.360 If he's not made king, then our lives are in danger. 00:02:58.360 --> 00:03:03.320 So that takes us kind of to where we're going to pick up the reading, okay? 00:03:03.319 --> 00:03:12.000 So David now knows that his son, Adonijah, has tried to usurp him and involve himself 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:14.479 in a coup to take over the kingdom. 00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:17.359 Remember, this is God's people. 00:03:17.359 --> 00:03:21.479 So verse 28, then King David answered, call Bathsheba to me. 00:03:21.479 --> 00:03:25.680 So she came into the king's presence and said and stood before the king. 00:03:25.680 --> 00:03:33.240 And the king swore, saying, as the Lord lives, who has redeemed my soul out of every adversity, 00:03:33.240 --> 00:03:39.360 as I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, saying, Solomon, your son shall reign 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:43.240 after me and he shall sit in my throne in my place. 00:03:43.240 --> 00:03:45.960 Even so will I do this day. 00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:50.280 Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the ground and paid homage to the king and said, 00:03:50.280 --> 00:03:53.480 may my Lord King David live forever. 00:03:53.480 --> 00:03:58.600 King David said, call me Zadok, the priest, Nathan the prophet and Benaiah, the son of 00:03:58.600 --> 00:03:59.719 Jehoida. 00:03:59.719 --> 00:04:03.840 So they came before the king and the king said to them, take with you the servants of 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:09.960 your Lord and have Solomon my son ride on my own mule and bring him down to Gihan and 00:04:09.960 --> 00:04:14.759 let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet there anoint him king over Israel. 00:04:14.759 --> 00:04:18.639 Then blow the trumpet and say, long live King Solomon. 00:04:18.639 --> 00:04:23.399 You shall then come up before him and he shall come up and sit on my throne for he shall 00:04:23.399 --> 00:04:25.120 be king in my place. 00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:28.600 And I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah. 00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:32.760 And Benaiah, the son of Jehoida, answered the king, amen. 00:04:32.760 --> 00:04:36.360 May the Lord, the God of my Lord, the king say so. 00:04:36.360 --> 00:04:41.080 As the Lord has been with my Lord the king, even so may he be with Solomon and make his 00:04:41.080 --> 00:04:45.520 throne greater than the throne of my Lord King David. 00:04:45.520 --> 00:04:50.560 So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet and Benaiah, the son of Jehoida and the Cherethites 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:55.200 and the Pelithites went down and made Solomon ride on King David's mule and brought him 00:04:55.200 --> 00:04:56.760 to Gihan. 00:04:56.759 --> 00:05:01.599 Then Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. 00:05:01.599 --> 00:05:06.480 Then they blew the trumpet and all the people said, long live King Solomon. 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:11.319 And all the people went up after him playing on pipes and rejoicing with great joy so that 00:05:11.319 --> 00:05:15.000 the earth was split by their noise. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:21.039 Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they finished feasting. 00:05:21.039 --> 00:05:25.039 And when Jehoab heard the sound of the trumpet he said, what does this uproar in the city 00:05:25.039 --> 00:05:26.039 mean? 00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:30.520 While he was still speaking, we hold Jonathan, the son of Abbaith or the priest came. 00:05:30.520 --> 00:05:37.400 And Adonijah said, come in for you are a worthy man and bring good news. 00:05:37.400 --> 00:05:39.879 Jonathan answered Adonijah, no. 00:05:39.879 --> 00:05:45.480 For our Lord King David has made Solomon king and the king has sent with him Zadok the priest 00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:49.520 and Nathan the prophet and Benaiah the son of Jehoida and the Cherethites, the Pelithites 00:05:49.520 --> 00:05:54.120 and they made him ride on the king's mule and Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet 00:05:54.120 --> 00:06:00.000 have anointed him king at Ghehon and they've gone up from there rejoicing so that the city 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:02.120 is in an uproar. 00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:05.639 This is the noise that you've heard. 00:06:05.639 --> 00:06:07.879 Solomon sits on the royal throne. 00:06:07.879 --> 00:06:13.480 Moreover, the king's servants came to congratulate our Lord King David saying, may your God make 00:06:13.480 --> 00:06:19.439 the name of Solomon more famous than yours and make his throne greater than your throne. 00:06:19.439 --> 00:06:24.719 And the king bowed himself on the bed and the king also said, blessed be the Lord, the 00:06:24.719 --> 00:06:28.160 God of Israel who has granted someone to sit on my throne. 