The timing for events is a little shaky in my mind, so my chronology may be a bit off. But for now, I’ll put this event in front of David’s preparations for the temple.
Here again, we see family problems for David. This time, Adonijah is the one causing it, trying to take for himself what David had promised Solomon: the king’s throne.
And again, this is partly due to David’s failures as a father. As verse 6 says,
[Adonijah’s) father (David) had never interfered with him by asking, “Why do you behave as you do?” (1 Kings 1:6)
So now, here is Adonijah, and one day he decides, “I will be king.”
He calls people in to support him: priests, David’s general Joab, and others.
But ultimately, his attempts failed as Nathan the prophet found about it and warned David and Bathsheba about what Adonijah was doing.
Solomon was crowned king, and in his mercy, he spared Adonijah (at least for the moment).
The story is very reminiscent of what many people do today. They say in their hearts, “I will be king.”
And I’m not talking about becoming ruler of a country. Rather, they take the throne of their hearts, and shove God to the side.
Rather than letting God rule, they try to rule themselves. But in the end, it leads to disaster.
A lot of people think of sin as just doing bad things. But sin at its base is not trusting God to be king of your life, and taking the throne for yourself.
It was the sin of Satan. It was the sin of Adam and Eve. And it’s the sin of every single person on this earth today.
Time and again, we take the throne of our hearts, and shove God to the side.
As a result, we hurt God, we hurt each other, and we hurt ourselves. And unless we repent, a time will come when God will take his rightful throne, and we will be judged for taking what is his.
What about you? Have your surrendered the throne of your heart to God? Have you given what is rightfully his back to him?
Or are you still holding on to the throne in your heart?
Moment to Moment (Bible blog) 