Solomon's Compassion on Abiathar

If you've got your Bible, turn with me to 1 Kings chapter 2. 1 Kings chapter 2 And as you're turning there, we're just going to cover two verses this evening But to help you understand that when you study the life of Solomon, You can't help but study not just 1 Kings, but to study the things that he wrote in the book of Proverbs, the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and of course the Song of Solomon And as you study Solomon's life, like the previous chapters that we've already looked at and the ones that we will look at here in the future, you can't help but see the principles of godly leadership

Everything about Solomon was about his leadership Everything about his success would depend upon how he would lead the nation of Israel And so when you are looking and reading about Solomon, you are drawn to what he says in the book of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes And even in Psalm 72 and Psalm 127, the two Psalms that are attributed to him in the scriptures In fact, if you got your Bible, turn to Psalm 72 real quick, just so I can show you something about what Solomon reiterates We know what David said toward the end of his life in 2 Samuel 23 We've read this several times

But he says in verse number 3 of 2 Samuel 23: The God of Israel said, The rock of Israel spoke to me, He rules over men righteously Who rules in the fear of God is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth Through sunshine after rain David makes it very clear that godly leadership depends on two main issues One is living righteously, and two is living reverently in the fear of the Lord David makes it very clear at the end of his life that those two pillars are what hang all of true biblical leadership

Because if you lead that way in your kingdom, then there's going to be a beauty about your rulership There's going to be something that takes place in the life of the people You're like that sunshine after rain You're like that dew in the morning that brings forth great fruit It's just a beautiful thing Well, Solomon knows what his father has said And so in Psalm 72, that theme of righteousness is continued on with Solomon Now, Psalm 72 is about Solomon Historically, but David's greater son, the Messiah, prophetically

You got that, right? The Psalm is about Solomon historically, because this is his prayer, his desire for his kingdom But it's also prophetically speaking about the coming of the Messiah Very important to understand that So, this is what Solomon says in Psalm 72: Give the king your judgments, O God, and your righteousness to the king's son Well, he is the king's son He is asking for the righteousness of Christ He is asking for the right waywardness, the straightforwardness that is in the scriptures to be that which marks his life He already knows what his father said in 2 Samuel 21

So his prayer is a follow-up of that And it says in verse 2: May he judge your people with righteousness That is, may I judge your people with righteousness. M the king judge righteously, and your afflicted ones with judges Justice, excuse me Let the mountains bring peace to the people, and the hills in right He goes on to say in verse number 7: In his days may the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace till the moon is no more As you read through the Psalm, you realize that Solomon is speaking about his kingdom and the peace of God ruling in that kingdom through a

King that has righteous that pervades his life because he knows that that's what is necessary for him to be the godly leader that God wants him to be So, when you read the book of Probs, everything in Proverbs is about righteous living In fact, the Bible says these words in the book of Proverbs, the 29th chapter, the second verse: When the righteous increase, the people rejoice But when a wicked man rules, the people groan So Solomon, writing that, knows about righteous leadership He understand that

So, for the righteousness is going to flourish with the people, it must be because the leader of the people is living righteously Because the one who rules wickedly What happens is the people groan Now he knows that because of Israel's first king, Saul Israel's second king, David, and now he being the third king, and what Adanijah tried to do by usurping his authority By ruling the people, knowing that if Nijah took over the throne, the people would groan If you go over to verse 4 of Proverbs 29, it says, The king gives stability to the land by righteous

The king provides stability in the land because of righteousness In other words, look at it this way: your home. is stable because you lead righteously To lead unrighteously is only going to lead to instability To lead righteously is only going to lead to stability And so Solomon knows that because he knows about King David, his father He knows about what took place in his family He understand righteous leadership And so he's going to write about that in the book of Proverbs under the inspiration of the scripture, of the Spirit of God, so that you understand exactly what God has for you

It says in chapter 28, verse number 1 of Proverbs: The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, but the righteous are as bold as a lion The righteous person Is str The righteous person is courageous The righteous person is bold The righteous person doesn't back down The righteous person stands firm That's why the kingdom is stable because it has a leader who's strong And why is he strong? It's because he is righteous He is right with God, and being right with God, he is now right with man, and he can lead the nation in the right direction

