Now we're going to look at almost
this entire chapter, but I just want to read five or six verses. These are David's dying wishes. What would you be thinking about
when you knew you were going to soon die? Well, look what
David's thinking about, and I think this is very interesting. Verse five, moreover, thou knowest
also what Joab, the son of Zeruiah, did to me, and what he did to
the two captains of the hosts of Israel, unto Abner, the son
of Ner, unto Massah, the son of Jether, He murdered them both,
whom he slew and shed the blood of war in peace and put the blood
of war upon his girdle that was about his loins and in his shoes
that were on his feet. He's talking about the blood
of his victims dripping down onto his shoes when he stabbed
them. Do therefore according to thy wisdom and let not his
whorehead go down to the grave in peace. He's actually saying,
I want him to die a violent death. Verse seven, but show kindness
unto the sons of Barzillai, the Gileadite, and let them be of
those that eat at thy table. For so they came to me when I
fled because of Absalom, my brother. And behold, thou hast with thee
Shemai, the son of Gerah, Benjamite of Bahurim, which cursed me with
a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanahem, You remember
that when he was going, he was being run out of town because
of Absalom, he was fleeing for his life. And while he was leaving,
Shemai was cursing him. He said, you're a bloody man
and God's bringing on your head all the things you've done. And
he had promised to go ahead and have mercy on Shemai. They said,
Abshai, after he came back, Abshai said, let me kill him. He said,
no, there's not going to be bloodshed today. You're going to have mercy
on him. So what does he say about this
man? And Shemai, thou hast with thee. Shemai, the son of Gera,
Benjamin of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the
day when I went to mayhem. But he came down to meet me at
Jordan, and I swear to him by the Lord, saying, I'll not put
thee to death with the sword. Now, therefore, hold him not
guiltless. I promised I wouldn't kill him,
but you didn't make that promise. I want you to deal with this
man. For thou art a wise man, knowest what thou oughtest to
do unto him, but his whorehead bring thou down to the grave
with blood. Kill him." Those are David's
last wishes. So David slept with his father
and was buried in the city of David. And the days that David
reigned over Israel were 40 years. Seven years reigned he in Hebron.
and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem. Then Solomon
sat upon the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was
established greatly." As a matter of fact, as you go on reading
through Kings, Chronicles, at this time Israel was the most
powerful nation in the earth. Even Egypt wanted to make affinity
with them and be at peace with them because they were afraid
of what they could do. And Solomon became a man of peace. David
had brought it, well the Lord brought it to this. And David
was used greatly to bring Israel into this position where Solomon
was reigning and David gives his final wishes. And it almost
seems vindicative, doesn't it? Joab, you know all the problems
he caused? Kill him. And remember, Joab was one of
the people who sided with Adonijah in the first chapter when he
tried to lead this revolt against Solomon. Joab sided with him. And so David says to Solomon,
get him. Shemai, the one that cursed me,
get him. Where's his forgiveness? Now,
remember, before we look at this, every one of these are given
to illustrate gospel truth. Yes, it seems pretty rough. But
all of this is given to illustrate gospel truth. Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name and we ask in his name that you would be pleased
to speak in power to our hearts from your word and enable us
to worship thy dear son, enable us to sit at thy feet and hear
your word. Deliver us from merely hearing
from a man And Lord, we confess our sins. We ask for forgiveness
and cleansing for Christ's sake. We pray that he might be exalted
and glorified and that you would be the one who speaks through
this empty mouthpiece and reveal your gospel to us. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen. Now, Joab had sided with Aden
Adonijah. These words are so hard to pronounce,
so you're all going to have to bear with me on that. I should
practice saying them, but I just can't bring myself to do that.
Look in verse 5 of chapter 1. Then Adonijah, the son of Haggath,
exalted himself, saying, I will be king. And that word be king
is I will reign. It's actually a verb. He represents
man's will. I will be king. I will reign. I'm going to do
my thing. I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm not going to
be underneath anybody. I will. That is the essence of
sin. I will. You see, if I believe
in I will, that means I don't believe in God's will. That's
all that means. I will. I will confront God's
will. If I want to do this, this is
the way it's going to be. I will. And that's the essence of sin.
The essence of holiness is not my will, but thine be done. But here we have Adonijah and
he rebels and Joab joins in. Look in verse seven. And he conferred
with Joab, the son of Zeruriah, and with Abiathar, the priest,
and they followed Adoniah and helped him. They helped in this
rebellion against David. They were against David. Now, what Joab did is he joined up
with that which is against God's will. It's that simple. He joined up with free will.
