Forestalling
Rebellion; 1 Kings 2:1-12
What we see in Kings is the historical outworking of the Davidic
covenant in the Davidic line, and we see in a broader scale that the fortunes
of Israel will ebb and flow in relation to their obedience or disobedience to
God in light of blessings and cursings of the Mosaic covenant. All of this
falls into a broader context tracing the line of the seed of David, which goes
back to the seed of Abraham, which goes back to the seed of the woman.
As we get into chapter two of 1 Kings David’s advice can be divided into
two sections. In the first four verses David focuses on spiritual advice to
Solomon. Then in verse five he slips right into advice related to the
administration and handling the transition and making sure he solidifies his
power on the throne at the beginning of his reign. A lot of people have a
difficult time with the harshness of what David says to Solomon. This is a
great illustration of what happens when a false scale of values is adopted that
we think has been labelled Christian, and we take that false scale of values
and go back and read certain passages in Scripture which don’t seem to fit our
understanding of God being a loving God and what it is to be a believer. And we
run into something like this and people try to explaining it by saying that
obviously David wants vengeance. Or another explanation is that David wants
Joab killed because he still wants to cover up his sin with Bathsheba and Joab
was the only one who really knew that David had told him to put Uriah the
Hittite up in the forefront of the battle. This is the failure to interpret
Scripture within its covenantal context, and by that is meant to try to
understand all of these things in light of the Mosaic covenant and then in
light of later covenants. We go back to the Mosaic covenant as part of the law
code in
Once we start with the presupposition that man is basically good then it
affects how we view every area of social endeavour in man’s life—how we view
marriage, parenting, education, the penal system, etc. With the penal system,
if we choose the option that the reason for going to jail of to rehabilitate
the criminal, then whether we realise it or not our basic presupposition is
that man is basically good and the purpose for the prison is to just deal with
the problems that society or family has brought on him. If we think that man is
basically evil then we understand that the purpose for prison or jail is for
punishment; it is a penal system.
So people comes to this passage and think that David is being
vindictive. But what about all this doctrine he had? David had failed in areas
of his life because David is a sinner but we start with verses 2-4 where he is
focussed on doctrinal absolutes as substantiated in both the Mosaic covenant
and the Davidic covenant. Then what he is saying in verse 5 is just as
important as what he is saying in the first four verses because he is actually
telling Solomon to do something he did not do, and that is to consistently and
objectively apply the laws of capital punishment in the Mosaic Law. David did
not do this and he now sees the problems that have resulted from that because
he has nurtured traitors and enemies within the palace, within the upper
echelons of leadership in the Davidic monarchy. So he is basically telling
Solomon that what he needs to do is be objective and consistent in his
application. How do we know? Verse 6 NASB “So act according to your
wisdom …” Solomon’s wisdom, because he has a soul that has been strengthened
with Doctrine and he loves the Lord with all his soul, mind and strength at
this point, is a wisdom that comes from the Mosaic Law, the study of God’s
Word. So he is a fairly mature believer understanding the divine absolutes as
set forth in Scripture.
1 Kings 2:5 NASB “Now you also know what Joab the son of
Zeruiah did to me, what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel,
to Abner the son of Ner, and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed; he
also shed the blood of war in peace. And he put the blood of war on his belt
about his waist, and on his sandals on his feet.” The two commanders he is
concerned about is Abner, Saul’s uncle, and Amasa who is first mention in 2
Samuel 25. There we learn that during the time of the Absolom rebellion when
David has taken his followers and fled from Jeruslem, Absolom appoints Amasa to
be the Comander–in-chief of the army in place of Joab. Joab and Abner are
cousins. Amaser, like Joab, is a son of one of David’s sisters. So they are
both nephews of David which means that they are first cousins. So there is
tremendous rivalry inside the family. Amaser has aligned himself with Absolom
in rebellion against David and leads the army against David. In 2 Samuel 19 we
see the return of David to
2 Samuel 19:11 NASB “Then King David sent to Zadok and
Abiathar the priests, saying, ‘Speak to the elders of Judah, saying, ‘Why are
you the last to bring the king back to his house, since the word of all Israel
has come to the king, {even} to his house? [12] You are my brothers; you are my
bone and my flesh. Why then should you be the last to bring back the king?’”
