Well, meet me in First Kings together in chapter one.
First Kings Chapter one, the book of First Kings was
originally combined with the book of Second Kings as a single
unit and it was called Kings and it is still called Kings in the
Hebrew Bible in the Tanakh. But it wasn't until the
subtuagent, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible
that a division occurred with this lengthy text and we
received 1st and 2nd Kings. And that was followed by
subsequent translations all the way up to our English
translations and it's just stayed that way.
But if you look at the Jewish Bible, you'll see it as one
entire actual book called Kings. Now, the Book of Kings, First
Kings. There's dispute about who
authored it, but the popular opinion is that Jeremiah the
prophet was the one who penned and recorded this archive.
And though the author might be argued, what is undeniable is
that when you read First Kings, you are or should be convinced
that it is a very well documented piece of history.
And so perhaps you have read. I hope you have read First Kings
of You and to leave her more than a year to have completed
this text. If you've come to 1st and 2nd
kings, you've perhaps seen this repeated phrase, usually around
the end of a brief biography of one of the rulers of Israel,
Something along the lines of and the rest of the Acts of blank.
Are they not found in the books of the Acts of the Kings of
Israel or the kings of Judah? Even in First Kings 11, you read
of a book of the Acts of Solomon.
So from a human standpoint, the author here did a very good job
for his sources in bringing together what we have before us.
And I say that as a simple nudge for you to understand that what
we have as we're studying this is a factual and accurate
historical document. These are real kings.
These are real events, yes, authored by the Holy Spirit.
But the Holy Spirit wants to even confirm through internal
evidence that this is something that has been well researched,
eyewitness accounts, and has been brought together as a
reliable source. But when you and I read this, we
have to understand that the Holy Spirit did not intend it for us
to look at a a series of of events, a tracing of God's
people under Israel's monarchs. It's more than that.
You know that what we have for us and what we have before us is
the chronological testimony of the decline of a nation and the
decline of the nation as being recorded before us, as being
told to us, is layered with spiritual insight and lessons
and truths that are timeless. Some books are very
sophisticatedly brought together.
In terms of outline, First Kings is very simple.
It's a very simple outline if you want to know how to
structure First Kings in larger portions.
It's really one division between First Kings 1:00 and 11:00.
You have the telling the history of the United Kingdom of Israel,
one nation, all the tribes loyal to one another under one king,
one government. But something happens in chapter
12. From chapter 12 to the end of
the book of First Kings and leading into second kings, you
have the telling the history of the divided Kingdom, where
there's a split. And now you have the Kingdom of
the north and the Kingdom of the South.
So you have the Kingdom of Israel, which is represented of
the north, and the Kingdom of Judah, which is represented of
the South. So we're entering into a very
critical time in redemptive history where Israel will know a
fracture that seems to be almost permanent until the exile, the
major exile with Babylon. And it is in those two sections
that we will take our time to go through and and receive a wealth
of of truths concerning who God is and who we are with him and
who we are without him. And so as we introduced this
chapter, it's very seamless. And that's why we prayfully
considered this book ending with Second Sam, because it continues
where we left off and what we're going to cover today is a church
is the 1st 11 verses. I tried to go beyond it.
It's very difficult to do so when there's so much packed in a
series of verses. Well, let's read together the
1st 4 verses, shall we? I'm excited.
First Kings. 11 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 woman be sought for my Lord the king, and let
her wait on the king and be in his service.
Let her lie in your arms. Or other translations would say
in his bosom that my Lord the king may be warm.
So they sought for a beautiful young woman through all the
territory of Israel, and found Abbashag the Shunamite and
brought her to the king. The young woman was very
beautiful and she was of service to the king and attended to him,
but the king knew her not. The beginning of the book of
First Kings describes the last days of King David, the
concluding moments of his life. We are told here that he was old
and advanced in years. I wonder if anyone knows how old
David was at this point, 70 years.
Do you know how we know that? When did he become king?
When the 30 years old and how long did he reign as king?
40 years. It's a very simple math.
So at 70 we're told that he was advanced in years.
Now, 70 doesn't seem like a very old age to have this kind of
condition physically. But what kind of life did David
live? He wasn't an ordinary man.
This man was beaten, bruised, chased, enduring difficult
terrain and circumstances. This man took a beating.
He was a warrior. He was a fighter.
He was a general, and it seems as though there was just a
natural toll taken on his body. And it's showing here that there
is going to be this earthly departure, but seemingly early.
To be again this fragile at this point only testifies of the life
that he lived. And as we read this, we realized
something that he was sickly. He was ill.
He he could not get warm. That's the indication of the
seriousness of his condition. And really, this is a reminder
of the fate of all men, that no matter how lively, spunky,
strong, mighty, accomplished, agile you may be, your body is
determined to decay. You are destined to die.
And so am I. This is the end of all, man.
This is our future. This is really our fate.
