Advent 2007 -4- God Makes a Way - Bathsheba: A Way Out of Betrayal

Reading: 1Kings 1:15-35
My lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are on you, to learn from you who will sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. 1 Kings 1:20 (NIV)

I.   A major Conspiracy

     A.  Exploiting a vulnerability (1-4)

           1.  King David is old, cold, feeble & bedridden

                 a.  Can’t even keep himself warm!

                 b.  Not long for this life

           2.  Adonijah is next in line to the throne

                 a.  He seems to have political clout

                 b.  Handsome and apparently winsome

           3.  Adonijah makes his move

                 a.  The “old man” doesn’t even know

                 b.  Adonijah didn’t ask/attempt persuasion

                 c.  He didn’t invite father/father’s friends

     B.  Family Treachery

           1.  Years before Bath’s grandfather with Absalom

                 a.  Advised Absalom to assassinate David

           2.  Not just politics, son against father

                 a.  He preferred power to fidelity

                 b.  Not just politics, a family betrayal

           3.  Adonijah: Bathsheba’s step-son

                 a.  David’s son by another wife (1 of 7)

                 b.  A royal family: unique: pushes or pulls

     C.  Public Pretension

           1.  A public spectacle (5)

                 a.  50 men, horses, chariots

                 b.  Public officials & royal family (19, 25)

           2.  A public sacrifice to God (9, 18)

                 a.  Self-promotion with a Divine appeal!

                 b.  Note: not at the official altar at Shiloh

                 c.  Note: he sacrificed reminds of Saul

           3.  A public celebration (25)

                 a.  Eating & Drinking – partying!

                 b.  Shouting: Long live king Adonijah!

II.  Forcing the Issue

     A.  A Humble beginning

           1.  Bathsheba bows low and kneels (15-16)

                 a.  David’s humble condition evident (15)

                 b.  She humbles herself before him anyway

                 c.  He is still the Lord’s anointed

           2.  Quite the opposite of Adonijah

                 a.  No question about who is King!

                 b.  Not self-promoting, self-humbling

                 c.  Not taking advantage of / dependent on

           3.  Whoever humbles himself…

                 a.  Jesus teaches this (Matt 23:12)

                 b.  She takes the path of submission

                 c.  Her humility continues throughout (31)

     B.  Leaning on a promise (17)

           1.  A promise not recorded in Scripture

                 a.  But see 2Chron 22:9-10 (God’s promise):
9 But you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon, and I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign. 10 He is the one who will build a house for my Name. He will be my son, and I will be his father. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.

           2.  Bathsheba asks David to do what he said

                 a.  If David changed his mind, she’s dead

                 b.  David swore by the Lord your God (17)

           3.  Talking to the king: an example of prayer

                 a.  No surer prayer than praying promises

                 b.  Ask God be true to Himself

                 c.  But do so in humility!

     C.  Setting it in the King’s hands (20)

           1.  She ends with a question: what will you do?

                 a.  She doesn’t demand anything

                 b.  She rests on/in David’s character

                 c.  She puts her life in his hands

           2.  Her actions secure Jesus’ family line (Matt 1)

                 a.  Tho she has a tainted past (Uriah’s wife?)

                 b.  God used her for His ultimate purpose

III. God’s Chosen one

     A.  A public Declaration (33-35)

           1.  Not chariots, runners, but a mule (!?)

                 a.  Not a display of power, but of identity

                 b.  David’s personal mule; they’ll know

           2.  Anoint him king at Gihon

                 a.  He is king by anointing, not acclamation

                 b.  Zadok anoints w/ oil from Shiloh (39)

                 c.  Ad. had power, Sol. had God’s blessing

           3.  Blow the trumpet & shout

                 a.  After the anointing ceremony

                 b.  He isn’t king until he’s anointed king

                 c.  Once king, shout the news!

     B.  God bypasses the Obvious

           1.  Adonijah was the obvious choice

                 a.  Next in line (David’s 4th son)

                 b.  He was a handsome young man

                 c.  But the Lord looks at the heart (1Sam16:7)

           2.  So was Saul & David’s older bro’s

                 a.  Saul was strong, tall & a great leader

                 b.  Samuel tho’t David’s bro’s were the 1

           3.  Over & over God chooses the unlikely

                 a.  All thru history, God chooses the unlikely

                 b.  Our conventions, expectations don’t always match God’s plans.

     C.  The Son to Build God’s house

           1.  The promise of God was a son to build

                 a.  David couldn’t because he shed blood (Uriah?)

                 b.  David’s son Solomon (peace) would

                 c.  God’s house can’t be built on violence

                 d.  Tho he is the son of a marriage begun with adultery and murder!

           2.  Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of this!

                 a.  This passage points to Sol. but Jesus too

                 b.  Jesus is the final, ultimate Son of David

           3.  Jesus is building us into God’s house!

                 a.  He is the temple: place of God’s presence

                 b.  He builds into his temple (1Pet.2:4-5)
4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

The Bottom Line:

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