{"id":34327,"date":"2025-01-21T22:00:28","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T05:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2-samuel_24_18-25-copy\/"},"modified":"2025-01-14T13:46:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T20:46:12","slug":"1-kings-1_1-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1-kings-1_1-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Whoever Exalts Himself Will Be Humbled"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Kings 1:1-14 (CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 Kings 1:1-14.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the\u00a0GAME\u00a0sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

1<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0Kings<\/em><\/strong>\u00a01<\/em><\/strong>:<\/em><\/strong>1<\/em><\/strong>-4 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n1<\/sup>\u00a0<\/em>When King David was old and well advanced in years, he could not keep warm even when they put covers over him.\u00a0<\/em>
\n2\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>So his servants said to him, “Let us look for a young virgin to attend the king and take care of him. She can lie beside him so that our lord the king may keep warm.”\u00a0<\/em>
\n3\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>Then they searched throughout Israel for a beautiful girl and found Abishag, a Shunammite, and brought her to the king.\u00a0<\/em>
\n4\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>The girl was very beautiful; she took care of the king and waited on him, but the king had no intimate relations with her.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses\u00a01-4:\u00a0 By this\u00a0time\u00a0King David is almost 70 years old and is not in good health.\u00a0 To help keep him warm, they find a beautiful girl called Abishag to lie beside him and to serve him as his nurse, but not to have sexual relations with him.\u00a0 Apparently this was in line with medical customs of the day, as both Jewish historian Josephus and a Greek physician Galen reportedly mention this practice in their ancient writings.[1]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

1 Kings 1:5-14 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, put himself forward and said, “I will be king.” So he got chariots and horses ready, with fifty men to run ahead of him.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0(His father had never interfered with him by asking, “Why do you behave as you do?” He was also very handsome and was born next after Absalom.)
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Adonijah conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar the priest, and they gave him their support.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But Zadok the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei and Rei and David’s special guard did not join Adonijah.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Adonijah then sacrificed sheep, cattle and fattened calves at the Stone of Zoheleth near En Rogel. He invited all his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the men of Judah who were royal officials,
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0but he did not invite Nathan the prophet or Benaiah or the special guard or his brother Solomon.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Nathan asked Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, “Have you not heard that Adonijah, the son of Haggith, has become king without our lord David’s knowing it?
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now then, let me advise you how you can save your own life and the life of your son Solomon.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Go in to King David and say to him, ‘My lord the king, did you not swear to me your servant: “Surely Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he will sit on my throne”? Why then has Adonijah become king?’
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0While you are still there talking to the king, I will come in and confirm what you have said.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 5-14:\u00a0 In view of David’s failing health, David’s son Adonijah props himself up as the successor to his father’s throne.\u00a0 Adonijah actively takes steps to promote himself as the next king, including arranging for his own military escort (v5), garnering the support of some of David’s more famous officials (v7) and holding a feast to proclaim himself as king (v9).\u00a0 However, the fact that he did not invite Nathan the prophet (v10), David’s most important spiritual advisor, signals that Adonijah did not consult God’s heart or welcome God’s counsel in this matter.\u00a0 He just wanted to be king.\u00a0 However, Adonijah would not be successful in his grasp for the throne.<\/p>\n

Verses 11-14 show the beginnings of Nathan the prophet and David’s wife Bathsheba planning how to notify King David of Adonijah’s self-promoting activities.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0You can try all you want to exalt yourself in front of others, but in the end it is God who decides who will be exalted and who will be humbled.<\/strong>\u00a0 Moreover, we’ll see that God would end up humbling the self-promoting Adonijah and exalting his much quieter younger brother Solomon.\u00a0 As Jesus says in Matthew\u00a023:12, “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted”. In other words,\u00a0if you live for your own self-exaltation, you will ultimately be humbled, but if you are humble before God and man, you will ultimately be exalted.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0In the kingdom of God, the path to greatness is not self-exaltation but humility.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By the way, verse 6 is an indirect rebuke of David’s approach to parenting.\u00a0 When verse 6 says that David never interfered with his son Adonijah by asking, “Why do you behave as you do?”, it’s a hint that David should have watched his son more closely, disciplined his son much earlier and dealt with his self-exalting ways.\u00a0 However, David was largely absent from his children’s lives.\u00a0 As a result, the entire nation was affected.\u00a0 It took the intervention of Nathan the prophet and Bathsheba David\u2019s wife to keep David\u2019s neglect from ruining the nation.\u00a0 It’s a reminder to parents and leaders that we must \u201cknow the condition of our flocks\u201d and take proactive steps to guide those in our care in the right way.<\/p>\n

Father, it is You who decides whom to exalt and whom to humble. May I not live like Adonijah for my own self-exaltation, but may I have a humble attitude toward You and toward others, trusting that You will lift me in due\u00a0time.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

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[1]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Constable, T. L. (1985).\u00a01 Kings<\/a>. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.),\u00a0The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures<\/em>\u00a0(Vol. 1, p. 486). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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opyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 Kings 1:1-14.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the\u00a0GAME\u00a0sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!\u00a0<\/p>\n

1\u00a0Kings\u00a01:1-4 (NIV)\u00a0
\n1\u00a0When King David was old and well advanced in years, he could not keep warm even when they put covers over him.\u00a0
\n2\u00a0So his servants said to him, “Let us look for a young virgin to attend the king and take care of him. She can lie beside him so that our lord the king may keep warm.”\u00a0
\n3\u00a0Then they searched throughout Israel for a beautiful girl and found Abishag, a Shunammite, and brought her to the king.\u00a0
\n4\u00a0The girl was very beautiful; she took care of the king and waited on him, but the king had no intimate relations with her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On verses\u00a01-4:\u00a0 By this\u00a0time\u00a0King David is almost 70 years old and is not in good health.\u00a0 To help keep him warm, they find a beautiful girl called Abishag to lie beside him and to serve him as his nurse, but not to have sexual relations with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34327"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34330,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34327\/revisions\/34330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}