Summary

In addition to a guest list for the coronation banquet, the writer gives us a list of some people who were not invited. Obviously, everyone that was not invited belongs in this group, but the names we are given are the names of those that Adonijah purposefully did not invite. Two possible reasons exist for the absence of these men, and both reasons may be true.

First we will mention the fact that they are the very men (with the addition of Solomon) that the writer previously told us did not follow Adonijah. Therefore, they are not considered by Adonijah as his friends and supporters, and it is natural that they would not be welcome at the celebration of Adonijah’s gaining of the kingship.

The second reason we mention is that they were deleted from the guest list because Adonijah had placed them on another list, namely the list of those who were both influential and opposed to Adonijah’s succession to his father’s throne. Once he had safely secured the rule, he probably planned to annihilate these opponents and the rival for the throne in the case of Solomon.

It may be that Adonijah thought that the quickness of his action in timing his move while David was still alive would cause the failure of any move on Solomon’s part to seize the throne after the death of David. In other words, by the surprise of action, Adonijah believed that he had blocked any counter move.

Since, however, Nathan the prophet was included in this group, the reaction of the Lord was a possible obstacle to Adonijah’s plans. Man proposes, but God disposes is a saying that is undoubtedly true, and it contains a truth that people who are godless and of a worldly mind continually neglect to their own destruction. God would prove to use Nathan and his advice given to Solomon’s mother, Bathsheba, to thwart Adonijah’s succession to the throne.

You might wonder how this could be, since Adonijah’s coronation was already in the process of being celebrated. We must remember that there was no official ceremony recognized at this time as concluding the matter, except the anointing of the future king by God’s accredited prophet or high priest. If you were not the anointed of the Lord, you were not the king that God recognized. The text makes it clear that Adonijah had not been anointed by either official, for both belonged to the other side.

The scribes, Pharisees, and chief priests exercised the same lack of consideration of the divine will and divine recognition of the rightful King when they rejected the claims of their Messiah, who was anointed beyond measure by the Holy Spirit and certified by the voice of God the Father speaking from heaven.