But as I look here, I realized that this is again a reminder of
the inescapable reality of the effects of the fall.
No matter how many pills you take, no matter what your diet
looks like, no matter how much you lift, no matter how much you
run, we all have this end, and it is beyond our control.
David could not control what was happening here to his frame, and
that is true of you and I. But you know what is in our
control? Perhaps not the warmth of our
body, but the warmth of our devotion to the Lord.
You may not be able to determine what happens to your frame, but
you are responsible, and so am I.
Of what happens with our faith? Will it grow in zeal?
Will it grow in passion? Will it grow in devotion?
Or will it also with our bodies grow weaker and weaker as time
goes on? And Paul gave us the projection
of the Christian life in 2nd Corinthians 416.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting
away, our inner self is being what renewed day by day.
And though that is something that God's will is for us, it's
something that we also have to partner with and participate in
actively. And so you not have to make a
decision, as our fate physically is set for deterioration.
What will happen to my devotion? Will I choose to invest in it in
a way that as I age my love for the Lord, my service to the
Lord, my commitment and my worship to the Lord will only
increase as I decrease that. As I age more and more, my
adoration will also increase more and more.
And that's a good reminder. And we're told here in verse
two, that the servants came up with an idea concerning how to
preserve a healthy temperature for their beloved leader.
And this was the idea. Let's find a beautiful woman, to
be somewhat of a nurse and to be at service for him, and mainly
to lie with him in his arms in his bed, so that there'd be a
transfer of bodily heat. And hopefully the presence of
this young woman would even stimulate his blood and that his
life would be prolonged a little bit longer.
And we look at this and we think that seems kind of strange as a
solution, does it not? Now some simply explained this
away by saying, well, this is a custom of kings at the time
where they had a harem and they had this kind of availability.
It was medicinal. You can make that case.
But I think here there is something deeper to consider.
There are a lot of questions that I have with this text
because even though this is a medicinal pursuit, if this is
something that's in order to preserve his body and nothing
more, we're told we are comforted that he knew her not,
wasn't becoming seen. Now he didn't have intimacy with
her. That's what we're being told
here. This is questionable.
And then some again want to soften this and say, well she
was made a concubine. She was she was somebody who
came into relationship with David.
So it was it wasn't a big deal for her to be in the presence of
his actual bed. Yeah, but that still doesn't
help explain this. Because even if this was in
addition to his harem, that's just a confirmation that you're
only adding to the problem of your original issues, and that
was having multiple wives to begin with.
So whether or not Abish AG is a second class wife or she's just
a nurse, this is problematic. You know what the name Abish Ag
means? Father of error.
And an error she was because we're going to discover that
Abhishek is going to be problematic in a very short
season. Abhishek is going to be the
object of an issue in the Kingdom.
But OK, look at the description that we're given of her.
Therefore his servants had them let a young woman be sought for,
my Lord. Then look at verse 3.
So they sought for a beautiful young woman and look at first
for the young woman was very beautiful like why is that
important? If she was beautiful or not?
Put anybody with a pulse in the bed and let them hold on to
them. So again, this seems a little
bit suspicious and rightfully so.
It is suspicious and it's a reminder that as long as you
live, sin will pursue you in one way or another until the very
moment that you give your final breath.
There is an ever present enemy that will seek to capture you
and to make you a slave, or to make you stumble to taint your
testimony all the days of your life.
And it is a relentless foe. Sin doesn't care about your
financial condition, your societal standing, your physical
health. It doesn't care.
It seeks to devour you. It seeks to make you a slave.
It seeks you until you enter into glory.
So let it be a reminder that as you and I want to protect this
flame in our hearts, as we desire to honor God all the days
of our lives, sin is right there.
Every moment, every season, whether you're 17 or you're 70,
there is a war, an ongoing war, And we will not know eternal
rest until we enter into eternity.
So be mindful that in your spiritual warfare, be mindful
the fact that as you get old, warm and fuzzy, sin doesn't
care. It still wants to kill you.
And there's also other important lessons concerning how sin
works. When we look at this, I realized
that it was the ideas of the servants to bring this woman
into the palace, and it wasn't a good suggestion.
You'll find out why again in the in the next few studies you'll
see why. And let me give you a hint.
It wasn't a help to it. A man who would become king,
who'd watch his father as an example, the servants came with
a suggestion, and it was under the guise of health, sin and
temptation. Has a very creative way of
approaching us and introducing itself to us, and it's one of
its favorite cloaks. Is to pretend to be a means for
good, to pretend to be something that will benefit you, or to
achieve a better end. Though the means might be
questionable and arguable, so there's a call for discernment.
To understand that I have to be on guard at all times, I have to
understand that there are even people who might have good
intentions for me and might present ideas to me that
ultimately drift me further away from the will of God.
I wish I didn't help, really. She might have physically.
