1 Kings 1:42-48: a reflection

42While he yet spoke, behold, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest came; and Adonijah said, “Come in; for you are a worthy man, and bring good news.” 43Jonathan answered Adonijah, “Most certainly our lord King David has made Solomon king. 44The king has sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and they have caused him to ride on the king’s mule. 45Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon. They have come up from there rejoicing, so that the city rang again. This is the noise that you have heard. 46Also, Solomon sits on the throne of the kingdom. 47Moreover the king’s servants came to bless our lord King David, saying, ‘May your God make the name of Solomon better than your name, and make his throne greater than your throne;’ and the king bowed himself on the bed. 48Also thus said the king, ‘Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has given one to sit on my throne today, my eyes even seeing it.’”

Adonijah has thrown himself a feast to celebrate becoming king, a coronation of his own making. Into the middle of it comes Jonathan with news, and Adonijah greets him hopefully: you are a good man, you bring good news. But the news is the opposite of what he wants. King David has made Solomon king; Solomon rides the royal mule, has been anointed at Gihon, and the whole city is rejoicing. Adonijah's self-made kingship collapses in a sentence.

Notice the contrast between the two men. Adonijah seized the throne, gathered his own supporters, threw his own party, declared himself. Solomon did none of that; he was given the throne, appointed by the king, anointed, set on the mule by others. One grasped; the other was granted. And when the true word arrives, the grasping man's whole celebration falls apart.

There is a caution in this about self-promotion. What we seize for ourselves, what we throw our own coronations for, has no lasting hold if it was never truly given. Real authority, real place, is granted, not grabbed. If you are tempted to install yourself, to declare your own kingship over some situation, remember Adonijah's feast interrupted. Better to receive what God appoints than to seize what he has not, and find the celebration collapse when the truth arrives.

Lord, keep me from grasping and installing myself where you have not appointed me. Teach me to receive what you grant rather than seize what you have not, and to trust your appointing over my own ambition.