August 5 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

1 Kings 1:5-14

⁵Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, I will be king: and he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.
⁶And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so? and he also was a very goodly man; and his mother bare him after Absalom.
⁷And he conferred with Joab the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest: and they following Adonijah helped him.
⁸But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Rei, and the mighty men which belonged to David, were not with Adonijah.
⁹And Adonijah slew sheep and oxen and fat cattle by the stone of Zoheleth, which is by Enrogel, and called all his brethren the king's sons, and all the men of Judah the king's servants:
¹⁰But Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother, he called not.
¹¹Wherefore Nathan spake unto Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, Hast thou not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith doth reign, and David our lord knoweth it not?
¹²Now therefore come, let me, I pray thee, give thee counsel, that thou mayest save thine own life, and the life of thy son Solomon.
¹³Go and get thee in unto king David, and say unto him, Didst not thou, my lord, O king, swear unto thine handmaid, saying, Assuredly Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit upon my throne? why then doth Adonijah reign?
¹⁴Behold, while thou yet talkest there with the king, I also will come in after thee, and confirm thy words.

Devotional:

In 1 Kings 15:5 we are told that David did right in the sight of the Lord 'save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.' In general he set an excellent example to his people and his own family.

But from this distance of time and space it appears to the reader of Scripture that with his children David was long on love and short on discipline. We saw an indication of this in the case of Absalom. Now we see that the delicate balance of love and discipline which needs to prevail in child training was tipped away from the discipline in the case of Adonijah, too. This is clear from verse 6: 'His father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so?'

We saw permissiveness in Eli. Here we see it in David. Is it present in our own home? Rules or guidelines must be well-known in the home, rules that stem from God's own law. Children must be helped to obey God by the example of the parent and by positive training. When there is disobedience there must be correction! The child must make amends for the wrong he has done, when it is possible. He must seek forgiveness of the offended party and also of God. And he must experience punishment to underline the seriousness of sin. There is no place for permissiveness in the home that would honor God.

A difficult order for the parent? Yes, but essential. Someone has said that being a parent is not a popularity contest. The child to whom we say, 'Why have you done this?' will be displeased. If we seem to be repetitive in this as in other matters, it is because God's Word is repetitive. By narrative, exhortation, command, God would enforce upon us lessons in parenthood which we sorely need and of which we need to be reminded frequently.

Lord, help us to be worthy parents!