But again, this is just pushing David further away from what he
should have honored from the beginning, and that's to be a
king with one wife, one woman. And so this is the idea of these
friends. We are told that because of his
age, primarily, he knew her, not This could also be an indication
that David himself was integral. But we go from Abu Shag to
another person in verse 5. And this is where the chapter
really wants us to focus on. Now Adenija.
Now Adenija the son of Haageth, exalted himself saying I will be
king, and he prepared for himself Chariots and horsemen
and 50 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. This is not the first time we've
seen the name Adenija. He was mentioned by name
concerning his birth and Second Samuel chapter 3, along with his
other brothers from the different wives that David had.
But this is the first time we're seeing Adenija in action.
This is the first time that we see his words.
This is the first time that we see him moving and behaving.
And in verse five alone we have so much to consider his
statement. The very first words of mention
in the scriptures concerning him is I will be King.
Problem already with this guy, but not just the fact that he
wanted to exalt himself as a self appointed ruler.
The timing of it. Look at the first word of verse
5. Now if you have the King James,
if you have the new King James, it would say what then ESV&ESV
now, So based on the background and what's the main background
of verse one to verse 4, David is very sick.
David is ready to die at any moment here, all the signs are
there. His body is shutting down.
And who caught on to that? Very quickly, Adenija and
Adenija realized this is my opportunity, which proves to me
that after this point there's no record of Adenija's activity.
But he internalized this illegitimate desire to be king
for so long and only now it manifested.
Only now it was made known because he saw this wedge, he
saw this clear opportunity brought perform and he's going
to take advantage of it and it's actually going to cost him his
life. Ada Nyjah teaches us something
frightening about human nature. Very, very scary, and it's
should scare us in a holy way concerning what sin can do to a
man at an idea here shows, and perhaps you've experienced this
to some level where you have known someone for so long and
for that time of knowing them, they have been generally
peaceable, kind, respectable, but something switches in their
character. All of a sudden they turn and
they become almost unrecognizable, usually at
critical junctures in life. Maybe you've experienced this.
I hope not. I've heard it.
I've seen it myself. I've heard people lament about
it. It's amazing what happens in
families when an aged parent dies and leaves back an
inheritance, right? It's amazing what can happen,
how even 1 greedy selfish sibling can cause a war in that
house. Or you think about even when
positions open up, whether that be in the church or in the
workplace, it's it's absolutely stunning to see what people will
do to one another, what they would do with their own
reputation, order to gain a place of power.
The things that they will say, the politics that they will play
just so that they can attain something for the sake of
status, prestige, reputation. You can even say that
relationally, in so many different facets, with
promotion. When something happens with
somebody else, with giftedness with, with romance, when things
don't occur the way you had hoped and when things don't
flourish or continue the way you had desired.
And how unmet expectations or opportunities can pop the lid
and the true character of somebody is revealed.
Friendships, business, partnerships, you name it.
And that an idea here proves something very drastic, that
potential or missed opportunities don't make people
evil, they just reveal the evil that was in them all along.
I know that might be shocking to you, but it is true.
And so you and I have to understand that.
How you and I behave. How other people behave during
during these moments. Crisis moments, transitional
periods. Promotions, or lack thereof.
How you behave, how you react, reveals who you truly are, or at
least a lot about you. And that is the case with this
man here. He's showing who he is.
So we see here when he chooses to say I will be king, but look
at how he chooses to do it. He prepared for himself,
Chariots and horsemen and 50 men to run before him.
Why is that a significant detail?
Any idea? Oh, very good, because you have
your rear viewer mirrors up. When you read your Bible, make
sure that your mirrors are in the right place.
Always looking. Where have I seen this before?
And you have seen this before? Almost word for word.
If you want to cross, reference Second Samuel 15 verse one.
This is concerning Absalom, and look where you're told
concerning Absalom. After this, Absalom got himself
a chariot and horses and 50 men to run before him.
This was Absalom's early phase of trying to steal the
allegiance of the nation of Israel away from his father and
to bring it to himself. And with his pompous pride, he
chose to parade himself around and to let his looks do what
looks can do. And that's to win the votes of
many people. And Adenija, a very handsome
man, follows in the steps of his brother.
And that, to me, says a lot about who Adenija is.
What does it tell me about Adenija?
What does it tell you about Adenija?
This guy had a front row seat to another man's crash and burn
when he allowed pride to take over.
And he acted upon that pride. Did he not?
Did he not know? Did he not see for himself?
When a man try to revolt and do something against God's will and
to elevate himself what what your fate is, how God humbles
you? And this man, understanding all
of that, still doesn't learn from it.
He imitates it. He imitates his brother, which
tells me what he is. A fool of the 1st order.
That's what it tells me, and it should tell you the same you're
going to imitate him almost step by step.
When you see this section, he almost mirrors exactly the plan
that Absalom tried to convince himself would work.
