David’s days on earth are drawing to a close and his frailty is seen in the opening verses of this chapter (v1-4). David though was pure in this (v4).

David’s son Adonijah take sit upon himself to become king after David and he has strong allies in Joab the commander of the army and Abiathar the priest (v5-7). This was not God’s will and verse 6 is very enlightening when it speaks of how David had not questioned Adonijah enough as he grew up.

Adonijah organises an assembly and worship to advance his claim to be king (v9) but Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet and others importantly were not part of this (v8, 10).

Nathan the prophet then gets Solomon’s mother Bathsheba involved and they guide David so that Solomon is declared to be the rightful king (v11-30). This causes great fear among Adonijah and his followers who then disperse (v41-49) while Adonijah flees to the altar for sanctuary (v50-53).

It is sad when see competitiveness and power struggles among God’s people and more humility is always a great blessing. But what is sadder, is when people want to rule in the church instead of the rightful king who is Jesus.