Submitting to the king and why it matters

In my last year at secondary school, we got a new physics teacher, a young woman straight out of university. She wanted to be liked and popular and could not keep discipline or deal with troublemakers. Her lessons were mostly wasted because she was unable to rise above the chaos and a few times, she left the classroom in tears. Years later when I returned to teach English briefly in that school, I met her again. I heard numerous students declare in my class that physics was their favourite subject and they raved about this teacher’s lessons. She told me that she had to learn the hard way that she should not be chummy in the classroom and needed to be decisive in dealing with students who caused havoc.

Solomon deals with Joab

Likewise, a king must do justice and deal with troublemakers firmly if he wants to be established and keep the country in good order. While our modern sensibilities are offended by Solomon’s harsh stance, his world was a brutal one requiring tougher measures. Joab’s allegiance was with Adonijah (1 Kings 2:28; 1:5-7) and it is likely that he was involved with Adonijah in his latest move though we cannot be sure. However, like Adonijah, he underestimates the young king when he seeks asylum by holding on to the horns of the altar (v.28). He expects the kind of mercy he never gave his victims, the two generals whom he killed in cold blood (2 Sam 3:28; 20:9-10), as well as Absalom (2 Sam 19:14).  While his execution is brutal, he himself was a ruthless murderer who had no right to divine sanctuary (Exod 21:14). No doubt that if his support of Adonijah required it, he would have eliminated Solomon. While treason is an equally valid reason for execution, Solomon’s conclusion highlights a special concern with the bloodguilt on David’s line (1 Kings 2:31-33).

Shimei’s choice

Shimei, a relative from Saul’s family whose sympathies lay with the Saulide dynasty and who cursed David (2 Sam 16:5-8) is treated differently again. Although Solomon could have executed him for his curse alone, the king offers him life under arrest in Jerusalem (1 Kings 2:36). Shimei’s tribal home was in Bahurim (2 Sam 16:15), just east of Jerusalem as one crosses the brook Kidron in the valley and climbs up over the Mount of Olives on the other side. Thus, Solomon’s warning is especially strong about going that way (1 Kings 2:37), presumably to stir up opposition to the king. However, the prohibition is overall about going anywhere outside the city on pain of death. Once again, the young Solomon is underestimated. While chasing runaway slaves (1 Kings 2:40) seems harmless enough, the issue is that Shimei blatantly disregards the limits placed on him as if they were not binding or if the consequences could be safely ignored. In other words, he does not submit to Solomon’s authority as king and is executed. The sequence concludes with the affirmation that the kingdom was established (i.e. by God) in Solomon’s hands (1 Kings 2:46).[1]

Who is our king?

The basic issue in Solomon’s story is submission to God’s chosen king without which the kingdom cannot stand. As Christians, we submit to Jesus Christ our King and one day every knee will bow to Him and submit to His judgment (Isa 45:23; Ps 2:10-12; Rom 14:10-12). This is an uncomfortable message but imagine a kingdom where those who refuse God and rebel against Him are allowed to continue and disrupt the lives of everyone else. While we cannot be sure if Solomon read people’s motivation right, we know that Jesus will see into every person’s heart and deal with us justly. In the meantime, the Lord is merciful, and we can choose Him because we experience His love and recognise the goodness of His reign. At the same time, we may identify impulses in ourselves that ignore the Lord’s authority or His words of warning, where we look for excuses to get our own way or falsely appeal to His mercy without an allegiance to Him. We need wisdom to recognise the deceitfulness of our own heart and strength from the Lord to deal with our rebellions decisively.

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[1] As mentioned in my previous post, this is not a blanket approval of everything that Solomon does because God can work through even people’s sinful actions to achieve His purposes. Nevertheless, it is hard to see how else Solomon could have acted to deal with unrest. Adonijah has already been pardoned once and was still scheming to gain power. None of the other brothers made any attempt for the throne and were left in peace, so Adonijah could have chosen to accept Solomon’s rule and not engage in behaviour that would raise suspicions about his intentions. Likewise, Shimei could have stayed for the rest of his life in Jerusalem. When his slaves ran away, he could have asked Solomon for permission to go after them or asked a relative to do so. The fact that news reached him about where his slaves were suggests that he had people out there who could help him, either family members or servants. People in those days did not live the kind of individualistic, isolated lives that we moderns sometimes do. Thus, Shimei had options other than to disregard Solomon’s command, but he chose to ignore the king. Joab is perhaps the one person who is given very little choice, though he is not initially held to account for his support of Adonijah and he could have shown his loyalty to Solomon afterwards but did not. Additionally, justice needed to be done about Abner and Amasa’s murder in Joab’s past, a key consideration why he had to die.

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