A fool is described in many ways, and one of the marks of a
fool is that when they fail to interpret personal lessons from
somebody else's failure, a fool is somebody who fails to
interpret personal lessons not from their own failure, but from
somebody else's failures. And the mark of a wise man is
able to look at the mistakes in the falls and the sinful
consequences of others and to realize that they are
susceptible to the same kind of destiny and choose to make the
appropriate preparation so that they would never happen to them
by God's grace. Can I show you in the Bible how
it is proven that wisdom is defined by you observing other
people's lives and then interpreting that for your own?
One of my favorite proverbs to to back that truth up is in
Proverbs 24. Proverbs 24.
I want you to see this so that you can remember it for yourself
and help others understand it as well.
And Proverbs 24. Look at verse 30 to verse 32.
Here's what the writer says. I passed by the field of a
sluggard, a lazy person. I passed by the field of a
sluggard by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold,
it was all overgrown with thorns.
The ground was covered with nettles and its Stonewall was
broken down. That positive.
So this is what he's seeing. He's taking a stroll, and he
sees the House of a man that is clearly not being taken care of,
not being groomed, not being managed.
And he sees this, and he sees the vulnerability.
He sees the lack of harvest. He sees the lack of all these
different issues. And notice what it says next.
Then I saw and considered it. I looked and received
instruction. I looked and I received
instruction. So his observation was made into
interpretation. And then it turned into
application. When was the last time not in a
judgmental sense, but when was the last time you've looked or
considered or heard news or have seen the way people have handled
situations that thought that's probably not the best way to do
it. Lord, help me do it the way you
would want me to do it. And this is what the Bible
promotes in our lives as we go through life, whether those
observations are at a distance or they are close and near.
Have you heard the story of the two sons who had the same
alcoholic, abusive father and they had two different lives As
a result of that upbringing, the one ended up following the exact
same example. He became an alcoholic.
He became abusive, He had a terrible marriage.
He had a broken, dysfunctional relationship with his children.
And then when they asked him why, Why did you end up doing
this to yourself? Why do you end up doing this to
your own family, to your own marriage?
And he says, well, this is all I've ever known.
This is what I've seen. This is the example that was
brought before me. And then the the other son who
was successful, financially successful, relationally
successful with his children, successful in all these
different areas, with the same father, same upbringing, same
atmosphere, same environment. And they asked him why, Why are
you so different from your brother?
Why, why do you have this different outcome of life?
And he said, because I saw what my father was like, and I
determined that I would not be like that.
And I chose to learn from those mistakes and to do the exact
opposite of what I've seen. Do you see the perception?
Do you see how you interpret these things can determine the
direction of your life? And the Bible calls us to do
such a thing. So he learns that, and we're
told what he learned. Just read the rest of that
proverb and you would see it at an age.
Unfortunately doesn't learn. He sees what his brother, his
brother does. And I think to myself, is there
anything else that would cause this man to be so confident that
he can actually walk in the same path and expect different kind
of ramifications? And I believe there is, there is
a clear answer. There is something to know about
at a Niger that made him believe and think this way.
It's perplexing, it's confusing, but we know why.
Go to chapter two First kings, and notice here in verse 15 what
he says to Bathsheba. This is scary.
First Kings 2:15. This is Adam and I just
speaking. And he said, you know, that the
Kingdom was mine and that all Israel fully expected me to
reign. Pause.
Is that true? But there's distortion here, and
I'll show you why there's distortion.
In a moment, however, the Kingdom has turned about and
become my brothers, for it was his From who?
The Lord that should give us chills.
This man fully admitted that the divine prerogative, the divine
right, the divine ordinance for the Kingdom to be given, was
granted to his younger brother Solomon.
And guess what? He didn't care.
I don't care if God determined that Solomon would be king.
I want to be king. So what you have here is not
just a man who was a fool because he failed to learn from
his brother's failure, but a man who was a fool because his heart
had a special kind of pride. There's there's levels of pride.
All of it is really bad, but there's a special kind of pride
where you can even think that you can thwart the purposes of
God and that you can prevail with your own will and desires.
People always wonder, how does Satan keep going?
Why does he keep going? I mean, we have everything
determined. We read the end of the book and
we know we win. Doesn't he read it as well?
Doesn't know the Bible? He does, but he's so proud.
He thinks that he can actually change it.
He thinks he can actually change course, thinks you can actually
hinder and put an obstacle before God's determination for
what would happen concerning his glory and his people.
That's what pride can do. And before we think that this is
shocking and unique, you have to be remember that it's the same
attitude that's repeated in many people's lives who can look at
clear, obvious scriptures and truths and believe that they can
interpret it the way they would and apply it the way they would.
It's the same kind of pride that I than Nigel had.
He knew what God's word was about Solomon, about the
Kingdom, and he still resisted it.
And you have people did it who look at clear doctrinal truths
and are willing to force it into something else, dismiss it
altogether, interpret it to the point where they've butchered
it. Why?
For the sake of self-interest, self wisdom, personal agendas?