00:06:28.160 --> 00:06:31.439 This day my own eyes seeing it. 00:06:31.439 --> 00:06:37.120 Then all the guests of Adonijah trembled and rose and each went his own way. 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:44.120 And Adonijah feared Solomon so he arose and went and took hold of the horns of the altar. 00:06:44.120 --> 00:06:48.240 And it was told Solomon, behold Adonijah fears King Solomon. 00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:52.639 For behold, he has laid hold of the horns of the altar saying, let King Solomon swear 00:06:52.639 --> 00:06:57.720 to me first that he will not put his servant to death with the sword. 00:06:57.720 --> 00:07:02.519 And Solomon said, if he will show himself a worthy man, not one of his hairs shall fall 00:07:02.519 --> 00:07:03.519 to the earth. 00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:07.800 But if wickedness is found in him, he shall die. 00:07:07.800 --> 00:07:13.040 So King Solomon sent and they brought him down from the altar and he came and paid homage 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:18.920 to King Solomon and Solomon said to him, go to your house. 00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:23.000 Okay, so that's the story that we have so far. 00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:30.480 And just to remind us that this book of Kings and the Samuel and Kings, Kings particularly 00:07:30.480 --> 00:07:39.680 was written very probably by Jeremiah, but it was written to God's people who by the 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:47.079 time it was written were in exile in Babylon, they were enslaved, they were under oppression 00:07:47.079 --> 00:07:49.639 because of their own sin and idolatry. 00:07:49.639 --> 00:07:56.680 And this story is sent to remind them of why it happened and also that God still had many 00:07:56.680 --> 00:08:02.879 promises and we've still redeemed them and bring them back if they turn back to him. 00:08:02.879 --> 00:08:07.920 So it's really a reminder to them and also to us, it's a great reminder to us that God 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:09.840 is working out his purposes. 00:08:09.840 --> 00:08:15.960 And you may read this and think that's way out of my understanding and it's way out 00:08:15.960 --> 00:08:16.960 of my comfort zone. 00:08:16.960 --> 00:08:20.720 I'm not sure what's going on and how relevant is it to me, but I hope that as we go through 00:08:20.720 --> 00:08:26.040 it, you'll find that there are principles and truth here that are a great encouragement 00:08:26.040 --> 00:08:30.680 and a challenge to us because we're seeing right through the Old Testament, aren't we, 00:08:30.680 --> 00:08:34.960 that God is working out his promises. 00:08:34.960 --> 00:08:41.200 God is working out what he intends to do for his people to redeem them and also through 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:48.840 them to send a Messiah who will be the Messiah for the whole world, our Savior, our Lord. 00:08:48.840 --> 00:08:54.960 And we see in this story, despite Adonijah's best attempts to become the King of Israel, 00:08:54.960 --> 00:09:00.120 God's choice is Solomon, David's other son, Debasheba. 00:09:00.120 --> 00:09:03.560 And Solomon is who God wants in the throne. 00:09:03.559 --> 00:09:07.599 It's Solomon who is to be the covenant King, not Adonijah. 00:09:07.599 --> 00:09:16.319 It's Solomon who is to be God's choice because he is God's spirit in him, and he is, at least 00:09:16.319 --> 00:09:21.519 he starts tremendously wise and he starts as a great blessing. 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:27.119 And the kingdom is greatly blessed as he follows God and serves God, the wisest man who ever 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:33.879 lived in books of the Bible are penned by him, inspired by the living God. 00:09:33.879 --> 00:09:42.320 Yet, of course, we see he is greatly flawed and he sins deeply. 00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:43.600 Where is his heart? 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:47.639 Well, believe his heart is the Lord's. 00:09:47.639 --> 00:09:50.320 But nonetheless, he is God's choice. 00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:55.320 And we see what God is doing here is still working out his purposes for the coming of 00:09:55.320 --> 00:09:57.039 a greater King, isn't he? 00:09:57.039 --> 00:10:04.059 Who said that all along that King David, there's a greater son than Solomon to come, Jesus 00:10:04.059 --> 00:10:11.120 Christ himself, and one who is himself without flaws, who is the King of kings, who is true 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:17.559 truth and true wisdom, and the only genuine redeemer. 00:10:17.559 --> 00:10:26.199 And so we find that the Old Testament constantly brings up, as it were, kings and leaders who 00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:33.640 relentlessly fail and who relentlessly let the people down and let God down. 00:10:33.640 --> 00:10:38.560 There's great disobedience and great idolatry and great sadness. 