So Solomon is taking off from what his father has said in 2 Samuel 23, what his father did by his lifestyle And as he writes the book of Proverbs, you're able to see the principles of righteousness all through his wr Now note, he also says this in Proverbs chapter 16, verse number 12 Proverbs 16, verse number 12, it is an abomination for kings to commit wicked acts, for a throne is established on right Again, the theme of righteousness permeates his writings because he knows what took place when his father led righteously And when he committed wicked acts, and what took place when he didn't

Because at the base of his heart, as he begins his kingship He wants to lead righteously He wants to honor the Lord He wants to live for the glory of the King Proverbs 14, verse number 34, says it this way: Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people Again If righteousness exalts a nation, and the king through his righteousness brings stability to a nation, Then it's imperative that he as the king lead in a righteous way And so as you read through the book of Proverbs, it says in Proverbs chapter 24, verse number 23

These words, Proverbs 24, verse number 2, he simply states it this way These are the sayings of the wise To show partiality and judgment is not good He who says to the wicked, You are righteous Peoples will curse him, nations will abhor him But to those who rebuke the wicked will be delight, and a good blessing will come upon them Now think about that No one says to the wicked man, you are righteous, because that would cause the people to curse him He would be so wrong So he doesn't show partial The king rules with impartial because he's a righteous king

And, he says, when you rebuke the wicked because you're righteous, what happens then is there's great delight among the people because you ruled righteously Now, this is just the tip of the iceberg in the book of Proverbs, but it helps you understand where Solomon's going as he begins this ministry as king over Israel He's at the peak of his success, and it's only going to be stronger as time goes on until there are a few setbacks Sin envelops in his life, and he ends his reign in sadness, simply because he doesn't obey the word of the Lord and doesn't lead righteously

And so, the truth for you and me is to understand those principles of leadership So, if I'm going to lead righteously, it requires that I lead reverently in the fear of the Lord The fear of the Lord means that you understand the righteousness of God So to live or to lead righteously is to live reverently And Solomon portrays to us those leadership principles of reverent leading We told you last week, it's a principle of certainty There's a certainty about his leadership And it all centers around the sovereignty of God: that God is in control

That the k's heart, as he says in the book of Proverbs, is like channels in the hand of the Lord, and he moves it wherever he wishes Solomon understands that He understand what God is doing We saw it last week in 1 Kings chapter 2 He knew that God had ordained him to be the next king of Israel He knew that So he could lead with certainty, knowing that God had put his hand upon him, his stamp of approval upon him, because he knew what God had told his father David So, when you lead righteously, you lead reverently That means you lead with certainty

Certainty about God's call upon your life, certainty about what God's doing in and through your life, so that you give confidence to the people Remember The person who leads righteously gives stability to the nation The father who leads righteously gives stability to his family, gives strength to his family, because he understands With certainty, what God has called them to do We saw last week, not only to lead with certainty, but to lead with purity Why? Because Ad Nijah and his sin would permeate the nation He must be dealt with So he was executed

Solomon knew that as you read through the book of Proverbs, everything there concerning the purity of a man, the purity of a life, the purity of a nation. is so important to the health of that nation He understood that So he leads with certainty, he leads with purity, he leads with tenacity, there's a great passion about his life There's that Desire, as the book of Proverbs says, to search out a matter, to sift out evil, and to stay on your course That's why it's so important to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Not only that, he needed to lead with integrity

He needed to lead with sagacity, great wisdom and discernment He had to be wise in his decision-making And David had already said in 1 Kings chapter 2 earlier that he was already making wise decisions, and he hasn't even asked the Lord for wisdom yet But he's going to ask the Lord for wisdom in chapter 3 God's going to grant him that wisdom, and it will be far superior to any king before him or after him until the Lord's Messiah Comes And that's what he was doing And so when you're looking at Solomon's life, you are looking at the embodiment of leadership Good And bad It begins really good

And so you're able to understand those things When you read about what he writes, he writes about leadership, he writes about how it is you are to lead in your family How you are to lead as a king of a nation, as the person who operates with integrity All that is so important to his Kingship We saw last week, he leads with mercy And on this night, in 1 Kings chapter 2, he shows great compassion, great mer To Ab, who, in all reality, deserves to die, but instead He lets him live Let's look at it together First Kings chapter 2, verses 2 and 2 Then to Abi, the priest, the king said, Go to Anath

