1 Kings 1:32-35 - Presuming God's will

Scripture:

1 Kings 1:32-35
32 Then King David said, "Call to me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada." And they came into the king's presence.
33 The king said to them, "Take with you the servants of your lord, and have my son Solomon ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon.
34 "Let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him there as king over Israel, and blow the trumpet and say, 'Long live King Solomon!'
35 "Then you shall come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne and be king in my place; for I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and Judah."
NASU


Thoughts:

David appoints Solomon as the rightful king over Israel as his successor.  This is in fulfillment of God's choice of king as He had told David:

1 Chronicles 22:9-10
9 'Behold, a son will be born to you, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. 10 ' He shall build a house for My name, and he shall be My son and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.
NASU

This is also in contrast to what has already taken place, as another of David's sons has sought to claim the throne for himself:

1 Kings 1:5
5 Now Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, "I will be king." So he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen with fifty men to run before him.
NASU

Upon closer examination, it's not hard to see why Adonijah felt that he was entitled to the throne.  As the oldest living son of David, with no doubt concerning who his father was, he would seem the natural choice.  After all, doesn't the royal line always proceed through the eldest son?  Here's a list of the eldest sons of David

2 Samuel 3:2-5
2  Sons were born to David at Hebron: his firstborn was Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelitess;
3 and his second, Chileab, by Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur;
4 and the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital;
5 and the sixth, Ithream, by David's wife Eglah. These were born to David at Hebron.
NASU

Amnon the eldest was killed by Absalom.  Absalom himself, was killed after he briefly took the throne from his father in a failed coup.  And according to the Jewish Targum, it was not certain that Chileab was David's son, as Abigail may have already been pregnant by her late husband when she and David married.  This leaves Adonijah as the oldest, and seemingly the rightful heir.

Now, in reality, it's unlikely that Adonijah even cared if it was God's will for him to be king.  He just wanted the role for himself.  But this reminds me of how, as Christians, we can become presumptuous about what we think is the Lord's will  We look at our experiences from the past or what seems logical to us at the moment, and assume that this will be His will. 

But God does not always work in the way that we expect.  He never violates His word, so we know the Bible will always hold true, but where the Bible is silent, we cannot be presumptuous about how, when, or even if He will work as we expect.  To do so will most likely result in great disappointment.


Prayer:

Lord, help me to keep my eyes on You.  Not approaching my life and ministry arrogantly, by assuming I will always know what You're going to do. 

Thank You that You are not hindered by my experiences and expectations! 

Amen

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.