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1 Kings 1 Bible study: Long live King Solomon
Adonijah "exalted himself, saying, “I will be king”" (1:5), with fifty men to run before him as Absalom had (2 Samuel 15:1). Solomon doesn't say a word until the end (1:52). The throne comes to him by David's oath (1:30), on David's own mule (1:33), and the chapter ends with Adonijah bowing down to him (1:53).
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“The king vowed and said, “As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity,”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“David had Solomon ride on David's own mule down to Gihon.”
Is that in 1 Kings 1, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
Who will sit on the throne?
1 Kings opens with the king himself: "Now King David was old and advanced in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he couldn’t keep warm" (1:1). His servants find "Abishag the Shunammite" (1:3), who "cherished the king, and served him; but the king didn’t know her intimately" (1:4) (tap cherish). Then the chapter asks one question over and over. Bathsheba says, "the eyes of all Israel are on you, that you should tell them who will sit on the throne of my lord the king after him" (1:20), and Nathan asks the same: "who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?" (1:27). The word throne comes 13 times in the chapter (tap throne), and the verb reign runs through it (tap reign). The question is answered at the end: "Also, Solomon sits on the throne of the kingdom" (1:46), and David blesses the LORD, "who has given one to sit on my throne today, my eyes even seeing it" (1:48).
Where it leads to Jesus
Whoever exalts himself
1 Kings 1:5leads toLuke 14:11
"Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, “I will be king.”" (1:5). He killed sheep, cattle and fatlings and called his guests (1:9), and Nathan says, "they are eating and drinking before him" (1:25). When the news came, "All the guests of Adonijah were afraid, and rose up, and each man went his way" (1:49), and Adonijah "came and bowed down to King Solomon" (1:53). At a meal in the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees (Luke 14:1), Jesus noticed "how they chose the best seats" (Luke 14:7), and said, "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 14:11); he gives the same saying, in slightly different words, in Matthew 23:12 and Luke 18:14. Jesus doesn't cite 1 Kings 1, so setting the two side by side is a reading, resting on a shared subject: a man who exalts himself. Some hear in Adonijah's feast and his bowing at the end what Jesus says of the one who exalts himself. Others read 1 Kings 1 as the account of how the son David swore to came to David's throne (1:30, 1:48), and Jesus' words as his lesson to guests at a meal (Luke 14:7-10), and don't look from one to the other.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 1 Kings 1
That was a taste
The rest of 1 Kings 1 is waiting in Favor
- I will be king
- Who stood where
- An oath, a mule and Gihon
- Absalom's way, again
- "Long live the king"
- Chronicles tells it too
- 19 questions as you read
- 13 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it
מָלַךְmalakhsay ma-LAKH
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "be, or become king, or queen, reign", and in the causative form, "make king, or queen, cause to reign". Strong's: "to reign". The chapter uses the verb ten times. It begins with Adonijah's "I will be king" (1:5). Nathan tells Bathsheba, "Adonijah the son of Haggith reigns" (1:11), and gives her the question, "Why then does Adonijah reign?" (1:13). David's oath is "Solomon your son shall reign after me" (1:30), and Jonathan's news uses the causative form: "Most certainly our lord King David has made Solomon king" (1:43).
For your group
1 Kings 1 Bible study questions
- 1Adonijah "exalted himself, saying, “I will be king.”" (1:5). Where are you tempted to put yourself forward instead of waiting to be given a place?
- 2Nathan told Bathsheba that David "doesn’t know it" (1:11), and both of them went in to speak to the king (1:15-27). When has someone spoken up for you, or when have you needed to speak up for someone else?
- 3David said, "I will most certainly do this today" (1:30). Is there a promise you have made that you need to keep, and what would keeping it today look like?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads 1 Kings 1 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home