Today's Devotional

April 28, 2005

Subject:  What Do You Do With Forgiveness?

1 Kings 1:51-53 - "Someone told Solomon, Adonijah is afraid of you, King Solomon. He is holding on to the horns of the altar and saying, 'Make King Solomon swear to me today that he will not have me killed.'  Solomon said, "If he will behave like an honorable man, not one hair on his head will fall to the ground. But if he does {anything} wrong, he will die."  King Solomon sent men to take him from the altar. Adonijah bowed down in front of King Solomon. "Go home," Solomon told him."

1 Kings 2:22-24 - "King Solomon then said, "Why do you ask that Abishag from Shunem be given to Adonijah? That would be the same as giving him the kingship.  After all, he is my older brother.  The priest Abiathar and Joab (Zeruiah's son) are supporting him."  King Solomon took an oath by the LORD and said, "May God strike me dead if Adonijah doesn't pay with his life for this request! The LORD set me on my father David's throne and gave me a dynasty as he promised.  ,So I solemnly swear, as the LORD who has established me lives, that Adonijah will be put to death today."

If there was  a Jerry Springer dream family in the bible, it had to be David's.  There was always more than enough drama to go around.  Whether it was David himself or one of his wayward sons, someone always seemed to be causing problems. 

In this particular story, it's his son Adonijah.  King David is old and near death and people are beginning to wonder who will take the throne.  It has already been decreed by David that Solomon would be the next king, but Adonijah, Solomon's half-brother had different plans so he thinks about staging a coup.  Of course David's men find out about it and David, before he dies, quickly puts Solomon on the throne.  So when we pick up the story in today's devotional, Adonijah is pleading for his life because of what he has done and as you see above, Solomon forgives him and sends him home.  

The issue today is what we do with forgiveness.  Adonijah went to Solomon asking for forgiveness for plotting to take the throne away from his half-brother.   Solomon forgives him, so what is Adonijah's next move?  He goes to his step-mother, Solomon's mom, and asks for Abishag.  Abishag had been King David's handmaiden or actually his bed-warmer and that's to be taken literally when I say "bed-warmer."  He did not "know" her.  Anyway, Solomon's mother, Bathsheba, goes to her son, now king and asks for Abishag on Adonijah's behalf.  Solomon has had enough.  Adonijah had just finished pleading for his life for trying to steal the throne and now he's plotting once again to do the exact same thing.  Adonijah is then put to death by Solomon's men.

Adonijah is like us oftentimes.  We get out of a really bad situation in which we were wrong and we say "Thank You Lord!!!"  We realize that He has spared us from great harm and then days, weeks, months or sometimes even seconds later, we're taking that forgiveness for granted and doing the same thing.  That's not repentance because we have not yet changed our direction of thinking.

Today, let's not be like Adonijah.  Let's see the forgiveness of God and go another way.  Let's change our ideas after God frees us from our past transgressions, because the question isn't "what you did," it's "what are you going to do" now that you've been forgiven?

Carlen