The king’s answer was, “I am in great distress. Please let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”
The land was struck by a plague, which destroyed seventy thousand people in Israel. “David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, having in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem.” The king pleaded with God in behalf of Israel: “Was it not I who commanded the people to be numbered? I am the one who has sinned and done evil indeed; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, O Lord my God, be against me and my father’s house, but not against Your people that they should be plagued.”
The people had cherished the same sins that prompted David’s action. As the Lord brought judgment on David through Absalom’s sin, so through David’s error He punished the sins of Israel.
The destroying angel had stood on Mount Moriah, “by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.” Directed by the prophet, David went to the mountain, “and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the Lord; and He answered him from heaven by fire on the altar of burnt offering.” “So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.”
The spot where the altar was built, regarded from that time on as holy ground, was the place where Abraham had built the altar to offer up his son. Later it was chosen as the site of the temple.
David had reached the age of seventy. The hardships and exposures of his early wanderings, his many wars, and the afflictions of later years had sapped the fountain of life. Feebleness and age, with his desire to be alone, kept him from quickly seeing what was happening in the kingdom, and again rebellion sprang up in the very shadow of the throne.
The one who now wanted the throne was Adonijah, “very good-looking,” but unprincipled and reckless. In his youth “his father had not rebuked him at any time by saying, ‘Why have you done so?’” Growing up with very little restraint, he now rebelled against the authority of God, who had appointed Solomon to the throne.
Solomon was better qualified than his older brother, but although God’s choice had been clearly shown, Adonijah was able to find sympathizers. Joab, up to that time loyal to the throne, now joined the conspiracy against Solomon, and so did Abiathar the priest.
The rebellion was ready. The conspirators had assembled at a great feast to proclaim Adonijah king, when their plans were defeated by the prompt action of Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Bathsheba the mother of Solomon. They told the king about the situation, reminding him that God had said that Solomon should come to the throne next. David at once abdicated in favor of Solomon, who was immediately anointed and proclaimed king. The conspiracy was crushed.
Abiathar’s life was spared out of respect to his position as priest and former loyalty to David, but he was demoted from the office of high priest, which passed to the family of Zadok. Joab and Adonijah were spared for the time, but after David’s death they suffered the penalty of their crime. The execution of the sentence on the son of David completed the fourfold judgment that testified to God’s hatred of the father’s sin.
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