Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Solomon said, ‘Now therefore as the Lord lives, who has established me and placed me on the throne of my father David, and who has made me a house as he promised, today Adonijah shall be put to death.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, October 29, 2022
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
I think I missed something here. Probably because I’m not well-versed in the intrigues that occur in the upper echelons of monarchy. (Did I mention I’ve never watched Game of Thrones?) I can’t quite figure out why Adonijah’s request for his dead father’s former slave girl as a wife was so cataclysmic. Bathsheba certainly didn’t see it coming and I got the sense she was no idiot. I mean, Solomon did warn Adonijah that if he tried anything funny Solomon would have him killed. Maybe his designs on Abishag was symbolic?
Whatever the cause that I’m too dense to understand, Solomon neatly eliminated his chief rival for the kingship. The story continues on to the end of 1 Kings 2, wherein Solomon also eliminates Adonijah’s co-conspirators in putting Adonijah prematurely on the throne before David could pull it out from under him. So I guess Solomon’s reign is now secure, so we can get on with all the good stuff we know about him. I guess it just reiterates all of Samuel’s warnings from way back in 1 Kings that the people’s demand for a king wouldn’t turn out the way they wanted it to. God really does know what’s best for us. If only we would listen.
Do I find the intrigues and political jockeying in these stories exciting? Interesting? Off-putting? Why?