Is that what we're seeing? You know, people tend to
criticize the Protestant church because of all these
denominations, usually from those who come from traditional
backgrounds. And they say, look at you guys,
you can't even get your Bible right.
You can't even interpret your scriptures right.
You have all these people who believe different things about
different texts. Don't you guys need somebody to
be able to interpret the word of God for you?
Look what happens when you're all your own personal popes?
And I say it's not because of people's interpretations,
genuine sinceres, but because of people's.
This is what I believe, traditions, traditions.
And what I mean by traditions is you wanting to impose what you
want the word of God to say. Are you ignoring key truths,
foundational truths and willing to elevate?
Guess what guys, Evangelicals have their own ideas and
philosophies as well, not just the Catholic and Orthodox.
And so I deny you here has a special kind of pride because he
knows what God's will is and he's willing to actually stand
against it. And I thought to myself reading
this man, is there any indication how this person was
able to live with such a frame of mind where he thought that
the world, not just the world, the creator of the world,
revolved around him? And you actually do get the
answer. It's actually undeniable.
It's actually so obvious. Here's one of the major
contributions for adenitis Ugly, Nasty, Selfdestructive attitude.
Verse six his father had never at any time displeased them by
asking why have you done thus and so?
Why is that mentioned there? To show that verse 5 is because
of verse 6. Verse five is because of verse
6. David was a great warrior.
David was a wonderful king. David was a trusted friend.
David was a beautiful worshipper.
David was a failure as a father, and not only in this instance.
And the Bible wants to reveal that to us, to help us
understand that there is something that David failed to
do that would ultimately lead to a destruction beyond what he had
imagined. And as I read this and meditated
on this, I thought that the lack of fatherly discipline that AD
and Nyjah was accustomed to made him the monster that he is and
that we read of at this time. It made him a hideous beast.
And this is a crucial call to how future parents should
understand the role, how current parents.
And I want to be careful because I don't have children of my own,
but I do have the authority of God's word.
I don't want to speak from my experience or lack of it.
I want to speak on what the Bible says.
But I'm sure you can all agree that you don't need to have a a
child to know that if you give somebody anything that they
want, it's not a good idea. I don't think you need to pick
up a book or talk to a child psychologist to know that that's
not it's not the best thing to do.
And that is certainly right. We're told that David never
wanted to displease his son by ever contradicting any of his
wishes, and it is one of the most unloving things for a
parent to do to relate to their child in a way where there is no
presence of correction or instruction.
Free range upbringing is a sure and promised destination for a
child to become a societal thorn.
And the parents who want to try to keep good terms with their
children, because that's probably one of the main reasons
why correction is never ensued. Because they don't want to
create conflict and they don't want that conflict to create
anger and they don't want that anger and their child to create
resentment. And they don't want that
resentment to ultimately become what rebellion.
And so with that notion in mind, they they're very minimal, if,
if at all, confrontational. And the Bible says that a person
who thinks that way actually hates their child, hates their
child. And there's so many proverbs
about that. And I wonder if Solomon, just
with his own upbringing with his siblings and having a father
like David, knew a lot. Yes, Holy Spirit inspired, but
just by observation, knew what? Knew what it was like to live in
a house where there was unhinged indulgence.
Parentally speaking, Scripture says something fascinating in
Proverbs 2215, Follies bound up in the heart of a child.
But what? But the rod of discipline drives
it away. Follies bound up so that with
that bundle of joy, right that comes in that little heart of
theirs is foolishness, and it's bound up in there.
It's wrapped around it is chained.
And what is the primary means for that to be reduced?
For that to be dealt with is something called discipline,
which tells me that one of the divine designs of the family
unit among many is that parents have a primary responsibility to
posture their children unto greater godliness through the
means of holy and godly chastisement.
Your discipline won't make your kids saved, but it will Polish
them and posture them in a way where they can be more
receptive, more open, ultimately attracted to the truth, the God
of truth. To understand, there is a
sovereign master, a creator, a savior over you.
The world isn't about you. You're created for the creator
of the world. And I look at David and I think
to myself, this is so sad to see.
He was able to conquer nations, but he wasn't able to conquer
the hearts of his own children. And to fail to see that as the
divine mandate, as a father, as a mother, is to ultimately
reject the heavenly mandate of what it means to be a parent.
And one of the main reasons, as I said earlier, is that there is
the sense of fear and there should be a good sense of fear
because scripture says not to provoke our children unto wrath.
There is sometimes unrealistic standards and type of correction
that is so abused that you end up discouraging your child.
But that we're not talking about that here.
We're talking about godly training over the years that
will better prepare your children to not just live in
this world, but to live for God. And what I've seen one of the
tragedies of knowing this truth of seeing parents who, when
their children are old enough to make decisions of their own,
they come to passers. They come to other seasoned
Saints with desperation on their faces and their voices.
Please talk some sense into my child.
They're destroying themselves and others, and oftentimes it's
too late. It's too late.
