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*36*
*Authorizing a Successor*
1 Kings 1–2:11
 
Men habitually dispute God’s will.
This was certainly the case concerning who was to be the successor of David as king of Israel.
God had made it plain that Solomon was to be the successor to David, but that did not stop some men from disputing this fact and trying to change the choice of the successor.
In earlier studies we saw in the insurrection attempt by Absalom and in the revolt led by Sheba this disputing of God’s will about Israel’s throne.
Now we look at the dispute which occurred near the time of David’s death when his son Adonijah tried to gain the throne.
This defiance of Adonijah to God’s will forced David to take strong and immediate steps against Adonijah’s action by publicly authorizing Solomon as the next king of Israel.
This problem concerning who was to be David’s successor was the last major problem to confront David before his death, and the problem was not unrelated to his chastisement for his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah.
God had told David via the prophet Nathan that because of David’s adulterous and murderous sins, “I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house” (2 Samuel 12:11).
With Adonijah his son causing this successor problem, evil was indeed being raised up against David by one “out of thine own house.”
So right up to his last days, David experienced the bitter fruits of his great sin with Bathsheba and Uriah.
Sin has its moments of pleasure, but they are short, then comes the long and often eternal punishment.
To study this event recorded in Scripture which concerns the authorizing of David’s successor for the throne of Israel, we will consider the call for a successor (1 Kings 1:1–27), the choice of a successor (1 Kings 1:28–37), the crowning of a successor (1 Kings 1:38–53), and the charging of the successor (2 Kings 2:1–11).
*A.
THE CALL FOR A SUCCESSOR*
 
The call for David to authorize a successor to himself as king became very urgent in David’s last days.
The call came in a threefold way.
It came in the age of David, in the actions of Adonijah, and in the advising by Nathan.
*1.
The Age of David*
“Now king David was old and stricken in years” (1 Kings 1:1).
Age had caught up with David.
He was no longer a young, strong, and vigorous man.
Rather, he was an old and enfeebled man.
Here in our text David was bedridden (1 Kings 1:47) and near his death at seventy years of age.
His age is deduced from the fact that he was thirty when he began reigning as king (2 Samuel 5:4), he reigned forty years (Ibid.),
and the incidents in our text for this chapter occurred in the last months of his life.
With David being old and infirm, the need for authorizing a successor was very urgent as anyone can easily understand.
For our instruction we note three things from our text about David’s problem of aging.
They are the certainty of aging, condition of aging, and countering of aging.
/The certainty of aging/.
The problem of old age comes upon every person who has not meet up with death sooner.
The body improves with age for a certain amount of time as the babe matures to adulthood, but then the decline sets in for everyone.
Men simply are not made to live forever.
Aging confirms that “it is appointed unto men once to die” (Hebrews 9:27).
Aging ought to remind us of death, and every death ought to remind us that death (and aging) was introduced into humanity by sin.
When Adam and Eve sinned, the curse of physical death came upon every descendent of the first two human beings.
Sin is often advertised as “living it up,” but every cemetery exposes that advertisement as false.
Sin is what kills.
Sin does not give life.
“The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
Therefore, in view of the certainty of death, we all need to earnestly prepare for it.
And the way to prepare for death is to do what the prophet Amos told the Israelites to do, namely, “Prepare to meet thy God” (Amos 4:12).
Scripture informs us that death is followed by a reckoning with God.
“After this [death] the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
If ever you need to get prepared for anything, it is the judgment after death!
The only way you can adequately prepare for it is through receiving Jesus Christ as your Savior.
/The condition of aging/.
“He gat no heat” (v. 1).
One of the conditions of old age is an infirm body.
No matter how well you take care of yourself, your body will eventually become infirm.
We ought to take the best care we can of our body in order to serve our Lord as well as possible.
But the finest of care will not prevent the infirmity of old age.
Good care of the body often slows down infirmity, but it will never stop it.
Aches and pains and other problems with the body increase with age.
The particular infirmity of David’s body mentioned in our text was that “he gat no heat.”
This is always true with the elderly.
This problem indicates that the furnace of the body is going out.
Matthew Henry emphasizes this problem when he says, “Our deliverances from or through diseases and dangers are but reprieves; if the candle be not blown out, it will burn out of itself.”
While we cannot stop the decay of our bodies physically, it is much different spiritually.
Too many senior saints allow their spiritual lives to decay with age as their physical bodies do.
This is inexcusable.
We may “gat no heat” physically with age, but spiritually we can still be on fire for God!
 
/The countering of aging/.
“Wherefore his servants said unto him, Let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin; and let her stand before the king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the king may get heat” (1 Kings 1:2).
It is certainly proper and wise to use legitimate means to restore bodily health and prolong our days; but we must not use unholy means which promote sin.
David’s servants failed here in that they resorted to an unholy means to treat David’s condition of deficiency of bodily heat, for they proposed another woman for him to remedy the problem.
They promoted sin by this remedy.
This promoting of sin to counter David’s deficiency of bodily heat provides a very instructive picture of the way sin works in the lives of men.
We note ten characteristics of sin from this proposal to get David another woman.
These ten characteristics include the ardor of sin, the attractiveness of sin, the acceptance of sin, the advocating for sin, the attempts of sin, the artfulness of sin, the acquaintance with sin, the absurdity of sin, the affects of sin, and the analysis of sin.
First, the/ ardor/ of sin.
“They sought for a fair damsel throughout all the costs of Israel” (1 Kings 1:3).
Sin is earnest.
This is evident in this incident by the fact that the servants of David ordered an intensive search to find a beautiful young woman for David.
The ardor of the searching is seen in their searching “throughout all the coasts of Israel” to find the right woman.
If we are going to combat sin successfully, we will have to be just as earnest in combating sin as sin is in conquering us.
Treat sin passively and you will be past history.
Second, the/ attractiveness/ of sin.
They sought for a “fair damsel” (1 Kings 1:3) for David.
The word “fair” indicates a person of beauty, a person who was very attractive.
Evil does not want to look ugly to the one it is trying to seduce.
It wants to look extremely attractive.
This is one of the most effective tactics of sin to seduce people to sin.
When sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden, this appeal of attractiveness was very prominent; for one reason Eve was attracted to the forbidden was that it was “pleasant to the eyes” (Genesis 3:6).
The outward beauty of sin has snared many a soul.
Third, the/ acceptance/ of sin.
This practice of using a young woman to stir up the heat of a man was an accepted, though ineffective, method of the world.
It was not some unique method thought up by David’s servants.
Their suggestion of this method only reflected their awareness of an acceptable habit of the world.
General acceptance of evil by people often beguiles people into sinning.
If it is popular, many cannot think that it is wrong.
But it is not how many approve something, but who approves it.
If God does not approve of it, all the popularity the world can muster up for it will not make the deed righteous.
Fourth, the/ advocating/ for sin.
David’s servants (1 Kings 1:2) were the ones who advocated this sin of another woman for David as a remedy for the heat problem of his aging body.
These were not men who hated David, who were plotting his downfall, or who wanted to ruin him.
These were men who supported him and were loyal to him.
This is another reminder in Scripture that sometimes it is our close and trusted friends who encourage us to do evil.
That makes the temptation to sin extremely strong.
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