Coming Into Power

The story of Solomon coming into power reminds me a lot of Game of Thrones. In 1 Kings Chapter 2, we get the recounting of the chain of events. I’m not going to go as deep on this one. There are just a few things I want to point out. The first is David’s parting wisdom to Solomon.

In verses 2-4, David tells Solomon to walk in obedience to the Lord all the days of his life. Then in verses 5-6, David pivots and tells Solomon, “Do not let his [Joab son of Zeruiah] gray head go down to the grave in peace”, which is interesting advice to give to your son after telling him to walk in the way of the Lord. Now granted, Joab did give David some trouble in his life. Specifically, he murdered Abner and Amasa. But you’d think that David would realize that it would be a bad idea to tell Solomon to start things off by antagonizing an old man.

In verse 7, David is a bit better, but he goes back off the cliff of vengeance in verses 8-9. In this case, he wants Solomon to give Shimei son of Gera some comeuppance. David literally says, “Bring his [Shimei’s] head down to the grave in blood.” Then in the next verse, David dies. So overall, an interesting closing act for David. I’m not saying that I’d be much better, but I just wanted to point out that it’s probably not Christlike I suppose.

In verse 13, we finally take a turn for the stuff that reminds me of Game of Thrones. Adonijah, one of Solomon’s half-brothers devises a scheme to try to get his hands on the throne. During his decline into old age, David had Abishag the Shunammite acting as his nurse more or less. She slept with him to keep him warm, but they apparently weren’t sexually active. Adonijah saw this as an opportunity once David passed away.

What he did was he went to Bathsheba, King Solomon’s mother, and asked her to ask Solomon to give Abishag to him in marriage. The rationale being that if he married the woman who was formerly sleeping with King David, he could perhaps whip up a claim to the throne. Now bear in mind that previously, in 1 Kings 1, Adonijah previously made an attempt on the throne, but he took a completely different approach. That time around he focused on amassing support from the likes of Joab (the commander of the army) and Abiathar the priest. However, during the first attempt, Bathsheba caught wind of it and she and Nathan the prophet foiled the plot by getting David to officially declare Solomon as king of Israel.

So, this second attempt is much less direct and much craftier. He uses the first attempt as an excuse to get Bathsheba to ask Solomon for the favor on his behalf. Surprisingly, Bathsheba actually goes along with this request. She asks Solomon as if it was a request from her and not from Adonijah. Probably because she thought it was a good way to smooth things over and ensure that the kingdom had peace going forward.

However, Solomon saw right through this plot and decided to take rather drastic action compared to what took place previously. In verse 24, he orders that Adonijah shall be put to death that very day. Solomon then sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada, to carry out the deed. As a consequence, it almost seems like Solomon’s first act in office was having his scheming half-brother killed.

From there, it seems almost like Solomon is looking to get things wrapped up rather quickly. In verse 26 he tells Abiathar the priest to go farm in Anathoth. He wanted to kill him but because Abiathar carried the ark of the Lord and shared in David’s hardships, Solomon decided to spare his life.

Next on the hit list was Joab. When he heard about the killing of Adonijah, he fled to the tent of the Lord and took hold of the horns of the altar. Presumably thinking that Solomon might not kill him there. He was wrong though. In verse 31, Solomon has Benaiah go and carry out the deed. So, in verse 34, Benaiah heads off to the altar and there he kills Joab.

With those two dealt with, Solomon next orders Shimei to move to Jerusalem and stay there. In verse 37 specifically, he warns that if Shimei ever crosses the Kidron Valley, he’ll be killed. This worked for a while (about 3 years). But according to verse 39, two of Shimei’s slaves ran off to Gath. He went to get them and brought them back to his house. Solomon caught wind of this in verse 41. Per their agreement, he had Benaiah kill Shimei in verse 46. Thus, fully establishing the kingdom in his hands and carrying out all the dirty work that David wanted him to do.

So, what’s the lesson to be learned from all of this? Consolidate power quickly and don’t leave loose ends that have the potential to come back and bite you in the butt. Next week, we’ll get into 1 Kings 3 so we can take a look at his wisdom.