Scripture Daily

Context No. 2356 of 4322 · 1 Kings

Context · Reflection

1 Kings 1:36-41: in context

36Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said, “Amen. May the LORD, the God of my lord the king, say so. 37As the LORD has been with my lord the king, even so may he be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David.” 38So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule, and brought him to Gihon. 39Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the Tent, and anointed Solomon. They blew the trumpet; and all the people said, “Long live King Solomon!” 40All the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth shook with their sound. 41Adonijah and all the guests who were with him heard it as they had finished eating. When Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, “Why is this noise of the city being in an uproar?”

First Kings reaches the moment David's succession is settled. On the aging king's order, Zadok the priest anoints Solomon at Gihon, the trumpet sounds, and the people shout, Long live King Solomon. They pipe and rejoice so loudly that the ground shakes. Meanwhile, across the city, Adonijah, who had already thrown himself a coronation feast, hears the noise and asks what it means.

Two claims to the throne, and only one anointing. Adonijah had the party, the guests, the self-appointment; Solomon had the word of the king and the oil of the priest. The sound that reaches Adonijah's banquet is the sound of a decision that has passed him by while he celebrated a kingship that was never granted. The rightful reign is not established by the size of the crowd a man can gather for himself.

Am I feasting on a claim I appointed for myself, or living under the one that God has actually anointed?

Sources