One of the most famous English monarchs to ever sit on the
throne must be Elizabeth I. Elizabeth
reigned from 1558 to 1603, but how she finally came to the throne is anything
but simple and smooth. Her father, Henry
VIII was married to Catherine of Aragon and had one daughter with her –
Mary. But of course, Henry desperately
wanted a male heir and he believed that Catherine could not produce one. So he decided to get rid of Catherine, but
the Pope wouldn’t allow it. And so the
King who had once been proclaimed the “Defender of the Faith” by the Pope, due
to his opposition to the Protestant Reformation on the European continent, took
control of the English churches and created the Church of England, with the
English monarch as the head. This
allowed Henry to divorce Catherine.
In all, Henry went through six wives in his lifetime. Their fate can be summarized with the
following pneumonic phrase – divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded,
survived. His six wives produced for him
a total of three legitimate heirs, but only one son, the sickly Edward. Before his death, Henry established a throne succession
plan whereby Edward would assume the throne upon his death and if Edward failed
to produce an heir, then Henry’s oldest daughter Mary would then inherit the
crown. Finally, if both Edward and Mary
were to pass without legitimate heirs, Elizabeth would become Queen.
After Henry’s death, his son Edward, the sickly boy, reigned
for only six years and then died at the age of 15 without an heir. Edward was a fanatical Protestant and had
tried to create a plan that would prevent Mary from inheriting the throne, but
his plan ultimately failed, as his cousin, Lady Jane Grey, was unable to
prevent Mary from taking control (Lady Jane Grey joined two of Henry’s wives
with the distinction of having her head removed from her shoulders). Mary then assumed the throne, but she only
reigned for five years, and she too failed to produce an heir. She did, however restore the Catholic faith
to England and had at least 280 Protestant dissenters burned at the stake in
the process. You can toast that the next
time you have a Bloody Mary! Throughout Bloody Mary’s reign, Elizabeth
wisely kept a low profile when she wasn’t locked up in the Tower of London or
under house arrest. Finally, at the end
of her life, Mary acknowledged that her half-sister was to inherit the English
throne. And so began one of the longest
and most successful reigns of an English monarch. The story of Elizabeth’s succession is
nasty. And history is full of many
stories like this.
Biblical history is no different. It emerges out of real life and so, it too is
full of nasty stories. Solomon’s rise to
the throne is just as bloody as Elizabeth’s.
We find the throne succession narratives at the end of 2 Samuel and the
beginning of 1 Kings. 1 Kings chapters
1-2 are especially grimy – full of double-dealing and political maneuvering. If we fail to notice the details of the text,
we might assume that Solomon’s succession is inevitable – but a closer reading
reveals that it is anything but inevitable.
We forget that Solomon is at least ten sons back in the line of
succession. The only thing Solomon has going for him is that his mother (another messy story) has become David’s favorite
wife. Without the quick wit and
aggressive action of Nathan the prophet, Solomon and his mother Bathsheba might
experience the same fate as Lady Jane Grey.
What sets this whole process in motion is the fact that David
has multiple sons and daughters by multiple wives over his lifetime. If you want to make an argument against
polygamy, read the stories from the time of Abraham through the Judean monarchy
and you’ll soon discover that one wife for life is the way to go! But back to David’s story. Because David has produced so many potential
heirs through a variety of mothers, a jockeying for position ensues as David’s
life winds down. We see this clearly in
2 Samuel in the stories of Absalom and Amnon.
And by the time we get to the very end of David’s life, as the weak and
impotent King lies on the bosom of his beautiful Shunammite nurse, Abishag - Adonijah, the eldest remaining of David’s sons begins to make his move. And he has a little help from his friends –
powerful friends. Joab, David’s ruthless
military commander, and Abiathar, a priest and one of David’s trusted friends,
have sided with Adonijah. They proclaim a
feast and invite all of those in their camp to celebrate Adonijah’s inevitable
succession to the throne.
But others are also making plans. The initial conversations are not recorded
for us, but presumably because she was David’s favorite, Bathsheba is promised
that her son Solomon will be King. But
as Adonijah begins to press his claim, Nathan realizes that he and Bathsheba
need to act fast! They assemble their
own powerful allies, including Zadok the priest, Benaiah, one of David’s mighty
men, and Rei and Shimei, two of David’s closest confidants. Most importantly, David’s inner circle of
warriors supports Solomon.
Nathan and Bathsheba hatch a plot to ensure that Solomon, and
not Adonijah, becomes king. If their
plan succeeds, the power in Israel will be theirs. If it fails, Solomon and Bathsheba will
almost certainly be killed. So Bathsheba
goes before David and reminds him of his previous promise. Then, Nathan comes in and confirms
Bathsheba’s position and reiterates the fact that Adonijah is aiming for the
throne behind the king’s back. Their
plan succeeds and David publicly endorses Solomon as his successor. Most of Adonijah’s supporters realize they’ve
been outflanked and so quickly move to Solomon’s side. And Adonijah himself realizes that his life
is now in danger and so he begs his brother for mercy. Solomon tentatively grants him a reprieve
from any physical harm, but he warns him that he’s keeping an eye on him.
But all is not yet well.
Even David sees that Solomon’s throne is not yet secure. David gives his son some spiritual advice in
1 Kings 2:1-4, but if you read further, David’s words of wisdom become much
more political, if not ruthless in nature.
David tells Solomon that Joab is a threat to his throne, so the prudent
thing to do is to take him out. Not only
that, but Saul still has some distant relatives that may be gunning for the
throne, so Solomon must deal wisely with them.
Shimei (not to be confused with David’s confidant) is a threat from
Saul’s tribe and must be killed. It’s
good to be king, but it’s far from easy.
A king must be shrewd and decisive if they wish to remain on the
throne.
