Then Solomon was told, “Adonijah is afraid of King Solomon and is clinging to the horns of the altar. He says, ‘Let King Solomon swear to me today that he will not put his servant to death with the sword.'” (1 Kings 1:51, NIV).
Adonijah was handsome, well-liked, and politically favored to ascend to the throne after his father David. But he made some serious mistakes in his attempt to succeed his father.
He assumed the thrown was his to take. While David was old, he was not dead and still very much king. If there is an Old Testament picture of the younger immoral brother in Jesus’ parable of the Lost Sons in Luke 15, Adonijah very well could be it—basically taking everything of his father’s for himself before his father died to leave it to him. But David was still king, had several sons, and had the authority to choose his successor. Adonijah assumed too much.
Adonijah also thought he had all the support he needed and presumed that no one would stand against him. If he had waited until after David had died he might have pulled it off. But he did not count on Nathan and Bathsheba going to David…or if he did, he never believed that David would actually do anything about it. After all, David had let him do whatever he wanted up to now (1 Kings 1:6). He evidently took that lack of discipline as approval or authority.
His assuming and presuming ended up being his Achilles heel and he ended up humiliated and deposed.
As I thought about this I realized that I really wanted to see myself as different from Adonijah. But the more I thought about it the more I became convicted that in reality I am very much like him. In fact, I suspect we all are. How often do we do the same things he did, but only to against a greater king than David? How easy it is to take our blessings and provisions and influence and claim that they are ours because we have use of them; to think that they are ours by right, or that we are free to take and use them how we choose without first asking permission from the King? Yes, I am guilty of assuming and presuming.
That is why I need Jesus. I need more than an altar to cling to, more than a symbol to appeal to, or acts to perform. I need more than absolution based on exemplary future performance…because unless my future is forgiven too, the forgiveness will not last…as Adonijah himself found out in 1 Kings 2:25.
That is not the kind of grace Jesus gives. He is more than an altar. The atonement that is symbolized by the altar is offered freely by Jesus to any that cling to Him. But He is not cold, immovable, or impersonal like the altar. Jesus welcomes you, embraces you, advocates for you, and tells you that all has been settled. He blesses you with His Spirit who begins to change you so that ultimately that broken nature and desire to sin will be healed and restored. You don’t have to earn it, you don’t need to worry about losing it, and you don’t need to worry about it being rescinded.
Learning To Be Full Of Grace And Truth. 