00:10:38.560 --> 00:10:43.280 And it's all pointing forward to the need for someone who is not like that to be the 00:10:43.280 --> 00:10:44.280 redeemer. 00:10:44.280 --> 00:10:54.160 And the context of the Old Testament is always one of mystery and also opposition. 00:10:54.159 --> 00:10:56.719 So there's a lot of things that we don't know. 00:10:56.719 --> 00:10:59.559 There's a lot of things that are not revealed. 00:10:59.559 --> 00:11:08.759 And in every Old Testament story that we're given, there is a malevolent evil undertone. 00:11:08.759 --> 00:11:15.039 There's something, there's someone who is desperate to subvert God's purposes. 00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:17.959 So here, Solomon is God's choice. 00:11:17.960 --> 00:11:25.600 Adam and Ija is the one who seeks to rebel against God and reject God's plans. 00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:29.759 And it often seems to be that that works. 00:11:29.759 --> 00:11:34.960 But what we're reminded of is that God's purposes will not fail. 00:11:34.960 --> 00:11:40.759 And God will even take the dark things and the black things and the difficult things 00:11:40.759 --> 00:11:49.879 and He will work them out still for His good and for His glory and for our benefit. 00:11:49.879 --> 00:11:57.519 And that takes me to the progressive revelation that we find in God's Word about God Himself. 00:11:57.519 --> 00:12:01.799 There's two verses that I think help us to understand the Seah passage like this, or 00:12:01.799 --> 00:12:05.120 indeed any of the passages in the Old Testament. 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:11.000 One is from Isaiah 55 verses 8 and 9, where God says to the people, look, my thoughts are 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:12.840 not your thoughts. 00:12:12.840 --> 00:12:15.440 Neither are your ways, my ways, declares the Lord. 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:20.159 He says, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:22.120 and my thoughts than your thoughts. 00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:27.720 That's a really important principial verse, not just for the Israelites, but for us. 00:12:27.720 --> 00:12:31.279 When we're struggling and battling and we don't know what God is doing and we don't 00:12:31.279 --> 00:12:34.399 know what God is saying to us and where He's leading us. 00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:39.120 He said, look, I'm different from you and I will lead you, but it might not be the way 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:44.840 that you want to go naturally. 00:12:44.840 --> 00:12:48.759 And then the second verse is also an Old Testament verse as He reveals more about Himself in 00:12:48.759 --> 00:12:55.159 Zechariah 4-6 where He says, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord 00:12:55.159 --> 00:12:56.439 Almighty. 00:12:56.439 --> 00:13:00.600 So there's always kind of two competing realities. 00:13:00.600 --> 00:13:08.680 There's human might and power and individuality and living without God at the center of our 00:13:08.680 --> 00:13:15.279 lives or there's recognizing that it's not by human might and power, not by our own decision-making, 00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:19.639 but as we rely on God in His Spirit, we see His purposes being outworked. 00:13:19.639 --> 00:13:26.600 And I think both these verses are really relevant here and will, I hope, help us in our understanding. 00:13:26.600 --> 00:13:33.840 So we've got this historical account at the beginning of Kings which is beginning to unfold 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:37.399 the way God deals with His people and with humanity. 00:13:37.399 --> 00:13:40.840 And you've got two main characters really in the story. 00:13:40.840 --> 00:13:45.440 You've got Adonijah and you've got David, your father and son in the story. 00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:49.399 Now Adonijah was young and bold, okay? 00:13:49.399 --> 00:13:51.879 We see that, but he had no need for God. 00:13:51.879 --> 00:13:53.920 There's no reference to God in his life. 00:13:53.919 --> 00:13:58.479 There's no indication that he was following God or he'd prayed to God or he'd asked God's 00:13:58.479 --> 00:14:05.279 help for what he was planning to do to usurp the kingdom and become the king. 00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:08.199 There was an entitlement about him. 00:14:08.199 --> 00:14:11.439 He was the would-be king in verse 5 of chapter 1. 00:14:11.439 --> 00:14:16.279 We didn't read it, but he said, Adonijah, the son of Haggath, exalted himself saying, 00:14:16.279 --> 00:14:19.039 I will be king. 00:14:19.039 --> 00:14:22.559 So you know, you can see that he had this sense of entitlement. 00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:24.039 He's the young pretender. 00:14:24.039 --> 00:14:27.719 It was his birthright to be king. 00:14:27.719 --> 00:14:28.719 The other sons were dead. 00:14:28.719 --> 00:14:31.439 He was the next in line and he had all the attributes. 00:14:31.439 --> 00:14:32.719 He was handsome. 