To your own field, for you deserve to die But I will not put you to death at this time Because you carry the ark of the Lord God before my father David, and because you were afflicted in everything with which my father was afflicted So Solomon dismissed Ab from being priest to the Lord in order to fulfill the word of the Lord Which he had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh Just two verses, but they are filled with all kinds of biblical truth Three things I want you to see about the compassion and mercy that Solomon shows to Abiathar

The first deals with the specifics and the sentence in his compassion The second deals with the command and the cause of his compassion And the third deals with the real and the results of his compassion Okay? First of all, the specifics and the sentence Of his compassion or in his compassion What are the specifics? Well, we don't know ex all that Abiath did By looking at these two verses, to understand why he deserved to die But we do know the context of all that's taken place

We do know that in chapter 1, four times, his name is mentioned in conjunction with Adon, his half-brother, in supporting Adon along with Joab To go against King David and usurp the throne and place himself as king over Israel So we know that he did that So we know he was involved in the conspiracy against David, who at one time was the high priest of David and good friends with David But he had turned his back on David Sided with Joab and Adnijah against the king and thus against Solomon The question comes: what happened? Why did he do that? Well, ev, Abiath joined in the rebellion

He started hanging around those who were disgruntled Joab, Adanijah Adonijah was filled with pride He wanted to be the king of Israel And when you hang around with the wrong people, they begin to sway you And that's exactly what had taken place with the Be Now Solomon would write about this You know what he says in Proverbs chapter 1 Proverbs chapter 1, verse number 10 Solomon would say these words He would say, Proverbs 1 Verse number 10, my son, if sinners entice you, cons not Now think about this He is writing this to his son

Knowing what has happened with the high priest of Israel, Ab, how he turned against his father David sided with Adon in his rebellion and sided with the commander of David's armies, Joab Against the king If sinners entice you, consent not If they say, come with us, let us lie in wait for blood Let us ambush the innocent without cause Let us swallow them alive like She Even whole, as those who go down to the pit, we will find all kinds of precious wealth We will fill our houses with spoil Throw in your lot with us We shall all have one purse, my son Do not walk In the way with them

Keep your feet from their path For their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed blood Indeed, it is useless to spread the baited net in the sight of any bird. but they lie in wait for their own blood They ambush their own lives So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence it takes away the life of its possessors As he writes that, you can't help but look back at the story of Adna, of Be Joab, men who conspire together So he's saying to his son, Do not hang around with people who are evil

You know, don't you as parents want to make sure your children hang around with the right kind of people? You don't want to, you, bad company corrupts good morals Who do your children like to hang out with? Because who they like to hang out with speaks more about them than it does the ones they want to hang out with Right? Think about that

If they are pulled in that direction and they want to hang out with the evil person and they want to hang out with the rebellious person and they want to hang out with the arrogant person, what's that tell you about your son or your daughter? Solomon is warning his son: if sinners entice you, if they want you to come with them and be involved in their activities, be careful Because it does not bid well for you if that is the direction you take Proverbs 24, verse number 1 Again, remember, Solomon writes these words and makes sure that his son understand the importance of all That God has for it

Proverbs 24, verse number 1: Do not be envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them, for their minds devise violence and their lips talk of trouble Are you envious of evil men? Do you desire to be with them? It's only going to cause you heartache So, Solomon wants you to understand these things So, as he writes them, he knows about what's taking place with his own family He knows what's taken place in his kingdom He knows what has happened to the high priest of Israel, Abiath Even a priest, even a man of God, was swayed by David's commander

By David's son, to move away from the truth and to go and rebel against the king's authority He knows that So, as he writes the book of Proverbs, he writes because he wants his son to understand the pitfalls of following the wrong people Proverbs chapter 13 Proverbs chapter 13 Says this, verse 20, he who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm He who walks with wise men is going to be wise But if you're a companion of fools, You're only going to suffer harm

