1 Kings 2:26

So the reign of righteousness begins with judgment. It falls on all those who were placed under the grace and patience of God, but did not use it to bring their hearts and their actions into line with this rule. Abiathar was all the more guilty because he had carried the ark of the Lord before David, and had also shared his afflictions from the beginning (1 Sam. 22:20). He had had a part in the testimony of the Lord's anointed, and had suffered for it. Solomon recognises this. But there was one case where Abiathar's faithfulness was tested, and where the glory of the son of David was at stake. In that case he failed completely and abandoned his master.

Abiathar the priest had earlier seemed true to David (2 Sam. 15:24-29). But Adonijah's defection tested him and proved him lacking, so he could no longer be trusted as a faithful priest. Solomon did not put him to death, though he told him he deserved it (v. 26). Instead he banished him from Jerusalem and sent him to Anathoth, his home.

Abiathar had carried the ark of God, and this saved him on the day Solomon convicted him. It was very sad that a priest of God should be caught up in a plot to set aside the will of God. God had clearly told David that Solomon was to succeed him as king. If Abiathar had been living close to the king, he would have known the mind of God.

No doubt Abiathar thought that following Adonijah would secure him the priesthood. He was flattered that Adonijah had consulted him. But instead of being confirmed in the priesthood, Solomon thrust him out. Only his earlier faithfulness saved him from death.

Abiathar followed David in his wanderings, and he stayed in office all through David's reign. But for his part in Adonijah's conspiracy, Solomon banished him to the priests' town of Anathoth, where he most likely died in disgrace. "So Solomon expelled Abiathar from being priest to the LORD, thus fulfilling the word of the LORD that he had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh" (1 Kings 2:27). He was the fourth high priest from Eli, and the last of the line of Ithamar to hold this office of dignity and honour. God had announced His judgment on the family nearly a century before. It did not come quickly, but it still came exactly as God had said.

After the king is brought in, the position of the priesthood changes. It stops being the usual link between the people and God. When God sets Eli aside, He says, "I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest… and he shall go in and out" — not before Me, but "before My anointed forever" (1 Sam. 2:35). Here I have a royal person, another link between God and the people, set above priesthood. So Solomon was quite right in thrusting out Abiathar.

Abiathar should have known that if it was wrong to follow Absalom, it was also wrong to follow his brother Adonijah. It is not enough for us to be faithful in one crisis: we ought to be faithful in every crisis — yes, at all times and in all things.