00:14:32.719 --> 00:14:33.919 He was fit. 00:14:33.919 --> 00:14:35.599 He was young. 00:14:35.599 --> 00:14:42.639 And so he starts scheming and planning and maneuvering to become the king. 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:49.000 And in so doing, he revealed his own self-reliance and his own planning, but his planning was 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:50.000 flawed. 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:53.960 He had this great feast for all these people. 00:14:53.960 --> 00:15:01.440 Verse 41, Adonijah and all the guests were with him, heard it as they finished feasting. 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:04.159 They heard this great sound of celebration. 00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:10.240 So with his self-reliance, as he was whining and dining his suitors, he didn't realize 00:15:10.240 --> 00:15:15.360 God was at work and God was doing something with Solomon. 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:18.639 He still had no need for God. 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:22.360 He still thought he would work it out. 00:15:22.360 --> 00:15:25.600 So he thought if he was really sorrowful for what he was doing and he kind of held 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:30.679 on to the horns of the altar as if this would be something he might have heard of that happening 00:15:30.679 --> 00:15:34.919 in the past when people were given mercy because they held on to the horns of the altar, he'd 00:15:34.919 --> 00:15:37.159 be shown mercy. 00:15:37.159 --> 00:15:39.919 And he pleads to Solomon, I'm sorry for what I've done. 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:41.759 And Solomon does show him mercy. 00:15:41.759 --> 00:15:48.740 There's an opportunity for him there to recognize God's way and to recognize that God would 00:15:48.740 --> 00:15:52.679 forgive him and that he could have a future. 00:15:52.679 --> 00:15:58.919 But really we find what he did was he took that opportunity of life and continued to 00:15:58.919 --> 00:16:02.000 conspire to become king. 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:07.200 And what happens is he remains resentful and unrepentant. 00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:15.280 And you've got this amazing verse in chapter 2 and in verse 15 where he goes to Bathsheba 00:16:15.280 --> 00:16:19.280 and basically what he wants is he wants Abishag. 00:16:19.280 --> 00:16:22.960 He wants David's concubine to become his wife. 00:16:22.960 --> 00:16:28.840 Now that might seem a fairly innocent thing, but most commentators believe it was another 00:16:28.840 --> 00:16:36.200 attempt to, if he could take the old king's concubine or wife, it was a sign that he wanted 00:16:36.200 --> 00:16:37.680 to take the kingdom. 00:16:37.680 --> 00:16:42.680 And in verse 15 we're told, he speaks to Bathsheba and he says, you know that the king, listen 00:16:42.680 --> 00:16:49.920 to this, you know that the kingdom was mine and that all Israel fully expected me to reign. 00:16:49.920 --> 00:16:56.120 However, the kingdom has turned about and become my brothers for it was his from the 00:16:56.120 --> 00:16:58.320 Lord. 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:01.680 And now I have one request to make, do not refuse me. 00:17:01.680 --> 00:17:04.120 And so he asks for this wife. 00:17:04.119 --> 00:17:11.279 And there's this sense in which he's still kind of seething that the kingdom has been 00:17:11.279 --> 00:17:12.279 taken from him. 00:17:12.279 --> 00:17:17.319 And everyone knew it was his and he says, oh yeah, and Solomon, it was the Lord's will. 00:17:17.319 --> 00:17:21.919 But it's as if he is really unhappy and unrepentant. 00:17:21.919 --> 00:17:26.319 And he still wants to destabilize God's purposes and plans. 00:17:26.319 --> 00:17:32.959 Adonijah, young and bold, no need for God. 00:17:32.960 --> 00:17:36.960 David was old and cold. 00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:39.799 If Adonijah was young and bold, David was quite the opposite. 00:17:39.799 --> 00:17:42.000 He was old and cold. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:46.360 And it's kind of an end of life story about David's life. 00:17:46.360 --> 00:17:50.960 It does seem, if you read this whole section and look at it, it seems that poor David has 00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:53.400 lost his module. 00:17:53.400 --> 00:17:54.880 He's stuck in his upper room. 00:17:54.880 --> 00:17:56.480 He's stuck in his bedroom. 00:17:56.480 --> 00:17:57.480 He's washed up. 00:17:57.480 --> 00:17:58.840 He's a washed up king. 00:17:58.840 --> 00:18:00.640 He's confined to his bed. 00:18:00.640 --> 00:18:01.640 He's impotent. 