And there are many other verses in the book of Proverbs where Solomon writes about the people you follow, the friends you keep The places you go, the people you like to hang out with, all that speaks volumes And all that should be such a wake-up call to all of us as parents, all of us as grandparents We should be like watchdogs with our children to see who they like to be with because it speaks to their character And their desires and their drive in life, and the warnings that Solomon gives about hanging out with the wrong people

So here is Abiath, who gets swept away with Joab and even in being swept away, his son Jonathan Is such a way because in chapter one, he becomes the messenger to them So even as a f. who is the high priest of Israel, his son now is swept away in that whole evil scheme because as father he led his son in the wrong direction One sinner destroys much Good Like priests, like people, like father, like son What happens to the leader happens to the people His own son was swept away in the evil conspiracy of his father

So Solomon would know that, he would write about that, and there are some specifics about why it is Solomon would show comp on a be He deserved to die He rebelled against the authority You see, if Adon would have succeeded and become king, he would have had to have killed Solomon and Bathsheba Because in those days, you kill whoever is a threat to your rulership And if there's someone in line in your family to be that ruler, you kill them So Solomon would have died if Ad would have become king of Israel But Solomon Had every right to kill Adnijah because of his rebellion And he did

Had every right to kill Abi because he sided with Adnijah in that rebellion But instead, he shows him mercy He gives him clemency Why? He'd write about this too Proverbs chapter 19, verse number 11 Listen to what he says Proverbs 19, verse number 11. A man's discretion makes him slow to anger And it is his glory to overlook a transgression That's Solomon That's what he's doing Ab deserves to die, but in mercy, in comp In grace, he bestows forgiveness and allows him to live When he, in all reality, should die How about this? Proverbs chapter 25, verse number 21

Why am I doing this? Because this is what I want you to do in your own private study. I want you to be able to see the life of Solomon Not just lived out of the pages of Scripture, but what he learned, and under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, right for us to learn Proverbs 25, verse 21 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat If he is thirsty, give him water to drink For you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will re you What's he doing with his enemy? Heaping burning coals of shame upon his head because he is returning good for ev Wonder where he learned that from

He learned that from his father when he was in the caves of Enget Those of you who go in Israel with me will have an opportunity to see some of those caves in Enget and to understand the dynamic of the wilderness there in Judea and where David himself would go to flee from Absalom and flee from Saul And to understand what took place when David had the opportunity to seek vengeance on Saul When Saul went into the cave to relieve himself, and David and all of his men were hidden in the cave, David and his 600 men And they all baited him Now is your chance God has given the kingdom to you

Now you can kill Saul and you can rise to To kingship in your own country You've already been anointed by the Lord as king over Israel Take the throne, David But he doesn't Cuts off just a piece of his garment And Saul gets up and leaves the cave and David comes out of the cave and shows the piece of garment to Saul from a distance to let him know that Saul's life was in David's hand, but David spared him that day David showed mercy David showed to Saul what Saul would never show to David You not think that story was passed down to Solomon? Sure, it was Solomon knew He understood

As a man of supreme wisdom, he wanted to demonstrate mercy, comp, kind He would say earlier in the book of Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 20, verse number 22 Again, very familiar words Proverbs 20, verse number 22 Do not say, I will repay evil Wait for the Lord, and He will save you Do not say, I'm going to repay evil Don't take that matter into your own hands Again, he learned from his father Again, he had the opportunity to overlook a transgression, right? He had the opportunity to do what his father did with Saul to do to Abiath And that's what he did

And so as you read through the story of Solomon and he begins to write the Proverbs at the heyday of his success in ministry, you see him living out the principles of truth He was told earlier by David, 1 Kings 2, verses 1 to 4, 1 to 5, you'll be successful, my son, if you w the way Of the ordinances of God, the commandments of God, the statutes of God, the judgments of God If you don't turn to the left nor to the right, just follow through with what God says, and you will be successful Well, this is one of Solomon's highlights of success by showing compassion to Abi

Next thing I want you to see is point number two, is the command and the cause of his comp The command comes when he says to Abiath these words Go to An, to your own field, for you des to die Now remember Abiath is the descendant of Elimelech, who was the descendant of the des Of Eli through Phineas This is very important to understand this: the precision of Scripture, how it all comes together And as you recall, Abi is alive today when in reality, way back under David's leadership, Saul, in his pursuit of David, belie That all the priests in Nob had sided with David against him

