1 Kings 2:25

When Bathsheba passes on Adonijah's request, Solomon's sharp insight and wisdom show at once. "And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask for him the kingdom also, for he is my older brother." Adonijah's request was a scheme to get the kingdom. Abiathar and Joab most likely put it together. By Eastern custom, many people treated a dead king's wife or concubine as the king's own, so asking for her was the same as claiming the rights of the king... Had Solomon granted the request, he would have disgraced himself beyond recovery in the eyes of the people.

It did not look like much, but Solomon was wise. Solomon detected the unjudged ambition and rebellion of Adonijah's heart... She presented what she called a small petition. That is often done when there is something great behind it, though not always known. On this occasion Bathsheba was only the tool of a man who was not after something small. He wanted the greatest place in the kingdom.

This man looks broken on the outside, but in his heart he is far from broken. "You know," he says, "that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that I should reign." How could such claims fail to anger the true king?... His words alone show an embittered heart, a bitterness long suppressed and now showing itself, because he had not judged himself in the least.

Solomon agrees to forget and to be gracious one more time. But he puts Adonijah under responsibility before the glory of his reign: "If he will show himself a worthy man, not a hair of his shall fall to the earth, but if wickedness is found in him, he shall die."

Solomon at first shows mercy to Adonijah. But Adonijah's will is still restless, and he wants the dead king's wife. That awakens the righteous judgment meant for those who had failed in integrity and who 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. There is no escaping the watchfulness of this judgment.

Adonijah's disloyal scheming threatened the throne that David wanted made secure, so Benaiah fell upon him and he died... "And the kingdom was established" — yes, established for a time, but not forever! Just judgment prevailed temporarily.

As surely as Solomon prefigures Christ, Adonijah prefigures the Antichrist. Note the fatal words, "I will." In Isaiah 14:13-14 we hear Lucifer saying five times, "I will." Here we have the very essence of sin. 1 John 3:4, correctly translated, teaches us that "sin is lawlessness." Lawlessness is self-will... Self-will has been the ruin of the human race, and its full evil has not yet come out.

Benaiah is of special interest to us. In David's time he already held a leading place in service. He had followed his master's footsteps in everything, step by step. Was he not worthy to be made chief captain over the whole army later on? Yet this man has no ambition other than to stay faithful to his king and to copy him. He is not like Joab, who takes the stronghold of Zion to gain the top place. No, he is humble, for his whole purpose is to reproduce David in his conduct.