Would you like to read James McNaught’s novel Sinking Sand”? click here: Sinking Sand
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
1 Kings 2:35–46, “And the king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his room over the host: and Zadok the priest did the king put in the room of Abiathar. And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Build thee an house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and go not forth thence any whither. For it shall be, that on the day thou goest out, and passest over the brook Kidron, thou shalt know for certain that thou shalt surely die: thy blood shall be upon thine own head. And Shimei said unto the king, The saying is good: as my lord the king hath said, so will thy servant do. And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days. And it came to pass at the end of three years, that two of the servants of Shimei ran away unto Achish son of Maachah king of Gath. And they told Shimei, saying, Behold, thy servants be in Gath. And Shimei arose, and saddled his ass, and went to Gath to Achish to seek his servants: and Shimei went, and brought his servants from Gath. And it was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and was come again. And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Did I not make thee to swear by the LORD, and protested unto thee, saying, Know for a certain, on the day thou goest out, and walkest abroad any whither, that thou shalt surely die? and thou saidst unto me, The word that I have heard is good. Why then hast thou not kept the oath of the LORD, and the commandment that I have charged thee with? The king said moreover to Shimei, Thou knowest all the wickedness which thine heart is privy to, that thou didst to David my father: therefore the LORD shall return thy wickedness upon thine own head; And king Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the LORD for ever. So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; which went out, and fell upon him, that he died. And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.”
Once Joab was executed for his murderous crimes, Solomon replaced him with Benaiah as the head of the army. Benaiah was already a soldier of high reputation who was in a very senior position with the guards regiments so he was well qualified to lead the army. Solomon also replaced Abiathar as priest. This didn’t mean that Solomon was interfering with the priesthood, the former priest had been involved in crimes against the king so Solomon acted as the Lord’s agent in purging the priesthood of these crimes. Shimei, who had cursed David when he fled from Absalom, was also involved in crimes against the king. Solomon punished Shimei by imposing home detention on him as well. This home detention was voluntary, in the first instance, as Shimei made and oath to remain within the walls of Jerusalem. However, as time went by, two of Shimei’s servants ran away and, when Shimei found out where they had gone, he want to find them and bring them home. Solomon heard that Shimei had broken his oath to remain in voluntary detention so Solomon invoked the true sentence for crimes against the king and Shimei was executed for cursing the king. Both David and Solomon showed Shimei grace but he rejected this grace and got what he chose.
No comments:
Post a Comment