Friday, September 10, 2010

Rescued From Foreign Subjugation (part 76)

Adonijah, as he is seeking something of an exodus for himself (in a very loose analogy), eventually receives exile for his troubles. David summons the appropriate individuals and tells them to “Take your master’s servants with you, put my Solomon on my mule, and lead him down to Gihon. There Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet will anoint him king over Israel; then blow the trumpet and declare, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ Then follow him up as he comes and sits on my throne. He will be king in my place; I have decreed that he will be ruler over Israel and Judah” (1 Kings 1:33-35). This directive is carried out, generating quite the great stir. Adonijah hears about what has happened and quite rightly fears for his life. He had not won the hearts of the people as Absalom did, knowing full well that the vast majority of the people were going to follow in the direction in which they were led by David. The result was that “Adonijah feared Solomon, so he got up and went and grabbed hold of the horns of the altar” (1:50), which was an established method of pleading for mercy.

Solomon’s response to the plea to which Adonijah gave voice while also signifying with his actions, was “If he is a loyal subject, not a hair of his head will be harmed, but if he found to be a traitor, he will die” (1:52). This was reported to Adonijah, so “He came and bowed down to King Solomon” (1:53b). Now, the exile that would come to Adonijah would be the ultimate exile of death at the hands (figuratively speaking) of Solomon. The proximate cause of his death was a request by Adonijah, to Solomon, that was relayed to Solomon by Bathsheba. That request was “Please ask King Solomon if he would give me Abishag the Shunamite as a wife, for he won’t refuse you” (2:17). Abishag came onto the Scriptural scene when David, though covered with blankets, could not get warm (1:1). To rectify this situation, it was decided that “A young virgin must be found for our master, the king, to take care of the king’s needs and serve as his nurse” (1:2a). It was said to David that “She can also sleep with you and keep our master, the king, warm” (1:2b). This resulted in Abishag being brought to David. We learn that “The young woman was very beautiful; she became the king’s nurse and served him, but the king did not have sexual relations with her” (1:4).

Effectively, Abishag becomes one of David’s concubines, and this is the woman that is being requested by Adonijah. Bathsheba sees no harm in this, so she passes the request on to her son. Solomon, somewhat surprisingly, responds by saying “Why just request Abishag the Shunamite for him? Since he is my older brother, you should also request the kingdom for him” (2:22a). Solomon goes on to say, “May God judge me severely, if Adonijah does not pay for this request with his life! Now as certainly as the Lord lives… Adonijah will be executed today!” (2:24a,c) This can be looked at in at least two ways. The first way is to see it as Adonijah’s attempt to again partially emulate Absalom (who had sex with ten of his father’s concubines as part of his securing himself as king and reminding the people of his father’s shameful act and the prophecy of Nathan that Absalom fulfilled by this act), as part of his ongoing schemes to gain the throne. Such thinking is supported by Adonijah’s prefacing his request with “You know that the kingdom was mine and all Israel considered me king. But then the kingdom was given to my brother, for the Lord decided it should be his” (2:15). Taking Abishag for himself could possibly give the appearance of Davidic sanction of kingship for Adonijah.

On the other hand, this can be looked at as a bit of a black mark on Solomon’s early reign, with him following in the not-so-glorious footsteps of his father, and not initially trusting in the faithful and exodus-providing (rescue and deliverance from enemies, both real and potential) God, by seizing upon a relatively harmless request (the request for a beautiful, young virgin that was part of David’s royal harem) as the grounds to carry out a politically calculated execution that would remove a potential challenger to the throne and serve as a warning to the rest of David’s sons that any uprising would not be tolerated, and would be punished severely.
For good measure, Solomon takes the additional steps of removing Abiathar as priest, while also having Joab executed. This is another overtly political calculation, as both had supported Adonijah, and because Joab commanded the allegiance of the army. In his dealings with Joab, Solomon is merely carrying out the dying wishes of his father, who justifies the need to execute Joab by recounting that “he murdered two commanders of the Israelite armies” (2:5b). David told Solomon that Joab, during peacetime, “struck them down like he would in battle; when he shed their blood as if in battle,” and that by this, “he stained his own belt and the sandals on his feet” (2:5c). Owing to this, therefore, Solomon is instructed to “Do to him what you think is appropriate, but don’t let him live long and die a peaceful death” (2:6). How terribly ironic these words must be seen to be as they come from David, who had used Joab as his instrument to murder Uriah, and had used the Gibeonites, during a time of peace and under the pretext of a famine, to murder seven sons and grandsons of Saul. Solomon is commencing his exodus (entrance into God’s purposes for him) by delivering exile to those that could be perceived as able to thwart those purposes. He is eliminating potentially subjugating powers.

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