The King's Oath and the Kingdom's Amen: Text: 1 Kings 1:28-37
Introduction: A Kingdom in Crisis
We come now to a hinge point in the history of redemption. King David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, the man after God's own heart, is old, frail, and failing. He is near death, and the kingdom he forged with blood and courage is teetering on the brink of chaos. A vacuum of power is a dangerous thing, and nature, especially political nature, abhors it. Adonijah, David's ambitious and coddled son, has seen the vacuum and has decided to fill it himself. He has gathered the powerful, the influential, and the compromised, Joab and Abiathar among them, and has thrown himself a coronation party. He has declared himself king.
This is not a minor family squabble. This is a direct assault on the covenant purposes of God. God had chosen Solomon, not Adonijah, to sit on the throne of David. This usurpation is an act of high rebellion, not just against David, but against Yahweh Himself. And in this moment of crisis, when the king is weak and the enemy is bold, God moves through the faithfulness of a few key players: Nathan the prophet, Bathsheba the queen mother, and as we will see, Zadok the priest and Benaiah the enforcer. They conspire, you might say, but it is a righteous conspiracy to uphold the declared will of God.
What we are about to witness is the reassertion of divine order in the face of human presumption. We will see how a binding oath, rooted in the character of God, can cut through the fog of political maneuvering. We will see the importance of decisive, public, and symbolic action in establishing God-ordained authority. And we will see the beautiful response of loyal submission, the hearty "Amen" that ratifies the king's decree and calls upon God to establish it. This is not just ancient palace intrigue. This is a story about how God secures His kingdom, how He keeps His promises, and how His people are to respond. It is a story that echoes down to our own day, for we too serve a King whose throne was established by a divine oath, and whose reign demands our unwavering Amen.
The Text
Then King David answered and said, “Call Bathsheba to me.” And she came into the king’s presence and stood before the king. And the king swore and said, “As Yahweh lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress, surely as I swore to you by Yahweh, the God of Israel, saying, ‘Surely your son Solomon shall be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place’; I will surely do so this day.” Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the ground, and prostrated herself before the king and said, “May my lord King David live forever.”
Then King David said, “Call to me Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada.” And they came into the king’s presence. And the king said to them, “Take with you the servants of your lord, and have my son Solomon ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon. And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet shall anoint him there as king over Israel and blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ Then you shall come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne. And he shall be king in my place; for I have commanded him to be ruler over Israel and Judah.” Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king and said, “Amen! Thus may Yahweh, the God of my lord the king, say. As Yahweh has been with my lord the king, so may He be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David!”
(1 Kings 1:28-37 LSB)
The Oath That Settles (vv. 28-31)
The action begins when David, shaken from his lethargy by Nathan and Bathsheba, reasserts his authority. And he does so with the most powerful tool a man has: his word, bound by an oath.
"And the king swore and said, 'As Yahweh lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress, surely as I swore to you by Yahweh, the God of Israel, saying, ‘Surely your son Solomon shall be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place’; I will surely do so this day.'" (1 Kings 1:29-30)
Notice how David frames this oath. He doesn't just make a promise; he roots it in two bedrock realities. First, he roots it in the living God: "As Yahweh lives." This is not a casual turn of phrase. It means that the certainty of this promise is as sure as the existence of God Himself. If God is, then this will be. To break this oath would be to act as though God does not live, which is the definition of practical atheism. Second, he roots it in his own testimony of God's faithfulness: "who has redeemed my life from all distress." David is looking back over a life of turmoil, of battles, of betrayals, of his own catastrophic sins, and he is testifying that Yahweh has been his constant Redeemer. The God who saved him from Saul, from the Philistines, from Absalom, and from himself is the God who underwrites this promise. An oath made in the name of a faithful God by a man who has experienced that faithfulness is a cord that cannot be broken.
This is a public reaffirmation of a private promise. The succession is not up for grabs. It is not a matter of politics or popularity or primogeniture. It is a matter of a divine promise, mediated through the king's sworn word. David is the covenant head of the nation, and his word establishes reality for the kingdom. He says he will do it "this day." The crisis has forced his hand. There can be no more delay. Indecision is a decision for chaos. David rises to the occasion and speaks with clarity and force.
Bathsheba's response is one of profound reverence and relief. "Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the ground, and prostrated herself before the king and said, 'May my lord King David live forever.'" This is not just courtly etiquette. This is worshipful submission to the king's God-given authority. She recognizes that in this moment, David is speaking for God, and the future of the kingdom, and the life of her son, has just been secured by that word. Her wish for the king to live forever is a blessing, a recognition that the stability he is creating will outlive him. The king's righteous word establishes a lasting order.
The Public Coronation (vv. 32-35)
An oath must be followed by action. A declaration must have a demonstration. David now lays out the specific, public, and deeply symbolic steps for Solomon's immediate coronation.
"Take with you the servants of your lord, and have my son Solomon ride on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon. And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet shall anoint him there as king over Israel and blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ Then you shall come up after him, and he shall come and sit on my throne." (1 Kings 1:33-35)
Every detail here is saturated with meaning. First, David summons his loyalists: Zadok, the priest who represents God's approval; Nathan, the prophet who represents God's word; and Benaiah, the warrior who represents God's sword. This is the trifecta of a stable kingdom: true worship, true word, and true justice. Adonijah had the renegade priest and the renegade general, but he did not have the prophet. He had no word from God.