After David’s death, Adonijah unwisely continues to scheme
behind Solomon’s back. He goes to
Bathsheba and requests that David’s nurse, Abishag, be given to him as a wife. This isn’t an innocent request. Just as Absalom’s sexual union on the rooftop
of the palace with David’s concubines demonstrated his power and authority to
the tribes of Israel, so Adonijah’s request for David’s Shunammite nurse was a
politically calculated move towards stealing the throne. Solomon immediately sniffs this plot out and
has his brother Adonijah killed. In
addition to this, Solomon follows his father’s advice and has Joab killed and
forces Abiathar the priest into exile. Eventually,
Solomon finds a legitimate excuse to have Shimei, Saul’s distant cousin
executed. We then read in 1 Kings 2:46,
“…the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.” So much for a smooth and simple
succession.
The throne succession narratives at the end of 2 Samuel and
at the beginning of 1 Kings are not unlike the kinds of stories we read in
history. Much of what occurred is pretty
icky and very political. These stories
are full of power plays, murder, intrigue, double-dealing, and
back-stabbing. And most of this behavior
occurred amongst David’s own family.
These aren’t the nice and neat “flannel graph” stories that we learned
from the sweet little grannies who taught us in Sunday school. But this shouldn’t surprise us. Biblical history is still history. These are true stories of real people living
in the real world. The Bible is full of
the stories of flawed people living in a broken society.
And you know, my life mirrors some of this too. I’ve never murdered anyone, but there’s a lot
in my past that I’m embarrassed about.
My life is filled with mistakes.
I wish I could go back and erase some of my history. I’ve done some pretty dumb things through the
years. I’ve not always treated other
people the way I want to be treated. And
I’ve not always loved God with my whole heart. I bet your life is a lot like
this too. In fact, I know it is, because
if you’re reading this, then you’re a human.
And we’re all flawed and we live our lives in a world full of other
flawed people. Our histories are not
always as neat and tidy as we’d like them to be.
But you know what else – God didn’t quit working because the
material he was working with was flawed.
He continued to work through broken human beings, because the last I
checked, that’s all he has to work with.
David was a horrible father and much of the messiness in the throne
succession narratives are down to David being a lousy dad. But, nevertheless, David was also a man after
God’s own heart and he was the greatest king in Israel’s history! God worked in and through David and Solomon
despite their flaws. And God is at work
in the midst of our broken lives too!
God meets us in the mess of our lives – he works through the broken
pieces of our stories – but he’s not content to simply leave us there. So, he sent his one and only Son to become
one of us, to live amongst us, and to finally be the King that all the kings
had been called to be, but failed to be.
In fact, Jesus was and is everything that all the rest of us have failed
to be too.
So, it’s worth reflecting on the kind of kingdom that Jesus
came to establish. In John 18, the Roman
Governor, Pilate, asks Jesus a crucial question. “Are you the King of the Jews?” Pilate wants to know if Jesus really is a
threat to Rome and their control of Palestine.
Jesus responds affirmatively, but with a clear caveat. He says, “My kingdom is not from this
world. If my kingdom were from this
world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the
Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not
from here.” (John 18:36). Jesus’ kingdom is very much for this world, but it’s not of this world. It operates by a different set of rules and
its values contrast with those of the ordinary kingdoms of this present
age.
I believe this is one of the reasons that Jesus’
contemporaries had such a hard time accepting him as the Messiah. Jesus didn’t fit the mold of what they were
looking for in a coming king. They still
envisioned the kind of kingdom that David and Solomon ruled over. Instead of driving out the Romans, like many
of Jesus’ fellow Jews would have hoped and prayed for, Jesus surrendered to
them and was crucified by them. In his
most famous sermon, The Sermon on the
Mount, he said things like, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit
the earth… Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of
God…If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to them the other also…If
anyone forces you to go one mile (in other words, if a Roman soldier forces you
to carry his pack for one mile), go also the second mile…Love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you.” These
were not the words of a messianic figure in most 1st century Jews’ minds. And these words are still hard for many of us
to swallow.
The Kingdom of God that Jesus brought and is still bringing
is not like the kingdoms of this world.
But it’s very much for people like us who are citizens of this present
world. God meets us in the busyness, the
messiness, and most importantly, even the very ordinariness of our lives and
brings us to a point where eventually his will is done in our hearts and our
lives as it is in heaven. We start out
as ordinary people with all the weaknesses and flaws that you find in anyone’s
story. But through Jesus and through the
Spirit’s work in our lives, we are in a state of becoming. We are becoming poor in spirit (we realize we
are spiritually bankrupt). We are
becoming meek. We are learning to hunger
and thirst for righteousness. We are
becoming pure in heart. We are gradually
learning to show mercy, instead of justice (or injustice). We are becoming peacemakers. In short, we are becoming more and more like
Jesus himself. “Eventually, he who began
a good work among us, will bring it to completion and our love will have
overflowed more and more with knowledge and full insight so that we will have
produced a harvest of righteousness, being pure and blameless on the day that
Jesus returns!” That's my tight paraphrase of what the apostle Paul says
is our destiny (Philippians chapter 1).
We all start out living lives in the old creation, but that’s
our history, that's not our future. Our future
is life in the new creation. We’re in
the process of realizing that life, even now.
The writer of our story specializes in happy endings. But in reality, they aren’t endings, they’re
new beginnings. The kingdoms of the Bible
and the kingdoms of the history books will one day become the Kingdom of
God. We hear a description of what that
day will be like in Revelation 11:15-17.
“Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in
heaven saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and
of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever.’ Then the twenty-four elders who sit on their
thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, singing, ‘We give you
thanks, Lord God Almighty, who are and who were, for you have taken your great
power and begun to reign.’” May God
hasten the day. Come, Lord Jesus! –
Shay
