Peter Barnes | 1 Kings 1:1-10
SERMON NOTES
DAVID’S TROUBLES IN OLD AGE
1 Kings 1:1-10
Succession planning has ever been an issue in human history.
1. The frailty of old age.
– 1:1. He was not like Moses – Deut.34:7.
– an illustration of what Ecclesiastes tells us – Eccles.12:1.
– 1:2-4. Abishag may have already been one of David’s concubines – hence 1 Kings 2:13, 17, 21-23. Philip Ryken calls her ‘a kind of human hot water bottle’.
2. David’s sins catch up with him.
– 1:5-6. This is the third rebellion that David has suffered – the first being under Absalom and the second under Sheba.
– the mystery of sin is at work here. Adonijah is culpable for his own sin of rebellion, but David’s weakness plays a part. Prov.19:18; 23:13-14.
– read Heb.12:5-11. That is the principle. David did not grasp this fully, and it was surely one of his regrets in life.
3. The covenant community is made up of mixed loyalties.
– 1:7-10. This is the covenant community of God.
– Nathan was the man who ‘wounded’ David over his sin with Bathsheba – Prov.27:6. But he was a true friend.
Lift our eyes to a greater kingdom, to a greater King – Heb.12:25-31.