Second, Solomon is to ride on David's "own mule." This is a profoundly significant act. It is the visible transfer of royal authority. A king's mule was his exclusive property. For another to ride it was to claim his status. This is the ancient equivalent of giving someone the keys to the kingdom. Centuries later, another Son of David would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey, a deliberate echo of this royal procession, presenting Himself as the rightful king (Matthew 21:1-11).
Third, the location is Gihon. This was the primary water source for Jerusalem, a place of life and public gathering. But more importantly, it was in a different part of the city from where Adonijah was holding his feast at En-rogel. David is staging a counter-coronation, a public and undeniable spectacle that will completely upstage Adonijah's illegitimate party.
Fourth, the central act is the anointing. Zadok and Nathan are to anoint him with oil. Anointing with oil was the sacred sign of being set apart by God for a special office. It symbolized the pouring out of God's Spirit for the task of ruling. This was not a political appointment; it was a divine consecration. This act declared to all that Solomon was not merely David's choice, but God's choice. He was Yahweh's anointed, the mashiach.
Finally, the ceremony is sealed with the blast of the trumpet and a public acclamation: "Long live King Solomon!" This is the people's ratification of God's choice. The sound of the shofar and the shout of the people would drown out the noise of Adonijah's feast and signal the definitive shift in power. Solomon would then return and sit on David's throne, the final act of investiture. David is clear: "I have commanded him to be ruler." The king's command, born from God's promise, establishes the new reality.
The Warrior's Amen (vv. 36-37)
The king has spoken. The plan is set. Now, the response of the king's servant is required. Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, the tough, loyal, lion-killing commander of David's bodyguard, speaks for all the faithful.
"Then Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king and said, 'Amen! Thus may Yahweh, the God of my lord the king, say. As Yahweh has been with my lord the king, so may He be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David!'" (1 Kings 1:36-37)
Benaiah's response is a model of loyal submission. He begins with "Amen!" This Hebrew word means "so be it," or "truly." It is the word of faith-filled agreement. It is not a word of resignation, but of enthusiastic affirmation. Benaiah is saying, "Yes! This is right. This is good. Let it be done." He then immediately turns it into a prayer: "Thus may Yahweh, the God of my lord the king, say." He understands that David's decree is potent, but it is God's decree that is ultimate. He is asking God to add His divine "Amen" to David's plan. He is aligning his will, the king's will, and God's will into one unbreakable cord.
But he doesn't stop there. He offers a blessing that is both loyal and audacious. "As Yahweh has been with my lord the king, so may He be with Solomon." This is a prayer for continuity, for the same divine presence that made David's reign so glorious to be upon his son. But then he goes further: "and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David!" This is stunning. In the presence of the king, he prays that the son's kingdom would surpass the father's. This is not flattery, and it is not treason. It is the language of true, godly loyalty. A faithful servant does not want the kingdom to peak with his master; he wants it to grow. He wants the future to be brighter than the past. This is the essence of a postmillennial prayer. Benaiah is praying for kingdom advancement, for gospel progress. He sees David's reign not as an end in itself, but as a foundation upon which a greater glory can be built. This is the prayer of a man who serves the kingdom, not just the king.
The Greater Solomon is Here
This entire episode is a shadow, a type, of a greater reality. The story of Solomon's accession is a preview of the accession of Jesus Christ, the greater Son of David. Like David, God the Father made an oath, a covenant promise, to set His Son upon His holy hill (Psalm 2:6-7). He swore by Himself, because He could swear by no one greater, that this Son would be a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 6:13, 7:21).
And like Solomon, Jesus's claim to the throne was contested. The Adonijahs of this world, the Herods and the Pilates and the powers of darkness, conspired to establish their own kingdom. They threw a feast of mockery and violence at Golgotha. But God the Father acted decisively. He raised His Son from the dead and had him ride, not on a king's mule, but on the clouds of heaven to ascend to His right hand. He was anointed, not with a horn of oil from the tabernacle, but with the Holy Spirit without measure (Acts 2:33).
The trumpet was sounded at Pentecost, and the proclamation went out to all the world: "God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ!" (Acts 2:36). He has sat down on the throne, and He is now ruling as king over all Israel and all Judah, which is to say, over the Church and over all the nations. The Father has commanded Him to be ruler.
And what is our response to be? It must be the same as Benaiah's. First, we must say "Amen!" to the kingship of Jesus Christ. We must joyfully and wholeheartedly affirm His total and absolute sovereignty over every square inch of creation. Our lives, our families, our churches, and our nations must be brought into submission to His crown rights. And second, we must pray Benaiah's audacious prayer. We must pray that the Lord would be with His church as He was with the apostles, and that He would make Christ's throne in our day greater than it was in theirs. We must pray and work for the advancement of His kingdom, for the growth of His glory, until His throne is established over all the earth, and the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. The king has been enthroned. The only proper response is a warrior's Amen.