Adonijah was David's son born next after Absalom. We are told that he was good looking and that his father had never interfered with whatever he wanted to do. In other words, he was a spoiled child, never disciplined.
Good looking children have a handicap. People make a fuss over them when they are small and tend not to scold them "because they're so cute." Even when they make mischief, it's excused away.
When my son was small, he was very cute. He looked like a little elf, hair as gold as dead-ripe wheat, eyes as blue as an Irish lake, a sprinkling of freckles, and a grin that could light up an underground cavern.
He was about two years old when we were in the grocery store check out lane. Like every two-year-old I've ever known, his arms were rubbery enough to stretch to every candy bar and chewing gum package lining that aisle. I took both his hands into mine as I told him "no" and placed them on the handle of the grocery cart beneath my own hands.
A lovely great-grandmotherly type behind me said "He's so cute! How can you scold him?"
"He's so cute, how dare I not?" was my response.
Children need to grow up with a sense of responsibility, not entitlement. Adonijah wanted the glory of the kingship, he didn't have the stomach to behave as a king. When Solomon was crowned by David, Adonijah withered on the vine.
Undisciplined people don't have the perserverance to see things through to the end.
Father, God,
Help us to be Your disciplined children and to discipline our old children to Your ways. Give us the patience and endurance to perservere to the end.
In Jesus' most precious name.
Amen.
Amen.
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