1 Kings 1:47-50
47 Also, the royal officials have come to congratulate our lord King David, saying ‘May your God make Solomon’s name more famous than yours and his throne greater than yours!’ And the king bowed in worship on his bed 48 and said, ‘Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has allowed my eyes to see a successor on my throne today.'”
49 At this, all Adonijah’s guests rose in alarm and dispersed. 50 But Adonijah, in fear of Solomon, went and took hold of the horns on the altar.
At the start of 1 Kings, David’s son Adonijah tries to seize the throne for himself, not waiting for David to designate his own successor. But once Bathsheba and Nathan the prophet tell David of this, David quickly hurries to officially designate Solomon as king. This news arrives as Adonijah and all his guests are feasting, celebrating Adonijah’s apparent victory. Suddenly there’s a lot of cheering and noise outside, but the crowd is cheering for King Solomon, not King Adonijah!
No wonder every guest scatters–they don’t want to be associated with Adonijah, whose ill-fated royal coup may well lead to his execution. Instead of running, however, Adonijah clings to the altar, reduced to trembling humility, literally hiding under God’s protection even though he greedily schemed to seize power for himself.
We Don’t Have to Hide from God!
This scene reminds me of a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Like a kid, Adonijah tries to protect himself from the inevitability of punishment for his misdeeds. We Christians often do the same thing when we are caught in sin–we try to cover it up, excuse it, or use outwardly holy actions as a shield, as Adonijah does here.
But when we act in this way, we forget that God already knows what we’ve done, and is prepared to treat us with mercy even as He disciplines us. In the verses immediately after this passage, Solomon treats Adonijah with remarkable goodwill and forgiveness, promising to keep him from harm as long as he does not scheme for the throne again. (One gets the feeling that the rest of Adonijah’s life is likely not as free from scrutiny as he might have hoped, but he is alive and not immediately put to death for his sin.)
God treats us similarly, giving justice and mercy in the same moment, because He knows that we each have weaknesses and foibles. One can see discipline in how Adonijah’s plot is foiled, and yet there is forgiveness available for him, too. Like Solomon’s treatment of his brother, God’s discipline comes tempered with grace–and what a blessing that is!