00:18:01.640 --> 00:18:11.960 It's highly ironic scripture that David, who went out of his way to see a naked woman bathing 00:18:11.960 --> 00:18:23.200 and take her for himself and in so doing murder her husband in and lie and cheat against God. 00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:28.880 When he saw that woman, Bathsheba, and took her, he is now in his old age, he's been given 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:33.960 a woman, Abishag, to lie with him, to keep him warm. 00:18:33.960 --> 00:18:37.440 And we're told that he has no intimate relations with her. 00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:40.080 It's highly ironic, isn't it? 00:18:40.080 --> 00:18:48.160 At that stage, he is completely washed up, even though his friends try and support him 00:18:48.160 --> 00:18:49.160 in this way. 00:18:49.160 --> 00:18:50.160 He's uninformed. 00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:53.040 Verse 15 tells us that he doesn't know what's going on in his kingdom. 00:18:53.040 --> 00:18:56.680 He's being sidelined as the king. 00:18:56.680 --> 00:19:01.200 David, and I've said this before, and maybe I hope you don't think I'm too hard on a poor 00:19:01.200 --> 00:19:05.160 old David, will come round to see that that's not the case. 00:19:05.160 --> 00:19:08.880 But he is suffering from bad choices, isn't he? 00:19:08.880 --> 00:19:10.519 Bad choices. 00:19:10.519 --> 00:19:13.240 He's lost three of his sons due to his bad choices. 00:19:13.240 --> 00:19:16.080 And now Adonijah is wild. 00:19:16.080 --> 00:19:25.400 It's interesting, in verse 6 we didn't read it, but we're told that, no, we're not told 00:19:25.400 --> 00:19:28.560 in verse 6. 00:19:28.560 --> 00:19:38.080 We're told somewhere, but it's not in verse 6, that David did not intervene in Adonijah's 00:19:38.080 --> 00:19:40.519 wild behavior. 00:19:40.519 --> 00:19:46.280 He didn't correct him when he was wrong. 00:19:46.280 --> 00:19:51.040 And that is tremendously sad on David's part. 00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:58.480 Adonijah was wild, and he had had no fatherly intervention from David. 00:19:58.480 --> 00:19:59.480 He had... 00:19:59.480 --> 00:20:02.559 David had no moral authority with Adonijah. 00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:10.399 He abdicated his responsibility, a responsibility even greater than the throne of Israel, to 00:20:10.399 --> 00:20:20.039 be an example, to love, to serve, to be an authority, to be a moral guide to his children. 00:20:20.039 --> 00:20:23.279 And it feels by this stage he's lost all interest in them. 00:20:23.279 --> 00:20:27.159 He just let Adonijah live any way he wanted to. 00:20:27.159 --> 00:20:31.639 And there's the first section, just see, David seems just flat, and he's in his room, and 00:20:31.639 --> 00:20:34.480 he can't really be bothered with what's going on. 00:20:34.480 --> 00:20:40.519 But he's stirred as he remembers God's promises to him. 00:20:40.519 --> 00:20:46.559 And he's stirred by the remembrance of God's purposes in bringing Solomon, or promising 00:20:46.559 --> 00:20:48.240 Solomon would be in the throne. 00:20:48.240 --> 00:20:53.680 You see that change in verses 28 and 29, that she came to the king and stood before the 00:20:53.680 --> 00:20:54.960 king and the king swore. 00:20:54.960 --> 00:21:00.240 She said, as long as the Lord lives, who has redeemed me, my soul out of every adversity, 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:04.240 as I swore to you by the Lord, the king, Solomon, your son shall reign before me. 00:21:04.240 --> 00:21:05.240 And he keeps... 00:21:05.240 --> 00:21:10.720 He's come alive as he remembers God's promises and is stirred by God's deliverances in the 00:21:10.720 --> 00:21:11.720 past. 00:21:11.720 --> 00:21:13.440 It brings him to life again. 00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:19.080 And what we have in these kind of this end of life story is David coming alive when he 00:21:19.080 --> 00:21:22.720 thinks about his relationship with God, and it reveals his heart. 00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:27.720 It reveals David's heart, David's heart scarred by all he's gone through, and even by the bad 00:21:27.720 --> 00:21:29.360 choices he's made. 00:21:29.360 --> 00:21:35.640 But he is always one who trusts in God's mercy and who believes that God knows what he's 00:21:35.640 --> 00:21:40.240 doing, and God is gentle and kind and forgiving and good with him. 00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:47.400 You know, as the Lord has delivered, redeemed my soul out of every adversity. 00:21:47.400 --> 00:21:55.880 And it's unreal, isn't it, that God's choice for the king is Solomon, Bathsheba's son, 00:21:55.880 --> 00:21:58.120 second son. 00:21:58.120 --> 00:22:00.359 The other one dying as an infant. 00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:05.799 God's promises using Solomon to outwork his purposes. 00:22:05.799 --> 00:22:13.919 He was God's man, God's choice, a remembrance of his relentless mercy and of his work of 00:22:13.919 --> 00:22:17.200 deliverance and of rescue. 00:22:17.200 --> 00:22:18.919 And Solomon has made king. 00:22:18.919 --> 00:22:21.720 Adonis just thwarted. 