Adonijah is very much like his older brother, Absalom. He, too, is the big, good looking young man
whose father never spoke a word against anything he did. David was apparently a parent much like Jacob
was, his children completely undisciplined and headstrong. Adonijah does much what Absalom did,
proclaiming himself to be king, gathering men to himself, and presumptuously
offering sacrifices. He gathers his
kinsmen who have any complaint against his father, Joab, his cousin, who was
replaced as leader of the army and Abiathar the priest who believed he should
be the head priest. David’s men who had
been with him now a long time remained loyal to him. It is an interesting pair, Nathan and
Bathsheba, who come to David to tell him of all that has happened and remind
him that Solomon shall be king. Nathan,
the prophet who confronted David in his affair with this very woman, Bathsheba
is the one pursuing her rights as mother of the man who would be king. God is gracious and keeps His word, Solomon
is anointed king by his father David.
The redemption of this situation is wonderful.
Jesus tells of the end times but not in specific terms,
simply that there will be tribulation for all.
The devil will have his day but the Lord, in His mercy, will cut these
days short for the sake of the elect, the ones He has chosen to salvation. There have been times down the ages in various
places where such persecution has occurred, beginning in just a few decades
after Jesus’ death and continuing for centuries in some places. At present even in some countries and regions
Christians are persecuted and it is a dangerous thing to take the name of
Jesus. He promises that the Lord will,
in the last days, be merciful in the time He will allow the devil his
time. In the final part of this
prophetic speech Jesus tells of the destruction of the created order prior to
the coming of the Son of Man in words that mirror very closely the revelation
John later received.
Paul’s argument before Herod Agrippa is that he is
proclaiming what he has always, as a Pharisee, proclaimed, that God raises men
from the dead. The only real difference
in his message is that he now proclaims that, in one instance, this has already
happened. He makes this proclamation
because he had a vision and heard a voice from heaven and that voice said, “I
am Jesus.” He is obedient to the
heavenly vision but also argues that this vision is perfectly aligned with what
Moses and all the prophets said would happen.
He leaves out a bit of the story, that he is no longer observant of the
ceremonial law, nor does he require it of his converts, but that decision was
also shared by the Jerusalem church. His
message is simple, repent, and do works in keeping with repentance. We always need to be prepared to give an
accounting for our faith.
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