HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 669
1 KING S 1
page 299
business or even in ministry. Be careful. In your golden hour, you may make one foolish
decision that will blow up your successful world.
True success is not how much money you accumulate, how many adoring fans you
have at your feet, how many military victories you have achieved, how much education
you have. It is not how much fame has come to you, how much power over others you
have. True success is what you do with these emblems of success when they come. It
is something of a tragedy when we see a person with the emblems of success—money,
fame, power, athletic ability, popularity—become a failure in simple morality or basic
family life. Too often, failure in things that matter most comes at the pinnacle of success
in things that matter least.
If we want to truly succeed in life, we will humbly accept the emblems of material
success, asking God to help us use them fully in the arenas of life where things matter
most—with God, with family, and with others. True success is not so much what you have
as what you do with what you have.
Key verses in 1 Kings
2:2-3 “Take courage and be a
man. Observe the requirements
of the Lord your God, and
follow all his ways . . . so
that you will be successful
in all you do and wherever
you go.”
3:9 “Give me an understanding
heart so that I can govern
your people well and know the
difference between right and
wrong.”
8:23 “O Lord, God, . . . there is
no God like you in all of heaven
above or the earth below. You keep
your covenant and show unfailing
love to all who walk before you in
wholehearted devotion.”
turned away from the Lord, the
God of Israel, who had appeared
to him twice.
16:30 But Ahab son of Omri did
what was evil in the Lord’s sight,
even more than any of the kings
before him.
8:57- 58 “May the Lord our God
be with us . . . may he never leave us
18:21 “How much longer will
or abandon us. May he give us the
you waver, hobbling between
desire to do his will in everything.”
two opinions? If the Lord is God,
11:9 The Lord was very angry
follow him! But if Baal is God,
with Solomon, for his heart had
then follow him!”
David in His Old Age
King David was now very old, and no matter
how many blankets covered him, he could
not keep warm. 2 So his advisers told him, “Let
us find a young virgin to wait on you and look
after you, my lord. She will lie in your arms and
keep you warm.”
3 So they searched throughout the land of Israel for a beautiful girl, and they found Abishag
from Shunem and brought her to the king. 4 The
girl was very beautiful, and she looked after the
king and took care of him. But the king had no
sexual relations with her.
1
Adonijah Claims the Throne
5 About that time David’s son Adonijah, whose
mother was Haggith, began boasting, “I will
make myself king.” So he provided himself with
chariots and charioteers and recruited fifty men
to run in front of him. 6 Now his father, King David, had never disciplined him at any time, even
by asking, “Why are you doing that?” Adonijah
1:9 Or to the Serpent’s Stone; Greek version supports reading
Zoheleth as a proper name.
had been born next after Absalom, and he was
very handsome.
7 Adonijah took Joab son of Zeruiah and Abiathar the priest into his confidence, and they
agreed to help him become king. 8 But Zadok
the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, Nathan
the prophet, Shimei, Rei, and David’s personal
bodyguard refused to support Adonijah.
9 Adonijah went to the Stone of Zoheleth*
near the spring of En-rogel, where he sacrificed
sheep, cattle, and fattened calves. He invited all
his brothers—the other sons of King David—and
all the royal officials of Judah. 10 But he did not
invite Nathan the prophet or Benaiah or the
king’s bodyguard or his brother Solomon.
11 Then Nathan went to Bathsheba, Solomon’s
mother, and asked her, “Haven’t you heard that
Haggith’s son, Adonijah, has made himself
king, and our lord David doesn’t even know
about it? 12 If you want to save your own life and
the life of your son Solomon, follow my advice.
13 Go at once to King David and say to him, ‘My
lord the king, didn’t you make a vow and say to