Not that the gospel can never change anybody.
That would be untrue. But JC Ryle has a book that I
recommend to all of you, whether you're a man or not.
It's a very small book. It's a book actually worth
repeating over and over. Thoughts for Young men.
Anybody here? Read it.
You did good. If you haven't, I would
recommend it highly. Thoughts for Young Men.
And one of the places in that book, he speaks about habits.
And he says habits are like trees.
They get stronger as they age. And even a child can bend a tree
when it is a sapling. Have you ever seen a tree when
it's so premature? It's like a little, just like a
looks like an overgrown plant, but you can still bend it.
You can really, with the force uprooted, even you can change
the direction of it. But 100 men cannot uproot an oak
tree. And he spoke with that metaphor
to speak about what habits are like.
The earlier you catch on to bad habits, the more guaranteed you
are to see victory to overcome them and yourself and those that
you you've, you were responsible for.
The later you wait, The more difficult it is, the more
difficult it is. And unfortunately, when it comes
to AD and I just attitude here, it's reached the point of no
return. And yes, God can do the
impossible and rescue us from century old habits, but that
does not negate the fact that we have a responsibility for
ourselves and for those that God has called us to train up the
earlier deal with it. Young men, you're considering
marriage, but you're still dealing with pornography.
Deal with it now. Marriage isn't going to fix it.
Deal with it now, because it's only going to get harder as time
goes on. Anything else, Anything else
that you see that is out of line of God's will see it like that.
The longer I wait, the stronger it will become.
So let me kill the thing right now.
Let me go to war with it tonight and God will help you and he
will be with you. Adenija, Adenija, Adenija.
When you read verse six, it's really a bad combination of
three things. Really.
Look at it again. His father had never had any
time displeased him by asking why have you done this?
And so he was also a very handsome man and he was born
next after absolute meaning. He was, he was humanly speaking
next in line to be king if they were to operate as how the
nation's operate. But they didn't operate as the
nation's operating operate. He was fourth, right?
And you have. And then who died?
And then there was another mention of Hilly AB, who was
mentioned at birth but never mentioned again.
So it's presumed that he died. Then there was Absolon, who
died. And add that Nigel is next.
So he he thinks that naturally speaking, I'm I'm the one who's
supposed to be king, though he knew that Solomon was supposed
to be king. So what do you have here in this
combination? Here's you have this combination
of parental leniency, privileged status, and good looks.
A recipe for disaster, right? It's dangerous for somebody to
be good looking and to be undisciplined, very dangerous.
And we were being told that he was good looking, not just for
that truth, but in order to prepare us That some people are
going to be persuaded by his outward appearance and the
people that he's going to convince to join the side might
shock you. In verse seven he conferred with
Joe AB The son of Zuraya and with Abiath are the priests, and
they followed Adenija and helped him.
How 2 prominent men very unlikely to join Adenija, but
apparently they did Joe AB, that man who had fierce loyalty to
David all the time that he defended him.
Was he not with David when Absalom revolted?
Was Abby Ather not the one who from the beginning was under
Davis protective care? He was one of the priests that
escaped nob when Saul brought that massacre into that priestly
town. Both of these guys were with him
from the beginning. Both of them endured many
trials, many temptations, and they already dealt with a coup
before this. And now there's another one you
would think, okay, here they are again.
We've been through this. We've rode this rodeo.
God will be with us. No, they jump ship and they join
another man and they turn their backs on the will of God.
How? How is that possible?
Well, look, Job is expected a little bit, right?
The guy's shady, he's shady. And you think that he is loyal
to David, but he is really loyal unto himself.
And the way that's proven is that whenever there was a risk
of his position being lost for the sake of self preservation,
he would even deny the wishes of David.
And he's done that on more than one occasion.
So knowing the background of Joe up here, he's very smart, he's
very shrewd. He understands what's about to
take place in this transfer of the Kingdom.
Was David not replaced by somebody, or rather Job?
Was he not replaced by somebody? And second Samuel 19, he was
Amasa replaced him. David was so fed up with Job, he
says it's done. You're no longer the commander
of my army. Amasa will be the commander
instead. Job kills Amasa because of that.
And Job understands that David is about to leave.
But David is going to, he's going to tell his son Solomon of
his low view of Job. And certainly Solomon's going to
replace Joe AB. It's a given.
If David replaced him, surely Solomon his son, is going to
replace me. And so he understands that he
has no hope under Solomon's ruling reign.
I will go to add the Nigel Y job security, even if it meant
resisting God's will. There's no denying.
Listen, this guy idolized his position.
He idolized his post to the point where it's going to kill
him. You worship anything more than
God. I don't care how innocent it may
seem. I don't care how much security
provides, how much meaning it brings to your life.
It will kill you. It will betray you.
I'm not surprised with you. I am a little surprised with
Abiathurdor. Right.
