From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF.
Intro
Today we are entering a new series of sermons on 1 Kings, a historical book in the Old Testament. As a young Christian, I used to dislike the Old Testament. It has stories that are weird, more dramatic and shocking than your 7:00pm TV drama. Sometimes I don’t know what God wants me to learn from those stories. Yes, it’s not easy to study the Old Testament, but it is part of our Bible and is very interesting. I hope together we can learn some good things from the book of 1 Kings.
Today we will only look at chapter 1, which I think is a story about pride and humility. In this story, a man who tried to elevate himself is brought down. But the man who did nothing to promote himself is exalted.
Before we read this story, keep in mind that King David – considered the greatest king of Israel – had many sons, born from different wives. Although David was a great man, he was not free from political problems, some caused by his sons. In today’s story, the oldest living son of King David, called Adonijah, tried to become king even though David wanted the youngest son Solomon to be king.
[Read 1 Kings 1]
Background
What can we learn from this story? There are 3 things we should be aware of before we can draw any lessons from 1 Kings. First, the background of 1 Kings. Second, what is the proper way to read historical stories in the Old Testament. Third, the character of God, which never changes.
First: let’s recall the background of 1 Kings. 1 Kings is part of a long story about Israel’s history. If you start reading 1 Kings without knowing what happened earlier, you might feel lost. It’s like watching a TV drama series but starting in Episode 10 instead of Episode 1.
What happened before 1 Kings is recorded in the books of 1 & 2 Samuel. In Samuel, King David rose to power. Although he was considered a godly man, he was still not perfect. He sinned against God by committing adultery with Bathsheba. Yet, in spite of his sin, God was still faithful to David. When we reach 1 Kings, David is already a very old man.
Secondly, what is the proper way to read stories in the Old Testament? I only want to give a brief answer here. Firstly, the Bible’s stories often just describe what happened and don’t always tell you the moral of the story. It’s useful to remember that even God’s chosen people still sin. As readers, we have to decide by ourselves whether their actions were good or bad.
Finally, we must be aware of the character and heart of God, who is always watching and working behind the scenes of history. From the beginning to the end of the Old Testament, God constantly tells Israel about his character and his heart. One of the major things God emphasizes is his love of justice, righteousness, and mercy. Again and again, God promises Israel: If you value these qualities and obey Me, you will experience my blessing. If you violate my character, you will experience the painful results of your own actions and my punishment. Unfortunately Israel and its kings disobeyed God many times and eventually suffered. In contrast, when people pleased God, He eventually blessed them.
The book of 1 Kings records those events. These stories are preserved in our Bible today to encourage us and warn us. It informs us of what God cares about and helps us take Him seriously.
In the case of Adonijah and Solomon, I believe we can interpret their story in terms of God’s character: God opposes pride but favors humility. So let’s look at the pride of Adonijah.
Adonijah and Solomon
In ancient Middle Eastern culture, the eldest is the first in line to a kingdom’s throne. Adonijah was the eldest son still alive. Two of his older brothers died – one died in battle, the other was assassinated. Adonijah was handsome, confident, and influential. He sounds like he could be a successful politician. Yet, in the end, his younger brother became king. Why?
One theory is that God’s hand was moving behind the scenes, causing Adonijah to fail and allowing Solomon to be king instead. Of course, this is not stated in the passage. But we can see that Adonijah had a problem. I believe his problem was pride and self-ambition. Don’t you think it was disrespectful for him to start acting like a king while his father was still alive? David hadn’t named Adonijah as the next king. Yet, Adonijah invited important people in the kingdom for a big feast where he offered sacrifices to God.
If we say that God stopped Adonijah because of his prideful ambition, then can we say that God favored Solomon because of his good character? Well, what do we know about Solomon?
We will learn about Solomon more in later chapters, but in chapter 1, he is mostly a passive figure. It was not Solomon who made himself king. It was his mother Bathsheba and the prophet Nathan who persuaded David to quickly give Solomon the throne. Just like a TV drama, right? The only thing we know so far about Solomon is that he did not kill Adonijah at the end of the chapter. As a modern reader, I think it was a merciful decision, considering that Adonijah might try again later to steal the throne.
This story fits two common motifs in the Bible.