00:22:21.720 --> 00:22:27.879 And verse 48 tells us that David just rejoices because of what God has done. 00:22:27.879 --> 00:22:33.319 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel has granted someone to sit on my throne this day. 00:22:33.319 --> 00:22:41.159 So there's this tremendous paradox between the young and the bold who had no time for 00:22:41.159 --> 00:22:52.319 God and the old and the cold who despite a life of mistakes is reliant on God and has 00:22:52.319 --> 00:22:54.679 a heart for God. 00:22:54.679 --> 00:23:02.279 And that whole Old Testament history, but also the world's history is unfolding God's 00:23:02.279 --> 00:23:05.200 story, isn't it, in the same way? 00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:13.359 So we have the world in which we live in God's eyes revolving around David's greater son, 00:23:13.359 --> 00:23:15.920 the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:21.799 And the promise of Him coming, being significant to the exiles who'd be reading this and who 00:23:21.799 --> 00:23:29.039 were still looking for the great king of kings to come. 00:23:29.039 --> 00:23:35.079 Jesus is the one who came to do everything the good and the bad kings couldn't do. 00:23:35.079 --> 00:23:41.279 He came to obey God's law perfectly, dying in innocence in the place of the guilty, rising 00:23:41.279 --> 00:23:43.960 again to sit on heaven's throne. 00:23:43.960 --> 00:23:47.079 The anti-hero Jesus is, isn't he? 00:23:47.079 --> 00:23:56.440 He's the unexpected hero born in poverty and never had a home as he traveled around the 00:23:56.440 --> 00:24:01.559 world around the ancient Near East at that point. 00:24:01.559 --> 00:24:08.840 He came into Israel similarly to Solomon and a mule and a donkey, a ragtag of followers, 00:24:08.840 --> 00:24:15.279 anonymous for most of his life, a crown only of thorns, dyed in darkness, rose to the 00:24:15.279 --> 00:24:17.279 Lord of glory. 00:24:17.279 --> 00:24:28.559 You see the parallels between God's purposes and God's ways and the person of Jesus Christ. 00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:33.279 Everything points to Jesus Christ from the Old Testament forward and from the New Testament 00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:34.279 back. 00:24:34.279 --> 00:24:39.559 And that is because we need mercy and hope. 00:24:39.559 --> 00:24:45.399 Just like the exiles in Babylon as they read this needed to have hope and needed to know 00:24:45.400 --> 00:24:49.640 of God's mercy because of their own idolatry and division. 00:24:49.640 --> 00:24:56.480 And actually interestingly, the seeds of mistrust between Judah and Israel, between the two tribes 00:24:56.480 --> 00:25:04.160 of Judah and the ten tribes of Israel, happens around here, around this time, between God's 00:25:04.160 --> 00:25:08.920 people split because they didn't trust Him. 00:25:08.920 --> 00:25:15.759 But that message of mercy and hope remains the message in all the turmoil of what we 00:25:15.759 --> 00:25:24.400 see around us is the message we need both globally but also personally. 00:25:24.400 --> 00:25:27.400 We need that mercy and hope. 00:25:27.400 --> 00:25:35.080 And we're reminded in the story that God's sovereignty, even over the continued existence 00:25:35.080 --> 00:25:36.080 of evil. 00:25:36.079 --> 00:25:43.240 There's a great deal of mystery in the way the world is outworking itself. 00:25:43.240 --> 00:25:45.399 There would have been great mystery for the exiles. 00:25:45.399 --> 00:25:46.759 Why are we here? 00:25:46.759 --> 00:25:48.879 We thought we were God's people. 00:25:48.879 --> 00:25:50.559 When will He deliver us? 00:25:50.559 --> 00:25:51.559 What is happening? 00:25:51.559 --> 00:25:55.079 Where is the promised King on the throne? 00:25:55.079 --> 00:26:03.079 Much injustice, much slavery, much sadness they experienced because of their rebellion 00:26:03.079 --> 00:26:06.359 but also because of the evil in the world. 00:26:06.359 --> 00:26:12.720 And we are surrounded continually by the same injustice nationally and internationally 00:26:12.720 --> 00:26:16.039 and also personally. 00:26:16.039 --> 00:26:23.199 And we are reminded that through that and in that, God remains sovereign and God has 00:26:23.199 --> 00:26:31.240 His purposes and God has defeated evil and will destroy it when He returns and we're 00:26:31.240 --> 00:26:34.440 called to trust in Him. 00:26:34.440 --> 00:26:39.400 And the last lesson we take from a passage like this, well, there are many but the last 00:26:39.400 --> 00:26:48.079 that I'm going to share with you is a good reminder that God chooses to redeem wrecks. 00:26:48.079 --> 00:26:49.079 That's what He chooses. 00:26:49.079 --> 00:26:54.279 It's people who recognize that before God they are wrecked. 00:26:54.279 --> 00:27:01.720 That is a mark of understanding His sovereign choice. 00:27:01.720 --> 00:27:05.079 So we are to be encouraged this evening. 00:27:05.079 --> 00:27:10.799 If you're an unbeliever this evening, if you're not a Christian and your life is a wreck and 00:27:10.799 --> 00:27:18.039 you think nobody will accept me, especially not God, take comfort from David's life and 00:27:18.039 --> 00:27:24.519 take comfort from the biblical description of every single person in life before God 00:27:24.519 --> 00:27:29.240 we have messed up, this is His way. 00:27:29.240 --> 00:27:31.839 He redeems wrecks. 