He's a priest and there's no indication whatsoever, really,
at least from a preliminary reading, of why Abiathur would
would turn his back on David. Does anybody have an idea why he
would, though? Because there's there's only one
possible solution from a scriptural standpoint why
Abyothra would be inspired to say I'm done with David.
Any idea? Here's a hint.
Yes, go ahead. Very good observation.
You want the answer? The possible answer.
Our sister said it, but I'm not going to repeat what she said
because I want you to sit in your Bibles And 1st Chronicle is
1511. First Chronicles 1511.
With other mentions of this duo throughout the Bible, you get
the idea of why Abby Athur might have said I'm done with David.
Then David summoned the priest Zadok and Abby Athur.
Abby Athur was not the only chief priest in David's
administration. There was another named Zadok.
And every time Zadok and Abby Athur are mentioned together in
a verse. And guess who's 1st Every time?
Zadok. It could be that Abby author
recognized Zadok as a threat. It could be that with that, he
also saw this opportunity to occupy a individual position as
priest. And Adenija promised that I'm
in. You mean I don't have to share
this with Zadok? You mean Zadok can be his own
thing and I can be my own thing? Then let it be.
And so again, you see even a priest who is allured by the
false sense of purpose you get solely with a position, even if
it's a religious position. If God's not with you, who cares
what you have? Who cares?
I'd rather be God's will and lose my position than to be in a
ministerial position and not be in God's will.
Do you think most people think like that?
No, because we idolize things like this.
And Abby, Arthur will never be the same once Solomon becomes
king. So these men here, they turn on
Dave, and there's so much to make mention of concerning how
purpose can pull us away from the will of God.
But I want to see from David's perspective, these guys were
with you from the beginning, From the beginning and not just
the beginning. When you were successful, from
when you were at zero with no promise of a Kingdom, at least
naturally speaking. When you're a fugitive, when
you're an exile, when you're being chased like a animal.
These guys come in. Like if you're willing to be my
friend and be with me at these kind of times, surely you're
with me till the end. That's not always the case.
I think a lot of Christians need a wake up call.
The reality of relationships. Even within Christendom, that's
not the case. And servants of God will know
that to be true soon enough that people will come and go, and
some people that you would never expect to abandon the cause of
Christ. And with that abandon you might
just do that. And you have to be prepared for
that. You have to be prepared for when
that happens. David at his last moments saw
people that you would not expect walk away from him.
So why are you surprised when it happens?
And you think this is Old Testament?
What it What did Paul say? And second Timothy 410 Demus in
love with this present world deserted.
Who me? You would think he deserted
Christ. And it is true that he deserted
Christ. Paul was realistic with his
emotions and his feelings that when Demos did walk away, he
walked away from Paul. And he knew the pain of that.
And he knew the frustrations with that.
He knew the disappointments of that.
Demos walked away. Demos was mentioned more than
one of the epistles. Demons, was a trusted fellow
servant. Paul didn't let guys in so
easily into his inner circle, did he?
Now, when Mark tried to wedge himself back in, he's like, no,
no, you can go with Barnabas. You're not coming with me.
He was that kind of guy. He was like, I have standards
for who's who's going to serve with me, demons of obviously one
his affection, one his trust. And at some point he goes, see
you later. But what does he say?
Second Timothy 417. This is what he says.
The Lord stood by me. Do you have friendship with the
Lord Jesus Christ? He's my savior.
Good. Are you friends with Him?
Is your friend. Do you walk with him?
Do you believe in His presence in your life?
Do you converse with Him? Do you acknowledge him in every
place, every problem, every circle?
Is he there? Does your faith come alive, even
in relational distress? I want that always.
I hope you want that too. To be able to confidently, not
wishfully but confidently, accurately, genuinely
experientially scary word right. To be able to say The Lord stood
by me, The Lord was with me. The Lord is my shepherd.
The Lord is my friend. The Lord was with me.
He protected me. He supplied the strength I
needed. He gave me the grace.
He gave me the wings. He gave me the sustenance.
He gave me revelation. He gave me more than I imagined.
The Lord stupid, that's this isn't a stuffy headed theologian
that just knew how to explain doctrine really well.
Yeah, he could write amazing theological pieces like the book
of Romans. But he can also say with tender
heartedness the Lord stood by me.
Wow, what a heart. What a relationship he had.
Brothers and sisters, keep your eyes on Christ.
Always. Especially when people who are
running in that same lane of the cause of Christ don't run in it
anymore. The Lord is with you, and keep
him as your focus. Keep your eyes on him.
Win his smile, run toward his arms, and you'll know strength.
You'll know endurance. You're always looking at who's
here, who's not here anymore. Oh no, no.
You're not going to be able to do this with joy.
There's a lot of problems with that that I won't get into.
Instead, we look here at verse 8.
There's a remnant in this rebellion.
God always has a remnant. But Zeitok the priest, and
Bennaya the son of Jehoida and Nathan the Prophet, and Shemay
and Reya Ray I and Nathan the Prophet, excuse me.