And so he went to Nob and took Doeg, an Edomite, and 8 priests were slain Abiathar was the only one to escape And in his escape, Abiathar went to David And David sheltered him and protected him, and they became good friends All that to say Is that Solomon would write these words in Proverbs chapter 16? Very important to understand this Because Solomon would know the story about how Abiath became the high priest of Israel Proverbs 16, verse number 5: The Lord has made everything for its own purpose Even the wicked for the day of evil Now think about that

Solomon knowing about The sovereignty of God, knowing about what Doeg the Edomite did under the direction of King Saul to kill all the priests All the descendants of Eli Thu to make sure that the priests were wiped away But one survived, Abiath He fled to David, and David protected him Very important to the whole story of what's happening right here And so, as you go back and you read what Solomon writes in Proverbs 16, he knows that even Doeg, the Edomite The wicked man was created for the day of evil because God had a purpose in that whole process

And Abi was alive because of God's sovereign purposes being fulfilled In his life And so there was great deliverance for Abiathar The command is given by Solomon You des to die Come to your in the Hebrew, this is a very authoritative statement It wasn't like, you know, I think you deserve to die No, you deserve to die But I'm not going to kill you At least, not yet And he never does Abiath dies of old age But he tells them, in a very authoritative way, he gives a command, you des to die But I'm not going to kill you Instead, get your belongings and go back home

Go to the place, one of those forty-eight different cities That were designed for the priests It's three miles northeast of Jerusalem And you go And you go back to that place and you stay in Anath and don't leave Imagine what was going through Abiath's mind He knew he should die He knew the wages of sin was death He knew that Solomon was showing great mercy to him And so that's exactly what he did And Solomon could speak with authority Because he knew the word of the Lord and he was very passionate about that word And one of the key qualities of leaders is that they always speak with authority

They do They speak with supreme authority, not because they themselves are authoritative, but because the words they speak Are words of God And whenever you speak God's word, you can always speak with authority because the authority is not you, it's truly God Himself, because they're His words And Solomon knew something that we will see in a moment that's very important to the Word of God and the fulfillment of prophecy And so, because he knows that, he can speak with supreme authority

And the cause is twofold: one, because of the ark, right? And the other, because of the affliction with my father David One, you helped carry the ark of the covenant That's a great thing In mind, two things: one, when David would bring the ark, Back from Nob to Jerusalem? Or, or and when David would flee Jerusalem because of Absalom and take The ark with them It was Ab who was in charge of making sure the ark was carried properly Okay, that was a high privilege

Because the Ark of God would represent the presence of God among his people, and so those in charge of the Ark had very specific guidelines and rules on how to carry it The Be was in charge of that Solomon recognized that He recognized his importance to the nation of Israel Also, he says that when my father was afflicted You were afflicted with them In other words, you joined in against Saul, that's number one, and two against Absalom, because both of them had afflicted David And in both instances, Abiathar sided against Saul, with David, against Absalom, with David

So Solomon would remember the good things that Abiath had done with his father Again, he grew up in the palace He grew up under the tutelage of his father He would hear the stories that his father would tell He would see things happen And so he would learn from those things And he would know about how this Priest would side with his father and protect his father and be there to be loyal to his father And because he was He wanted to demonstrate kindness and compassion in return to a man who deser to d And that 's exactly what he did

And so you move now to the reality and the results of his compassion He says, I will not at this time put you to death Doesn't mean that he's going to put him to death later, but he's decided not to kill him That's great and wonderful kind Isn't it true? Now remember, Solomon in Scripture becomes a picture of the Christ, a type of Christ Remember, he is in line as the king of Israel God promised that David would have a son that was sit on his throne, and that kingdom would be established in righteousness

And while Solomon would begin to establish that kingdom, it would be ultimately the Messiah who would come and fulfill the promise, the Davidic covenant But Solomon would be a picture, a type of the Christ And he would demonstrate the love of God to a nation, to a people And sure enough, the Bible tells us that God, Christ, is the Savior of all men, especially of those Who believe In other words, God is a Savior of all men, not in the eternal aspect, but in terms of the physical aspect

