Three Camps "Submitting" To God's Authority

This Sunday in our corporate worship service we looked at the story of Adonijah and Solomon in 1 Kings 1-2.  There is a great application for us as we consider the three groups of characters involved in this little soap opera that opens the chronicle of Israel's demise.

First, there is the group of David, Solomon, Nathan, and Bathsheba.

As the story unfolds, the lives of Nathan, Bathsheba, and Solomon are precariously in the balance - and God's Sovereignty is called into challenge the human folly at play.  But this group of characters shows us the first camp that we can fall into:

The camp that

When life got complicated and conflict arose (Adonijah tried to assume the throne that was supposed to go to Solomon), they chose to trust God's sovereignty and focus on whose issue it really was to solve (God's).

They only asked for the fulfillment of what God had already promised and trusted Him for the results of their proper stewardship.

The second group of characters is really just one man, Adonijah.

Adonijah professed allegiance to God and to Solomon, but he showed that he had his own agenda - not his King's, or his God's.  What he wanted was legally his - by man's standards.  But God ad said otherwise - and he confessed to knowing it.  It was the way and the timing he sought in getting it that was wrong, and ultimately he set himself against God by setting himself against God's decree.

The third group of characters is that of Joab, Abiathar, and Shimei.

As we read the story, these individuals aligned themselves with someone they believed was right.  They believed in a cause, not in the God who makes all causes right.  If they had been focused on whose issue it was to deal with in the first place (God's), they would have sought out God's guidance.  As it was they all wanted something and went about supporting the one getting it, even though the one getting it was doing it the wrong way and impatiently.  As a result they all lost their lives or freedom because they trusted their intentions instead of God's.

We can be like any group of these characters at any point in our lives.  We may be in the first group one day or month, and then a particularly personal issue divides us from a friend or a colleague, and we slip into camp two or three.

We can all, at times, profess allegiance to something, but our words, actions and thoughts convey that we really have our own agendas.  Other times we can be in the camp where we want something for the right reasons and we truly believe that our intentions will keep us right with God.  But God says, "Seek me first and my righteousness and my Kingdom, and I'll take care of all the important stuff."

We all have things happen to us, around us and to those we love.  Which camp do you find yourself in right now?


With you for His glory,