parenting and politics

The first couple of chapters of 1 Kings are full of plotting and intrigue. They include a contest for David’s throne as he lay on his deathbed, jockeying for position on the part of his officials, and acts of defiance and vengeance.

The tone of the whole thing is captured for me in just a couple of verses, one really. 1 Kings 1:5-6 read: “Now Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, put himself forward and said, ‘I will be king.’ So he got chariots and horses ready, with fifty men to run ahead of him. (His father had never rebuked him by asking, ‘Why do you behave as you do?’ He was also very handsome and was born next after Absalom.)”

King David, as good a king and as godly a man as he was, was a lousy father. His problems with Absalom weren’t an anomaly; he did a bad job of parenting Adonijah as well. Adonijah, from the sounds of things, was a spoiled brat. His dad never even questioned him, much less disciplined him. As a result, Adonijah, like his older brother, nearly stole the crown. As the sordid events play out, Joab the army commander is killed at the altar, the high priest is exiled to his farm, and Adonijah is executed for having the gall to demand David’s concubine.

This isn’t really a story of politics; it seems to me to be more a lesson about parenting. David didn’t do Absalom or Adonijah any favors with his laxity. We also can cause society a lot of problems when we don’t teach, counsel and discipline our children.

It reminds of what I’ve put God through as my father. He’s tried to show me the right way, but I’ve done a lot of damage to myself and others by trying to forge my own path. Good sonship, it seems, is as important as good fathering.