In other words, the wage of sin is death, but not all man dies when he sins, because God is the Savior of all men And so, just because you sin and you don't die demonstrates the Saviorship of Jesus Christ our Lord in a physical and temporal sense Solomon, in that sense, becomes a type of Christ by being a savior to Abiathar, by saving him from physical death, knowing that he deserves to die, but allowing him to live because of the grace and mercy of the king He pictures the Messiah who will come one day and rule and reign over the land of Israel

Is't that true that all of us as believers should be a picture of Christ to a lost world? All of us as believers should demonstrate Christ to a lost world They should be able to see Christ in us They should be able to see the Lord God ruling in our lives through our actions, through our attitudes And that's exactly what Solomon's doing So, as a leader of a nation, he shows us how to lead in our nation As a leader of a family, he shows us how to lead in our families As a man dealing with a man, he shows us how to deal with men

So he becomes that example of the Lord God to a nation who so desperately needs to see the beauty and the glory of the Lord And that's what Solomon is doing with the Be In a very sim but direct command that he gives: you deserve to die But I'm going let you live because that's what kings do Ultimately, the king of righteousness Himself He says, Thou art worthy of death, but this time you're going to live Go to your own field In other words, when a man had sinned and a man deserved to die, he would lose his possessions, he would lose everything

But he lets him keep his possessions, goes back to where priests could live in seclusion and keep everything that he had But when he did that, it tells us Solomon dismissed Abi from being priest to the Lord Zadok now becomes the high priest over Israel Zadok, like Abiathar, is a descendant of Aaron He's part of the Aaronic priesthood We'll learn about this on Sunday morning as we talk about Aaron, as we go through the book of Hebrews and understand more about the priesthood of Christ Versus the priesthood of Israel and how God ordained it All of it's so rich and so beautiful

But this becomes very important because what What S does is fulfill a prophecy that was given 1 years before this day Because the wheels of justice always turn, just sometimes they turn slower at certain times than others And God had made a promise way back in First Samuel chapter two To Eli Remember that? Way back in First Samuel chapter two, God had made a promise to Eli Because Eli did not deal with Hophne Phine, his two bo, who were committing immorality with the ladies of the temple Who had abused the sacrifices of God and those who brought those sacrifices

And Eli just simply said these words to his boys He says, The report Is not good which I hear the Lord's people circulating Verse number 24 Verse 23, he said, Why do you do such things, the evil things, that I hear from all these people? He didn't see them He didn't know about them He just heard about them He was an absentee father He had to wait, Eli did, to hear about it from everybody else instead of knowing firsthand what his boys were doing He should have known He was the high priest of Israel He was in charge of the spiritual development of the nation

He should have known what his boys were doing And shame on Eli for not knowing And shame on any father for not knowing what his kids are doing He should not have to hear about it He should know about it Eli didn't know about it He says, What is this I hear? It's not good what you guys are doing He doesn't rebuke them He doesn't deal with them harshly He deals with them in a very absentee father kind of way Sure enough, they would not listen to the voice of their father, for the Lord desired to put them to death God wanted them dead Eli should have known that He's the high priest of Israel

He's the one who's supposed to be in tune with God He should have known his boy should have died But we always are harsh on sin, except when sin happens in our family Then we're a little soft on sin, right? We're not astringent against s We're against it when somebody else sins, but when somebody in my family sins, I'm not as hard on it That's the way Eli was God wanted him dead So God sends a man of God We don know who the man of God is God sends the man of God to Eli

It says, Thus says the Lord, Did I not indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh's house? Did I not choose them from all the tribes of Israel to be my priests, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to carry on an ephod before me? And did I not? Give to the house of your father all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel? Why do you k at my sacrifice and at my offering which I commanded in my dwelling? And honor your sons above me

Why are you so concerned about your relationship to your son? And you're not as concerned about your relationship with me By the way, that's always the parents' problem They are more concerned about their relationship to their children instead of their relationship with the living God They value their relationship with their kids more than they value their relationship with God In other words, they are idolaters They commit idolatry They lift their children above God And why do you honor them above me? You are the priest of Israel