He joined up with man's will. And he's going to be dealt with
accordingly. Now what about Adonijah? Turn to verse 50. This is all
part of this story of chapter one. This is after Solomon had
been declared king by David, his father. And Adonijah really
had more of a right to it because he was older. He was older than
Solomon, and he thought the kingship should be his. And no, David
said Solomon's king. You can remember that from a
couple of weeks ago. Verse 50, and Adonijah feared because of
Solomon, and rose and went and caught hold on the horns of the
altar. And it was told Solomon, saying, Behold, Adonijah feareth
King Solomon. For lo, he hath caught hold on
the horns of the altar, saying, Let King Solomon swear unto me
today that he will not slay his servant with the sword. And Solomon
said, if he will show himself a worthy man, there shall not
a hair of him fall to the earth, but if wickedness shall be found
in him, he shall die. So King Solomon sent and they
brought him down from the altar and he came and bowed himself
to King Solomon and Solomon said unto him, go to your house. Now,
uh, let's pick up, um, in first Kings chapter two, verse 12. Then Solomon sat upon the throne
of David his father, and his kingdom was established. And
Adonijah, the son of Hagath, came to Bathsheba, mother of
Solomon. And she said, comest thou peaceably?
And he said, peaceably. This is the man who had rebelled
against Solomon. He comes to Solomon's mom. And
he said, moreover, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And she said,
say on. He said, thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and
that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign. Howbeit,
the kingdom is turned about, and it's become my brother's,
for it was from the Lord. And now I ask one petition of
thee, deny me not. And she said unto him, say on.
And he said, speak, I pray thee, unto Solomon the king. He'll
not say no to you. And give me Abishag the Shumilite
to wife. Now you remember who she was?
This was the young virgin that kept David warm and he knew her
not. But the point is, is this is
that which belonged exclusively to David. And all of a sudden,
he wants that which belongs exclusively to David. And he thought somehow
this would give him some road back to the king. Now look at
Solomon's reply. Well, let's look at how Bathsheba
handles this. And Bathsheba said, well, I'll speak for thee unto
the king. And Bathsheba therefore went unto King Solomon to speak
unto him, for I denied you. And the king rose up to meet
her, and he bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne,
and caused a seat to be set for the king's mother. And she said
on his right hand, then she said, I desire one small petition of
thee. I pray thee, say me not nay. And the King said unto her,
ask on my mother for I'll not say thee nay. I'm going to give
you anything you want. And she said, let Abishag the
Shubanite be given to Adonijah thy brother to wife. And remember,
he said, I'll give you anything you want. Now let's look at his
response. And King Solomon answered and
said to his mother, and why do you ask Abishag the Shumanite
for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also.
If I give him her, I might as well give him the kingdom, for
he is mine elder brother, even for him and for Abiathar the
priest and Joab the son of Zeruriah. Then King Solomon swear by the
Lord God saying, God do so to me and more also, if Adonijah
hath not spoken this word against his own life. Now therefore,
as the Lord liveth, which hath established me and set me on
the throne, of David above my father, who hath made me in a
house and has promised to add to the dodges, shall be put to
death this day. And Keegan Solomon sent by the
hand of Benaiah, the son of Jehodiah, and he fell upon him that he
died." Now he asks for this maid. He says, he might as well ask
for the kingdom. If he has this, that which belongs
exclusively to David, he gets the kingdom. He's gonna be put
to death. What belongs exclusively to God? His glory. He will not share
it with another. His glory. And Adonijah was wanting
to hone in on that which belonged exclusively to David. That's
like someone coming in and trying to take what exclusively belongs
to God. his glory. And he said, put him
to death. He was outraged by that request
and he had him put to death. Now let's go on reading. Verse
26, we're going to get back to the first of the chapter in a
moment. And unto Abiathar the priest said the king, now remember
Abiathar is the priest that went with Joab against Solomon and
joined up with Adonijah. Now he's talking about Abiathar
who did this. And unto Abiathar the priest
said the king get thee to Anamoth unto thine own fields for thou
art worthy of death but I will not at this time put thee to
death because thou barest the ark of the Lord God before David
my father and because thou hast been afflicted in all wherein
my father was afflicted. So Solomon thrust out Abiathar
from being priest unto the Lord that he might fulfill the word
of the Lord which he spake concerning the house of Eli and Shiloh.
Now this is interesting. The law He doesn't kill the law. This priest represents the law. He doesn't kill the law. You
can't kill the law. But he put it out to pasture. It has no more power. It has
no more authority. He's put the law to pasture. You go stay in your own house,
you ought to be killed, he said, but I'm going to go ahead and
spare you. And I'm not going to kill you, but you now are
no longer priests. You no longer have any effect,
any authority. Now that's what's happened with
the law. We love God's law. But how much does the law have
to do with our salvation as far as us keeping it? Zero percent. It has no power. It's been put
to pasture, as it were, just like this was. Now, look back
at Shemai. Now, remember Joab. Joab's been
put to death. Abiathar, the priest, has been
sent to pasture. And what about Shemai, verse
8? And behold, thou hast with thee
Shemai, the son of Gerah, Benjamite of Behurim, which cursed me with
a grievous curse in the day when I went out to Mahanahan. But
he came to Jordan, and I swear to him by the Lord, saying, I'll
not put thee to death with the sword." Now, he said, this man,
I want you to take care of him. I want you to take care of him.
