Now therefore as the LORD lives, who has established me and placed me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me a house, as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death today.”
Solomon had already spared Adonijah's life once. Now his elder brother comes back through the king's mother with what sounds like a small request. Verse 24 is Solomon's answer under oath — and the ground he gives for it is not his own power but what the LORD had done for him.
The Request Behind the Request
Asking for Abishag was not a romantic favour. Adonijah was reaching for the crown again. The custom of that world made his meaning plain.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinWhen Bathsheba states Adonijah's request, Solomon's keen discernment and wisdom are at once clear. Adonijah's request was a scheme to get the kingdom. Most likely it was devised by Abiathar the priest and Joab. To many people, a dead king's wife or concubine was, by Eastern custom, as good as a claim to the rights of the king. Now Abishag was not David's wife in the full sense of the word. Yet people must have regarded her as belonging to the dead king. If Solomon had granted the request, he would have hopelessly degraded himself in the eyes of the people.
An Oath Grounded in What God Did
The strength of Solomon's sentence lies in its opening clause. He does not point to his own power. He names the One who set him on the throne.
William Kelly"As the LORD lives, who has established me" — notice how simple and how real the sense in the king's mind was that this was the LORD's doing. As long as he held that fast, Solomon was strong as well as wise.
A Heart That Never Submitted
Adonijah had spoken as though he accepted God's choice. One writer asks whether that submission was real.
H. L. RossierHis words alone show an embittered heart, a bitterness long held down and now coming out, because he had not judged himself in the least. To be sure, he also adds, "The kingdom has turned about and become my brother's, for it was his from the LORD." But is this a true recognition of the will of God, a true submission to the throne of righteousness? Adonijah accepts it because he cannot do otherwise. He does not belong to the "willing people" in the day of the power of the son of David. To his mind Solomon is an intruder — and if that is so, what must the LORD who had established Solomon be to him?
Mercy First, Then Righteous Judgment
Mercy came first. Adonijah would not stay under it, and that is what called out the sentence.
J. N. DarbySolomon at first shows mercy to Adonijah. But Adonijah's will is still restless, and he wants the dead king's wife. This awakens the righteous judgment meant for those who had failed in integrity and had risen up against God's anointed. It is the first character attached to the king reigning in glory. He executes righteous judgment in the earth.
"Today" — Judgment Without Delay
Solomon did not set a date or open an inquiry. He settled the matter the same day Adonijah asked. Commentators see this speed as a picture of something still to come.
H. L. RossierIt will be the same for the Church. Will the King of Glory ever agree to give up to another the bride He has chosen for Himself as King of Grace? The Antichrist, the man of sin, may hope to rob Christ of His bride by seizing a Christendom that has abandoned the faith, which becomes Babylon the Great at the end. But he tries to put himself in the place of Christ, to take possession of His bride, and to seize the kingdom. His efforts will end for both the harlot and for himself in the lake of fire and brimstone. Here judgment did not have to wait. Adonijah dies that very same day.
Summary
- Established. Solomon's case rests on what the LORD did. He placed him on David's throne and built him a house, as He promised. While Solomon held that, he was strong and wise.
- Exposed. The throne of righteousness shows what a heart truly is. Adonijah's polite words could not hide the bitterness he had never judged.
- Claimed. Asking for Abishag was a quiet grab at the crown. By the custom of that world, the dead king's woman carried the dead king's rights.
- Executed. Adonijah refused the mercy shown him. The sentence that followed is the first mark of the king reigning in glory: righteous judgment carried out in the earth.
- Foreshadowed. One day another will reach for Christ's kingdom and Christ's bride. The judgment will be just as swift.