00:27:31.839 --> 00:27:35.960 It's just that some people won't admit that. 00:27:35.960 --> 00:27:43.279 We live deluded or self-righteous or comparative lives as we look around at other people and 00:27:43.279 --> 00:27:50.319 we miss out on His redemption and His forgiveness and His healing and His hope because we'll 00:27:50.319 --> 00:27:53.079 not admit that we're wrecks. 00:27:53.079 --> 00:27:58.799 So be encouraged if you're a Christian and you feel you've gone beyond the pale, then 00:27:58.799 --> 00:28:07.279 take encouragement from David and from the recognition of God's mercy and hope as we 00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:09.720 keep turning back to Him. 00:28:09.720 --> 00:28:12.799 That is the great thing about David. 00:28:12.799 --> 00:28:16.119 He keeps turning back to God. 00:28:16.119 --> 00:28:19.799 He keeps recognizing His need for mercy. 00:28:19.799 --> 00:28:26.919 He redeems wrecks and so the recognition for us is the peril of living without God. 00:28:26.919 --> 00:28:29.680 I mean, Adonijah is a great example of that. 00:28:29.680 --> 00:28:36.079 He thought he could live without God, young and bold. 00:28:36.079 --> 00:28:39.359 And that's often what people think, isn't it? 00:28:39.359 --> 00:28:41.200 They think they're not a wreck. 00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:43.240 They think that they don't need God. 00:28:43.240 --> 00:28:49.680 And that remains for us, I think we were reminded of that this morning, a simple, an ongoing 00:28:49.680 --> 00:28:51.680 sinful temptation for us. 00:28:51.680 --> 00:28:54.319 We don't really need God today. 00:28:54.319 --> 00:28:59.120 We'll take His gifts, we'll plan our lives, we'll ignore Him. 00:28:59.120 --> 00:29:05.480 We may even resent what He's doing in our lives or reject Him. 00:29:05.480 --> 00:29:12.400 And the reminder is for us to constantly be like David, constantly going back, constantly 00:29:12.400 --> 00:29:19.319 asking Him, having that prayer relationship being molded by His grace and by His favour. 00:29:19.319 --> 00:29:27.240 Beware of the temptation as we think of a passage like this, of putting your hope in 00:29:27.240 --> 00:29:29.360 anything or anyone other than Jesus. 00:29:29.360 --> 00:29:34.720 Again, we were reminded of that today and there's quite a dovetailing in many ways between 00:29:34.720 --> 00:29:36.920 the two messages. 00:29:36.920 --> 00:29:43.200 The reality that we simply can't lean on, ultimately other people. 00:29:43.200 --> 00:29:45.720 We can't lean on other relationships. 00:29:45.720 --> 00:29:46.960 We can't lean on our parents. 00:29:46.960 --> 00:29:50.240 We can't lean on our husbands and wives, our friends. 00:29:50.240 --> 00:29:52.200 We can't lean on our ministers. 00:29:52.200 --> 00:29:57.559 We can't lean on anyone, ultimately, because the reality is every single person will let 00:29:57.559 --> 00:29:58.559 you down. 00:29:58.559 --> 00:30:00.279 Everyone will let you down. 00:30:00.279 --> 00:30:03.440 And we will let other people down because we're wrecks. 00:30:03.440 --> 00:30:05.519 That's what we are. 00:30:05.519 --> 00:30:11.400 And we're called not to lean on and not to put our hope in and our expectation in our 00:30:11.400 --> 00:30:14.440 fellow human beings. 00:30:14.440 --> 00:30:19.559 And that means understanding that the best people in your lives will let you down, the 00:30:19.559 --> 00:30:24.160 closest people in your lives, the people you look up to, the people you admire, the people 00:30:24.160 --> 00:30:26.160 that you aspire to. 00:30:26.160 --> 00:30:27.360 They will let you down. 00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:34.199 And it's a good thing to recognize that, an important thing, because we've let Jesus 00:30:34.199 --> 00:30:36.599 down a hundred to thousand times. 00:30:36.599 --> 00:30:42.879 And as we recognize that, we will have a love that covers the multitude of sins with regard 00:30:42.879 --> 00:30:43.879 to other people. 00:30:43.879 --> 00:30:47.759 And we will not be ultimately disappointed when we're let down. 00:30:47.759 --> 00:30:50.359 It doesn't excuse it. 00:30:50.359 --> 00:30:55.000 But the reality is that we're not to put our hope in other people or even in ourselves 00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:57.759 for that matter. 00:30:57.759 --> 00:31:04.000 And of course, the great danger, lastly, of abusing grace, when we look at a story like 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:12.039 this, the true reality of being, as we were reminded this morning, legally forgiven is 00:31:12.039 --> 00:31:13.640 one great thing. 00:31:13.640 --> 00:31:21.480 But we have a huge responsibility then to flee from sin and to fight against all that 00:31:21.480 --> 00:31:23.720 God hates. 00:31:23.720 --> 00:31:29.360 And as Christians, we can grieve and resist God's Spirit. 00:31:29.360 --> 00:31:34.559 We can live in pride and we can make very bad choices. 00:31:34.559 --> 00:31:39.799 David made bad choices and he lived the rest of his life working out the consequences in 00:31:39.799 --> 00:31:43.039 this life of these bad choices. 