If anybody is to portray to the people of God a life that is not idolatrous, but is committed to me, it's you But you didn't do that You've honored your sons above me Therefore, the Lord God of Israel declares, I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father should walk before me Forever But now the Lord declares: Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me I will lightly esteem You did not honor me, because you did not honor me. I'm not going to honor you It's as simple as that

The days are coming, behold, verse 31, when I will break your strength and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house You will see the distress of my dwelling in spite of all the good that I do for Israel, and an old man will not be in your house forever He goes on to say, Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from my altar, so that your eyes will fail from weeping and your soul grieve, and all the increase of your house will die in the prime Of life You're going to die You're going to pay the price

If you're going to kill your boys, Then the rest of your family would continue to reign on the throne But because you did not kill your boys, they will all die And you will not be priests before me forever That's quite harsh That's what God thinks about sin and how we deal with sin And so it goes on to say these words in verse 35 Or verse 34 This will be a sign to you, which will come concerning your two sons, Hoph and Phine, on the same day, both of them will die You didn't kill them, so guess what? I'm going to kill them. I'm going to do what you should have done

And he says this: very important But I will raise up for myself a faithful priest Who will do according to what is in my heart and in my soul, and I will build him an enduring house, and he will walk before my anointed ways In other words, this would be fulfilled in Zadok, the high priest, who becomes the high priest of Israel after Abi is dismissed Who rules till I think Samuel rules to 171 B? But in all reality, this is the fulfillment of the coming Messiah Who will rule? So, the man of God is making a prophecy that's going to come true in the next hundred to two hundred years

But in all reality, it's going to come true when the Messiah ultimately reigns on the throne Solomon, in dismissing Abiathar, Dism him from the priesthood is the final act of fulfillment from 150 years before this time in 1 Kings chapter 2 He knew the word of the Lord And everyone else was killed at Nob under King Saul by Doeg the Edom Abiath was the only survivor from Phineas through Eli, until this day, still survived But would no longer rule as priest in Israel to fulfill the promise that the man of God had given To Eli way back in 1 Samuel chapter 2

Do you see the precision of the word of God? Last week we saw what? Ad Nij died, which was the fulfillment of prophecy that David himself made on himself When he would pay fourfold for his sin with Bathsheba And it happened The baby died, Amnon died, Absalom died Now that David's dead, the fourth fold, the fourth generation was Adonijah He would be the next to die That was fulfilled after David died, but according to the word of the Lord And Solomon made sure That prophecy was fulfilled Now he's making sure another prophecy is fulfilled

You see, he knows the word of the Lord, he knows what God says So he knows how to act in line with what the Word of God says That's what makes his leadership as powerful as it is at this point in his life, is because he knows what God's Word says, and now he's just falling in line To all that God has already said That's what makes him a great success at this time in his kingship And that's what makes you and I. A great success at this time in our lives when we follow verbatim what God says in His W

You see, he lived righteously, or he led righteously, because he lived reverently in the fear of the Lord And that reverence was seen in his leadership quality of certainty, mercy, integrity Pur, tenacity, sag, in this story, authority Because he led with authority In this story, veracity Because he knew the truth, he spoke the truth, he lived the truth In this story, stability Because every leader needs to be strong and stable He wasn't a double-minded man, unstable in all of his ways He knew what God's word said He was stable in his thinking He was stable in his actions

And it proved security for a nation And this is how Solomon begins his reign By executing Ad, by showing mercy to Abiath Because loyalty and truth is what governs the king as he makes decisions He knows when to lay down the hammer, he knows when to show mercy And that's what Solomon's doing That's what he's showing us As we read the story, as we begin to understand the principles, we as the people of God today need to adhere to what Solomon says and Solomon does

Because at this point in his life, he is demonstrating the success that was promised him by his father David if he did all that was written in the law of God Let me pray with you Father, thank you, Lord, for tonight Thank you for the chance to once again look into the Word of God and the joy that we have to see how it is you work How the fulfillment of prophecy, even though it might take a while, always happens on time according to your plan

How Solomon would write so many wonderful truths under the inspiration of your Spirit to show us the things that he was learning at a very young age as ruler in Israel Our prayer is that we learn these principles, so much so that we live these principles. in our families, in our workplace, wherever we may go, that others will know that we seek to lead righteously, live reverently in the fear of God We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.