Now, what's going on here? Shemai cursed David, threw rocks
at him, And just, you remember that, and that's where David
said, you know, Abshot said, let me go take off his head.
He said, no, the Lord said curse David. So whatever happens to
you or me, the Lord's the first cause behind it. If somebody
curses me, the Lord told them to curse me. If somebody gets
mad at me, the Lord told them to get mad at me. If somebody
loves me, the Lord told them to love me. Whatever happens
to all of us, God is in absolute control over it. Aren't you thankful
for that? You can bow down to whatever he does because he did
it, and if he did it, that makes it right. It's best whatever
he does. And so when David returns in
power, Absalom has been put down, and he returns in power, who
is the first person to come to him? Shema. You know why he was the first
person to come to him? Because he knew I'm in trouble. That's
why I came. Not because he was glad the king
returned. Remember when, remember Mephibosheth
when the king returned? He said that all my happiness
is bound up in you returning. I mean, let whoever the servant
was that had deceived David about Shammai and took all this property,
said he can have it all. I don't care if I don't get any
of it. As long as the king is returned in peace, I'm happy.
That was Mephibosheth, but not Shemai. He thought, man, I'm
in trouble. I better go make peace with the
king and then it'll be okay. And he actually came up to David
and said, let not my sin be imputed to me. Those are, that's the
very language. Let not my sin be imputed to me. Now what's
going on here? David says, I promise you won't
be punished. But yet he turns around and tells
Solomon, kill him. Don't let his whore head go down
to the grave without blood shedding. Kill him, put him to death. Now,
where's that coming from? That almost seems vindicative
of David, doesn't it? Why don't you just go ahead and
let bygones be bygones? You said forgive him, but here
he is dying, and his very last wish is to kill Shemai, that
one who came to David and said, don't impute my sin to me. Haven't you prayed that prayer?
I sure have. Lord, don't impute it. Get me
out of this mess. Don't let my sin be imputed to
me. That's how he came. But when he returned to David,
it wasn't because of any love he had for David. He came simply
because he wanted to avoid punishment. Now David knew that and he said,
don't let his head go down to the grave in peace. Now look
in verse 36 of chapter two. And the king sent and called
for Shemai and said unto him, build thee an house in Jerusalem. And dwell there, and go not forth
thence anywhither. Don't go anywhere. You stay right
there. For it shall be that on the day that you go out and pass
over the brook Chidron, thou shalt know for certain that thou
shalt surely die, and thy blood shall be on thy own head. Here's
the only way you're going to be preserved is if you stay on
the property. Don't leave. The moment you leave,
you're a dead man. And Shemai said unto the king,
the saying is good. As my Lord, the king has said,
so will thy servant do. And Shemai dwelt in Jerusalem
many days. I don't know how long this was,
but it came to pass at the end of three years, three years later.
The two of the servants of Shemai ran away into Achish, son of
Macon, the king of Gath. And they told Shemai, saying,
behold, thy servants be in Gath. And Shemai arose and saddled
his ass and went to Gath, to Achish, to seek his servants."
See, these were lawbreakers. He was going to make sure the
law was upheld, wasn't he? These were his servants. And it was
wrong for them to leave. And he was going to go and get
them back. It's interesting how he left
his bounds in order to make sure the law was kept, so he thought.
This was only right. One problem with this. Solomon
said, if you go outside the city, you're a dead man. Now, if I
go outside of Christ, I'm a dead man. Isn't that so? There's only one place of safety.
There's only one place of security. There's only one place of salvation.
That's being in Christ at all times. The prayer of my heart
is, oh, let me be found in him. I don't want to be seen by God
in any way, but in Christ. I don't want him to see my preaching.
I don't want him to see my motives. I don't want him to see my conduct.
Listen, this is not saying I'm indifferent about these things.
I'm not. I want to be obedient. But I want the Lord only to view
me in Christ and no other way. And if I go outside of that,
this is what John is talking about when he says, Abide in
Him. Abide in Him. Stay right there. Don't go anywhere
else. Don't look anywhere else. Well, all of a sudden, Shema
lasted three years, but all of a sudden he had to make sure
to punish the lawbreakers, the people who left. And so he goes
outside of the city, and what happens to him? And Shemai, verse
40, and Shemai rose and saddled his ass and went to Gath the
Achish to seek his servants. And Shemai went and brought his
servants from Gath and was told solemnly that Shemai had gone
from Jerusalem to Gath and was come again. And the king sent
and called for Shemai and said unto him, did not I make thee
to swear by the Lord and protested unto thee saying no for certain
on the day that you go out and walk abroad any way thither,
that thou should surely die? And thou saidst unto me, Thy
word that I have heard is good. Why then hast thou not kept the
oath of the Lord and the commandment that I have charged thee with?