The first motif is this: Throughout the Bible we see God often choosing unexpected people to become leaders or to represent him. Here are a few examples. David himself was the youngest son, chosen by God instead of his seven older, more qualified-looking brothers. Jesus himself was born into an ordinary carpenter’s family. Jesus’ closest disciples were just common fishermen. Solomon was the youngest son and born from sinful, adulterous relationship between David and Bathsheba.
The second motif is closely related to the first. There are numerous verses in the Bible about how God hates pride and loves humility. One of the well-known ones is James 4:6. God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. Jesus, in Matthew 23:12, tells His disciples, “For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
The Bible doesn’t explain everything about the story of Adonijah and Solomon. However, we do know that God opposes pride and loves humility.
Modern Examples
I wonder if you feel this story is hard to relate to. It doesn’t look like our normal daily life. It looks more like a medieval TV drama. So let’s try to think about pride and humility in our modern lives.
I’ll tell you an unpleasant experience I had in graduate school. I was studying English literature. But I also took some Bible classes. I took a Church History class where I was the only English major in a class of 20 Bible majors. I was intimidated by these Bible majors. They seemed very confident, outspoken, and even argumentative. It’s not because they were Americans. It’s because they made me feel stupid. One day, during a class discussion where they used a lot of big words, I asked, “What is kerygma?” It was a theological term I didn’t know. My classmates turned and looked at me with contempt. “What? You don’t know?!” Another time, I offered my opinion in class, but a student replied, “If you really knew Greek, then you would know that your assertion is baseless.” From then on, I just kept my mouth shut. And I was horrified that these seminary students were future ministers and future pastors.
Looking back, I realize now that these students were quite young and perhaps insecure. I have no doubt they were smart, knowledgeable, and talented. But did their knowledge make them into wiser, more loving servants of Christ? Or did it only make them proud?
In contrast, let me tell you about one professor in that seminary. He was a Church History professor and an elder at the church I attended. He was an important leader within that church denomination and often attended national or international council meetings. Yet, if you ask me to think of a humble man, he is the first person who comes to mind.
He was also my spiritual mentor for 2 years. Though he was 3 times older than me, much wiser, more experienced, more important, more busy, more famous, he treated me with respect and love. He had nothing to gain from an ordinary student like me. Yet he made time to meet me in his office, with no distractions, and listen to the problems in my life. He prayed for me often. He offered advice without making me feel naïve or immature. He invited me to his house to eat.
I think he fulfils what Philippians 2 says. Let’s turn to Philippians 2:3-4:
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
What about us?
The same chapter also says, in verses 5 to 7, that Jesus, though he was God, did not use his power and position to his own advantage. Rather, Jesus made himself our servant. My professor’s character reminds me of Jesus. Jesus is the ultimate example of humility. He showed it in his willingness to serve people by becoming human and dying for us. As verse 9 says, after that Jesus was exalted to the highest position. He is King of the universe and judge of humanity.
So what about us? Well, it takes humility to recognize that we are sinful beings, or that we need God’s forgiveness and mercy and help. Living in a developed nation like Japan, with such polite and respectful people and low crime rate, it can be hard to believe that we need God. It can be hard to think of ourselves as sinful. Aren’t we law-abiding citizens? Don’t we work hard and pay our taxes? We help people and don’t harm others, right?
Yes, I agree we are all decent people. But God knows that we cannot live up to his holy, perfect standards. He knows we still have pride. We are not always merciful. We look down on other people, thinking we are better than them. We make mistakes and don’t want to say sorry. Sometimes, we don’t even recognize we have sinned against God.
So what does it mean to be humble? I don’t think it means hating yourself or denying good things about yourself. Let me offer two ways to define humility. First, British writer C.S. Lewis says that “true humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.” Second, I think being humble also means seeing who God really is… and who we really are from God’s perspective.
Conclusion
We started by comparing Adonijah and Solomon, by comparing my classmates with Doug Foster. Naturally, we want to be better than Adonijah, better than my classmates. We want to be like people like the professor I mentioned. But let’s not stop there. Our ultimate goal, the goal of true humility, is this: to recognize the greatness and character of God, the unachievable holiness and love of God; to see ourselves from God’s perspective; and finally, seek to please Him.
Seeing things from God’s perspective will move us towards true humility and keep us from pride. It will also lead us to serve and love other people. Philippians 2 invites us to follow the example of Christ. So I would like to end by reading verses 3 and 4 again: Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.