00:31:43.039 --> 00:31:47.600 And it caused huge heartache and huge difficulty in his life. 00:31:47.599 --> 00:31:56.279 Yet he was able to go back and know his redemption and know his hope in the living God. 00:31:56.279 --> 00:32:00.399 And so we have a responsibility not to run. 00:32:00.399 --> 00:32:06.599 We've a duty not to run from our responsibilities, but to recognize and grasp that he is with 00:32:06.599 --> 00:32:15.959 us and he empowers us to live out our Christian lives in the power of the Holy Spirit. 00:32:15.960 --> 00:32:22.400 I do think that the whole testimony of Adonijah living a wildlife because David never took 00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:29.120 the time to rebuke him or to discipline him or to love him and pull him from that is a 00:32:29.120 --> 00:32:38.960 huge challenge for us in our lives about our responsibilities and his parents as family 00:32:38.960 --> 00:32:44.799 together, a church family together, a responsibility to one another. 00:32:44.799 --> 00:32:51.240 And to live in such a way that our respect and our moral authority is not diluted by 00:32:51.240 --> 00:32:57.879 our lifestyle so that as parents or as workers or as colleagues or as brother and sisters, 00:32:57.879 --> 00:33:02.119 people don't look at us and say, well, why are you saying that? 00:33:02.119 --> 00:33:04.519 You know, you're living a reprobate life. 00:33:04.519 --> 00:33:08.279 Is that you say you believe? 00:33:08.279 --> 00:33:18.720 And that clearly is what happened in David's life as his sons saw the reckless way he lived. 00:33:18.720 --> 00:33:24.440 And yet he was a man after God's own heart because he kept coming back to the Lord. 00:33:24.440 --> 00:33:28.759 And that is a huge and significant reality for us. 00:33:28.759 --> 00:33:33.839 Whatever we feel tonight as Christians, keep going back to the living God. 00:33:33.839 --> 00:33:35.240 Keep relationship with him. 00:33:35.240 --> 00:33:36.480 Keep speaking with him. 00:33:36.480 --> 00:33:43.680 Keep pleading for mercy, wisdom, grace, humility, understanding, acknowledge that we are Rex 00:33:43.680 --> 00:33:50.319 and yet acknowledge that we are being transformed to be like him and live in that way. 00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:56.120 And I just finish again with these two verses which are hugely important for us in our understanding, 00:33:56.120 --> 00:34:02.680 not making an idol of Jesus after our own image, not making God the kind of God we want. 00:34:02.680 --> 00:34:07.600 Remember what he says that my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my 00:34:07.600 --> 00:34:12.599 ways as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, my thoughts 00:34:12.599 --> 00:34:20.480 than your thoughts, not by might, adenijah, not by power, but by my spirit, David, says 00:34:20.480 --> 00:34:21.480 the Lord Almighty. 00:34:21.480 --> 00:34:22.480 Amen. 00:34:22.480 --> 00:34:25.519 Let's pray together as we think about that. 00:34:25.519 --> 00:34:31.320 Father God, we pray that you would help us to understand that these Old Testament historical 00:34:31.320 --> 00:34:37.840 accounts in Scripture and about your people, your covenant people and the relationship 00:34:37.840 --> 00:34:44.640 you had with them still remain significant and important and has a powerful message for 00:34:44.640 --> 00:34:46.880 us in our own lives. 00:34:46.880 --> 00:34:54.200 And may we bow before you in worship and not make an image of God that is made in our own 00:34:54.199 --> 00:35:01.399 image, a God that we can stick in our back pocket comfortably and ignore, but may we be 00:35:01.399 --> 00:35:09.759 those who worship what you have revealed about yourself in Jesus, the amazing truth of what 00:35:09.759 --> 00:35:18.639 is made known, but also confess that we appreciate there are many things you have just kept secret, 00:35:18.639 --> 00:35:23.759 many things we don't know, there's many things that we're glad we don't know, but there's 00:35:23.760 --> 00:35:29.200 also many things that we are just to trust you on when we would maybe, we think we would 00:35:29.200 --> 00:35:31.280 love to know. 00:35:31.280 --> 00:35:39.200 Help us to remind ourselves that you're not like us, that you're infinite, you're pure, 00:35:39.200 --> 00:35:45.120 you're love, you're justice, a complete and absolute. 00:35:45.120 --> 00:35:46.760 And may we bow before you. 00:35:46.760 --> 00:35:58.520 We seek repentance for living without you and trying to live in our own strength and 00:35:58.520 --> 00:36:05.600 help us just to be people after God's own heart that constantly come back in weakness 00:36:05.600 --> 00:36:12.400 and in need for renewal, for transformation, for being made holy and godly. 00:36:12.400 --> 00:36:17.280 And may we serve you in the light of that. 00:36:17.280 --> 00:36:19.280 We thank you for your forgiveness. 00:36:19.280 --> 00:36:23.039 We thank you for your care and protection and love. 00:36:23.039 --> 00:36:28.200 And we pray that we would live in the light of your mercy all the time, your deliverance 00:36:28.200 --> 00:36:31.960 and your grace and the outworking of your promises in our lives. 00:36:31.960 --> 00:36:44.920 May we ask in Jesus' name, amen.