WHERE THE HOUSE OF DAVID WENT WRONG

“I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, act like a man, and observe what the LORD your God requires: walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go.” —1 Kings 2:2, 3

After a tumultuous life, including remarkable highs and tragic lows, from time spent as a shepherd boy to the leader of a band of outlaws to forty years as king of Israel, David gave his last advice to his son, Solomon, newly crowned to succeed him as king of Israel. From the mouth of Israel’s psalmist, we would expect poetry and wisdom in these final words. David started this final charge well, urging Solomon to have courage and walk in the ways of God. But he quickly veered off into a list of scores that he felt still needed to be settled.

He finished with his wish for revenge against Shimei, son of Gera: “You are a man of wisdom; you will know what to do to him. Bring his gray head down to the grave in blood” (1 Kings 2:9). The end of David’s story deserved better, and the beginning of Solomon’s reign needed better. The rot had already begun in the house of David, but this transition could have been so much better. Conflating courage and obedience to God with his own list of royal favors and grievances was the kind of kingly thinking that would precipitate the further decline of the kingdom during the life and reign of Solomon and its demise in the following generations.

It seemed that Solomon tried to rise above it, but if David had stopped speaking at the end of 1 Kings 2:3 or if Solomon had embraced the courage and true wisdom that David urged, their history might have been different.