The king said moreover to Shimei, Thou knowest all the wickedness
which thine heart is privy to, that thou didst to David my father.
Therefore the Lord shall return thy wickedness upon thine own
head. Now, here's something that is positively certain. All sin will be punished. All sin will be punished. The only way the Lord will not
impute your sin to you is if it was punished in Christ. And if your sin was punished
in Christ on Calvary's tree, That's why he doesn't impute
it to you. It's not just some kind of arbitrary, and that's
what people hope for. The Lord will forgive me, the
Lord is merciful. He's just gonna, somehow it's all gonna be okay.
Somehow the Lord's gonna look at the good I've done and overlook
the bad and everything's gonna be fine. No, Shemai's sin must
be punished. Now, David let it go, but God
didn't. Because Shemai didn't have a
substitute. The only way you can be saved
is if you have a substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, who put
away your sin. There are no other ways. That's
the only way. And Shemai didn't have a substitute. And before somebody says, why
didn't God provide him one? Shemai was a wicked man. Don't
say that. Whatever God does is right. Would it be wrong if God
didn't provide a substitute for you? Now think about that question. Would it be wrong on God's part? Would it be a miscarriage of
justice if he didn't provide a substitute for you? No, it'd
be right. Do you think I'm worth God sending
his son to die for the likes of me? Nobody that Christ died
for feels that way. They're just, why would he do
this for me? Why? Why me? Why would you do
this for me? I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus of Nazarene and wonder how he could love me, a sinner
condemned unclean. That's the way a believer feels.
But Shema, he Felt it okay to go outside. And he never had
any love for David in the first place. When he came back to have
his sin not imputed to him, it was just simply because he didn't
want to get in trouble. He was scared. So we see these people
and David's dying wishes. Joab is taken care of. Joab sided
with Adonijah. which represents man's will,
Adonijah said, I will be king. He sided up with that which is
against God, which is contrary to God's purpose and God's will,
and God dealt with him accordingly. He was slain. Adonijah, he's
the one who said, I will be king, and he's also the one who wanted
that which belonged exclusively to David, the glory. What happened to him? He was
slain as well. And what about Shemai? He was slain. David got his wishes. But look in verse 7 of chapter
2. But show kindness unto the sons
of Barzillai, the Gileadite. And let them be of those that
eat at thy table, for so they came to me when I fled because
of Absalom thy brother." Now, Barzil, however you say it, he
says, you take your sons and you let them sit at your table. He's the one who fed David when
David was in hiding. He brought him food in the wilderness.
And when he came back into power, David wanted him to come back.
Maybe you can remember that. And David wanted him to come
back with him. And he said, no, I'm too old.
I'm 80 years old. I'd be nothing but a burden.
Let me just go back home and die. And that's what he did.
But all of his sons were made to sit at the king's table for
one reason and only one reason. They were Barzareli's sons. There's one reason I'm made to
sit at the king's table. For Christ's sake. So. That's a reminder, even in these
even these judgments, we see what they are with relation to
the gospel. But I love the way we're reminded once again of
why we're allowed to sit at the king's table and feed and be
kept. It's for Christ's sake and no
other reason. Look in chapter 3 for a moment. This is what we're going to consider
next week, but Solomon, his kingdom, look at the last sentence of
verse 46 of chapter 2, and the kingdom was established in the
hand of Solomon. And Solomon made affinity with
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought
her into the city of David until he had made an end of building
his own house and the house of the Lord in the wall of Jerusalem.
Only the people sacrificed in high places, which was wrong. That was forbidden. Pagan altars,
because there was no house built into the name of the Lord into
those days. And Solomon loved the Lord. Walking in the statutes
of David his father only, he sacrificed and burnt incense
in high places. Now I think this is, we're gonna
start going into now more of Solomon. We've shifted from David
to Solomon. And Solomon is called the wisest
man to ever live. It's said that several times
in the scripture. And yet at the very beginning of his reign
here, after the Lord has established his kingdom, he made affinity
with Egypt. Now the Bible forbid that. He
married the daughter of the Pharaoh. The Bible forbid that. And he
did it anyway. And that is what ended up making
him die almost in infamy as we see the progression. This is
a reminder to us, it's a reminder to me, man in his best state,
Solomon, what is he? Altogether vanity. That's a reminder to us of what
me and you are. Now, we're going to consider Solomon the wisest
man to ever live, and he shows himself to be the biggest fool
to ever live by the end of his life. Okay.