And David's mighty men were not with Adam and I just now look at
this. Adam and I just sacrificed sheep
oxen and fattened cattle by the serpent stone.
You might have a different transition concerning what that
is, But that translates to Serpent, which is beside and
Rogal. And he invited all his brothers,
the King's sons, and all the royal officials of Judah.
But he did not invite Nathan the prophet or Banaya or the Mighty
man, or Solomon his brother. If you ever question Adenija's
motives, just look at that. He didn't invite Solomon.
I wonder why you said something good.
Now let's just pull back for a second.
I'm closing here. Okay, you have two camps that
were created here. You have Adenija's camp and you
have David slash Solomon's camp. Now, what was Adenija able to
do? He was able to recruit certain
people, right? And notice here that he puts on
a feast. This is a coronation feast.
This is a feast to celebrate his self appointment as king, and
he's bringing all these people in to join in on that.
But he doesn't. Even through sacrifice, he's
providing the meal through a spiritual gloss.
Because remember this, almost always in a spiritual context.
Whenever somebody causes the vision, they will always come
off as pious and godly, prayerful, biblical, in tune
with the spirit. They don't even know they're
being used by the devil. And so here we see.
Look, guys, this is my, this is my celebration of me becoming
king. And so I'm going to sacrifice.
This is for God, and it's of God.
Oh, really? So who does he have in his camp?
He has not just Joe AB and Abiathar, he has a military
commander and he has a religious leader, does he not?
And who are the ones that didn't come and who are on the side of
the truth? You have Zadok, who is what?
He also was a religious leader. And you have Banaya, who was one
of the mighty men highlighted because he was a leader among
the mighty men. So, so far they look like they
have the same thing. So far it looks like an even
battle, even competition. You have a son of David, you
have a son of David, You have a military leader, you have a
religious leader, you have a
religious leader. But who stands out among the two
Nathan the prophet, Adam. And I couldn't recruit a true
man of God. Adonija could not recruit a
prophet. But Nathan, he stood with the
truth. I was meditating on this today,
and I thought to myself, how true is it that in life you will
be introduced to many individuals, many friend groups,
ministries, local churches, movements of all kinds.
They will come and they will go, and some of them will demand
your opinion. Some of them will invite you to
approve, others might even go beyond that and extend an
invitation to participation. And you and I have to make
choices in life. Which side is true?
Which side is right? And it may look very similar, it
may both look very promising, it may even both look very right in
terms of God's will. But if you want to be able to
discern the main differentiating mark is God approve of it.
This God's truth, not just in theory but in practice back it
up. Nathan the prophet symbolizes
God's word. Because he was God's mouthpiece,
he was used, He was the means in this covenant to reveal God's
will. And so with all these choices
that you have to make with, with all these pulls from our
experiences in life, to pledge our allegiance here or to there
or to say take sides with this or that or to give our time,
energy, resources here or there, if you want to know which side
is the truth, just go with the one that honors, esteems, lives
and surrenders to the word of God.
If I'm looking at this, I see out of Nyjah, I see David and
Solomon, and I see Nathan, the prophet here through the
symbolism of him standing as the word of God, the mouthpiece of
God, the representative God. You can be safe with that
decision, and Nathan the Prophet is going to play an instrumental
role in the rest of this chapter as he will bring this uprising
to David's attention and it has awesome lessons of how you and I
should respond to certain things.
Let's pray thank you for bringing these
truths, Lord, to our minds, to our hearts.
Thank you that we were able to crack some of the shell and to
receive the nourishment that these historical actual lessons
provide for us in our walk with the Lord Jesus.
Lord, thank you that already we are being prepared, and we will
continually be reminded throughout 1st and 2nd Kings
that there is no King like King Jesus.
Help us to never forget that as the overview truth that we have
the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords as our leader, as our
governor, as our provider, as our protector.
And for now, Lord, we meditate in all the different truths that
came from different angles. And we asked, Lord, that we
would be wise and interpreting what happened with Adam.
Nigel, what happened with Abby. Shag what happened with even
Nathan and these other figures. Lord and to Lord, by your grace,
help us know how to apply that to our lives.
Now help us be equipped. Lord, help us find to where to
put these truths in our own experiences.
Lord, we want to give you glory and thanks as we meditate on
that in Jesus name. Amen.
Why don't you meditate on that?
We're going to sing. We have a different service
time. You know that, right?
So it's not 9:30. It's 8:30.
We can take our time a little bit to just sit back and let the
word just wash over us more and more through meditation.
Thomas Watson said the reason why so many of us come cold
after reading God's Word is because we did not sit by the
fires of meditation. And so before they even if they
want to play softly, that's fine.
But before we even sing a song and just go through the server,
just meditate on the word. Meditate on those different
things, speak back to the Lord about them, thank him for it,
and then we'll sing all together.