David is offering peace, he is going to deal with them in grace. This is the
strength of David’s soul. He understood strength, he understood forgiveness, he
had gone through this whole episode where he had been a traitor to God by his
adultery with Bathsheba and then his conspiracy to murder her husband Uriah.
God commuted the sentence. God can do that. When God delegates authority to
man, man can also do that, but when God communed the sentence to David it
doesn’t mean that God is setting a pattern that man should always commute the
sentence or not. David understands forgiveness and he is willing to apply that
lesson to his enemies.
2 Samuel
“…he also shed the blood of war in peace [time],” 1 Kings 2:5. He has
committed capital murder. He wallowed in his own violence, was proud of his own
violence. He showed no remorse, no shame for what he had done in committing
these acts of violence.
1 Kings 2:6 NASB “So act according to your wisdom, and do not
let his gray hair go down to Sheol in peace.” He has committed two capital
crimes, he needs to be executed. So David’s advice is based on the Mosaic Law,
it is based on an objective application of the Law, it is not an act of
personal vengeance, it is not that he is trying to cover up anything. As he is
getting close to death he is seeing things with objectivity that he hasn’t seen
before.
In contrast to executing Joab: 1 Kings 2:7 NASB “But show
kindness [grace] to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among
those who eat at your table; for they assisted me when I fled from Absalom your
brother.” The last part of 2 Samuel 17 records David’s movement across the
Jordan as he flees Absolom and his rebels. 2 Samuel
1 Kings 2:8 NASB “Behold, there is with you Shimei the son of
2 Samuel 16:9 NASB “Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said
to the king, ‘Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over
now and cut off his head.’ [10] But the king said, “What have I to do with you,
O sons of Zeruiah? If he curses, and if the LORD has told him, ‘Curse David,’
then who shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’” In other words, David is felling
very defeated at this point and he thinks just let him curse, it is not going
to do any harm, that maybe he deserves all of this as part of my punishment for
the affair with Bathsheba. How knows that because there is a fourfold
punishment and the Absolom rebellion is the fourth part. He recognises that
this is probably God’s will to have him cursed by Shimei and so he treats him
in grace. [11] “Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants, ‘Behold, my
son who came out from me seeks my life; how much more now this Benjamite? Let
him alone and let him curse, for the LORD has told him. [12] Perhaps the LORD will look on my
affliction and return good to me instead of his cursing this day’.” This is an
Old Testament example of what Jesus is teaching in the Sermon on the Mount and
turning the other cheek. Turning the other cheek is an idiom for taking
offence. When somebody offends you don’t jump at the chance to take offence and
return evil for evil. That is grace orientation, and exactly what David is
demonstrating here.
The next time we see Shimei is when David is coming back to Jerusalem in
2 Samuel 19:16 NASB “Then Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite who
was from Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet King
David.” He is a little obsequious, he’s just this oily little unctuous
character now and now that David is back in power he is going to come crawling
and beg for forgiveness. [18] “…And Shimei the son of
However, this is not the last we see of Shimei. When we come to the
whole episode with Adonijah in 1 Kings chapter one and his conspiracy against
David we discover Shimei again and he is aligned with David. 1 Kings 1:8 NASB
“But Zadok the priest, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei,
Rei, and the mighty men who belonged to David, were not with Adonijah.” He
doesn’t align himself with Adonijah overtly because he is sneaky. He is going
to sit in the background, he is not going to come out and risk anything. But
when David is instructing Solomon in 2:8 NASB “Behold, there is with
you Shimei the son of
That ends David’s final instruction to Solomon and with verse 10 we see
the death of David. NASB “Then David slept with his fathers and was
buried in the city of
1 Kings
The next part, beginning in verse 13, is where we see the application of
the wisdom related to ruling. This has to do with knowing who to punish and
when to punish, who to extend grace to and how to extend grace to them. Solomon
began by extending grace to Adonijah. In the case of two of those Solomon
executes, Adonijah and Shimei, he set up certain conditions, and those
conditions would indicate whether or not they were willing t submit themselves
to his authority as the king. Violation of those conditions would show that
they still had their own agenda and were a threat to his power on the throne.
1 Kings
1 Kings 2:15 NASB “So he said, ‘You know that the kingdom was
mine and that all
1 Kings
1 Kings 2:22 NASB “King Solomon answered and said to his
mother, ‘And why are you asking Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for
him also the kingdom—for he is my older brother—even for him, for Abiathar the
priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah!”