Adonijah Tries To Undercut Solomon’s Authority

David’s fourth son, Adonijah had attempted to usurp power and make himself king while David was still alive, but David had blocked his attempt by declaring Solomon king.  With David dead, he decided to challenge his younger brother’s authority and see if he could usurp the kingdom from him.  Hoping to use Solomon’s affection for his mother to influence him, he approached Bathsheba with san innocuous sounding request, in I Kings 2:12-18.  “Then sat Solomon upon the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was established greatly.  And Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. And she said, Comest thou peaceably?

And he said, Peaceably.  He said moreover, I have somewhat to say unto thee.

 And she said, Say on.

And 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 is become my brother's: for it was his 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, (for he will not say thee nay,) that he give me Abishag the Shunammite to wife.

And Bathsheba said, Well; I will speak for thee unto the king.”

Adonijah played on bathsheba’s sympathy, reminding her he was the loder brother and that many people had followed him believing he was to be the next king and that it was only through God’s power he was stopped.  As a consolation prize he asked her to ask Solomon for permission to marry Abishag, the girl who had been hired to care for David adnd help keep him warm.  It seemed like a harmless request, and he flattered her by telling Solomon would never turn her down, so Bathsheba agreed. 

Bathsheba had forgotten that Adonijah had tries to steal the kingdom, and that he intended to have her and Solomon killed.   She went to Solomon in hopes of helping correct a wrong she felt had been done to him, in I Kings 2:19-21.  “Bathsheba therefore went unto king Solomon, to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king's mother; and she sat 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 will not say thee nay.

And she said, Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah thy brother to wife.”

Solomon had been willing to forgive Adonijah and give him a second chance, but he knew that Adonijah had not been wronged.  If Solomon allowed them to marry, it would imply that David had really wanted Adonijah to be king instead and that Solomon, Zadok and Benaiah had done exactly what Adonijah, Joab and Abiathar had tried to do.  It was a ploy to undercut Solomon’s authority and imply that Adonijah should have been king instead.  If Solomon went along with it, he just as well abdicate the throne and let Adonijah be king, as he explains in I Kings 2:22.  “And king Solomon answered and said unto his mother, And why dost thou ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? ask for him the kingdom also; for he is mine elder brother; even for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah.”

Solomon had granted Adonijah sanctuary, as long as he would do what was right and didn’t cause trouble.  When he attempted to undercut Solomon’s authority, he violated that agreement, and Solomon voided his promise of sanctuary, in I Kings 2:23-25.  “Then king Solomon sware by the LORD, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah have 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 my father, and who hath made me an house, as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this day.  And king Solomon sent by the hand of Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; and he fell upon him that he died.”  By continuing to violate the laws, Adonijah voided the sanctuary agreement, putting the original penalty back into effect.  He no longer had any right to be protected.

Suspecting tht Abiathar and Joab may have been party to this plan, Solomon called Abiathr in and took away his authority as priest, in I Kings 2:26-27.  “And unto Abiathar the priest said the king, Get thee to Anathoth, 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 fulfil the word of the LORD, which he spake concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh.”

Saul had had the rest of Abiathar’s family murdered at for helping David at Nob.  He and his son Jonathan were the last of Eli’s family, and their being removed from the priesthood fulfilled the prophecy in I Samuel 2:31-36.  “Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house.  And thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel: and there shall not be an old man in thine house for ever.  And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart: and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age.  And this shall be a sign unto thee, that shall come upon thy two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall die both of them.  And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever.  And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left in thine house shall come and crouch to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread, and shall say, Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priests' offices, that I may eat a piece of bread.”  This prophecy had been made more than a hundred years before.