So he continued, “Please ask King Solomon—he will not refuse you—to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife.” – 1 Kings 2:17

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 22, 2013): 1 Kings 2

A friend of mine made a comment recently that when God closes a door, he always opens a window. The thought goes along with the dominant belief of the culture in which we live - a culture where we think that there is always a way to get whatever it is that we want. When we fail, we just have to look for another way to get what it is that our heart desires – and often what it is that we believe that we deserve.

For a moment, Adonijah had been king. It was a position that he had yearned for – and a position of which he felt that he was worthy. But he had only been king for a moment of time. It seemed that David had promised this position to someone other than his oldest surviving son and rightful heir. And so Adonijah stepped down from his what he considered to be his throne – after all, it was the will of his father and his father’s God – but he had never given up on his aspiration to be king. He simply had to find another way.

So he goes to Bathsheba and he pretends that he is content with his position in life. His only request is that he could have a young woman named Abishag to be his wife. The problem was that while the writer of 1 Kings makes it clear that Abishag had never had sex with King David, she had shared his bed. Abishag was the young virgin bed warmer that had been brought for the king during his final days. And while Abishag had never been sexually involved with the king she was still part of the king’s harem. According to custom, whoever was in possession of harem of king was also in possession of the power of the king. Adonijah felt that with the door firmly closed in his face by Solomon that he had found the window that he needed.

But our reality is that sometimes when God closes a door, he does not always open a window. He needs us to find a different room. It was not that Adonijah never had a place in the plans that God had for Israel, it was just that his place would not be as king of the nation. It was a different room that was open for Adonijah. But Adonijah’s problem was that his focus was on a room that he could never have - so he was unable to walk into the future that God had prepared just for him.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 3