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

Whenever I read this passage I cannot help but wonder how Joab made the miscalculation to not discourage Adonijah from trying to seek the throne without the support of Benaiah, Nathan, or Zadok.  Up until this point, every time Joab weighed in on a political issue, he showed a clear understanding of way the situation would play out.  Yet here, he did not try to talk Adonijah out of seeking to crown himself without enough support.  Although now that I think about it I realize that what Joab did was read the way public opinion would go, not so much how the political situation would play out.  That would suggest that the people of Israel were ready for someone to replace David as king (due to David’s inability to actually govern at that point).  Perhaps, the people even favored Adonijah as that replacement, since he was the oldest of David’s surviving sons.  In any case, Joab miscalculated this time.  If I were to interpret the situation as presented by the writer, Joab and Abiathar were David’s two most powerful advisors, and I am unsure about Abiathar vs Zadok for control of the priesthood.  Going further, it looks to me like Joab was in conflict with Benaiah for control over the military.  Joab controlled the army, but Benaiah controlled David’s elite guards.  Then there was the conflict between Abiathar and Zadok for control over the priesthood.  The mistake Adonijah, Joab, and Abiathar made was that they discounted the importance of Nathan as David’s spiritual advisor, and of Shimei and Rei.  We don’t really have any information about Rei, but Shimei’s appearance here gives us some insight into why David did not punish Shimei for cursing him as he fled from Absalom: David spared Shimei because Shimei controlled a powerbase whose support David desired.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.