I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 1.

    Once more we see an example of David being a poor father, he never disciplined Adonijah. In addition, David created this situation because he never officially designated one of his sons as his heir. It is worth noting that while there is a record of God promising David that his son Solomon would be king after him, there is no record of David promising Bathsheba the same thing. It is possible that Nathan and Bathsheba conspired to convince David of something to which he had never agreed. Personally, I do not think this was the case, although they may have manipulated David into making this decision.

    However, I think that a close reading of the passage suggests that Solomon was indeed David’s favorite to succeed him. Otherwise, why did Adonijah invite all of his brothers to his “coronation”, except for Solomon? Further, it is clear that the majority of David’s chief advisors did not support Adonijah. Every time I read this story I wonder what led Joab and Abiathar to support Adonijah while the other advisers supported Solomon (or, at least, refused to support Adonijah). For that matter, I wonder why the other advisers refused to support Adonijah. I will say that I believe that Joab and Abiathar supported Adonijah in part because they believed that David was no longer able to govern effectively and a new, younger king was needed.