Human Manipulation

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 Scripture

Now Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, “I will be king.” So he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen with fifty men to run before him.
(1 Kings 1:5 NASB)
“For he has gone down today and has sacrificed oxen and fatlings and sheep in abundance, and has invited all the king’s sons and the commanders of the army and Abiathar the priest, and behold, they are eating and drinking before him; and they say, ‘Long live King Adonijah!’
(1 Kings 1:25 NASB)
The king vowed and said, “As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress,
(1 Kings 1:29 NASB)
surely as I vowed to you by the LORD the God of Israel, saying, ‘Your son Solomon shall be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place’; I will indeed do so this day.”
(1 Kings 1:30 NASB)
“Let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there as king over Israel, and blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’
(1 Kings 1:34 NASB)
Zadok the priest then took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the trumpet, and all the people said, “Long live King Solomon!”
(1 Kings 1:39 NASB)
All the people went up after him, and the people were playing on flutes and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth shook at their noise.
(1 Kings 1:40 NASB)
“Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon, and they have come up from there rejoicing, so that the city is in an uproar. This is the noise which you have heard.
(1 Kings 1:45 NASB)
“The king has also said thus, ‘Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who has granted one to sit on my throne today while my own eyes see it.’”
(1 Kings 1:48 NASB)
Then all the guests of Adonijah were terrified; and they arose and each went on his way.
(1 Kings 1:49 NASB)
And Adonijah was afraid of Solomon, and he arose, went and took hold of the horns of the altar.
(1 Kings 1:50 NASB)

 

Observation

Adonijah was a rather arrogant young man who decided that he would take the future of the kingdom into his own hands. He wanted to become king so he began to manipulate the situation. He hired fifty young men to run in front of him as he made his way through the town so that he would look like he was an important man. It all became a facade as he tried to impress the people around him. Then he threw a big party and invited all of those whom he believed would be willing to participate in this manipulations -- even though they all knew this was against the King's wishes. They had all decided that King David was too old and weak to even notice what was going on. David, however, was God's man, even in this final stage of his life and God allowed those who were faithful to become aware of the manipulation. The end result was that David took immediate action and Solomon was anointed king. Suddenly the situation changed. Those who had been cheering for Adonijah were terrified as they heard the city filling with cheers for Solomon. All the "friends" disappeared as they left, trying to protect their very lives. Adonijah was left alone, having only had "friends" when he was able to buy them, or when people perceived he was a man of power. Fearing for his own life he ran to the sacred altar and grabbed hold of it. We are left with a scene where this man is pleading for his own life, hoping that Solomon (whom he would have killed) would not kill him.

 

Application

On Sunday there were two huge soccer (football) games in England and fans were flipping back and forth trying to catch the results of each match. The ultimate league winner would be determined by the results of these two matches. Would the overall winner be Manchester United who had won the title so many times, or the underdog Manchester City who had never won? The final result did not come until the last five minutes of the Man City game. Manchester United had already won their game and if Man City lost, then they again would be the overall winners. The Man United fans were already cheering for their team for with five minutes left Man City was losing! Then, in a sudden turn of events, in the last five minutes of the game Man City scored two goals, winning the game and the title. The Man United fans were stunned and suddenly the city erupted in cheers for the team in light blue, Manchester City.

It was this kind of rowdy cheering that had occurred in Jerusalem when it came to cheering on the new king. I can just imagine Team Adonijah thinking that they had everything in the bag -- that they had won they day. They were already cheering, when suddenly the underdog comes from behind and wins the day. The city erupts into cheers for the new King -- Solomon.

There are times in life when we may think that we want something and so we try to manipulate the situation to our ends. However, if God is not in the plans, they will backfire. It may seem okay for a period of time and we may enjoy the party and think things are turning out our way, but they will not in the long-run. Eventually, if we are trying to accomplish things in this world for our own good, we will get caught. The "friends" we have will disappear as they discover they have aligned themselves with the wrong person. We will find ourselves incredibly alone.

Our journey in life is not one in which we are to try and "help" God out with his plans. Our journey in life is one in which we are to seek the face of God. Our purpose is to get to know him and love him. That's really it! Anything else that may happen in life must be because it is God's plan and he has worked out the details. If we don't trust him, and we try to "help" him out, we will get caught and the consequences are quite sad. We must relax and enjoy the path and the journey which God has laid out for each and every one of us. Enjoy the journey and take time to fall deeper and deeper in love with him each and every single day!

 

Prayer

Lord, thank you that we can put our trust in you for the journey of life. Amen.