1 Kings 2

1 Kings 2:1

C. David’s Final Charge to Solomon (2:1-11)If David in exile typifies Christ in His rejection during this age of grace, Solomon typifies Him as the King reigning in millennial glory. When He returns to set up His kingdom, His first act will be to destroy His foes and to purge out of His kingdom everything that offends. We see this pictured in chapter 2. Just before his death, David delivered a solemn charge to Solomon, urging him to be obedient to the LORD and instructing him to take appropriate action concerning certain men: Joab should be slain for murdering Abner . . . and Amasa; the sons of Barzillai should be shown kindness because of their father’s kindness to David when he was fleeing from Absalom; Shimei should be slain eventually because he cursed David, but Solomon could work out the details. The expression “. . . shed the blood of war in peacetime” (v. 5b) reads in the NIV, “shedding their blood in peacetime as if in battle.” After a reign of forty years, David died and was buried in Jerusalem.

1 Kings 2:12

II. THE GOLDEN REIGN OF KING SOLOMON (2:1211:43) A. Solomon’s Purge of the Opposition (2:12-46)2:12-25 Solomon sat on the throne, and his kingdom was firmly established. Adonijah was grieved that he had been deprived of the throne, although he had to admit that it was Solomon’s by the will of God (v. 15b). Whether innocently or insidiously, he made a petition of King Solomon through Bathsheba that Abishag, David’s nurse, might be given to him for a wife. Solomon looked upon this as being the next thing to asking for . . . the kingdom itself, so he ordered Benaiah to execute Adonijah. 2:26-34 The king also expelled Abiathar from the priesthood, doubtless because he had supported Adonijah in his abortive plot. This was in partial fulfillment of God’s judgment on the house of Eli (see 1Sa_2:31-35). When Joab heard of Abiathar’s dismissal, he fled to the . . . horns of the altar for refuge. Benaiah ordered him to leave the altar, but Joab refused, expressing the determination to die there. Benaiah executed him quickly and had him buried in his own house in the wilderness. The deaths of Abner and Amasa were finally avenged. The altar of God gave no protection to anyone who broke the law of God. 2:35 Benaiah was appointed commander of the army, and Zadok succeeded Abiathar as priest. Benaiah had served David since the days of Saul. He was a man of great valor and the captain of David’s personal bodyguard (2Sa_20:23). His unfailing courage was surpassed only by his undying loyalty to the house of David. Courage and loyalty should also characterize those who serve David’s greater Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. 2:36-46 Solomon did not order Shimei’s execution immediately. Rather, he put him under a sort of house arrest, forbidding him to leave the city. After three years . . . Shimei left Jerusalem . . . to seek . . . two escaped slaves . . . in Gath. In so doing he broke the oath that Solomon had made him swear earlier, and he demonstrated that he was no more faithful to Solomon than he had been to David. When he returned, the king commanded Benaiah to put him to death. Thus Solomon made his kingdom secure by aggressively removing all whose hearts were not with him. Thereafter his reign was one of peace. The Christian will know the peace of God as he puts out of his life the things which oppose the reign of Christ within.